Tonewood:
I love collecting wood. The tonewood I collect reflects my philosophy for building guitars: I collect unusual wood because I want my guitars to be different from what you can get from company X. Generally, the wood that I use for guitars falls into two categories: 1) wood that is available locally to Lyme, NH — often this is wood that I have harvested locally and milled to my specifications, and 2) ultra-premium wood that I have acquired from retiring luthiers. This type of wood is in very limited supply and is often unavailable from the usual sources. It is unique, old, and often very expensive.
The list below contains some of the wood that I have available, along with a brief description of the contribution each wood has on the finished guitar.
Soundboards: I generally prefer spruce for its clarity and versatility. Visually spruce is creamy white with grain lines ranging from faint to strong.
Sitka Spruce: Usually uniform straight grain and whitish color. Very versatile soundboard material. I have old and new stock.
Red Spruce (soundboard): Red spruce is the wood of choice for flatpicking and guitars seeking a “vintage” tone. Rare to find with uniform grain lines and color — often has a little more character than other spruces. I have new stock as well as old stock harvested in Lyme, NH in approximately 2005.
German Spruce: Great all-around versatile spruce. Old Stock.
Carpathian Spruce: Another great all-around spruce. Rumored to be red spruces planed in south east Europe. A little more color than other Euro spruces, with great tap tone and lots of headroom for flat picking. Old Stock.
Ukrainian Spruce: Much softer one than other spruces, very light and great for fingerstyle guitars.
Italian Spruce (Alpine Spruce): The traditional spruce for violin making. I have old stock Italian with crisp clear tap tone. Ver versatile.
Local Back and Side Wood:
Black Locust: Similar to rosewoods, black locust is a low internal damping wood and produces a very clear tone, with crisp trebles and tight bass. If you know how to build with it you can get nice lush overtones and “reverb” or blooming notes. Black locust is well balanced throughout the range, and does not produce the “scooped” midrange East Indian Rosewood is known for. Tan color ages to mellow amber tone with time. Lyme, NH origin.
Red Oak: If locust is the “local rosewood”, then red oak is the “local mahogany” which produces a very fundamental sound. If you like fast attack and punch with a good low end, oak is a good choice. Does not have the ring and sustain of locust. When quartersawn it shows gorgeous ray-flecking. Orford, NH origin.
Black Walnut: Black walnut produces a very warm guitar, with lots of overtones. Like oak it does not have the clear bell-like ring of locust. Woody tone with good harmonics. From Lyme, NH.
Black Cherry: This is a very good all-around and versatile tonewood. It tend to produce balanced guitars with strong fundamental and medium sustain. Sortof between oak and locust. Various sources.
Exotic Back and Side Wood:
Brazilian Rosewood: Known as the holy grail of tonewood. Crisp, clear, and well balanced with excellent sustain. Bell-like tone with sparlking trebles, weighty bass, and excellent note-separation. Excellent volume and projection. Gorgeous chocolaty colors with streaks, figure and “spider-webbing” grain. Extremely limited supply. Some of my stock was milled from beams out of old barns.
Cocobolo: Similar to Brazilian rosewood, but a little more aggressive and powerful. Often better for flat picking guitars. Can be very loud.
African Blackwood: Another rosewood type, crisp and clear. Bell-like with rich reverberating overtones. African Blackwood is very dense and makes a powerful guitar. Great volume.
Cuban Mahogany: Honduran Mahogany is know for its powerful mid-range and woody fundamental tone. Cuban Mahogany leans a little more towards the rosewoods with better balance, a little more clarity but retaining the punch and fundamental tone mahogany is known for. This material is from South Florida and is salvaged from storm damaged trees. Gorgeous ribbon figure.
Other Domestics:
Claro Walnut: Generally from California. Similar to Eastern black walnut. Woody and warm with strong fundamental. Can be very highly figured.
Myrtle: From the Pacific Northwest US. Myrtle is another versatile tonewood similar to cherry, with a bit more overtone content and sustain. Good volume. Another great all-around choice. Creamy colors with dar streaks, can be heavily figured.
Koa: Full and rich. Not overly loud, but projects well. Rare and highly sought after. Can be very heavily figured with lots of color variation.
