View Full Version : Cool article on alternative tonewoods
Mandoviol
Apr-10-2012, 6:10pm
Saw this one in Strings. They're speaking more in reference to fiddles, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of these woods would work well for mandolins (imagine a wenge mandolin!).
http://allthingsstrings.com/Instruments/MORE2/Beyond-Spruce-Maple
Paul Hostetter
Apr-11-2012, 6:06pm
That was a good article. There are numerous odd woods, such as koa, mahogany, and birch, that have been used for topwoods for so long people don't even see them as odd any more. Wenge fits right in.
David Houchens
Apr-12-2012, 7:13am
I have a board of wenge I've had for at least 4 years. I had a parlor guitar in mind for it but ....... who knows.
Big Joe
Apr-12-2012, 7:15am
Wenge is a very open grain wood that can be a bit more difficult to work and even out flat, but it is a good wood. Walnut is an excellent choice as well. We use that a lot in building guitars and basses. Excellent soundwood.
Audio Artillery
Apr-12-2012, 10:56am
I included a some wenge highlights in my last build but can't imagine having the garage filled w/ wenge dust after carving a top with a router.
I'm surprised wenge bends well enough to make sides. The grain in the samples I have swirls around so much I can imagine it just exploding in random places when bent.
Leroy
Apr-12-2012, 12:13pm
Wenge bends just fine. I built a 24" scale nylon stringed Tenor Guitar recently using wenge for the body. Probably not the best choice for a flat topped sound board.
More pictures (http://www.leroybeal.net/guitars/acoustic/2pttenor/index.html)
84935
84936
The traditional woods are going away. Best to start looking elsewhere.
draino
Apr-12-2012, 1:12pm
The traditional woods are going away. Best to start looking elsewhere.
Considering Wenge's status on the engangered species list, seems its not necessarily the best place replacement.
Paul Hostetter
Apr-12-2012, 1:44pm
I just checked and came upon http://www.guitarbench.com/category/tonewood-database/ where it's said that it's endangered. Unfortunately the whole site is put together by a guy who enjoys a rather remarkable freedom from fact. For example, he asserts that "Wenge is found in swampy areas in East Africa namely Cameroon and the Congo." He even rephrases this and says it again. Both countries are in West Africa. Anyway, I kept looking until I found more solid information (http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/33219/0) and it is in trouble, but so is much else in that part of Africa.
Considering Wenge's status on the engangered species list, seems its not necessarily the best place replacement.
I wasn't suggesting wenge as the replacement wood for the more traditional materials.
Mandoviol
Apr-12-2012, 9:47pm
Shame that wenge is on the endangered list--it's such a pretty wood! But these different tonewoods do pose interesting questions, such as the use of balsa in instruments. I'd be afraid a balsa mandolin or fiddle would explode, but apparently, that's not a fear here.