Mahogany vs Rosewood

[Rockanrolla]

I've been shopping around lately for an Eppi Masterbilt series guitar and on my travels have played around with whatever caught my eye, Today at a huge guitar shop near my home I got in to a conversation with a guy on diferent tones with diferent woods, as I have never owned a rosewood back and sided guitar I was quite interested in this guys opinion, i know as always it comes down to personal preference, but after playing a few Martins with rosewood against some Mahogany I found the rosewoods to be a much brighter sound and a bit more resinant than the mahog ones.

Does anyone have an opinion on this ?

I must point out I have on order my first Eppi Masterbilt AJ500RE, should have her by the end of the week

[sexygibson]

I guess its all to the different ears and different guitars because I've experienced just the opposite. Ive had a Martin DM, which is mahogony, and a Martin D1R, which is rosewood, and I found the D1R to be "darker ". I loved them both and liked the tone of both but definantly different.

[bill67]

To me the rosewood has more like a single coil clear sound,And mahogany more dual coil blended sound.Mistakes don't show up as much on the mahogany. I know that different way to say it but thats the way it sounds to me.

[Dagwood]

This graphic is from the taylor guitar site and explains a lot of what you 'should' hear with each of the different woods.

 

Notice the tightness and bulge of "HOG" around the mids.. where as Rosewood's spectrum is spread a bit farther and the mids are somewhat 'scooped'. This is pretty accurate, as I just went to a Taylor Road Show last week and they demonstrated this with all these different woods. You can clearly hear it between Hogany and R.W. Then maple is very bright and loud(er), best if your in a band situation and want some cut through the mix.

 

Either Hog or Rosewood (solid of course, not laminate) is a good way to go. If it were up to me, I'd first pick RW, but if a Hog guitar plays better/sounds better side by side at the store, I wouldn't hesitate to take it home too.

 

[TommyK]

It's all in what you want to hear out of your guitar. If you want warm and woody, go for the 'hog. If you want good response up and down the staff, Rosewood is your choice. Some say Brazilian Rosewood is the quintessential tone wood. It is expensive, partly because of that, and mostly because it's export from Brazil is illegal. Brazilian Rosewood guitars built today are said to be built from a cache of Brazilian Rosewood exported before the ban. Brazilian Rosewood is quite striking to look at as well.

 

Bright tones can come from Maple backed and sided guitars as well.

 

If the guy at the guit tar shop has never heard of Rosewood backed and sided guit tars, he is probably still using Clearasil. And there is a high probability 'Huge Guitar Shop' was a GuitarCenter chain store.