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I've seen and heard mahogany tops on guitars. What are some other hardwoods make good sounding tops?

Koa, walnut, khaya, sapele, primavera, I’ve seen but not heard ovangkol and now even rosewood. I’m sure there’s more…

For a sound somewhere in between spruce and mahogany you might try American sassafras (Sassafras albidum). It falls between spruce and mahogany in weight and hardness and is reasonably stiff. American Chestnut is a similar wood I have used for dulcimers which might also work for guitars.

Pretty!

Spanish cedar, butternut and catalpa would probably be good. Maybe sweetgum, black cherry and black limba. The smaller the guitar, the less weight matters.

I've never used Limba myself, but have seen guitars and ukes with it as a top wood.
It's similar in weight and stiffness to Mahogany.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I built a Black Limba weissenborn last year and can confirm it makes an excellent top wood. I’ll definitely be using it again.




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Its more about the quality and the milling of the wood then a certain species. Check out a book called Understanding Wood this should be required reading for all Luthiers.

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Balsa and paulownia have been used successfully as top woods for stringed instruments. They're soft and prone to scratching, so they might work better on an archtop than flattop.

Balsa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wqStD-Wejw

Paulownia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LOHsrLWgq4

Tasmanian/Australian Blackwood (acacia melanoxylon) has been used successfully by the Maton guitar company here in Australia, as well as many individual luthiers.

Here’s an all-blackwood Maton that I’ve just strung up this morning after a bridge reglue and some bracing repairs.




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It depends on how you define 'good' sound. Denser woods can have a nice timbre, but produce less output. That's why we tend to use softwoods for tops: the long grain stiffness at a given thickness tends to track the density pretty well for softwoods because they all have similar structure. Hardwoods vary more in structure, so they don't follow the same rule. Hardwoods tend to have similar stiffness at a given thickness, but they're often twice as dense as softwoods, so the stiffness to weight of the structure is lower with hardwoods. A hardwood top that's stiff enough that it doesn't fold up too soon will end up weighing about twice as much as a softwood one. It's harder for the strings to push, and makes less sound, particularly in the higher frequency range. Hardwood tops tend to sound 'mellow' or 'sweet' rather than 'bright', and the hardwood ones don't 'carry' as well. Again, they can sound fine, but it depends on what you're after. Keep in mind that 'hardwood' is a botanical definition: balsa is a hardwood that is said to make a loud top that dents really easily...

Probably time to resuscitate this old thread on how I approached building a koa topped guitar. Australian blackwood would work similarly as they are closely related.

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

Up into the 1970's, Birch was probably as common as spruce for top wood. I've got a couple old birch boxes, and they can be very good guitars.