Tone-Woods

[masterbuilt]

 

Since the question comes up so often, I dug up these two posts I made on Ukulele Underground. They helped a lot of people find the answers to their questions on tone-woods.

What tone, over all, do I want? A rosewood back and sides will have better low and mid-range tone than a mahogany uke.

 

Spruce will be brighter than mahogany and will not mellow as much as cedar with age. Cedar will sound bright at first and

 

just continue to get more mellow and sweeter with age. Then there are the exotic woods, starting with koa, very punchy with

 

clear tone. Mango is softer and sweet, but it doesn't carry as well as koa. Zebrawood, pretty new on the market is bright,

 

but it is a thinner tone than any of the others mentioned thus far. Maple is bright and combined with a spruce top will be

 

one of the loudest ukes you can ever find, yet played softly, it can be about as sweet and mellow as any instrument. Maple

 

is usually laminated, so the solid spruce top is important.

 

The "sound" changes with the combinations of wood, the bracing, the body size and shape, and variables in construction. Many

 

companies have different sounds on different instruments depending on the choice of woods used. So, here is a basic

 

rundown...

 

bright sound.... maple back and sides, spruce top (very loud).

fairly bright sound, warms with age.... solid mahogany

warm sound, warms slightly with age, not as loud as koa.... mango

bright sound, can give a pronounced "bark" with warm tone, yet very loud.... solid koa

warm sound with a sweet tone that gets sweeter with age.... mahogany back with cedar top

bright, yet warm sound that will mellow with age, but remain loud.... mahogany with spruce top

warm sound, middle-volume, with smooth sweet tone.... koa back and sides with a cedar top

warm, rich sound with good midrange and lower registers... rosewood back and sides, cedar top

warm, rich sound with brighter highs and good volume.... rosewood back and sides with spruce top

 

 

less common woods...

myrtle... bright, mid-range tone with good balance

zebrawood... chipper, bright tone, average volume (add a spruce top for increased volume)

monkeypod... sounds similar to Koa, not as pretty, but nice straight grain

blackwood... nice grain, sounds a lot like koa, warms with age

walnut... bright, loud, not commonly used in ukes... used a lot in hammer dulcimers.

sycamore... bright, mid-volume, but soft

redwood... very soft, but warm tone

 

The results for guitar tonal differences will be very much like those of ukulele.

[knockwood]

Great post, and I agree very much with your *Rundown.* Evidently this does not apply only to ukes. I am unfamiliar with instruments made from some of the species you've listed (sycamore and myrtle, for example), but on the others my perceptions are pretty much as you have described. Monkeypod, by the way, also makes a beautiful and great-sounding top.

Unfortunately, I suspect this thread is headed for a flame war. Before that happens, I will just say that while in the most general terms I agree with the inevitable comments about size/shape/construction being *greater* contributing factors than back species, I think the people who make this argument often forget that these elements and back species are not mutually exclusive. All other things being equal, I believe that in general different species will impart different tonal characteristics. 

I absolutely love curly maple, for example. I think it is just gorgeous under a finish. But virtually every smaller-bodied maple/spruce guitar I've ever heard/played has sounded almost offensively jangly and bright to me. At the same time, the Gibson J-200 is one of the most magnificent-sounding instruments I've ever encountered. So it's not merely the species, but a combo of all other factors PLUS the back species, I feel, that makes a difference. I'm actually working on a curly maple OM at the moment for a friend (project temporarily suspended while most of my life is in storage), mainly just because I think the stuff is so beautiful and I'm excited about eventually throwing a finish on it. But to try and tame the brightness somewhat, I'm using a cedar top and tweaking the bracing based on inspiration from Dana Bourgeois' "single-scallop" design.

And now I'm out before this thing turns into a snark fest.

 

[masterbuilt]

 

---

knockwood wrote:

 

 

Monkeypod, by the way, also makes a beautiful and great-sounding top.

 

Unfortunately, I suspect this thread is headed for a flame war. Before that happens, I will just say that while in the most general terms I agree with the inevitable comments about size/shape/construction being *greater* contributing factors than back species, I think the people who make this argument often forget that these elements and back species are not mutually exclusive. All other things being equal, I believe that in general different species will impart different tonal characteristics. 

 

I absolutely love curly maple, for example. I think it is just gorgeous under a finish. But virtually every smaller-bodied maple/spruce guitar I've ever heard/played has sounded almost offensively jangly and bright to me. At the same time, the Gibson J-200 is one of the most magnificent-sounding instruments I've ever encountered. So it's not merely the species, but a combo of all other factors PLUS the back species, I feel, that makes a difference. I'm actually working on a curly maple OM at the moment for a friend (project temporarily suspended while most of my life is in storage), mainly just because I think the stuff is so beautiful and I'm excited about eventually throwing a finish on it. But to try and tame the brightness somewhat, I'm using a cedar top and tweaking the bracing based on inspiration from Dana Bourgeois' "single-scallop" design.

 

 

 

 

---

 

MonkeyPod is an acacia sibling species. It is a low-cost substitute for Koa. I like it, too. It became more popular with ukes after I had made these posts at Ukulele Underground.

 

I love your idea on Maple. You are right, too, it can be "jangly" --and yes, I like your word for it. I understood completely. lol. If the cedar top doesn't sound as though it dampens the maple enough, it will be tamer with age. I wonder how redwood would be rather than cedar. It is softer and would mute it more.

Thanks for your input.

 

[Grant Harding]

My direct experience is with my brother. For the last 18 years he's been playing 2 Martin soprano ukes from the 1930's. One is solid mahogany and the other is solid koa.

 

The koa uke is brighter, louder, and has more sweet overtones. The hog is rounder and more bland, but still a very nice sound.

 

I've spent many hours with those pointed at me.

[Freeman Keller]

Thanks for the great summary, Masterbuilt.