This Stuff Grows on Trees

ed note: I was going thru some old articles and found this one from 4 years ago. it’s an accidental companion piece to the “Wider, Lighter, Brighter, Better” piece I published earlier. It contains some personal thoughts on guitar building that are not included in the more technical article sited above.

From July 2007

So I went through some of my guitar wood this afternoon, and found that I have enough to make about 10 instruments. Varieties like Mahogany, Rosewood, and Koa to name a few.

I’m partial to Mahogany myself. It’s easy to carve, bend, sand and finish. There is not much that I can think of that is a drawback. The material that I’ve pulled out for the first Harp Guitar is some figured Mahogany. The one drawback to this set is that it’s flatsawn (crack city). I’ve made one other guitar from this material about 10 or so years ago. It is a good instrument, with no cracks. In the long run I think it’ll hold up.

Some other material I have for sets for guitar are Koa, Rosewood, and the “Holy Grail” Brazilian Rosewood. I’m not big on the Indian Rosewood, it makes nice looking guitars, but I’ve never been excited about the look or feel. Brazilian on the other hand is a whole different ballgame. This stuff has beauty, character, along with superb tone. I can’t imagine that I’ll be making a guitar out of this stuff too soon.

The last couple of pieces I have are some guitar tops. There are Sitka Spruce, California Figured Redwood, and Englenamm Spruce.

I wanted to take the time and write about guitar top in particular. When I first started building, I was taught that you want a tom that has a lot of “lines” per inch. The lines that they were referring to are the growth rings of the tree. Slower growing trees create smaller distances between the early wood lines, thus giving you more lines per inch. In time I realized that tops that come from trees that grow a little faster…say 10-12 lines per inch were more suitable for the sound I wanted to create. These tops have more late wood. This wood is lighter in weight, and therefore easier to get moving. The one manmade aspect of this top is that it has to be cut perfectly quartersawn. When the grain is 90 degrees to the face of the guitar top, the wood becomes very stiff… Stiff, light tops react better to vibration than do heavy stiff tops. Back in the day we called these tops “Singin Tops”

Ukulele Tip # 37

 

“I’ll take some Aquilas, some of these picks, and some woodwind bore oil, please”

The clerk behind the counter said to me “You’re a ukulele guy, why are you buying bore oil”

For as long as I can remember band directors have been preaching the virtue of bore oil to clarinet players. It’s used to protect the bore, and prevent mouth liquid from penetrating into the instrument. Basically it adds years to the instrument, prevents cracking, and helps to maintain the integrity of the joints.

I use bore oil on my Ukulele fingerboards. About every other month or when I change strings, and apply a fresh coat of bore oil to the board. It penetrates, and makes the board look nice, along with making the guitar it a little faster. This stuff is cheap too, about $2 a bottle. A 2 oz. bottle can last more than a year and can be picked up at any music store that sells band instruments and accessories.

(Note: bore oil can NOT penetrate maple fingerboards that are lacquered)

Woodwind bore oil. Give it a try.

don't forget to "Like" New Wave Ukulele on Facebook for a chance to win 1 of 10 Limited Edition Bumper Stickers.

Wider, Lighter, Brighter, Better

 

So much fuss is made over tight grained spruce tops, The tighter the grain the more desirable for good tone, but I’d like to offer an alternative position…

back in the day, one of my jobs was to sort and grade guitar tops for different models in production, I would go through stacks and stacks of wood, only to make other stacks, piles and stashes. There were stacks for production guitars, custom guitars, high end guitars, and there was the S.T. pile.. The “Signin’ Tops”. Unlike tops with tight grain, the “Singin’ Tops” were graded to have between 10 and 12 grains per inch, and cut very well on the “Quarter.” That means the grain lines were perfectly perpendicular (90 degrees) to the surface of the top.

So what makes these tops better? Well you have to go back to the source of the guitar top to understand… Trees. Trees grow in annual cycles. Each cycle is made up of two different types of wood, early wood and late wood. Early wood grows faster in the spring and summer and the late wood grows much slower in the winter. Visually this dynamic duo makes up the look of the guitar tops…alternating light and dark lines. each pair makes up one year in the growth of the tree. You could count the dark lines on your top and you could figure out the age in years your instrument’s top.

It’s not just the G.P.I. (Grains Per Inch) that is important, but the cut that matters just as much, Spruce tops perform best and are most stable when they are perfectly quarter sawn. this means that the annual rings are oriented 90 degrees to surface of the top. Manufacturing tops this way makes them stiff. stiffness is a good thing when you have sever hundred pounds of force being exerted by the strings. it’s called “Cross Grain Stiffness.” You can tell how well a top is quartered by looking at its “Ray Fleck.” if a top is cut perfectly vertical, you will see lines the run perpendicular to the grains on the top.   if the top is cut just a few degrees from vertical, the fleck disappears and the top will become soft and flexible.  Cross grain stiffness make for a responsive top.

back to the Singin’ Top. these tops make the most of the light weight of the early wood, and the stiffness of the late wood. It’s a balance between response and stability. Too much late wood, and the top becomes dense and slow to react. too much early and the top becomes spongy and dead. in time and with some tutelage, I learned that the perfect signin’ top have 10 – 13 grains per inch, are straight and light in weight.

So what's the big deal you ask? the combination of a light top, and a stiff top, make for a more responsive top. Lighter (weight) tops respond when the strings are struck, and the stiffness makes for a outstanding projection and stability, it’s a Win Win!

I have found that these tops come around from time to time, they are manufactured somewhat by chance. you need to have just the right log, and just the right process. when then they both come together you get tops that are Tonally Awesome!

This is Awesome!

Thanks to Lorena Lane and the crew over at Digital Grindstone for this design. Retro 80's it's Totally Awesome!