Tone Woods for Guitar Backs
 |
Big Leaf Curley Maple
Big Leaf Maple has been used on archtop guitars for many years. Many of the classic guitars like Gibson’s or D’Angelico’s were made with this variety of maple. It is a wonderful tone wood for backs because of its strength and density. The stripes or curls that this wood possesses add to the visual aesthetic of the guitar. Although highly figured pieces are more sought after for a hand built instrument, they do not make the guitar sound any better than a less figured piece. But you can rest assured that I only use the most highly figured quarter sawn pieces on my guitars. |
 |
Big Leaf Quilted Maple
Quilted Maple is similar to Curley Maple in its strength and sound. I have found it to be slightly warmer sounding than the Curley variety due to the fact that it is flat sawn and not quite as hard. The most outstanding feature of quilted maple is its stunning visual appearance. The figure can range from long tubular waves to tiny intense bubble like curls. Quilted Maple is my favorite choice for backs and sides because of its great tonal capability coupled with its striking beauty. It is more costly to buy and more difficult to finish, but having a piece of quilted maple on your guitar is well worth the extra expense. |
 |
European Fiddleback Maple
European Maple is an excellent tone wood for backs and sides. When this variety is quarter sawn it produces small intense stripes that usually fall very close to one another. European maple is a softer variety than the domestic maples and produces a warm sound. It has an ivory sheen similar to European Spruce. High quality European Maple is much more difficult and expensive to buy than the high quality Big Leaf variety, but I do keep some nice European backs and sides in the shop for those who would like to have it on their instruments. |
 |
Mahogany
Mahogany is not as popular as the maple varieties for archback guitars, but I have found it to be a great tone wood for archtops. Mahogany is less dense than maple but it is very stable and has a warm resonant sound. It is also an excellent wood for necks. I see far less adjustments on the Mahogany necks that I build than the maple ones. The disadvantage in using Mahogany is that it doesn’t possess the same amount of curly figure that maple does and because of its dark reddish color it looks best when used with a darker finish. It is much less expensive to buy Mahogany than it is maple. So, I like to use it on my less expensive models. But you can rest assured that a Mahogany backed guitar will sound equally as impressive as one made with maple. |
|
|
