The millionth same quest about wood

[Fernando Esteves]

Hello!
The "common sense" about wood says Rosewood has more bass and treble than mahogany, but less mids and a more prominent treble...

Is there any wood tht have bass and middle as both combined but a bit tamed treble?

Sometimes I think steel strings have too much bite and nylon too few... The idea would be a warmer and fuller steel string, but something in-between on the bite

[Alan Carruth]

"Sometimes I think steel strings have too much bite and nylon too few..."

That's in in a nutshell.

"Is there any wood that have bass and middle as both combined but a bit tamed treble?"

It's not so much in the wood as how you use it. IMO different woods make it easier or harder to get what you're after, but don't absolutely prohibit anything.

[Alan Carruth]

As you said, steel strings have a lot of energy in the high end, particularly in the sustained tone, while the highs die out fast with nylon/gut strings. With steel strings the issue is getting enough bass to balance out all of the high end, while with nylon it's making the most out of the little bit of high end you get. Most of that is taken care of in the design.. To get more bass you go to a larger box, primarily. This can cost some power over all, but with higher tension steel strings don't suffer as much. Top bracing tends to enhance the cross stiffness of the top more, which helps produce a 'rounder' tone. With nylon strings you can reduce the cross stiffness a bit to enhance the 'cut', while the generally treble-shifted balance helps to keep the bass from being over powering. After that it's mostly in how you handle the wood, although, as I said, it's easier with some woods than others.

I'll note that much depends on how you define 'bass', 'mids', and 'trebles'. It's not all about frequency response; the way the signals vary over time matters too. This is not rocket science; it's more complicated....

[Fernando Esteves]

thanks for the insight, I agree and understand better now
The idea is L00 size archtop, Adirondack top, 24.5" scale length.

The doubt is between Mahogany or any kind of Rosewood on the back/side. But the fear is to be too trebley with Rosewood, hence the question about have a wood with the warmth of Mahogany with a more resonating bass frequencies.

But I guess you can't have everything, as always

[Alan Carruth]

FWIW; my first archtop was a 17" Jumbo in mahogany and spruce, more than 25 years ago. The owner has spent lots of time in the studio, and told me that he hopes I know what I did on that one, because if anything happens to it, he'll be back.

[Fernando Esteves]

Awesome!