1. Tone Woods and the Guitar Andy Shaffer

2. Main Parts of the Guitar Neck Fretboard Body

3. Common Neck Woods Maple Uniform grain Strong and stable Doesn’t react as much to heat and humidity Not much impact on tone Mahogany Denser than Maple Open pores in the wood Tends to remove or even out the higher frequencies

4. Common Neck Woods Koa Middle ground between Maple and Mahogany A little extra high frequency Rosewood Dense and oily Porous Increases sustain Removes higher frequencies and emphasizes the fundamental frequency

5. Common Fretboard Woods Maple Tends to reflect higher frequencies Encourages the higher overtones, while filtering away bass frequencies Easy to play harmonics and vary the picking attack Rosewood Emphasizes the fundamental frequency The porous wood absorbs much of the overtone sound Most common fretboard wood

6. Common Fretboard Woods Ebony Dense like Maple, but more porous, like Rosewood Strong fundamental tone Very long sustain

7. Common Body Woods Basswood Soft wood with tight grains Highs are tapered off, as are extreme low frequencies Strong fundamental tone Alder Similar in structure to basswood, but with harder rings in the wood Increases volume of highs and lows

8. Common Body Woods Mahogany Open grain with large pores Constant rigidity throughout, and very dense Improved lows and low mid frequencies Higher notes are richer and thicker Good balance of fundamentals and over tones Described as a “wall of sound” Hard Maple Tight pores Strong upper midrange and high frequencies Tapered off lows

9. Examples Mahogany body and neck, Rosewood fretboard http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en7EKL1pX5w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en7EKL1pX5w Alder body, Maple neck, Rosewood fretboard http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bxiH8G0XIE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bxiH8G0XIE Alder body, Maple neck and fretboard http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayt9hCVjiiM&feat ure=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayt9hCVjiiM&feat ure=related