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 Euro torrefied bear-claw spruce

AAA European bear claw spruce

AAA European spruce

AAA European torrefied spruce

AAAA Adirondack Spruce

AAAA Cedar

AAAA Euro torrefied bear-claw spruce

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