Tonewood Details: U-Z
Begun as a private project, I was asked to make this information available to others. For my own use, attribution was not a particular concern - which of course I regret now. If you see something you said or a photo or yours is in there, please first allow me the opportunity to properly credit it - or to remove it if you object.
Much of what has been said is highly subjective. We can post your experiences as well. My own are limited enough that they are best kept to myself. Two pieces of wood may exhibit very different characteristics; this is part of what makes wood so fascinating. And two luthiers may have differing opinions, based upon the wood they use, their techniques in handling it, and the level of their expertise. The more information that is gathered, the easier it will be to draw conclusions which help us all.
I have adopted a rating scale from the Elly Guitar site in which their ratings are given a numerical form of from 1 to 5. These numerical renditions of Highs ("H"), Mids ("M"), Bass ("B"), Sustain ("S"), Overtones ("O"), and Tone ("T") can give you a sense of the kind of sound which may be expected from any given wood. Remember, there is a vast amount of overlap and difference between each wood, each builder, and how they handle the woods. Like most everywhere here, we discuss in very broad generalities. You may wish to visit Elly Guitars and see for yourself their more graphical way of presenting this kind of material.
A click on each underlined wood takes you to a Sub-Page where photos are arranged alphabetically by wood.
Much of what has been said is highly subjective. We can post your experiences as well. My own are limited enough that they are best kept to myself. Two pieces of wood may exhibit very different characteristics; this is part of what makes wood so fascinating. And two luthiers may have differing opinions, based upon the wood they use, their techniques in handling it, and the level of their expertise. The more information that is gathered, the easier it will be to draw conclusions which help us all.
I have adopted a rating scale from the Elly Guitar site in which their ratings are given a numerical form of from 1 to 5. These numerical renditions of Highs ("H"), Mids ("M"), Bass ("B"), Sustain ("S"), Overtones ("O"), and Tone ("T") can give you a sense of the kind of sound which may be expected from any given wood. Remember, there is a vast amount of overlap and difference between each wood, each builder, and how they handle the woods. Like most everywhere here, we discuss in very broad generalities. You may wish to visit Elly Guitars and see for yourself their more graphical way of presenting this kind of material.
A click on each underlined wood takes you to a Sub-Page where photos are arranged alphabetically by wood.
Umthunzi - mimusops cappra
A coastal east African wood with an odd combination of density and elasticity, it is fine grained and easy to work, polishes well. May exhibit flame.
Urban Ironbark (see Eucalyptus)
Voambouna dalbergia sp See also Voamboana
Another Brazilian Rosewood substitute, this is in the Rosewood family and resembles Kingwood or Camatillo. Takes a fine polish and is both hard and heavy.
The heartwood is greyish yellow-brown to reddish brown or dark brown, often with darker stripes; it is distinctly demarcated from the sapwood. The grain is generally straight, texture fine and even; when fresh the wood has a sweetish smell. The wood is moderately heavy to heavy; it is moderately durable and resistant to termites. It air-dries satisfactorily but slowly; turned pieces used for precision equipment or musical instruments should be dried thoroughly to avoid distortion. Once dry, the wood is very stable in service. The wood works well, both with hand tools and machine tools; it finishes well, taking a beautiful polish;... the gluing properties are variable.... It is one of the favored woods for musical instruments, especially guitars, not only because of its beautiful color and venation, but also because of its clearness of tone." (Plants for a Future)
Vanuatu Blackwood Reunion Island Acacia Heterophylla
The wood is fine-grained with heartwood of pink-yellow to orange-brown tones and often display fiddleback figure. Unlike the more plentiful Koa, Vanuatu Blackwood guitars are rare.
It is a very hard wood, but machines well, and can be made very thin. Routing makes a very clean edge with no tearing. Finishing takes a lot of fine sanding and virtually no filling is needed if the sanding is taken down to about 1000 grit or better. The whole panel will shine and have wonderful tactile features long before any finish is applied. The grain and the rays at right angles glisten as for good koa or curly maple. The tone of Vanuatu Blackwood is similar to Australian Blackwood & Koa, with a woody, open tone somewhere between mahogany and rosewood.
The Janka of Vanuatu Blackwood is around 1200 and it has a specific gravity of 0.55.
Voamboana - Dalbergia baroni See also Voambouna.
"From just off the coast of Africa this rosewood has been used for backs and sides in the U.S. for only a few short years, but has been eagerly accepted by those who have tried it. Roy Noble, well known steel string maker, showed a fine guitar he'd made of this rosewood, and he claimed it was one of the best sounding
instruments he had ever built. Heavy and hard, in appearance and other ways it's like a cross between
Honduran rosewood and Brazilian rosewood. It often has the ink- black lines of Brazilian, but just as often has the typically homogeneous appearance and weight of Honduran rosewood (Dalbergia stevensonii). Sometimes sold as bois d' rose, which is a name used for a number of species, not necessarily Dalbergias, this is more commonly known locally as "voamboana". the only drawback to this material other than it's limited
availability, is that it's difficult to bend. Use extra soaking and extra heat, even if using the Fox bender."
"The other Dalbergia (possibly oliveri), from Southeast Asia is similar in appearance and texture, a little longer
grained for easier bending, with a salmon colored background ( which oxidizes to a few shades lighter than brick). Both rosewoods can be described as heavy and hard. In appearance and other ways, they are like a
cross between Honduran rosewood and Brazilian rosewood. We've had little experience with the Southeast Asian rosewood but it is said to bend easy, while the Dalbergia baroni is difficult to bend. neither are excessively oily, so gluing is not a problem. Both woods seem to machine fine"
(Above from older LMI Catalogs, thanks to Bill Kraus, who suspects this may be the same as Madagascar Roswood.)
Walnut Juglans regia/nigra Black Walnut. Claro Walnut H=3.5, M=3, B=4.1, S=3.8, O=3, T=4
Walnut is exactly the right color for a guitar. Even the plain stuff is pretty, and figured walnut is a favorite wood. You may find tints of red, gray or purple. It machines wonderfully, bends like a dream (except the unpredictable fiddleback samples), & is easy to find. Walnut is an excellent tonewood falling sonically between the warm dark sounds of East Indian Rosewood and the bright bell-like ring of Maple. Both Black Walnut and Claro Walnut are used, and many sets contain fantastic flamed figure, occasionally with strongly contrasting sap wood for a beautiful overall look. Walnut is also found in South America, Africa. The looks and characteristics of all of them vary somewhat.
It is hard to find an alternative to maple though tonally, many have had similar results with Californian (Claro) walnut.(Juglans California) Walnut is primarily dark gray in color and can also exhibit dramatic figuring. This rich brown colored wood offers a sound that falls somewhere between Indian Rosewood and Mahogany. It gives the woody sound of Mahogany, but also adds some of the bottom end of Rosewood. Less color to both bass and treble than mahogany. A little more pronounced mids but still with good depth and overtones. Has a spicy aroma.
Some are markedly less enthused about the tonal properties of most of the claro walnut instruments though they acknowledge that it's often quite visually attractive. I have found Black Walnut superior tonally and inferior in appearance - to draw a picture with a blunt pen. It works as easily or more so than any other wood used in building. Black walnut is similarly tonally balanced to koa, but is a bit sparser harmonically, "cleaner-sounding," with fewer harmonics. Black walnut also tends to be louder and more projective than koa, so that in combination with its simpler tonal profile makes it a fine choice for instruments used when playing with other instruments - it "cuts" well.
Black Walnut is softer and less dense than rosewood and mahogany but is still very resonant. This wood has proven itself as a tonewood with large manufacturers and custom builders alike. Similar in density and grain structure to Hawaiian Koa. Black Walnut yields excellent balance with tonal characteristics that fall between Mahogany and Rosewood. The trebles have a unique earthy tone which records very distinctively. Often recommended for a flatpicked sound and mellow fingerstyle playing. With its rich brown color and occasional steaks. Black Walnut has a stripy appearance somewhat like Indian Rosewood.
The sapwood of black walnut is nearly white, while the heartwood is light brown to dark, chocolate brown, often with a purplish cast and darker streaks. The wood is heavy, hard, and stiff and has high shock resistance. Black walnut is straight grained and easily worked with hand tools and by machine. It finishes beautifully and holds paint and stain exceptionally well. It also glues and polishes well.
Walnut Is dark brown in color with a lot of figure and flame. An all-walnut guitar provides rich and warm bass with plenty of crispness on the mid and treble side. Walnut offers high value for money, with the beauty and visual impact of an all Koa guitar, but at a much lower price. Walnut Is a dark brown, highly figured specialty wood which is grown in a wide variety of locations. It provides the bright woodiness of mahogany when played lightly and much of the power of rosewood when you dig in. When properly braced, a walnut backed guitar can have a unique warmth and tonal depth.
Wade Hampton Miller: “My comparison of the sound of claro with the sound of cherry is probably the most accurate in terms of getting an idea of the sound. If you've played any Martin Smartwood guitars with cherry backs and sides, you should have an idea of the sort of sound I'm struggling to express.
Cherry is sort of "transparent" sounding, in a way, and doesn't impart a lot of its own tone colors to the sound of the guitar. Claro imparts a bit more, but not to the same extent as black walnut. There's a little bit of that "walnut snap" to the sound, but not as much as there tends to be with black walnut.
I came to this realization after playing as many walnut guitars as I could my hands on, and really liking some but finding some of the most flamboyant-LOOKING ones to be the less musically appealing. I was talking about this with luthier Roy McAlister one day, expressing puzzlement, and he told me: ‘Well, it's the black walnut guitars that appeal to your ear, but the claro walnut guitars that appeal to your eye.’ And he explained to me that claro walnut tends to grow in milder climates while black walnut grows in places with harsher winters, which is what he attributed the tonal differences to. Claro grows faster than black walnut, he said, and thus generally isn't as dense. Roy told me that when he gets orders for claro walnut guitars, he tries to get claro cut in Oregon rather than California, because the winters are colder there and he's had better musical luck with it.”
COLOR: Heartwood ranges from a deep, rich dark brown to a purplish black. Sapwood is nearly white to tan. Difference between heartwood and sapwood color is great.
GRAIN: Mostly straight and open, but some boards have burled or curly grain. Arrangement of pores is similar to hickories and persimmon, but pores are smaller in size.
VARIATIONS WITHIN SPECIES AND GRADES: Great variety of color and figure within species, as well as variation in color among boards, especially in lower grades and from material that isn’t steamed prior to kiln-drying.
HARDNESS (JANKA): 1010
DIMENSIONAL STABILITY: Excellent (change coefficient .00274).
DURABILITY: Moderately dense, very strong, good shock resistance. Not as dent-resistant as oak.
SAWING/MACHINING: Easily worked with hand tools, and has excellent machining qualities.
SANDING: Sands satisfactorily. Fair resistance to splitting.
FINISHING: Finishes nicely, with a handsome grain pattern.
Wandoo (White Gum) eucalyptus alba
With gold to reddish heartwood, Wandoo is very dense and hard to dry without checking or having split ends (sounds like I am talking about women's hair now).
Wenge Millettia laurentii (Kingwood) H=3.9, M=2.6, B=4, S=4.1, O=3, T=4.2
Wenge (2 sylables) is cut from large straight trees growing in central and west Africa. The grain of the Wenge sets is tight and straight across the entire width of backs and sides. The color is chocolate-brown/near black, very similar to Ebony, with evenly spaced black veins, it can look similar to African blackwood, though is lighter-weight. Dark brown to black with fine and straight black veining. It has always looked dull and unimpressive to me in photos, but many folks who have seen it in person really like the looks. This wood is coarse, quite heavy, heavier than either Indian or Brazilian Rosewood and is stiffer. Oily and quite splintery, and some of it splits easily, but it all bends very well. Coarse in texture, it does not work well when trying to use it as a laminate. It has bending and shock-resistant properties similar to ash and hickory. Hard and heavy. Expect to fill pores; they may be huge. Works well on necks, fingerboards and bridges, too. With quite thin plates, the sound is similar to Indian Rosewood but with the projection of Brazilian, it cuts through, is lively & responsive, and sustains well. Low damping, resonant, with a fine ring to it. Well-defined bass and superb trebles with kids that shine. Very good separation of voice.
COLOR: Heartwood is yellow-brown when freshly cut, turning dark brown to almost black with alternate layers of light and dark. Sapwood is yellowish-white and clearly demarcated from heartwood. This is a wood which looks more interesting only when seen up very close. At a distance it appears uniform brown.
GRAIN: Straight when quartersawn; coarse texture.
VARIATIONS WITHIN SPECIES AND GRADES: Moderate variations in color.
DIMENSIONAL STABILITY: Excellent (change coefficient .00201). However, there could be significant movement in use.
DURABILITY: Average.
BENDS: like a dream
SAWING AND MACHINING: Difficult due to rapid dulling of tools; carbide tooling recommended. Splinters easily, and splinters may go septic
SANDING: Sands satisfactorily.
FINISHING: Some solvent-based stains do not dry well.
COMMENTS: Dermatological and respiratory allergic potential.
Janka: 1630 Specific gravity of 0.65-0.78.
Quoting Ervin Somagyi - "Wenge’s vitreousness is a function of the wood being brittle on the cellular-structure level. It’s that very brittleness that makes the vibrational action and the sound that it produces possible. With that, the brittleness that is a plus for sound has a mechanical downside, in that the wood cracks easily if it’s mishandled (just like glass), and gives one splinters if one is careless with it. It can also take more patience to bend, because brittle woods simply don’t want to bend easily.
However, it’s this very potential for cracking that puts wenge in the same category as the aforementioned most-prized of traditional guitar-making woods. As lovely, alluring, and live that Brazilian rosewood is, it has also earned a reputation for being subject to cracking. Sound versus fragility: It’s a tradeoff for which there are few solutions, so long as one wishes to use that material. The solutions involve either overbuilding to minimize fragility (which comes at the expense of tonal response), or mindful treatment and care in the making, in the handling, and in the using (which may give you structural fragility, but much more sound)."
*Western Larch USA, Larix occidentalis
Has clearly marked annual rings and a fine uniform texture. Being harder and stronger than most conifers including spruce, it is an appropriate choice for scalloped braced models providing a projective and crisp response. I would assume it is used mostly for solid-bodied guitars or as a top wood. The eastern version is called Tamarack and is a softwood that turns bright good and then looses its needles in the late Fall.
*Western Red Cedar Western North America Thuja Plicata
Western Red Cedar has traditionally been used on classical and flamenco guitars. In recent years, flattop builders have been incorporating the wood with much success on steel-stringed instruments. The tone WRC produces tends to be a bit warmer with less sparkle. Some have described the tone as “intimate.” It is enjoyable to work with this wood and it builds very good finger-style guitars.
Cedar is less dense than spruce, and that softness typically translates into a sense of sonic warmth. If Sitka has a full dynamic range, cedar makes quieter tones louder, but it also imposes more of a ceiling on high volume levels driven by an aggressive attack. If one tries to drive a cedar top hard, at a certain point it will reach a volume limit. Typically, players with a lighter touch sound wonderful on a cedar-top guitar, fingerstyle players especially — that lighter touch will be amplified a little more, and one’s attack never reaches the ceiling. Flatpickers are likely to hit the ceiling fast, and might be frustrated by an inability to get the tonal output to match their attack. Goes well with fingerstylists, players with a lighter touch, mahogany and rosewood Grand Auditorium bodies.
Western red cedar is by far the most popular cedar used in soundboards. It is common to classical guitars and is used in a strong minority of steel-strings. It has a nice red-tan color that ranges from light chocolate or honey brown to cinnamon or beige. It has a quickness of sound that exceeds any of the spruces, a higher overtone content, lower fundamental content, and lower stiffness along the grain. Additionally, cedar tops require a significantly shorter break-in period than spruce tops, a phenomenon that a few dealers of new guitars are beginning to pick up on. 'Openness' is a particularly interesting characteristic. Spruce-topped guitars can sound "tight" at first and may take some time to "open up". Normally a spruce-topped guitar needs to be played-in for a period of time (months, even years) before it’s sound is fully realized.
Since World War II, cedar has been used extensively by makers of classical guitars. Cedar-topped guitars are characteristically lush, dark-toned, and bursting with flavor. They are often less powerful in projection than their spruce cousins, however, and they tend to lose clarity near the top of their dynamic range. Having enough bottom end is never a problem for a cedar guitar, although preventing the sound from getting muddy sometimes is. Because of its pronounced weakness along the grain, it is used to its best advantage in smaller-bodied guitars or with non-scalloped braces. Redwood is usually darker in color than cedar and often displays the same general tonal characteristics, leaning slightly toward darker tones, less definition in the bass, and lower velocity of sound.
Western Red Cedar (USA, particularly the Pacific Northwest) has long been utilized for classical guitars for its vibrance and clarity of sound. Extremely light in weight compared to spruce, it generally provides a slightly louder, more open response. Balanced, warm and rich with bright trebles. Its main characteristic is that it sounds broken-in, even when new. Exceptional sound for light to very firm techniques. From light to very dark reddish-brown in color.
Western Sheoak Casuarina fraserana
The timber is a deep red color with an even and fine grain. It exhibits a large medullary ray figure which can be very attractive. Jack Spira says: ”The W A sheoak on the other hand seems a perfect density, is easy to work and bends well. I have found a marked difference in sound between the well quarter sawn backs, which have the broad medullarys going right across. “ The tone is much like a vintage mahogany with very open overtones. Jack Spira again: “ Guitars with well quartered sheoak backs have a lot of volume and projection, quite bright, but not as many overtones as blackwood I think, so a more woody, less metallic brightness. The guitars with Sheoak backs sawn on the rift, or the beautiful lace figured ones with grain going everywhere seem to make quieter, more polite sounding instruments.“
Color range is golden orange to red-orange to nearly burgundy. Not as heavy and hard as oak (the English settlers declared it weaker than English oak but similar so "She-oak"). Used in furniture and flooring (and in the past, beer barrels). Sheoak grows primarily in a small area on the south coast of Southwest Western Australia. Trees with a "lace" appearance are very rare- about 1 in 100 trees. Bird's eye lace is extremely rare- less than 25 small pieces came to the US in the last three years.
Western Sheoak has a Janka rating of around 1900 and a Specific Gravity around 0.8., 46lb/ft3
White Oak Quercus alba H=3.7, M=3.5, b=4, S=3.6, O=1.2, T=4
One of the most common North American hardwoods, it has a light to medium brown heartwood, sometimes with an olive cast. Coarse uneven texture, straight grain, which exhibits striking medullary rays when quartersawn. It is stable and works easily. Brighter than mahogany yet lacks rosewood's sharper overtones, loud and clear trebles , warm bass. It deserves to be used more often.
*White Pine Pinus sp.
No kidding. It's cheap and always around. Used with success in solid-bodied guitars, the complaint has not been with the sound, but from the fact that it is soft and mars easily. Bob Benedetto made his fabled knotty pine archtop that sounds just like his other guitars. It is the least resinous pine, straight-grained and uniform textured. Creamy white sapwood, and ages toward an amber. Easily machined, glues well, and has structural integrity. Weak but stable. Presence of sap may be a concern.
"The Spanish and Portuguese builders in the past often used Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L) and many of the Portuguese still do for their "folk" instruments like the Viola Beiroa. I find it a lot like Carpathian Spruce or Adirondack Spruce in looks but with more pronounced and often wider growth rings, about the same weight to stiffness, a mellower tone although more glassy than most of the Spruce varieties. Pitch pockets often plague those building with pine but the Scots pine seems to be significantly less prone to these." (Scott Tremblay)
" It is more resinous than spruce, which can lead to an abnormally long break in period. Pine is stiffer across the grain than spruce of the same density, but less stiff along the grain. This can be compared to a hardwood top, although somewhere in-between in sound... Pine varies tremendously in density and hardness, with sugar pine and white pine on the soft end, and yellow pine at the other extreme....Although the density is essentially the same as Sitka spruce, I found that the stiffness is less along the grain. It also tends to be very stiff across the grain, making it respond more like a hardwood top. Not necessarily bad, just different.
Pines are very resinous, so all the associated problems apply. Baking the tops or aging them for a long time will reduce the damping from the resins. Besides the resin, another possible reason pine is not as desirable for a top is the strength along the grain. At similar density, pine is not as strong as spruce, and is more likely to break across the grain when subjected to impact." (John Arnold)
Yellow Heart Euxylophora Paraensis, Pau Amarello
Yellow Heart is bright yellow in color throughout the wood. Darkens some upon exposure to air. Very consistent color and little difference between sapwood and heartwood. Fine straight grain and uniform. The dust can cause allergies. Mild unpleasant odor while working. Tiny pores. Finishes and works easily with a fine sheen. Watch for tear out when planning or twisting when in storage. Figured wood is more difficult to plane. Weight varies from about 45lbs to 48lbs per cu. ft. A relatively hard wood that has a tap tone very similar to bloodwood. It rings like a bell with great sustain. Sets can exhibit a chatoyance (shimmer) when moved or tilted.
56lb/ft3, specific gravity 0.70. Janka rating 1790.
*Yellow Cedar Callitropsis nootkatensis (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis is an older name, less accepted now), Canadian Cypress
Very stable and immune to cracks. Actually Alaskan Yellow Cedar is a cypress. Can be used with flatpick or in classical guitars (more common). Very clear and articulate, great sustain. Very aromatic. Fine and even texture with close grain and cross silking.
LMI: “It is one of the most stable of woods in terms of dimensional change due to moisture content change and so is more immune to cracking than any of the other soundboard woods (with the exception being Port Orford Cedar - another Cypress-like tonewood). Tonally, the wood is especially well suited for flatpicking steel string guitars when a strong tone with a bright attack is desired (its specific gravity is close to Sitka and Adirondack Spruces). Some classical and flamenco guitar builders report that it imbues the instrument with a chimey, clear, articulate tone with great sustain.” Usually used for tops, but can also be used for back and sides. Denser than Red cedar and it's specific gravity is close to Sitka Spruce.
Yew Taxus baccata H=3.7, M=3.5, B=3, S=3.8.. OP=3, T=2.8
European Yew has a narrow, white sapwood which is sharply demarcated from the orange-brown heartwood. It takes an excellent finish, but is prone to tearing especially in cross-grained material. It can be stable and durable although the sapwood is susceptible to woodworm attack and many newer trees have spiraled trunks creating problems especially when bending sides.
As a tonewood, Yew has been only infrequently used and predominantly by the UK luthiers. It is modestly difficult to work with, although care needs to be taken when bending the sides. UK based luthier Adrian Lucas says “the color ranges from pale brown to purple in the heartwood and a creamy white in the sapwood. The grain patterns are quite striking as this is a softwood, being evergreen, although it has a density higher than many hardwoods. It grows in quite a twisted fashion and has a lot of knots and cracks. This makes it difficult to plane without tearing, so it’s best scraped and sanded. It’s also quite difficult to find in large sizes that are free of large knots and cracks, so I tend to make multi-piece backs using only the clear wood.”
It is excellent tonally with a maple like clarity, tight bass, but with very sweet, intimate and appealing overtones. Adrian Lucas finds it “imparts a woody, springy quality to the tone of a guitar.” It tends to be brighter. The yew tree provides a wood with a pretty high density for a coniferous wood. Therefore it has been traditionally used for lute backs. Yew trees grow very slow and may become extremely old. The species was fairly common some Centuries ago, but then was decimated strongly. Today, yew is very seldom seen and is therefore protected. It has a red-brown color with fine annular rings. The splint-zone is almost white, which is often used for a light - dark effect on lute backs.
It has a Janka rating of approximately 1,600 lbs-force and a specific gravity of 670kg/m3.
Zapatero Hieronima Alchorneoides
Another wood found in Panama, Zapatero can be very beautiful. Red-brown in color with a texture between walnut and mahogany, through it is more porous and harder than either of these. Polishes well. It can be used for necks, fingerboards, and bridges as well as back and sides. Has an excellent tap tone. Bends well, but keep it moist. Sand and polishes well too.
Zebrawood Microberlina Brazzavillensis H=3, M=3.5, B=3.2, S=2.5, O=2.8, T=2.3
The smell of zebrawood could nauseate you, or through experience, you may come to enjoy it. Most of the lumber is well quartered in order to bring out the best figure and color, dark brown stripes on a straw background. Zebrawood is a more boldly colored alternative to Indian Rosewood. With about the same density, workability and resonance as Indian Rosewood, it is evenly striped overall with small alternating bands of gold-tan and dark brown. Similar workability as Indian Rosewood. Similar to Tasmanian Blackwood and Mahogany although brighter in tone. It is harder to work with than Indian. Reported very hard to thickness. Does not like sanding, planing, or scraping, though scraping is best. Unpleasant odor while working it. Easy to gouge out and make deep holes when planing. The soft part is very soft(relatively) and the grain is very hard. It has splinters like sabers, and twice as sharp.”
This wood is very similar to Indian Rosewood and Wenge. Not very expensive. Well quartered sets in Steel String & Classical are available. To some degree, this wood has the appearance of East Indian Rosewood as well as similar tap tone & working properties. One of the most appealing features of Zebra is the exotic appearance of the colorful grain. Black & golden lines make this an appealing choice for backs & sides.
Well defined basses and trebles, good volume and excellent distribution of voices, similar to maple but with less resonance but some dark overtones. But mostly, the guitar is stunning to look at. Order one with lattice bracing to enhance the sound and bring out the best tonal qualities of the wood, warm, rich tones with ample power behind them. Zebrawood double tops make for terrific guitars at very reasonable prices. You will find yourself looking at the instrument for hours at a time such is the beauty of the grain and patterns created by these.
Zebrawood has a Janka rating of 1575 and a Specific Gravity around 0.74, 46lb/ft3
Ziricote Mexico and Belize Cordia dodecandra H=4.1, M=3.6, B=4.1, S=4.1, O=3.8, T=4.1
This wood is sometimes called Mexican Ebony, though it's not really black and it's not an ebony. The pretty pieces are a dark gray or brown with black streaks, and the really pretty pieces will knock your socks off. Famous for what is called "spider-webbing". A favorite for fingerstyle. It is said to be comparable to ebony when worked and can be brittle though otherwise, it works well .
Tim McKnight is a real fan saying: “Personally I find Ziricote to be one of the most visually appealing woods on the planet. It has wonderful colors that intertwine vivid black ink lines with grays, golds, browns, olives and rust colors. It is one of my most favorite woods to build with. I find the wood has a more rosewood-ish tone, although it is not a member of the Dalbergia family. It has excellent low dampening qualities similar to most rosewoods with a clean resonant reverbery characteristic. Zirciote pairs well with almost any top to bring a wide tonal variety to the builder’s pallet. The tone of Ziricote as falls between Indian Rosewood and Macassar Ebony- it has more clarity than Indian but provides more overtones than Macassar.
This wood has a reputation for more tangential movement and can therefore be at risk for cracking if certain conditions are not adhered to. If the builder seasons the wood well and builds when the wood is between 6% – 8% MC in a controlled humidity environment then delivers it to a customer who can [accurately] maintain a 40% – 55% RH range in their home then it has not been found to any more unstable than other woods. However, if the builder rushes the build or can’t accurately control his shop’s humidity or the end user can not accurately control their humidity, then perhaps another tone-wood should be considered.”
Heavier than most Rosewoods, it works somewhat like Ebony, and tends to be brittle, but what is lacks in workability it more than makes up for in tonality. It is used by Goodall Guitars and Breedlove Guitars for some of their finest models and has been used by a number of discriminating classical and steel string builders such as Mark Blanchard, Michael Bashkin and Gerald Sheppard. The special grade sets feature strong black line figure.
From Mexico, Ziricote is most striking in appearance, much like Brazilian Rosewood with "spider-webbing" but in shades of grays and olive greens with black rather than reds with black. Always visually stunning. It is heavier than most rosewoods but both its tonal and aesthetic qualities are great. It's tone is comparable to Brazilian Rosewood in that it has rich bass with a deep boomy sound,prominent sustain & projection with sparkling highs.
The janka of Ziricote is around 1750 and it has a specific gravity of 0.85.