“Here’s something of a myth buster,” Richard Hoover says. “Woods don’t affect bass or treble.” What? Isn’t rosewood bassier than mahogany? Not according to Hoover, who has more than four decades of experience with tonewoods as the head of Santa Cruz Guitar Company.
So what exactly do tonewoods contribute to an acoustic’s sound?
The choice of woods determines how bright, articulate and clear a guitar sounds, or how dark, blended and forgiving it is. Indian rosewood is warmer than mahogany, but that’s not to be confused with frequency. We’ll control bass and treble by how we manipulate those woods, but it’s not inherent in the wood. You can check this by picking up a piece of wood and tapping on it. Does it ring bright and clear, or is it more of a warmer sound? That’s what’s going to translate to your guitar.
Can you give some examples?
Archtop jazz guitars are often made out of maple because it is a bright, clear, articulate wood for players that want you to hear every note they play, separately and with all the nuances that they put into each one. Blues, country, bluegrass and folk players gravitate toward Indian rosewood because it’s a more blended, friendly sound.
Eric Skye is a wonderful acoustic jazz fingerstylist. He wanted his signature model to be super articulate, so we use Adirondack spruce for the top and cocobolo for the back and sides because both woods are bright and clear. I, on the other hand, don’t want you to hear every note I play on my guitar. As a singer-songwriter, I’m more interested in the lyrical content coming across, and the blended nature of my guitar accompaniment facilitates that. I want it to be somewhat forgiving. Indian rosewood and a Sitka spruce