building materials

[catsh16]

what is the difference between a mandolins made with a spruce top and maple sides and back, and ones made with other woods?? do these particular woods hold up better, resist warping, look bettter, or sound better? can anyone explain why most instruments are made with spruce and maple?

[sunburst]

The Spruce and maple tradition goes back centuries in the violin family. Orville Gibson was emulating that tradition when he "designed" the carved top plectral instruments.
He actually used Walnut and Birch and I think Cherry in his early instruments, but the Gibson company eventually sort of settled on maple, and that is the model for most carved top and back mandolins today. Other woods do get used tho.

Spruce is used for tops because of it's excellent stiffness to weight ratio which makes it possible to make thin, responsive tops and still have the strength required to withstand string tension for years. Other woods are good also and are used for tops too.

The tradition for flat top mandolins is not quite so exclusive, and probably most flat back mandolins are made with Rosewood and Mahogany.

[peter.coombe]

"do these particular woods hold up better"
Some do, some don't

"resist warping"
Soem do, some don't. Maple is not the most stable of woods, so it is not too difficult to find other species that are more stable - e.g from my own country, Queensland Maple, Tasmanian Myrtle, air dried Blackwood.

"look bettter"
This is largely a matter of personal taste, and luck in finding exceptional pieces. No doubt there are many other woods that can look spectacular. Many other woods have beautiful natural colours, an area that is somewhat lacking in Maple.

"sound better"
Again, a matter of personal taste. Other woods will sound different, but it is a matter of opinion whether they sound better or not. Some people have the strong opinion that nothing can beat the Spruce Maple combination which of course is the traditional combination. Western musical instruments evolved in Europe where there is not a lot of choices in woods, so there has been centuries of development into how to make musical instruments from a somewhat limited range of timbers. Other areas of the world have a vast array of timber choices, most of which have had a very limited history of use in western musical instruments. There are hundreds of different Aussie native species, of which probably only a dozen or so have been used in musical instruments. Some can sound stunningly good in the right hands. I say right hands because the properties of the woods are different and this needs to be taken into account or else the results will, quite predictably, be less than satisfactory. In my humble opinion, I do think that Tasmanian Myrtle in my hands does indeed sound better than any Maple. I believe it to be one of the great tonewoods of the world, undiscovered and unappreciated by all but a small number of Australian luthiers. I am trying to change that, the results are there for anyone to hear, but I can only make around 10 mandolins in a year.

After having said that, there is the marketing reality. Spruce and Maple mandolins sell, and that is probably the main reason why the vast majority are made from Spruce and Maple. I still make some Spruce/Maple mandolins, and they usually are easier to sell even though they usually don't sound as good as my Myrtle mandolins. When I have identical Maple and Myrtle mandolins to display, the better players almost invariably prefer the Myrtle instrument. There is always the odd die hard of course who refuses to accept that anything can sound better than Maple. The same diehard probably also won't accept that A's can sound just as good or better than F's!

[Mando Dan]

Every wood gives a different sound in a mandolin. Of course, the carving is more important than the wood. The top is more important than the back I would think. Although you do need a hard wood for the back. I believe that Maple is used for more appearance purposes. My favorites are Walnut and Cherry as far as looks go.

[Lee]

You can take what Peter Coombe said to the bank. I had the extreme good fortune to play one of his A5's. This one had a spruce top (I think) and Australian myrtle back and sides. The grain of the wood was very beautiful and the tone was jaw-dropping astounding; the pop and power of a bluegrass mando but with a sensual sweetness and musical singing quality that's rarely achieved.

[Big Joe]

We in the bluegrass community are most accustomed to the maple/spruce tone and that is what is most desired. Even in most other genres that combination is most desired. While each wood sounds different, that does not mean bad or worse. My personal favorite is maple/spruce, but I've heard and played many other combinations and have enjoyed them, though they may not be my favorite.

Last year we built a Cherry/red spruce master model which went to First Quality. It was a one of a kind. The tone was characteristically Master Model Varnish tone but it was different. Not the same a maple. Some may like it better, others not so much. The bass response was less, but the mids and highs were very bell like. Hard to describe. It made a drop dead beautiful mandolin. Not one I would play regularly, but still wonderful. The same for some of the old martins with rosewood and mahogany. They did not have the punch or cut of an F style mandolin with maple, but they were still quite interesting.

The standard is likely to be Maple/Spruce for a long time, but I think the community is ready to investigate other combinations to satisfy their ongoing curiosity.

[krishna]

One of my students ,about three weeks ago asked the same question of me. I gave them a breif answer covering some of what was said on this whole thread,and it sounds like I got it right. Mr.Coomes,I sure would like to play one of yor mandos....