Tonewoods

1
Tonewoods

• Scott Whitehead
• Mar 29, 2006
• BI 496

2
Introduction

• What is a Tonewood?

3
Instruments and their Woods

• Over 200 Species of tree used worldwide to make
  musical instruments
• 70 of these are considered threatened with
  extinction
• Commonly tropical woods
• Timber is very valuable

4
Instruments and their Woods

• Musical instruments require high quality timbers
  of old, slow growing trees.
• Due to this current logging practices are
  un-sustainable
• Extraction processes
• Free falling and surrounding trees
• Roads

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Instruments and their Woods

• Plantation development
• Long Regeneration Cycles 70-100 years
• Preferred age for instrument manufacturers is
  several hundred years

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The Instruments

• Intro to violins, pianos, woodwinds harps
• FOCUS
• Guitars and their relatives
• Soundboard
• Neck
• Fingerboard
• Back and sides

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The Harp

• They are BIG!
• Concert harps can have string tensions exceeding
  700kg
• So they must be strong
• The soundboard may be made of Spruce while the
  neck and sides of Sycamore and the pillars and
  bridge made of Maple or Beech
• There is little demand for harps now due to their
  immense cost as a result most harps used are old
  (refurbished)

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The Harp

• The Aeolian Harp
• Small, made of soft woods like spruce with a
  Beech box at both ends to relieve strain from the
  strings

• The Celtic Harp
• One of the worlds oldest instruments
• Very wide variety of woods used in construction
  including Walnut, Oak, African mahogany, Gaboon
  and Meranti

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Pianos

• Two Types, Grand and Upright
• Both tend to use the same basic woods
• Traditionally the main woods used include Walnut,
  Rosewood, and Mahogany
• Soundboards, Sitka or European Spruce
• Historical Music
• The 5 periods

The Baroque Period 1600- 1750, J. S. Bach
Classical 1750-1825, Mozart Beethoven
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Piano
And.The 20th century, for example Stravinsky,
Schoenberg.
Romanticism 1820-1900 Chopin
Impressionistic 1890-1915 Debussy
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Piano

• The fact is that Pianos are quite variable in the
  woods used to build them because there are so
  many parts
• In 1980 it is estimated that 800,000 pianos were
  built
• Conservation of ebony, rosewood, African
  Blackwood

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Side note on the piano

• At some point in time the piano and the guitar
  gave birth to what is possibly the coolest
  instrument of all timeThe Yamaha Keytar!!

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Violin

• The Belly or soundboard (Front)
• Timbers must be resonant, thin, strong, stiff and
  possess clear straight grain pattern.
• Swiss pine is considered the best but silver
  spruce, sycamore, western red cedar, hemlock, and
  Douglas fir may be used
• Back and side also act as a soundboard
• Maple and Spruce common
• The front and back are often made of different
  timers to create the desired tone
• Fingerboard and Neck
• Neck must be strong and resist wear so it is
  often made of Sycamore or Maple and the neck of
  Ebony
• Bows
• Pernambuco is considered the only acceptable wood
• Construction is very wasteful, 70-90 of log is
  lost in converting the blank

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Violin

• Associated with harmonious, appealing and
  seductive sounds that can charm or captivate
  listeners
• Some even attributed magical powers to the violin
  giving it a dubious reputation and as a result it
  was regarded suspiciously by the catholic church

Man Ray's work Violon d'Ingres
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Violin

• Antonio Stradivari 1644-1737
• Famous violin builder
• The highest price ever paid for one of his
  violins was 2,032,000

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Woodwinds

• Made of high density woods that exhibit fine
  texture
• Wood stability is extremely important as it
  greatly affects pitch
• Wind instruments are blown and because of this
  they are subjected to extreme changes in moisture
• Wood will expand when exposed to moisture and
  because of this a woodwind instrument must be
  made of woods that take up moisture slowly and
  have a low saturation point

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Woodwinds

• Clarinets Flutes
• Traditionally made of Cocuswood, Boxwood, Ebony
  and African Blackwood
• Now 99 are African Blackwood
• Approximately 75 of the tree is wasted in making
  a clarinet as they are only made using the
  heartwood and grain is very important (ie. no
  knots)

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The Guitar

• Evolution of the Lute
• Probably first developed in Spain (1400s) but was
  used extensively in Italy

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The Guitar

• Parts

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The Guitar
Picea Engelmann Slightly louder, more projective
or open sound than Sitka spruce.

• Tops almost always Spruce (Sitka or Engelmann) or
  Cedar (Western red Cedar) pre-WWII war guitars
  sometimes used Adirondack Spruce

Picea SitchensisExtremely vibrant providing an
ideal diaphragm for transmission of sound on
any size and style of stringed instrument.
Thuja plicataUsed for decades as a soundboard
material on classical guitars, Cedar is also
popular among steel-string enthusiasts
especially suitable for fingerstyle playing
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The Guitar

• Back and sides
• This is where they get expensive

Acer macrophyllumBig leaf maple, Its stiff,
tight grain produces a clear, bright, compressed,
balanced tone that lends itself to amplification
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Khaya anthothecaAfrican Mohogany - African
mahogany grows in the tropical forests of West
Africa, usually in the Ivory Coast region, as
well as Ghana and Nigeria. Similar in tonal
response to Tropical American mahogany, it
delivers a balance of brightness and warmth with
an open, resonant midrange and strong projection
Swietenia macrophyllaTropical American Mohogany
- produces a bright, clear tone, with a unique
balance that yields an expressive dynamic range
in response to even the lightest touch, also used
to make necks.
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Dalbergia retusaCocobolo - The densest and
strongest of rosewoods, this Mexican variety
delivers a rich, full sound with wonderfully
complex overtones, resounding bass, and robust
volume
Acacia koaHawaiian Koa - Hawaiian koa grows only
between the 300- and 7,000-foot elevations on
Hawaii's five major islands, the finest
instrument-quality koa trees grow on the Big
Island, koa produces a tone somewhere between
that of maple and rosewood.
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The Rosewoods
Dalbergia latifoliaIndian Rosewood - tonal
characteristics that include a strong bass
response and long sustain. It remains the most
popular tonewood used in the making of
high-quality acoustic guitars.
Dalbergia nigraBrazilian Rosewood - For 200
years, guitar aficionados have coveted Brazilian
rosewood above all tonewoods for its density,
beauty, and rich, full resonance. English name
not from its coloration but from its smell whose
intensity is proportional to its age, moisture
content, and degree of deterioration
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Brazilian Rosewood The Rolls Royce of Tone
woods.
Martin D-100 100,000
Taylor Presentation 10,000
Martin D-28GE 15,000
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Conservation

• So is Brazilian rosewood worth the price?
• Apparently to some players (with too much money)
  it is.
• Although it is now extremely hard to attain and
  because of this quality is extremely variable
• And, it is listed on the UCIN list of threatened
  tree species
• Recall logging practices

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Conservation

• Some guitar manufacturers are now recognizing
  that these trees are threatened and taking
  measures to promote their protection
• Such as Bob Taylor of Taylor guitars who recently
  purchased a tropical mahogany forest in Belize
  that was killed by a hurricane and removed only
  the dead trees leaving the remaining to
  repopulate the area