On 17.01.2015 20:54, Herbert Ward wrote: > Do lutes and guitars compete directly for tone > wood supplies? > > In other words, do lute builders and guitar > builders use the same criteria in selecting > spruce lumber for soundboards? > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
There seems to be a lot of confusion about what tonewood is supposed to be. Some use the term only for wood that is especially suited to be used as soundboard, others use it for any wood that can be used to build a good instrument. I've looked up some properties of soundboard woods in a book and found that there seems to be a difference in desired growth ring distance depending on the type of instrument you want to build. I guess guitars are not so much different from lutes, so there should be much difference for the physical properties of the tonewood. This leads me to the assumption that the desired growth ring spacing is the same for both instruments. Another much more interesting aspect is the species of tree used. Usualy Lute soundboards are made of Picea abies (Norway Spruce). Guitar soundboards can be made far greater choice of softwoods (mostly new world woods not available in Europe at the times lutes were played). Some of those "substitutes" like Sitka spruce are as good or somtimes even better than Norway spruce. So technically one could say they compete, but guitar builders have more possible sources for tonewoods. Regards, Markus
