The best acoustic guitar top is...
Great topic. What experience I've had with different tonewoods and what research I've done, including a tour of the Taylor factory where I got to see the different woods in their rough form and how they are transformed into very thin & well braced tops and sides & backs has been well covered in the posts. I think the "Top" woods are the most important for getting different sounds, sustain and volume. The mixing of the Top woods (mostly spruce and some cedar) with Rosewood, Mahagony, Maple and other woods for the sides and backs is where the variety of sound really comes from. As has been mentioned, time and playing so the tonewood open up can vary quite a bit. In other words the sound of a new guitar may improve as the tonewood opens up with time and playing. My personal favorite Top wood are Red Spruce or sometimes called Adarandock. Martin used this for their tops almost exclusively until the Red Spruce was logged out in the 60's. They had to switch to a more common Sitka spruce which is used on "most" solid wood acoustic guitars. Also Engelmann Spruce is used on many top end acoustics. During my Taylor tour I asked how they grade their woods. Answer was they have their own method, as Tovo mentioned usually based on the closeness of the grain. Most spruce tops are graded A or AA the best quality is AAA or Masters quality. This is usually not advertised on production guitars. If you have a custom made guitar you can ask for & will usually get the higher grade of wood. What wood are used to brace the top is also important, if you can buy a solid AAA Red Spruce top with red spruce bracing that would be the top quality and performance to my ear. If I could order a custom made guitar say from Martin, I would get it w/ AAA Red Spruce top & braced w/ Red Spruce and I would have the sides and back from AAA Flamed or Curly Maple With a Mahogany neck and Madagascar Indian Rosewood Fretboard and Bridge. Indian or Madagascar Rosewood also make great sides and backs. Gary
Wadestar - it has been useful and I think the answer is 'it depends'... it depends on how you play, the volume you want, the tone you're looking for and the sound that most appeals to your ears. Look and other things come into it too.
thanks
Michele
thanks
Michele
The real answer is there isn't a best top.
I'll say it again, the guitar is the sum of it's parts and the player.
I've got the following tops on my guitars:
Mahogany
Western Red Cedar
Sitka Spruce
Adirondack Spruce
European Spruce
Redwood
Graphite/Composite
The best top is the one on the guitar that sounds best to you. Trust your ears. Each of the tops mentioned above were the perfect fit for each guitar, otherwise I wouldn't bother owning it. If the guitar that has the cedar top magically had it replaced with spruce, who knows if I'd still like it? It wouldn't have the sound I liked when I bought it. Conversely if the Spruce was replaced by Cedar, the same thing holds true. That guitar might suddenly go from being special to sucking wind....who knows.
Nobody in the audience has the benefit of doing an A/B comparison as you are playing. They only know the magic is in your fingers.
I'll say it again, the guitar is the sum of it's parts and the player.
I've got the following tops on my guitars:
Mahogany
Western Red Cedar
Sitka Spruce
Adirondack Spruce
European Spruce
Redwood
Graphite/Composite
The best top is the one on the guitar that sounds best to you. Trust your ears. Each of the tops mentioned above were the perfect fit for each guitar, otherwise I wouldn't bother owning it. If the guitar that has the cedar top magically had it replaced with spruce, who knows if I'd still like it? It wouldn't have the sound I liked when I bought it. Conversely if the Spruce was replaced by Cedar, the same thing holds true. That guitar might suddenly go from being special to sucking wind....who knows.
Nobody in the audience has the benefit of doing an A/B comparison as you are playing. They only know the magic is in your fingers.
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fascinating thread - thanks all
As wandoctor sort of says beauty and sound is in the eye of the beerholder. We all have our preferences and this is in keeping with musical taste and direction. I own a laminate top guitar which actually sounds really good for some tunes I play, but not for others. I doubt whether the uninitiated could tell the difference.
You hear what you hear and you like what you like, if others hear what you hear and like what you like then thats cool and a bonus, if not tell em to listen to someone else lol
You hear what you hear and you like what you like, if others hear what you hear and like what you like then thats cool and a bonus, if not tell em to listen to someone else lol