Standard soundboard materials
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The top is the primary generator of sound in a guitar and will largely determine the volume and response of the instrument. Softwoods are used for their combination of lightness and strength.
Spruce is the most common soundboard material for acoustic guitars. This stiff, strong, light wood produces volume, immediacy and power. Spruce offers a focused tone and a prominent fundamental note. At Park Guitars, Sitka Spruce is most commonly used on Standard guitars but there are several other no cost options in softwoods that will create nuanced shifts on the tone and look of a guitar. The general characteristics of these soundboard options are listed below: |
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Sitka spruce
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Sitka Spruce is the hardest of the spruces with the greatest elasticity to weight ratio. Guitars incorporating Sitka spruce are consistenly loud and punchy. Although a tonal difference is extremely difficult to discern between Engleman, Sitka and Lutz Spruce, one might expect Sitka to have a brighter sound based on its strength and stiffness. Its colour is generally pinker than Engleman and Lutz and grain lines are more pronounced.
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engleman spruce
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Engleman Spruce is popular among guitar makers for its creamy ivory lustre and uniform grain lines. It is a softer tonewood offering a pleasant sweetness and refined sound.
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Lutz spruce
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Lutz spruce is a relative newcomer to the guitar world. It is a hybrid of Sitka and White spruce and shows the stiffness of its Sitka parent tempered by the slightly lower density of White spruce. It has the look of a light, creamier coloured Sitka top and can have prominent grain lines and medullary rays.
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Western Red Cedar
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Although certainly not considered a ‘traditional’ soundboard material, Western Red Cedar has gained acceptance as a fine tonewood. Typically, cedar topped instruments offer an immediate maturity and richness to their tone - something that frequently takes months to achieve in a spruce topped instrument. Cedar is warmer and sweeter sounding than Spruce, having a somewhat weaker fundamental note, but with abundant rich overtones. It is a softer material than the aforementioned species of spruce and needs to be treated with a little extra care by the player. It ranges in colour from pinkish brown to chocolate brown, and many tops have ’skunk stripes’ or radical colour variations across the grain.
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Find out more about Alternative Materials and Features:
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