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ASH:
Coming from the northwest and southwest of America, Ash is the perfect option for the player seeking a classic Strat or Tele sound. Classic Jazzbass ® sound is also ash and not alder as used today.
Northern ash is considered a more resonant wood giving the clear bell sound of the blues, but it is also heavier than Swamp ash.
Swamp ash has almost the same capabilities as Northern but with wider grain lines. It is more widely used due to the fact that it weights a lot less than Northern ash.
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USAGE:
Mostly bodies, some bass guitar tops.
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BUBINGA:
Bubinga belongs to the rosewood family and grows primarily in central Africa.
It looks quite like Mahogany but with wider and continuous grain lines, color ranges from brown to red.
We only use it for bindings, and inlays such as on tailpieces and fingerrests on the Alfie models, due to the fact that it doesn't have good sound properties.
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USAGE:
Aesthetical purposes only.
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CHERRY:
Cherry grows in central Europe as well as in the Middle East, its color ranges from white to creamy white with straight and slim grain lines.
In terms of sound, it somewhat stands between Ash and Alder woods, with excellent overall frequency response but lacking some bass.
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USAGE:
Bodies and necks.
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EBONY:
There are basically two types of ebony being used today for instrument building. It is the obvious choice for fingerboards in the violin family, because of its clear bright sound and strength.
African ebony is almost black with little brown spots; it is the weaker of the two types but not by much.
Asian ebony has brown stripes along the blanks which gives it a beautiful finish when building a guitar.
There is no tonal difference between the two types, although most guitarists tend to prefer the African because of the uniform black color.
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USAGE:
Fingerboards mainly, bindings and veneers.
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KORINA:
This wood is what we consider “The holy grail of tone woods”.
Growing only in central Africa, it has an overall range of frequencies not found on other woods; therefore it doesn’t need to be matched with other species to get bass and treble range.
It is the most musical wood that we know for the building of solid body guitars and basses. Basically there are two types, White and Black.
White Korina has grain lines that look much like mahogany but its color ranges from an almost grey to light brown along the strips.
Black Korina has the same colors but with sudden black lines, sometimes not following the white grain, hence the name Black Korina.
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USAGE:
Guitars and bass guitars bodies.
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MAHOGANY:
Being one of the most used woods for guitar building in the last 60 years, mahogany is usually identified with Gibson guitars; it is considered a very resonant wood for guitar or bass bodies and for guitar necks.
Tonally, it has a frequency response with punchy bass and very good midrange, but lacks the clear highs.
As most guitar companies, we have found that mahogany has excellent sound results when matched with maple both plain and figured.
There are basically two types of mahogany that we use:
African mahogany has dark brown and light brown strips with uniform "fat" grain lines.
S. American or Honduras mahogany has a less uniform pattern without the color strips.
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USAGE:
Bodies, necks, laminations and aesthetical purposes.
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MAPLE:
Probably the most used wood for tops of solid bodies, it comes either plain (no figure) or with various types of figures.
Maple is a hardwood used in guitars and basses for necks and bodies; this wood gives a bright clean sound and works very well with mahogany to get a full range of frequencies.
Flamed maple is the 3D effect that the wood gets near the root because of winter and summer seasons. The effect looks as if the wood has tiger stripes crossing the grain lines.
There are various types such as tiger flame, deep 3D flame, fire flame, etc.
Quilted maple is very much like flame but the strips are fat and round, caused by the same effect only the wood gets sawed in a different angle.
Bird’s eye maple has flame along with little eyes like figures all over the wood with no regular pattern.
There is almost no difference in sound between each type of maple.
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USAGE:
Bodies (rarely), tops, necks, laminations, veneering.
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PADAUK:
This wood is native from Africa and it’s related to the rosewood family of woods.
It can be used for fingerboards but it is primarily used in cosmetics issues as veneer tops, strips or binding.
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USAGE:
Aesthetical purposes only.
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PEAR:
This wood grows in North America and Central Europe. Although most people are not aware, this wood is used for fingerboards in bow instruments after it gets painted black.
It has a pale cream color with very slim grain lines. In terms of sound it resembles Maple.
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USAGE:
Fingerboards and neck laminations.
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POPLAR:
Poplar grows in the northern hemisphere of the planet, from North America through Europe, Asia to Japan. Its color is a pale cream white with slim and straight grain lines.
This wood is used primarily for bodies of lower cost guitars and bass guitars due to the fact that it is a lot easier to work on. It supports most of the frequencies but not fully. It will give great results on all metal styles but not so good on blues and jazz.
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USAGE:
Guitar and bass guitar bodies.
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ROSEWOOD:
This dense wood comes either from Southeast Asia or South America.
Mostly used for fingerboards, Brazilian rosewood is believed to be the “Holy grail of tone woods” and is used also for the back of acoustic guitars; the main reason for its overpriced value is due to the fact that it is prohibited to cut since 1969.
Brazilian has a bell like tone and its grain lines are very wild and beautiful, with colors ranging from light brown to black.
Indian rosewood has less brightness and less bell tone, its grain lines are very uniform and its color can range also from light brown to black but with no wild strips.
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USAGE:
Fingerboards, neck laminations, bindings.
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SAPELE:
This wood belongs to the Mahogany family and grows in Central Africa only, its color ranges from reddish to dark brown with wide but straight grain lines.
Its frequency response is better than the South American because it also yields good treble and a more focused sound.
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USAGE:
Guitar and Bass guitar bodies.
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SPRUCE:
This is the 1st choice for building bow instruments.
As the great Stradivarius found after years of research, German or Alpine spruce is best there tone wood.
Chosen for its tonal characteristics and stiffness along the grain, it has a white to golden color with straight grain lines widening to the edge of each set.
We choose exclusively 3A Alpine spruce from Switzerland for our archtop guitars since they have no more than 17-18 grain lines per inch, which gives the guitar the right blend of brightness with no loss in the bass range.
There are also two other types of spruce, Sitka and Engelmann.
Sitka spruce coming mostly from Canada and Alaska sometimes has “bear-claw” figures crossing the top, tonally it has a "straight" sound with strong fundamental tones.
It also costs a lot less sometimes as half the price of a German top.
Engelmann spruce a native Canadian wood looks very much like German but the grain lines are less uniform. It also tends to have more run-out.
It is the best option instead of Alpine spruce.
Tonally you get a more mature sound with more overtone range.
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USAGE:
Acoustic and archtop guitar tops only.
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TEAK:
Teak is a native European wood which was planted in Asia by the Dutch.
Visually and tonally this wood is much like walnut but with a little less brightness in the sound.
We use this wood mainly for bass bodies and when finished with lacquer only, it takes an extraordinary look.
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USAGE:
Bass guitar bodies.
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WENGE:
Wenge is a wood native of Africa and it belongs to the rosewood family.
We believe that this wood it is a better choice than Brazilian rosewood for the fingerboards because it has a warmer sound.
Visually, it looks much like Indian rosewood but with less grain lines across.
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USAGE:
Fingerboards mainly, neck laminations and bindings.
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ZEBRANO:
This wood is native from Africa, found mainly in Cameroon and Gabon.
We use Zebrano for cosmetics because it is unstable and its not a resonant wood, however it takes on a beautiful finish showing its grain with colors ranging from grey to brown and black strips.
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USAGE:
Tops and aesthetical purposes.
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