Has anyone seen this study? What do you think?

This post has been edited by Madfish: Apr 1 2019, 11:27 AM

Eh. Yes and no.

1) Good guitars can of course be made from non-endangered wood. We've known that for decades now and in fact ALL the major manufacturers stopped using Brazilian Rosewood in the 70s and 80s.

2) Who did the sonic testing?

3) On a brand new guitar it's very difficult for anyone, except maybe some top luthiers, to hear a significant difference on a well made but 'new' guitar.

4) Actually the top and it's bracing have a ton to do with the sound. As much as the back. But, the top, the sides, the back, the bracing, etc. all have an impact on tone, and that is constantly being tweaked by designers and builders. Martin has their X pattern, Taylor has their V bracing, etc. Everyone thinks that 'they' do it best. Whatever. They all sound good and yet unique.

5) Instrument makers are the least of the problem in the 'rare' wood arena. Furniture makers are the prime offenders.

This post has been edited by klasaine: Apr 1 2019, 11:50 PM

Let's all make guitars out of Endagered spotted Koa that only grows on one island in Hawaii!!! I'm kidding of course. Ken's right, as always. It's the Furniture people and mansion builders soaking up th e rare woods as they are the high profit items.

I've had all kinds of woods on guitars. I did like some of the heavy woods for sustain, but then again I've had guitars like my rg560 that are basswood which is just a soft, cheap, wood that is abundant, and it has plenty of sustain.

Friend has a 2-3 year old martin with a Koa top, another friend of his has the same model but 10-15 year old mahogany top. We all liked the mahogany better in terms of tone, even non-guitar players noticed the difference easily. But it should be taken as a character thing rather than better/worse.

Electric aside, you have 100's of years of tweaking/engineering to get a sound. But when you change the material you have to almost completely throw aside the engineering and start from scratch. Such a phase to my knowledge is already happening but it should be understandable why so slowly developing (aside the market demand factor from traditionalists).

With non-collector value guitars its easy, the expensive stuff today is whats endangering the environment.