Tonewood Info

Pantheon Guitars: Perhaps one of the better fact-filled web pages on tonewood. Dana Bourgeois is a well respected luthier with alot to say about tonewood and their "velocity of sound" characteristics. He details most of the tonewoods, including sitka, englemann, european (silver), eastern red (adirondack), and bear claw spruces. Koa and mahogany are also discussed as good top wood options. Dana also talks at length about such back/sides woods as east indian rosewood, brazilian rosewood, mahogany, koa, maple (big leaf, curly, quilted, bird's eye), and claro walnut.Website: Dana Bourgeois' tonewood page

Dream Guitars: The different sound qualities of each tonewood is discussed in detail here and include both top and back/sides tonewoods. Top woods discussed include adirondack, sitka, european and englemann spruce. Also western red cedar and redwood. Tonewoods for back/sides include indian rosewood, mahogany, hawiian koa, claro walnut, cocobolo, big leaf maple, brazilian rosewood, african paduk, maccassar ebony, myrtlewood, ziricote, madagascar rosewood, honduran rosewood and african blackwood.Website: Dream Guitars' Tonewoods web page

Olav Torvund's Guitar Site: Tonewood is found in many varieties, all with different characteristics. On this site you will find detailed information about tonewoods of all kinds. For guitar tops the tonewoods discussed are sitka, adirondack (red spruce), englemann and european (also known as german, italian, alpine or silver) spruce. Koa and mahogany are also discussed as top woods. Back/sides tonewoods discussed here include brazilian, indian and cocobolo rosewoods, as well as mahogany, figured mahogany, koa, quilted maple, birdseye maple, flamed maple, walnut and cherry.Website: Tonewood web page

Warmoth Direct: Tonewood discussed on this site includes woods use for solid body electric guitars, including alder, ash, basswood, bubinga, koa, figured koa, black korina, white korina, lacewood, mahogany, maple, soft maple, flame maple, quilted maple, spalted maple, birdseye maple, burl maple, african padouk, poplar, redwood, rosewood, brazilian rosewood, sitka spruce, walnut, figured walnut, wenge and zebrawood.Website: Warmoth's electric guitar tonewood page

Ervin Somogyi: Ervin Somogyi, one of the most respected acoustic guitar builders in the world today, discusses the different characteristics of his tonewood collection. Included on his web page are the spruces (engleman, european, sitka) and cedar. The differences in these woods is discussed down to their cellular and fibrous content. Other woods discussed are east indian rosewood, brazilian rosewood, mahogany, koa, maple and spanish cypress. Also discussed is how the tone of wood changes over time.Website: Somogyi's tonewood page

Breedlove Guitars: There are some helpful tonewood charts here that place topwoods on a horizontal axis to show general tone characteristics, and back/side woods on an x-y graph according to general tonal characteristics. There is also plenty of detailed information about bearclaw sitka, sitka, adirondack (red), englemann and german spruces. Port Orford cedar, western red cedar and redwood are also discussed. Back woods detailed are walnut, east indian rosewood, striped ebony, brazilian rosewood, ziricote, koa, myrtlewood, mahogany and maple.Website: Breedlove's tonewood page

Guitarplayer.com: Guitarplayer.com discusses, in an online article, the different properties of electric solid body guitar woods. Tonewoods discussed are alder, ash, basswood, korina, mahogany, maple, mahogany/maple combination, poplar, rosewood, walnut and some exotic woods as well.Website: Guitar Player electric guitar tonewood article

Paul Woolson Guitars: On his web site, Paul Woolson discusses tonewood in great detail. Back woods included are east indian, madagascar, honduran and pao ferro (bolivian) rosewoods, mahogany, sapelle, bubinga, figured maple, koa and walnut. He does not use brazilian rosewood in the construction of his guitars. Top woods discussed include sitka, englemann, adirondack (red) spruces and western red cedar.Website: Paul Woolson's tonewood page

Dinosaur Rock Guitar: Dinosaur Rock Guitar, the home of heavy guitar, features nice descriptions on the tonal characteristicts of nearly every type of tonewood used for electric solid body guitars. These include basswood, alder, swamp ash, mahogany, walnut, koa, korina, all of the maples, spruce, lacewood and rosewood. Also included are the tonal characteristics of combinations of woods used for guitar bodies such as maple on top of ash, mahogany, alder and swampwood.Website: Dinosaur's electric guitar tonewood page

North Star Guitars: Tonewood tonal characteristics for acoustic, semi-hollow body, hollow body and solid body guitars are discussed in detail here. Tonewoods included are englemann, sitka and eastern (red adirondack) spruce, eastern clear white pine, douglas fir, rockhard maple, big leaf (soft) maple, honduras mahogany, east indian rosewood, alder, brazilian rosewood, american walnut, claro walnut, cherry, yellow birch, american basswood, cypress, ebony, koa and cocobolo.Website: North Star's tonewood page

Mayes Guitars: Tonewood for both tops and back/sides of acoustic guitars is discussed here. Detailed information can be found for adirondack, sitka, european and englemann spruce, western red cedar, redwood, the rosewoods (madagascar, honduran, brazilian, african padouk, cocobolo, indian), koa, mahogany, claro walnut, big leaf maple, maccassar ebony, ziricote, myrtlewood and african blackwood.Website: Mayes' tonewood page

Jemsite.com: Tonewood types and tones for electric guitars is fully discussed on this web site. Woods included are basswood, alder, swamp ash, mahogany, walnut, koa, korina, soft and hard maple, spruce, lacewood and rosewood.Website: Jemsite's electric guitar tonewood page

Eastman Strings: This is an interesting web page on tonewoods. What is mainly discussed is the differences in how tonewood is milled. There are two basic ways to cut a log into peices of wood for making instruments. The wood resulting from these two methods is called "quarter" and "slab", and the general positives and negatives of both are discussed at length here.Website: Eastman's tonewood page