00:00So this is actually a Honduras rosewood back in the making and the first thing,
00:21you know, as a maker you can kind of tell what the tone is going to be when you're touching it
00:28because there's a certain tonality as your fingers touch the wood that give you an idea
00:36of the promise. Sometimes there's a very high frequency clarity about it that gives great
00:46promise. Other times the sound can be a little bit lower and dull as your fingers touch it.
00:51This really helps, you know, as a maker because you have to know how to thickness it, what thickness
00:58to make it to get the best out of it and it just comes with experience but as you touch it and tap
01:05it as well, you know, you get an idea. I'm not listening for a note, what I'm listening for is
01:14the tonality of it and I'm looking for bell-like clear tones which help quite a bit. This is
01:22Honduras rosewood, very powerful, very warm, very clear at the same time. The next one that I have
01:29here is actually what's going to be a Cocobolo back for an F model. First thing you notice when
01:39you lift it up is it's quite heavy so the guitar, a Cocobolo guitar, is a heavy guitar in
01:45general and you'll get plenty of power again rather like Honduras rosewood but maybe a little
01:51bit fuller but not quite as clear so you can hear the tap tone is not quite as clear but very full
02:05so much duller than the Honduras rosewood. I think that between Honduras rosewood and Cocobolo
02:14if you want to be able to play hard and play aggressively at times then Honduras rosewood
02:25or Cocobolo would be a very good choice. The Cocobolo is arguably slightly heavier in sound,
02:33slightly meatier whereas the Honduras rosewood maybe has a touch more
02:39touch more clarity without having the meat to quite the same extent. It's difficult to use
02:45words but in the end of the day when you go into a shop and you pick up various Loudon guitars and
02:53try them out the one that speaks to you most as you play it is the one that you should choose
03:00but I'm trying to give you a head start in that choice by understanding what different woods do.
03:07The next wood that I discovered as I went along on my journey was this rather beautiful
03:15Azuricote which comes from Central America. Again quite a heavy wood very similar in tone
03:26to Honduras rosewood again. It is a heavy rosewood but it's beautiful to look at.
03:34Tone wise especially if you put it with a cedar top as in the Richard Thompson model
03:41you get incredible volume, incredible power with a cedar top so if you want fantastic looks
03:52but also a very strong powerful sound think about Azuricote with cedar, great choice.
03:58This is another example of a Honduras rosewood back you can see it's a little bit red in color
04:07but again hard dense.
04:14From my perspective when you're close up you can hear the high overtones coming through
04:18so that gives good promise for clarity as well and this is an African Blackwood back
04:26even heavier still. This one has some sapwood in the middle and some people really like that
04:35from the visual point of view. Very meaty but very clear maybe the best combination of clarity
04:49and fullness that you can get from African Blackwood. It's rather rare so it is very expensive
04:59but exceptional. One of my all-time favorites this is Hawaiian Koa. Hawaiian Koa is much lighter in
05:10weight so that means that if you want to play sensitively if you like to play gently as well
05:17and so if you like to finger pick a lot Koa is a very good choice especially if you put it with a
05:24cedar top or a redwood top or an alpine spruce top you get that it gives you the ability to
05:33express yourself and have lots of different nuances of tone maybe not quite as strong
05:41as say some of the other heavier woods like Cocobolo, Honduras Rosewood, African Blackwood,
05:47Zirakote but looks visually beautiful but will give you the ability to be very
05:55sensitive and it will still respond just touch the guitar it'll still respond.
06:05So here I have an alpine spruce top. Alpine spruce has been used for centuries
06:13for violin making and for even for guitar making and it's usually the best pieces are grown usually
06:221200 meters 1400 meters up in the Alps where the growth rate is quite slow and the growth season
06:31is quite short and this tends to produce wood which is lightweight and stiff which means
06:38the guitar is liable to stand the test of time but at the same time be very responsive
06:46so if I use tap tone is a little bit fuller not quite so vibrant and fast as with the cedar
06:58but it means that you can play lots of different you can have lots of different nuances of tone
07:06and the way a classical player likes to use his or her right hand a lot to produce different tones
07:13this is really the ideal wood for a steel string or a classical player for that purpose someone
07:20who really wants to be expressive and the guitar will answer fat tones warm tones bright tones
07:28all of those you can get with alpine spruce one of my favorite woods even for steel strings
07:36so the next soundboard wood is of course the old favorite Sitka spruce
07:42maybe the most used of all soundboard woods for steel string guitars it has you know Sitka spruce
07:49is used or was used quite a lot in building aircraft because of its light weight and its
07:56ratio of weight to strength and stiffness so that also means that it's almost certainly going
08:02to be good for tone and therefore it's no surprise that it was used and still is used
08:08the most today for steel string guitars so Sitka spruce gives you clarity and brightness
08:16it's maybe not as exciting a wood from the tone point of view as some of the others
08:23but it gives you the ability to play in so many different styles and it will still respond it
08:28won't overdrive the way cedar can sometimes if you play it too hard very stiff
08:37very good from from that point of view in recent times i came across Adirondack
08:44and started to use it Adirondack even stiffer than Sitka spruce
08:49but it has even when you're touching it it has this kind of
08:56it's very loud when you touch it you can feel the the friction in your fingers
09:03which i always listen for and you can hear right away you can hear the deep lows you can hear the
09:10the highs and the mids all coming through
09:13of course your ear would have to be where mine is but still this is
09:19Adirondack is one of those woods that takes some time to come out in an acoustic guitar
09:24but again you can do whatever you want on it and it will respond not as sensitive as cedar
09:32not as good and as quick a response as cedar has for playing delicately but if you're going to play
09:39for playing delicately but if you're going to play a variety of styles you want to be able to
09:44finger pick you want to be able to flat pick you want to be able to strum then it's very hard to
09:50get past Adirondack. Last but not least there's Californian Redwood my favorite perhaps of all
09:59looks beautiful quite light very very stiff which which is one of the reasons why it sustains so
10:07well it has everything warmth clarity and depth and really what you've got to do after i've
10:16explained about all those wonderful tonewoods is just go into a shop try and find as many as you
10:22can pick them up and play them and you will know because of your playing style very quickly
10:29which one really speaks to you and you'll also know which ones don't speak to you as much
10:35so really the proof of the pudding is in the playing in this case
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