Official Luthiers Forum!

What's the loudest wood you have ever worked with?

Spruce/cocobolo combo. Of course there are a lot of factors besides the species themselves that make wood loud.

_________________
A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

Tiger Myrtle/Lutz L-OO

An electric with a great big stack of amps behind me.

_________________
Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

sitka and dynamite.

_________________
Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Why would this be a priority?

Colin

_________________
I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

It's not the wood, it's the woodcarver.

I just got a chuckle from reading this thread. The sequence seems to go like this:

1) Question

2) Answer with qualification

3) Answer

4) Joke

5) Joke

6) Question

7) Answer - statement

Hesh, thats what I like about this forum - some humor. But humor without answers would not be good.

_________________
A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

Hesh,

Actually 4 and 5 were answers as well as jokes. A real joke would have been "Make a copy of the millionth Martin".

Neogardguitar,

Apologies for the humour but your question probably needs a bit more qualification. What do you mean by the loudest guitar you can make and what do you mean by the loudest wood? Loudest to the player, loudest to the audience, loud as in bluegrass banjo-killer playing picked melodies etc etc?

The alleged Chet Atkins comment comes to mind - when someone said his guitar sounded great he put it up to his ear and said "I can't hear anything?". Same thing when I pick up different sorts of wood - they're all quiet until I do something with them.

_________________
Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

One of the loundest guitars I've heard was at the GAL Convention in Tacoma this year. I wish now I had made a note of the builder, but It was the loudest instrument out of more than forty guitars that were played at the listening appreciation seminar.

I do remember that the body was made totally from Carpathian spruce, top, B & S, and it may have been an OM or 000, but not sure about that.

One thing to remember though, Loud does not always = great tone. Some of the best sounding guitars for tone are not loud by any means.

Just my thoughts,
Cal

_________________
Remember, there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers!

I'm interested in this myself, because I'm currently designing a guitar-bouzouki for an Irish player for whom loudness is one of the highest priorities. He wants to be able to use it as a lead/melody instrument and be more or less on an equal volume level (without amplification) with fiddles, pipes, accordions and the like. In his and my experience, bouzoukis (as well as guitars) generally cannot do this. I am considering every aspect of the design and construction in working towards this goal (while also aiming for the tone he has in mind), but choice of wood for back and sides is one factor I am certainly looking at.

So, what I'm looking for is loud as well as emphasizing mids and highs.

_________________
Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

I recently made a guitar with Amazon Rosewood and Sitka.

This is by far the loudest guitar I have ever played.

[insert wisecrack and joke here to keep up with the neighbors}

_________________
P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars