Re: Smart Wood

I've built a few with black cherry, and it's a great tonewood. Probably
closest to mahogany in overall character. It's quite stable, good to work
with either machine or hand tools, and easy to finish since the pores are
quite tight. It's handsome, reasonably robust, and readily available.

I'm an old-fashioned kind of builder, and tend not to like some of the
modern alternative tropical woods. Can't stand koa, in spite of its'
beauty, because it just has no structural integrity and has no sound
advantage over cheaper, stronger and more stable materials like mahog.

Cherry, on the other hand, does fill the bill for a sensible alternate to
some of the diminishing tonewoods.

It even makes a good wood for necks, in that it is fairly close in density
to good Honduras mahog, and is very nearly as stable.

I got best results using it fairly thin for the backs and sides. The sound
is usually clear and bright with a pleasant warmth, depending on the design
of the instrument of course. I've used it on dreads and on 12-fret 000s and
like it for both.

Another good alternate wood is black walnut. Some builders have had
mediocre results with some of the prettier walnuts, like claro, but my
experience with Ontario-grown black walnut has been very good. I use it
for backs and sides, but not necks. While it tends to be stable from a
climatic standpoint it doesn't have sufficient stiffness along the grain to
make good necks unless you go for a laminated and heavily reinforced
construction.

I am well aware that a number of modern luthiers are using walnut for necks,
and that they swear by it, but I have no faith in it in that capacity. If
you suspend a walnut plank between centres it will sag under it's own
weight. The vast majority of walnut necks that I've encountered have been
very badly warped, going all the way back to the 20s. I may be stubborn,
but have learned to take that kind of a hint. ;-)

KH
"Danielle E" <danielle.e@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:zC7pg.161834$F_3.141950@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.mguitar.com/guitars/choosing/guitars.php?p=pl&m=SWOMGT

Has any one checked out a smart wood guitar. I really do not know what
cherry does to an acoustic guitar.

Danielle



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