Tone Wood Grading

[Danner]

Thanks for letting me hit you up for more information.

 

Considering spruce sounding board, and mahogany back & sides, what are the grades of wood available from Gibson? Especially the sounding board. What is the premium material and species of wood (for an L-00 size)?

 

I read over on the M-board that they grade spruce on about 6 levels based on the raw wood, grain pattern, placement in the quarter-sawn cuts, and so on. The highest grades reserved for the fanciest instruments.

 

At Gibson, is it as straight-forward as A, AA, and AAA?

 

Is all mahogany the same?

 

Thank you for your thoughts.

[JuanCarlosVejar]

Thanks for letting me hit you up for more information.

 

Considering spruce sounding board, and mahogany back & sides, what are the grades of wood available from Gibson? Especially the sounding board. What is the premium material and species of wood (for an L-00 size)?

 

I read over on the M-board that they grade spruce on about 6 levels based on the raw wood, grain pattern, placement in the quarter-sawn cuts, and so on. The highest grades reserved for the fanciest instruments.

 

At Gibson, is it as straight-forward as A, AA, and AAA?

 

Is all mahogany the same?

 

Thank you for your thoughts.

 

Danner ,

 

I'm not sure how much they have of this but I ordered a Master Museum guitar in late october /early september of 2011 .

but the woods that Ren built the body with are the following :

 

Class 5 Quilted Maple for back and sides

Class 5 flamed Maple for the neck

and Handpicked spruce for the top .

J 200 body style

 

 

 

I also heard Ren had a special reserve of MASTER GRADE KOA

so I'm sure there is higher grades than AAA on some woods

 

 

 

JC

[BluesKing777]

Highly technical reply here:

 

 

Don't forget that like guitarists themselves, the best looking guitars are not always the best sounding....

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

[57classic]

Highly technical reply here:

 

 

Don't forget that like guitarists themselves, the best looking guitars are not always the best sounding....

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

 

You got that right

In addition, there are very subtle differences visually between grades, especially with spruce. If you're talking about figured woods like maple or koa, while the difference between A and AAAA will be great, the difference between AAA and AAAA is almost indistinguishable. IMO there is much subjectivity in grading the highly figured woods despite grading guidelines.

[Danner]

I was searching around the luthier sites last night. It looks like AAA sitka spruce is kind of the standard bearer due to its strength and resonance characteristics.

 

Red and white spruce are good too, but not quite as fine as sitka.

[57classic]

The red and white you refer to have different sonic properties than Sitka. The grading system refers to how the wood looks, not how it sounds. Even though some woods, Brazilian rosewood, for example, are reputed to have the best sonic properties, every tree is different. Guitars are made up of many parts. You don't know until it's finished how it will sound. I, personally, haven't played a guitar with BR that I thought was better than East Indian rosewood though I'm sure they're out there. I understand that the appearance of a guitar and how pretty the wood used is important. Only you can determine what is most important to you in buying an instrument. For some it's the emotional draw of how it looks. For others it is how it plays and sounds. Ideally, it all comes together and what you get covers all bases.

[pfox14]

IMHO Adirondack Red Spruce is the holy grail of top tone wood. I would take just about any grade of Adi RS over Sitka anyday of the week and twice on Sunday. Not really sure how Gibson grades their RS, but be sure that the custom shop higher-end guitars get the best grades, while the standard models get the lower grades. Mahogany is generally not graded unless it's a figured variety, which I don't see on Gibsons. They tend towards other figured B&S woods like maple, rosewood, koa, etc.