Why is spruce used for soundboards

Equally important are the design of the guitar, the skill of the maker, and the quality of the individual pieces of wood from which the guitar is made. Species selection can, however, be a determining factor in the creation of a very special guitar or a guitar designed for a specific purpose.

This article originally appeared in the October issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine. But, start with something less than optimal and the ceiling for quality is much lower.

For professionals, spruce is usually the first choice. The wood itself is naturally light in color, but can be stained for a darker look.

Cedar tops age somewhat differently, however with the tone developing much more subtly than with a spruce topas the cedar already sounds full and voluminous from the start. Cedar's tone responds quickly and percussively to the player as well, making the sound quite different than the spruce top.

This makes cedar-topped guitars especially popular with guitar students and beginners. Compared to spruce, this wood is less dense, less stiff and most significantly, less damped, especially transversely. The back of guitars have traditionally been made from rosewood , which differs from violins, which are made from maple.

Haines attributed this choice to the lower damping quality of rosewood compared to maple. This helps improve the sustain of the guitar, which is not such as issue with the violin. Haines may have overstated the case. The species of wood used to make an instrument is no guarantee it will sound great, or even that it will have a particular tone.

There are just too many factors at play, even within the same wood species, and in the construction of guitars themselves. Luthier Trevor Gore has estimated that the material properties of wood from the same species can vary by a factor of two. This is partially reflected in Haines tests.

For example, one European Spruce sample had a Radiation Ratio of 15 while another used to make a violin top recorded just Haines speculated that the poorer-performing wood was due to bear claws in the sample rippling in the wood fibre , which could increase the density of the wood and internal damping , reflected in a lower Loudness value.

Dr Richardson is currently testing light-weight cedar and spruce, which exhibit similar characteristics.