tonewoods

Tonewood is a traditional term used in instrument making to describe certain wood species chosen for their purported influence on an instrument's sound. The acoustic properties of wood—density, stiffness, and damping—shape how a soundboard vibrates, how air resonates in the body, and how sustain and overtone content develop. In practice, tone is affected by many factors including design, construction, bracing, and even players' technique, so tonewood is one of several interacting elements rather than a single determinant.

Common tonewoods include spruce and cedar for soundboards; spruce, particularly Sitka and Adirondack, is prized for rigidity and bright projection, while cedar offers a warmer, quicker response favored in classical guitars. For the back and sides, rosewoods (Dalbergia spp.) are valued for their rich overtones and complexity; maple provides clear, bright, focused sustain; mahogany yields a balanced, midrange-rich character. Exotics such as koa and hybrids are used to achieve varying brightness or warmth. Ebony is widely used for fingerboards and bridges, but it is not a tonewood in the same sense; its contribution is more in feel and durability.

Other variables—body size and shape, bracing patterns, thickness, finish, and string choice—often have as much or more influence on tonal outcome as the wood species. Wood age and seasoning also affect resonance, as do the tooling and gluing methods used during construction.

Because many tonewoods are subject to scarcity or legal restrictions, luthiers increasingly use sustainable sources, alternative species, laminated woods, or engineered composites. The term tonewood remains a traditional shorthand rather than a strict scientific category, reflecting historical preferences rather than fixed rules.