Back and side wood selection

One of my favorite things about building guitars is being able to work with a variety of different wood types. Each species of wood has different weight, hardness and flexibility characteristics. As a maker it is my job to take these woods and decide, firstly what size and style of guitar they are most suited to, and then decide how thick to make them and how to brace them to make the most of their natural characteristics.

The choice of woods is less important for laminated sides as they all seem to be very similar once laminated.

I am currently building with Ziricote, Tineo and Oak.

Tineo is a beautiful looking wood that comes from Chile and Argentina. It has a medium density, similar to walnut, with fine grain and pores. I think it’s weight and stiffness are best suited to a smaller guitar and I think this will make an excellent parlor.

Oak is sadly underrepresented in guitar making. Finding the correct piece is essential because a majority of oak is cut to yield large boards for furniture, and not quarter sawn. For an OM sized guitar I made it relatively thin and used 6 transverse braces to give it the strength and flexibility I was looking for in a medium sized fingerstyle guitar.

Ziricote has inconstant density, so for an OM I have left this relatively thick to make the most of the woods natural strength without letting the inconsistency in density be an issue. I did not need much bracing, just three transverse braces. This Is going to be a heavy OM and I’ve matched it with a top that is braced more towards volume and fundamental tones, It should respond well to strumming and flat picking .