tone bar wood

[rwh4]

On my Stew-mac A5 kit one piece of tone bar wood has close grain and the other has wide grain.Is this on purpose or co-incidence.If on purpose, should I use the close grain on the treble and wide grain on the bass?
Does anyone do this and can you tell any improvement in the sound of the finished instrument?

[Bluemando]

The A5 kit I am working on had the same thing. I installed mine just the way you said. I'm still about a week or so from stringing up in the white, so we will see if its correct.......

[mandoryan]

I make my tone bars with the wide grain going on the bass side and the tight grain going on the treble. I have a noticed a great tonal balance from doing this, but it could also be from the wood, graduations, finish thickness, nut, etc. meaning who knows if it makes a lot of difference but in theory it makes sense, because the bass side has more flexibilty and deflection from the wide grained stuff, and the treble is a bit stiffer, resulting in exagerating (possibly) the wanted tones from either side. Go with it. It's fun and you'll have a blast learning what makes it sound like such.... have fun.. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Michael Lewis]

You might want to test for stiffness rather than grain line count.

[Spruce]

"You might want to test for stiffness rather than grain line count."

And if stiffness is your goal, you might want to find some Red Spruce.....

[rwh4]

Thanks for the replys.I will try all your suggestions and see how it turns out.
Richard