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My daughter is working on her science project (grade 6) and is wanting to do on the sounds of different woods. She's heard me talk about how different tone woods effect the sound of a guitar. She has a list of the specific gravity of some woods but it doesn't list all of them (missing rosewood) Anyone have suggestions of where she can find a list of Specific Gravity, density, strength to weight ratio of different woods used in guitars. She plans to experiment by comparing the sounds the different woods make and the desity and then looking at where they are used on a guitar or why they are not used. Any ideas for her are appreciated. By the way, Sorry I am not around much anymore but the work with being mayor is still crazy and has taken me away from building.

Richard, just a thought...

I think it would be easier to show a correlation between density and sound if your daughter (with the help of Dad, of course) were to build a marimba type instrument where all the bars were the same exact dimensions but of different woods. A 2x2x4" piece of pine, wneh hit with a mallet will sound a lot different than a 2x2x4" piece of rosewood, etc.

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Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

Richard,

Here are a couple of links for you. Just look around because there is a lot of information here. If its East Indian Rosewood your looking for check out the info under Southeast Asia. Do a search for Indian Rosewood.

Have Fun and good luck.

Philip

Center for wood anatomy research

List of downloadable publications

_________________
aka konacat

If you think my playing is bad you should hear me sing!
Practice breeds confidence and confidence breeds competence. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in practice.

[QUOTE=JBreault] Richard, just a thought...

I think it would be easier to show a correlation between density and sound if your daughter (with the help of Dad, of course) were to build a marimba type instrument where all the bars were the same exact dimensions but of different woods. A 2x2x4" piece of pine, wneh hit with a mallet will sound a lot different than a 2x2x4" piece of rosewood, etc.[/QUOTE]

As an ex-science teacher, let me throw in my 2 cents worth here.
If the teacher is any good, the more 'kid input' the better, so nothing too fancy or obviously grown-up would be a good idea.
If you supply your daughter with some uniform-sized sticks (as suggested above) she can work out the density herself if she can get access to a postal scale (helpful CanadaPost outlet??) or similar to get an accurate mass. BTW, dimensioning the blocks in cm and measuring weight in grams will make it all easier to calculate.
She could also work out the density/SG by floating the sticks upright in a tall narrow container and finding the amount sticking above the water using Archimedes Principle.

Correlating all this with acoustic properties, etc may be a bit advanced...it is for me! As suggested, perhaps just demonstrating the differences in tone between woods when struck would be enough.
Good luck with the project!

John

hi this is Richards daugter. Thank you very much for the idea. I really like the idea of a marimba, i think it would be really fun. i will do that as well as another experiment.for my other experiment my dad gave me a bunch of 1/8 inch wood (tops and back size) i drilled a hole in the top of each one, and what i am going to do is hang them by a string, and tap them to listen to the different sounds              . i will then compare the sounds i hear with the dencity of the woods.

The Australia Tonewoods link here in Luthiers Forum will give you some interesting information.

Click on "Tonewood Data"