Tonewoods explained - Acoustic Guitar Tone Woods Comparison - Solid vs Laminate...Does It Matter?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 พ.ค. 2024
- In this beginner's guide, Sam explains the differences between solid and laminate construction acoustic guitars. Sam also shows us sound examples of how different types of woods will affect the tone of a guitar.
Check out our full range of acoustic guitars at: www.pmtonline.co.uk/products/...
If you're new to the world of acoustic guitars, the terms "solid" and "laminated" may be a little confusing, as, unlike electric guitars which are literally solid, an acoustic is obviously hollow. In this video, we look at how an acoustic guitar body is made, and the difference between solid and laminate woods (sometimes referred to as layered, engineered or plywood).
We'll be looking at the advantages and disadvantages of both, for example, solid wood usually offers a richer tone with more resonance, whilst laminated woods are usually tougher and more resistant to humidity and temperature changes, and we'll also be taking a listen to guitars made from the most common tonewoods, to hear how they affect the sound. Want to hear the difference between Sitka spruce and cedar? Ever wonder why some guitars have mahogany back and sides, whilst others have rosewood? Watch this acoustic guitar tonewood guide, before trying out a huge selection of acoustic guitars at your nearest Professional Music Technology store...
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This was just great. To hear so many different types of guitars played by the same guy in various styles in such a sort period of time was fantastic.
He did so very consistently, too.
I really love the look and sound of the classic spruce/mohagany combination, the contrast of colors is great and the sound is nice and balanced
Very helpful. Here I thought to get a solid spruce top as much as possible. But since here in my country, the weather is very harsh and humid, choosing laminated top would be the most practical choice for me. Since I do not earn that much from being a guitarist.
Very professional and informative and entertaining
Love the sound of solid spruce and laminated back/sides.
I live in Canada. Cold winters, warm humid summers. I reckon a laminate guitar with a solid top is the smart choice, particularly as I travel a bit. Thank you so much for the info. It’s made my decision informed and a lot easier!
Enjoyed the wood discussion. Fascinating to hear the differences and think about the possible variations from one piece of wood to the next. Makes me want to spend a few hours shopping:)
Great explanation, and demonstration... Thanks for the video, Sir!!!
Very well explained and informative! Thank you for the amazing video.
That was pretty darned good. I usually watch Alamo Music Centre's video, but your video clearly demonstrated key differences in a way I could easily observe. Excellent.
Living in Arizona I prefer Laminated guitars. I don't have to fuss with humidity issues or lack of it. In your example, I don't think any non guitar player in the audience would notice any difference
between the guitars. They just sound different. I have a Washburn AD5K-A-U That cost me $319 with hardshell case and it's unbelievable! It's all in the hands.....
Arguably the best explanation on this topic comparing with other videos
You are a great communicator. Thanks for your knowledge
Fabulous explanation indeed. Thank you so much.
Sam's the best. Hands down. No matter the topic, his vids are always clear, concise and straight to the point without all the silly childish bullshit on sites....like Anderton's.
Your blending video was great and it demonstrates that guitar tone is usually subtle. The ultimate test of course is to actually play the guitar. There are many sound nuances that are elusive when viewing it on a video. Even when you actually play the guitar there is no guarantee that you are hearing the best tone it can produce. Are the strings new? Is the guitar wood too dry too wet? These things drastically change the tone. I have had expensive guitars that would change from dead sounding to the best sound you ever heard in a matter of days. Some guitars like my Martin D28 are more resilient to tone change. If you keep your house climate controlled and avoid drastic humidity and temperature changes you will avoid a lot of this problem.
What kind of laminate wood.
Shavings from AAA solid wood verse shit wood. Then there is digital tech.
Yamaha 180 made in Japan aged 60 years.
Very good comparison. You could really hear the difference.
Forgot to mention that the video comparing the Roland FP-10 to the FP-30 was very helpful. I purchased an FP-10 and it is more than adequate for a beginner like me. I truly love it. The video was helpful in making my decision. When I went to the only store in the Jacksonville area that carried the FP-10 and played the demo piano, I didn't even try out any of the others. The Piano Partner Two isn't working with my iPad OS 13, so I pulled out my old iPad running iOS 10 and it works like a charm. Thanks for doing that video and thanks to the lady Roland rep who played the FP-30 while you played the FP-10. Her explanation of the details of what the differences are between the two as well as the workmanship of the Roland compared to other brands made it a top choice. It is also a top choice of Jeremy See in Singapore, whose TH-cam channel is dedicated to keyboards and pianos.
It was great to get recommendations from two people so many miles apart from me and each other.
Very informative. I quite enjoyed learning about the tonal differences. I also believe that the term “better” is fairly relative once you start getting into the mid - upper level guitars. It’s just “different” and whichever tone speaks out to you is a good choice. I am a Martin guy and you will also find that you will get a “different” tone through the different manufacturers and styles. A Martin in generally not as “bright” in the top end as say a Taylor. I am quite pleased with the warm , earthy tone of my Martin ooo-15m. It is solid wood mahogany and the warm resonance and the parlor sound is perfect for my playing style. Thanks for the educational video. Very well done!
great video,very well explained..nice content ..
thanks
That faith Saturn CE sounds dope
this is an extremely informative video, nice one
This is a really good review. Cutting the clips right next to each other gives a very good comparison.
I can't tell you how helpful this video is. Thank you!
I have a question though, are laminated mahogany woods darker sounding than laminated spruce tops? It's pretty humid where I live so buying a solid wood guitar isn't really much of an option.
very well explained👍👌
I play two laminated guitars live and solid wood all around at home. They are both great 👍
It also comes down to WHO is making the guitars. The bracing method, the Quality of the woods used, the combination of woods.
An all solid guitar made by a poor maker will NEVER beat an all laminate guitar made by a Master builder.
@@silent5486 I think what he meant was more like this.
In a 300$ price range there are solid tops and laminate tops, a 300$ laminate is expensive laminated guitar, a 300$ solid top is a cheap solid top guitar, so the quality of the laminated one might actually be better since they have more luxury from all that left over price value.
my guitar is plywood changing saddle and nut was a game changer really big improvement
Great video with very helpful content, thanks for producing this!
Just for context, I have an all Solid Furch Yellow Master's Choice Gc-CR Acoustic-Electric, which is an amazing, almost boutique quality guitar! In fact it truly is my dream guitar and has remained so since I purchased it over a year agoI
However, I also have three Walden Acoustic-Electrics each w/ Solid Tops and Layered Backs and Sides (different models/tonewood combinations, hence the reason for three of them).
While there is no doubt the all-solid Furch is understandably at a different level, you can buy 5-6 beautiful Walden acoustic-electrics from their excellent Natura line for the price of the single Furch I mentioned.
Is the Furch an incredible, guitar? Yes! Is it 6xs better than my Waldens? No!
If I couldn't have purchased the Furch would I still be happy with my Furchs? 100% Yes!
My Walden's are each great guitars and better IMO (and half the cost) of comparable Taylor models such as the 214 CE!
In fact I use my Walden's all the time for gigging since those situations are often quite risky due to the environmental as well as space conditions. However they sound great plugged in, look amazing, and play beautifully!
Additionally I feel safe leaving any of my Walden's out during the day while I work so I can squeeze some practice breaks in since they are more resilient due to having laminate back and sides. I do put them in a humidified case at night because I love my Walden's and treat them with the same care as my Furch.
My point in saying all of this is that while it's true that my all solid Furch sounds better overall, the Walden's still play and sound great, are at a wonderful price point.
There's no doubt that you can get them or other well designed and produced solid top/layered back and side guitars. In fact Yamaha makes the FG800 (which I also have) and the FS800 for around $220 dollars, Solid Spruce top w/ Nato Back and Sides, and they are really wonderful sounding and playing guitars!
That was excellent thank you so much
Excellently done and well explained. I would like to re-emphasize that if there is a noticable difference between laminated back and sides vs solid wood back and sides its actually because the laminated is almost always present in guitars that are more cheaply made overall. They simply put far more time into the quality of workmanship and material in their solid wood guitars, and that is where you find the biggest differences. Instrument design and construction play a MUCH bigger part in tone than just having it all be solid.
A very good point, Brian.
Man, have you even what shit those "laminate" parts are sometimes made of?
Sometimes it's LITERALLY glued dust.
Do you really think it vibrates similarly to wood?
@Kyle Smith100% agreed!
@@LegsON No credible guitar makers use sawdust to make laminate for their guitars. I am refering to thin layers of real wood glued together. Nothing Sam refers to here is remotely like that. Not sure what you are talking about, I've never seen or heard of a GUITAR laminate made of sawdust.
@@PMTVUK Thank you. Love your content.
Very vital coverup. It's my first time to go deep into wood specification. Thanks sir
great job!
Excelente vídeo!
Excellent thanks
very informative video
My Guild acoustic has a spruce top and African Padauk back and sides, which is deep orange in colour.
Really useful vid - good shout out to environmental issue which is something I hadn’t considered enough when looking at choices.
All this says to me is that no two guitars sound the same, there hasn’t been to my knowledge any double blind tests to determine the difference between woods and construction. The density of wood not the type of wood is the determining factor, plus the sound is purely in the ear of the beholder. IMHO. I might add.
@this is our house I never said that I said no one has ever done any blind test to determine a difference between any woods. With different woods there are subtle differences but between similar woods you get differences as well. I have an old Yamaha fifty years old it sounds as good or better than many top end guitars. And it’s a laminate guitar.
@@neilmchardy9061 to your knowledge is a very small subject. Thats not an insult. Just shows your knowledge of woods used in instruments is limited.
In the violin tailpiece alone, thousands of studies have been done with hundreds of blind tests. Dozens done by the fiddlershop alone.
In the case of tailpipe material, you are partially looking for a particular sound and projection without over powering the tone woods used in the cavity construction.
@@markcobb6561 this isn’t about violins Mark it’s about double blind tests on ac guitars. I’m not saying there is no difference I’m saying there is more difference caused by the construction than the “tonewood”. The soundboard is the biggest cause of tonal differences not the back and sides. Look at emerald guitars or canna guitars and tell me the tonewood creates great differences. I’m speaking as the constructor of in excess of 40 ac guitars, all from recycled materials and unusual construction. I’ve noticed the differences caused by the wood is very minor, I make guitars with offset sound holes and that does make a difference because the construction is so very different. So without insulting you in return I stand by my comment, there has been no double blind tests done as far as I am aware, violins? Maybe.
You say that as if the type of wood doesn't intrinsically affect its density.
@@JediMobius I’m not saying that at all. I just want people to understand that the construction more than the actual wood is the defining factor. It’s hard for people to understand that. To my knowledge there has never been a double blind test to determine what actual differences there are between two or three types of wood. If I played two models of the same guitar one with rose wood back and one with a mahogany or walnut back could you tell the difference? If you couldn’t see them? I’m not meaning do they sound different because two identical guitars have differences but could you say yes that’s the rosewood one and that’s the mahogany one. I very much doubt it.
This guys test shows distinct differences in sounds and is a good guide but they are all different makes of instrument, and imho that’s more the difference.
Mate, are you playing Thinking About You from Pablo Honey? Legend
Can someone please help me out, what is the song he is playing right at the end of this video?
Very informative
Just curious your opinion between the 324ce and the 314ce? I have the 324 and it’s just so beautiful. I just can’t decide tone wise which is best. I have a few weeks to decide before my 45 days are up. I live here in the USA. I play mostly strumming and country rhythm type music but I am wanting to learn it all and get better. I just can’t decide which is best for me sound wise. I like the boom of the 314 but I like the bass and warm of the 324 and the looks are just unreal better with the dark wood and black tuners etc. What to do! Please any advice? Thanks for this awesome video presentation.
Indeed, guitar sound is a combination of factors. Details in the construction differences aside (bracing, finish etc.), 2 of the more obvious ones omitted in this video is are the shape/size and the strings. I've been wondering though- does the grade of the same wood affect the sound? There's a shop where I'm at carrying this brand called Custom Acoustics and they have guitars made using grade AA spruce and above, but I'm not sure how it compares with regular spruce- apart from the difference in price
So so well said
I like a solid Spruce top with laminated sides and back. The overtones of solid wood is good for strumming but for finger-picking and lead guitar playing it's not my preference. Laminated ones are usually louder and have better notes separation.
How does the back and sides vibrate if they are being held by the player and pressed against their body?
Wow , the koa 👌
I am from India and I am recently custom making my guitar from a manufacturer. I have instructed him to make the sides and back out of rosewood and instructed the top to be made of pine wood. Did I make a wrong decision?? Is making top with rosewood been a better option or pine is good??
There are so many variations that affect sound . All those guitars have different size sound boxes , sound holes , bracing , scale length and I’m sure that the sound boards are different thickness that will change sound . Sound board type and box size will make a big difference in sound. The back and sides very little unless you hold your guitar standing up and away from your body and arms the back of the guitar won’t vibrate to produce sound against your belly . The true test will be exactly same dimensions of sound box scale length same top type and thickness and all different back and sides. With this your not comparing apples to apples they are all different and wil definitely sound different
Isn't the laminated stronger, better for travell guitars with less warp etc.
Absolutely
Where would you place trembesi as a tonewood?
i liked taylor 110ce and faith saturn ce
which is the louder the solid top laminated back and side? the solid all? the laminated all? and which are sensitive to humidity?
All solid woods tend to be louder, solid top with laminate back and sides next, and the least are all laminate.
Sensitivity to humidity from most to least:
All solid - Solid top with laminate back and sides - All laminate
wow! thank you bro you explained very well👍
So... with guitars, and to a higher extent ukuleles, it turns out I might prefer laminated, as I tend to hold the instrument under my right forearm at the front, and solid tops tend to stop resonating much more than laminated tops. So actuall If my forearm is there, holding the instrument, or just chilling, the laminated will sometimes resonate more as it's less affected by the vibration-stopping presence of something on it.
that's when i play without a strap. I do use one for my Faith guitar though, sounds awesome.
so which do we buy????
This was very helpful and educational. I enjoy your channel very much and your presenting style feels like talking with a long time friend.
My dad was from England. He is deceased, so it is also comforting to listen to you talk and your accent.
Greetings from a fan in Florida.
Thanks for watching Shirley. -Lee
What about okoume? What are okome's traits?
What´s the song at 7:50 ?
The Taylor sounded best when strumming. More balanced and better articulation of individual strings than the others. The Martin was really "muddy" strummed like that, I prefer that guitar for finger styles. For me, can't beat solid rosewood back and sides. Spruce or cedar top depending on the guitar and what style you play. The laminate guitars sound bright yet are not really clear, which some confuse with clarity.
when buying guitar, how to know that the one I'm buying is solid top?
Visually? It's pretty hard. Sometimes a mirror under the sound hole can show you a completely different grain of wood underneath than on top...but not always. The model number on most brands will tell you if you look it up. The seller would be dumb to lie to you - you're going to look it up. Sonically? I'm fairly sure in a blind test I'd get more right than I would wrong...but I bet not all of them. Maybe some guys could. I actually liked the Fender laminate a lot. But the spruce Taylor was bright like that and smoother too, so...I guess I just like the chimey-er sound. I did grow up on bands that played Ovations, so....
I liked the Faith all solid the least... Interesting.
Came here to make sure not to buy the wrong one...I am a bigginer...thanx a lot
I thought cedar was softer than spruce.
switching to your sidearm is always faster than reloading
Chords please
No wonder Yamaha and now Alvarez have been getting it done in the budget-priced acoustic guitar dept, they finally figured out not too long ago that the absolute best way to get max value for your money was to offer the MANDATORY solid tonewood top (you're really playing it cheap if you're going the laminate route there Fender, bleech) combined with a quality-constructed laminated tonewood for the back and sides. Even the high-end Taylor brand is starting to go this route to bring labor costs down to a much more affordable price range, though they would rather call it "layered" than laminated as if phrasing it that way will make it sound not-so-bad to the more snobbish guitar-buying demographic (lol). Wasn't too surprised at how many more boxes the laminated wood checked off as opposed to solid when it came to the guitar back and sides especially. Sure, an all-solid body guitar is gonna naturally carry sound better (unless it's made poorly, that is) but it also means maintaining it a lot more carefully due to how sensitive it can be to fluctuating temperature changes compared to the hardier and stronger laminate construction. That's why high-priced solid-body guitars don't go up in value all that much over the years as the return is often minimal, specifically those priced over $2,000.
Nicely said, and I agree... But there's that one brand that all westerns don't think about much, though, in Asia, Cort may be the most favoured guitar brand, I know it is in my country. Not sure which one is actually better, but I know cort directly competes with Yamaha's guitars value for money. Even their 600$ guitar have thermally treated solid top wood, awesome.
@@kenz2756 I've heard of Cort. Aren't they sort of a "ghost" manufacturer of budget-priced guitars for bigger-name brands? If so, it's no wonder most other "westerners" haven't known about 'em in the general sense. Probably bought one of their guitars and didn't even realize it came right out of their factory (lol). Might as well throw in that young upstart Orangewood while we're at it. Quality craftsmanship at VERY affordable prices, plus they do their own professional set-ups just prior to shipping so they really take stock in customer satisfaction for a welcome change.
Taylor, Alvarez, Fender, Faith tripped my trigger, Martin was least favorite.
to be fair, Mahogany isnt really as bright as Spruce, or as heavenly as Koa.
Had he used a D-28, this wouldnt even be a conversation as to which guitar was the best.
Thank you!
spruce good
laminate sounds like a toy guitar to me, almost tinny. my favorite sound was the martin
This chappy looks like a young Rolf Harris 🤔🙄🙄
Ok
Wheres dagan?
He’s better than this acoustic
@@ZaynShah871 true
Mahogany sounds better