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The choice of tonewoods - the woods that go into an acoustic guitar - is at the heart of what makes an acoustic guitar sound good. So let's breakdown why wood choice matters and how I select wood for my guitars.
First of all, you won't be buying tonewoods at your local big box hardware store. Most luthiers work with specialty wood suppliers who source wood that is ideal for guitar building. Most of these suppliers are online and are actually pretty easy to order from.
So what wood goes into a guitar?
So what wood goes into a guitar?
There are three main parts to an acoustic guitar - the top, or soundboard, the back and sides, and the neck.
The guitar top or soundboard
The guitar top or soundboard
Most acoustic guitar tops are made from either spruce (Sitka, Engelmann or Adirondack) or cedar. I build using Sitka spruce. Sitka strikes a great balance between strength and flexibility, making it ideal for transmitting the vibrations of the strings into sound. Sitka spruce is native to the Pacific Northwest, especially coastal Alaska and British Columbia. Its name comes from the town of Sitka, Alaska, and it grows in tall, straight stands in cool, damp climates.
What makes Sitka special is its high strength-to-weight ratio. It can be carved thin enough to be responsive, but still strong enough to handle string tension and aggressive playing. It’s a reliable all-rounder—clear, bright, and articulate without sounding too thin. Sitka creates tones that have crisp highs, clear mids and a tight, punchy low end. It works well for strummers and fingerpickers alike, which is why it's used across a wide variety of guitar styles, from dreadnoughts to smaller OM models.
Visually, Sitka usually has a pale, creamy color with straight, even grain lines. Higher-grade tops can have more uniformity, tight grain, and even some bearclaw figuring (a natural ripple effect).
Guitar tops come "quarter sawn", where a vertical slice is cut from a log and then split in two to create a book matched pair of boards. I've drawn a little sketch of what this means.
Wood you buy at the big box DIY store is usually "flat sawn" meaning that slices are just cut from the log with no regard to where the grain is.
Quarter sawn wood has very strainght tight grain that is incredibly strong along the grain but very bendy across the grain. This makes it perfect for guitar tops.
In the picture notice that the two pieces are mirror images of each other. These boards usually come thinned to about 5mm thick. This is way to thick for a guitar top, but we'll get to the process for thinning the boards later on.
Notice also the close straight grain of the boards. This is the power of Sitka. It is incredibly strong vertically along the grain but is very light and flexible across the grain. This combination makes it perfect for withstanding the enormous tension of the guitar strings, but still being able to be flexible to transmit the string vibrations into the tone we love.
Sitka boards come in about 5mm thicknesses.
The guitar back and sides
The guitar back and sides
The guitar back and sides actual like the shell of a drum. They need to be light, strong and pretty stiff to allow the top to vibrate, but at the same time not absorb too much vibration themselves which will dampen the tone.
There are lot of choices for backs and sides. On one end of the price spectrum we have Brazilian Rosewood which is highly prized and can be quite expensive. A set can easily run over $1,000. Brazillian Rosewood is also restricted by CITES (Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species) and requires certifications to use. A more reasonable wood, that I use is Indian or Madagascar Rosewood. These aren't endangered, but still produce very beautiful guitars.
The picture shows a set of Black Walnut. Like the top it is also book matched and usually quarter sawn, although the straightness of the grain is less important.
In most guitars, builders try to match the sides and the back for aesthetics reasons.
There are many choices for backs, and while some impart some tonal properties combined with being lightweight, most choices are more about what you want the guitar to look like.
Again backs and sides come in 5 mm thicknesses. They often look a but dull, but once we sand and finish them, they'll look fantastic.
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