Re: Wood Anatomy
I have always held a fascination with wood. Not just for instruments, but certainly a great part for instruments. While at Gibson I was sent to the “Wood University” at Gibson. Fortunately it was held in Nashville where I lived. I found the course to be very interesting and a wealth of knowledge from the experiences of over 100 years of instrument making. I am getting old and do not remember much of it anymore, but I still find it fascinating. I know Gibson had or may have a wood expert on staff that helps choose which woods to use for what instrument and which tones. By taking the woods, adhesives, finish material, dimensions of each part and the moisture level inside the wood to be very important in getting a certain model instrument to have a repeatable outcome in the models being built. Yes, there are some tonal differences from instrument to instrument, but it is a fairly small difference if each instrument in that model. By careful selection of woods and making each instrument in a model have the same dimensions and same body cavity, you can achieve a fairly consistent tone. It’s the same in mandolins and acoustic guitars and electric guitars. We had some very cool machines to get the interior of the board to a certain humidity level where air curing is not as efficient and takes much longer. That produced more consistent woods to build with. On our varnish mandolins we used uv light to cure the finish and the woods in our high end mandolins. Certainly every person has a different set of expectations sonically when choosing an instrument and for those with less experience playing an instrument, they may not hear it the same as one with more experienced ears. There are J45 players who feel that is the finest sounding guitar ever made. There are others who feel that way about a D28. Bob Taylor built a guitar from the wood in a shipping pallet, and it seemed to surprise a lot of people that it could sound as good as it did. It even sounded like a Taylor I am told. One of the more enjoyable things working with Charlie Derrinton was the amount of experimenting we did. I have far surpassed any scientific knowledge I may have, but I am enjoying this thread. Have a blessed day and enjoy this thread!
Have a Great Day!
Joe Vest
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