Wood selection guide
Questions while selecting wood
The agony of choice! Do I select by reason of tonal or visual aspects?
Rest assured: It is ok either way!
One does not need to be embarrassed about choosing a wood type simply because of its beautiful grain or color. Appearance is a most important element – the guitar must have visual appeal! Not least because this will tempt you to reach for it often. But appearance is a very subjective matter; everyone has their own individual preferences. For this reason we will not go into the issue of visual wood characteristics for now.
With the selection of woods for a custom shop guitar, however, there are tonal qualities by which one might 'compose' an instrument and influence its ultimate voice. We would like to assist in this regard.
Our comments relate primarily to the woods to be used for back, sides and soundboard (top). We will also demonstrate the woods which can be used for decorative elements but their influence on tone will be negligible.
Should you have queries relating to the tonal aspects of the body shapes, please see the section "Selection by Body Shape" in the Guitar Overview.
Top
AAA Cedar
AAA European bear claw spruce
AAA European spruce
AAA European torrefied spruce
AAAA Adirondack Spruce
AAAA Cedar
AAAA European bear claw spruce
AAAA European spruce
AAAA Koa
AAAA Sitka spruce
European spruce, 50 years old
Mahogany
Pommele Mahogany
Back & Sides
Mahogany
Pommele Mahogany
Ovangkol
Plain maple
Walnut, European
Claro walnut
Black Walnut
Elm
Indian rosewood AA
Indian rosewood AAA
Padouk
Oak
Cypress
Padouk bicolor
Cherry
Chakté Viga
Bocote
Granadillo
Ziricote
Macassar ebony
Flamed maple
Myrtle
Cocobolo
Blackwood
Koa
Additional woods and materials for bindings and adornments
Artificial tortoise binding
Eucalyptus, smoked
Indian rosewood
Koa
Mahogany
Maple
Muninga
Oak, smoked
Pear
Plum
Snakewood
White synthetic binding
Yew
Fingerboard
Cocobolo
Ebony
Euphoria
Indian rosewood
Padouk
Plum
Walnut
Ziricote