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Has anyone worked with grewillea robusta for back and sides
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tijeretamiel
Posts: 441
Joined: Jan. 6 2012
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 RE: Has anyone worked with grewillea... (in reply to Anders Eliasson)
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Anders,
I got around to finally playing the Kremona Silver Oak 'Blanca' in question over the last few days in London Spanish Guitar Center.
Describing properties of a tonewood is pretty damn hard but I'll have a go at it. Not only is it a tricky thing to describe a sound itself but a tonewood in the hands of different luthiers will produce different sounds, eg on the same day I tried two acoustic guitars both above £2k made from Cedar and Walnut- one had a fat midrange warmth to it (which I really liked) the other a lot brighter, with better note separation but sounded a little thin (which I didn't like), tonewoods have common properties but the more guitars I play the more I believe it's really all down to the hands of the luthier.
Tonally it was a little 'darker' sounding than a cypress blanca, I'm pretty sure Silver Oak is a slightly heavier wood and there was a little more of a pronounced bass than with a cypress guitar (this however is a difficult thing to fully appreciate as the body of the guitar I played was slightly wider than other flamenco guitars in stock), not as much as a East Indian Rosewood Negra however. On a similar term the midrange is a little smoother than a Cypress and the trebles follow a similar pattern, but were very pleasing to my ears nonetheless. In terms of sustain it has a little more than a Cypress guitar but a lot less than a EIR negra.
I mentioned a while back that Silver Oak's somewhere between Cypress and Maple and I think that probably still is the case (Silver Oak I think is in the Lacewood side of timbers, which is quite a broad classification of things; some of them are in the Maple family eg London Plane) but like you mentioned it's tonally closer towards Cypress than it is towards Maple.
I don't think it sounded like exactly like a Cypress guitar, but to my ears anyway it produced a very pleasing tone nonetheless which I enjoyed greatly, a excellent guitar.
It's a shame that flamenco players are generally quite conservative in their tastes towards their guitars. I think Silver Oak would make a great tonewood for blancas. There are some other tonewoods which I think would be great for flamenco guitars, eg Bubinga (some premium steel string acoustic makers are starting to use) which I think is a little like Coral/Padauk which is a pretty cheap tonewood too.
I hope I could have been of some use and didn't ramble too much…
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Feb. 17 2013 15:58:57
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Anders Eliasson
Posts: 5780
Joined: Oct. 18 2006
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RE: Has anyone worked with grewillea... (in reply to Anders Eliasson)
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Its confusing what you write, because now you talk about white oak, which is a totally different species tha "silver oak". Popular names for woods can make a lot of confusions. Oaks, which are not oak, cedars which are not cedar.
White oak is a true oak. Quercus Alba. Its from the US and is used for many things furniture, boats etc. As all oaks, its heavy. Its interesting what you write about it. I like the idea of making a true oak guitar one day.
Silver oak, the wood I presented, has nothing to do with oak. Only its popular name. Its a conifer from Australia. What i found interesting is that when I worked it down to final thickness, it had the same thickness, weight and stiffness as a first grade piece of mediterranean cypress that I worked at the same time. The silver oak is a very little bit lower in taptone, but very little. These factors should normally mean a very similar sound....
One day I will know, when I´ve built the guitar. I plan to do so after summer.
_____________________________
Blog: http://news-from-the-workshop.blogspot.com/
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Feb. 17 2013 16:33:12
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Thanks for the comments Jeff. Since I knew it came from Australia, I thought you might know something. Its very easy to work and polishes quite well. 
