Padauk?

[Jinder]

I've recently parted company with my Guild F20, and have some moolah burning a hole in my pocket.

 

I'm off this week to my local guitar emporium to try out a guitar which I've had my eye on for a while-it's a 12-fret Grand Concert sized acoustic with a Sitka top and Padauk back and sides.

 

Does anyone have any experience with Padauk as a tonewood?

 

I've heard great reports (loud, ultra responsive, sounds amazing for bare-fingers fingerstyle, rich mids, like a slightly brighter Indian Rosewood), but I would love to hear if any of you guys have had any hands-on experience with a Padauk instrument.

[Taylor Player]

I had a luthier built guitar that I obtained from a guy locally here in trade for a custom built electric I owned. It was a Sitka/Padauk combo. I liked the tone a lot but the finish and build quality was somewhat poor and I ended up trading it for a different guitar that is also long gone.

 

My thoughts on the wood was that it would make a fine fingerstyle guitar as the tone was very much like rosewood or walnut backed guitars. One thing I remember is that it was very very heavy wood. Some luthiers on the AFG told me due to the density of the wood, Padauk was like Cocobolo in that it was very hard to work with, especially bending and was prone sometimes to cracking. It was a very orange/reddish color that I understand get's darker over time and becomes more brown with red highlights. One of them told me that the finish problems I had were not unusual. He said Padauk was also very hard to apply finish evenly too. Those may be some reasons you don't see it very often. It is a very nice looking African native wood though.

 

Done well, I can assume that it would make a great guitar. It would be a very responsive wood for fingerstyle, especially in a smaller body style like I had.

[Jinder]

Thanks TP! Very interesting stuff. I would be looking for the guitar to fill a hole in my arsenal (no pun intended!!) that isn't occupied by my Bird or SJ200, so a 12 fret fingerstyle-oriented instrument with responsive qualities in the tonewood would probably fit the bill perfectly. I need to get my hands on it and try it. I will report back!

 

If anyone else has any experience with Padauk, do chime in :-)

[Taylor Player]

Hey Jinder.... Who is the builder on the Paduak guitar? What type of finish is applied to the wood? The finish should be looked at closely as I said above, Paduak is very difficult to apply finish to.

 

I would say the one I had was very responsive and had a tone between mahogany and rosewood. It was most similar to a Walnut backed guitar I had once that also had a sitka top. What amazed me was how heavey the Padauk wood guitar I had was. It was an OM size but for sure weighed more than my AJ!

[Jinder]

It was a Guild F40P. Poly finish...I went to try the guitar, and quite liked it (I sold my F20E to finance a change as I didn't need two Hog guitars), but fell completely in love with an F30R, the Rosewood Grand Concert sized Guild, so that came home with me.

 

I would never pick one over a Gibson, of course, but there is something about those GAD Guilds that just keeps calling me...great finish, lovely tone, all solid, great case, bone nut and saddle, Grover open-back vintage style machineheads, good out-of-the-box setup, and to top it all off, they're cheap as chips!

[Taylor Player]

Excellent score then! I didn't realize that Guild had ever built with Padauk. I had only heard of it on Luthier built guitars prior. I love the Grand Concert size guitars. My Taylor 612C is a Grand Concert. Next to my LG1 it is the most comfortable guitar to hold and play. In fact, I couldn't really choose between those two for noodeling comfort.

 

Enjoy the new Rosewood.... (got to love that smell if nothing else.)

[Jinder]

Ohh the RW smell is divine...second only to Cedar!

 

The F30R is superb, I was after a RW guitar originally before I had my head turned by the Padauk.

 

It's everything that you could want in a GC...like you say, so comfortable! I'm happy to have a RW guitar in my arsenal, I now have Maple, Hog and RW so all bases covered...for now!

[Taylor Player]

I'm happy to have a RW guitar in my arsenal' date=' I now have Maple, Hog and RW so all bases covered...for now![/quote']

 

Hey that's the same back woods I have in mine! All 3 are sitka topped but between the Maple on my Taylor, the RW on my Advanced Jumbo and the great dry Hog tones on my LG1 (thanks to the ladder bracing) I too feel like my tonewoods are all in order!

[Jinder]

It certainly makes for a great combo, doesn't it?

 

I was always a Maple maniac, I do love the Maple tone but I've become very fond of the more supple and harmonic overtone-heavy RW tone lately. It's great for writing with, in fact I just finished a new song!