A Lesson on Tonewood Evaluation and Selection
A few days ago, Louis Manteau, the other Ervin Somogyi apprentice, and I did an activity designed to develop our ability to evaluate the wood we are working with. The way it worked was there were a bunch of guitar tops, numbered and laid out it order. Written instructions guided us between the different pieces of wood, and directed us to interact with them in specific ways. Look at them, feel the texture, flex them in different directions, tap on them and listen to the response. As we worked our way through the different tops, there were questions about what we were observing, and how that might work or not work in a hypothetical guitar we were building. By the end of the exercise we were being asked to make judgement calls with questions such as:
“Examine these woods as though you needed to build an instrument for a prominent bluegrass/classical/jazz/fingerstyle player. Feel them, flex them, listen to them, evaluate them. Which would you choose? Why?”
I found this to be a challenging and interesting exercise, and it is an extremely valuable skill to develop as a luthier.