tone woods

[MacTheBard]

so ive been planing on building my own mando, but i dont know what woods are best. maple and spruce are the most common. what of other woods like alder, popplar, mohagony???

[MacTheBard]

to be more spasific as to what type of mando i plan to build. it will be a a- style flat top. if that at all helps in getting the best recomadations.

[Greenmando]

Take a look at the Flatiron 1N (http://www.mandolincafe.net/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=13;t=15802) thread. The Flatiron 1N, 1K and 2K are just some of many flat mandolins with many combos of wood.

I like a Koa back with cedar or redwood as face wood.

[Bill Snyder]

The maple/spruce combo is definately the most common combination with arched top f hole instruments. It is common for flat tops to be made from several different back and side woods, but spruce is still the most common top wood.
Side and back woods that would be fairly common on the flat tops would be mahogony, walnut, cherry, rosewood and maple. Back and sides are almost always hardwoods.
Top woods are almost always a softwood (conifer) such as spruce, cedar, redwood, douglas fir.
To get a feel for a good combination check out some of the flat top builders websites and see what they are doing. Brian Dean builds quite a few flat tops and so does Chris Baird (Arches Mandolins). Maybe they will chime in and give their opinions and what properties influence their choices.

[MacTheBard]

right-on thanks for the input.
but im still having some diffulty finding any info on the tonal qualitys of many of the tonewoods. wich ones have deep, mellow or bright tones

thanks again

[Chris Baird]

My Materials Page. (http://www.archesmusic.com/materials.htm)

[Michael Lewis]

The tonal qualities of your wood won't make as much difference as how well you carve and fit all the parts. Your work will make more difference than your wood.