Our search for the world's finest tonewoods is a chance to explore a universe of tonal possibilities. Responsible procurement, careful preparation, and skilled craftsmanship are required ingredients in the guitar building process. Like guitars themselves, wood is our passion.
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Mahogany is a good wood to anchor our survey of tones, as a lot of other wood tones can be described in relation to it. Its essential sonic profile is well represented in the midrange frequencies. Acoustic guitars in general tend to live in the midrange portion of the sound spectrum, but mahogany in particular displays a lot of midrange character. That thick, present midrange sound is sometimes described in guitar circles as meaty, organic or even “chewy” — wherever a player digs in on the fretboard, they’re tapping into the core of the harmonic content of what a guitar produces. Those great midrange frequencies produce overtones that stack up and produce bloom, giving the sound extra girth. When one hears the resulting harmonics, the “chewy” tone serves up a big mouthful of midrange. As a popular tonewood for many decades, mahogany has been used on scads of old school acoustic recordings and that sonic heritage carries across various strains of roots music, from blues to folk to slack key.
Goes Well With
Goes well with: A broad range of players and musical styles; people who like a well-balanced tone, nice dynamic range and a healthy serving of overtones. Blues and other rootsy players tend to respond well to mahogany’s midrange character. A smaller body mahogany guitar (GC or GA) might appeal to fingerstyle players, whereas more aggressive flatpickers might opt for a mahogany Dreadnought or GS. For versatility, a mahogany GA is a good bet. Because of mahogany’s midrange, a player with “dark hands” will tend to sound darker on a mahogany guitar. A bright player will sound slightly less bright.
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| What about Brazilian? |
| Over the last few decades, Brazilian rosewood has maintained its reputation as a prized tonewood for several reasons: Its heritage traces back to the much celebrated pre-war era of guitar-building; it often has a striking visual appeal and a clear, full tone with complex overtones and ample dynamic range; and the supply remains scarce due to an export embargo imposed in the late 1960s as a result of overharvesting. “Brazilian is just kind of over, even though, ironically, there’s lots of it in Brazil,” says Bob Taylor. “You just can’t get it out. It’s difficult to obtain the proper legal certification. Even if you pull out fence posts or stumps from long-ago-harvested trees, obtaining them in a perfectly legal, above-board fashion, you’re probably not going to be able to get the legal paperwork to export it.” It’s gotten to the point where guitar companies in other countries, who own legally obtained Brazilian but don’t have adequate paperwork, have found their wood impounded indefinitely by government officials. On top of that, much of what is legally accounted for isn’t of the highest grade, yet its rarity has made it prohibitively expensive. Is it a great tonewood? Yes. Is it worth the current headaches associated with trying to legally obtain it? Probably not.
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