Acoustic Guitar: Choice of Woods Wood Choices

Date: Sun, 2 May 2004 12:08:16 -0400
From: "Voss, John D. *HS" <JV4W@hscmail.mcc.virginia.edu>

Hi Mickey-

Greetings John,

Hope all is well with you these days....

I've been thinking about a new guitar- have a striped ebony 12 string from Breedlove and am thinking about getting a new 6 string. My current 6 string is a Dan Crary Taylor (spruce/ rosewood, good flatpicker guitar). In a new 6 string I would want something that would sound good both flat and fingerpicked for styles ranging from blues to celtic with folk and country music on the side. I like the -25 model body (my 12 string jumbo has the sharp cutaway which I find uncomfortable.)

I think spruce top but what about the back?

I'd go with Rosewood myself...it's my back of choice on most of my acoustic guitars...

I already have a rosewood guitar and love the resonance of the ebony. What about koa vs ebony vs maple vs myrtlewood?

Sounds like you're ahead of me...if I had to choose another choice of wood for back and sides, and was looking for something versatile in tonal range, I believe I'd go with mahogany...great for flatpicking and the warmer tones work well for fingerpicking...of course, this isn't an exotic choice and if you're looking for something really unique, you might consider the myrtlewood...I went through a stokpile of Breedloves once and found the myrtlewoood was the most resonant...worked well for fingerpicking...and, if you go with a dreadnought body, you might have the best of both flatpicking and fingerpicking...however, I'm not too sure since I haven't played a dreadnought with myrtlewood to date...

I believe we do have a few Breedloves in stock now of which may be of interest to you...call James @ 888-209-8434....

Great to hear from you...Mickey

Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 10:44:27 -0800

hi. i wanted to know if you had a solution for this: it seems that every guitar i have ever played will sound great for a while, then, suddenly it will be impossible to stay in tune. for instance: i have a taylor 415 jumbo that played perfectly for about a year, now all of a sudden it won't stay in tune. i've changed the strings twice in the past month, stretched them and stretched them, but it seems the strings (especially the low e string) is always out-of-tune just a tad. i've tried different types of strings attempting to correct the problem, but to no avail. i'll use a tuner and it will sound great for a few strums, then suddenly go out again. i also have a prs and an alvarez strat copy that i never play because of this problem. i must be missing something here. if humidity or climate is an issue, is there anything that can be done about that? by the way, these instruments are all properly cased in hard cases. please help. B.H.

Greetings,

There are a few things that you can do to ensure that your guitar stays in tune:

1. Use a graphite powder in the nut and saddle to ensure that the strings do not get hung...and have "pings" while playing...with the graphite, you are ensured that the string has proper slippage while resting in their respective slots...
("Pings" are slippage problems where the nut seems to hold onto the string and allows it to slip long after it's been tuned up...this can happen while playing in the middle of a song or even while tuning...you may tune up to a note only to find the string not changing pitch and then, all at once, the string will move up to the pitch you're tuning to. This can be caused be the nut slot not being properly filed and holds the string too tightly. An easy fix to this is applying grphite powder directly in the slot of the respective string having the problem...)

2. You may already do this: when stringing your guitar with new strings, be sure to tie under the first loop so that the string is locked in solid...

3. Stretching the strings. by lightly pulling up on them, is also a good measure...and may prevent future slippage...sounds like you're already doing this...

4. Use a medium gauge string instead of a light gauge...they're less likely to go out of tune...

If none of the above works, you might want to enquire with the manufacturer Taylor Guitars....I do know that all of the Taylors we've seen come through our shop were very susceptible to humidity and weather changes...they seemed to fluctuate from day to day...so, it's very important that you keep your Taylor in a controlled environment...Mickey