Questions: Choosing Top Wood

by John Calkin

Originally published in American Lutherie #84, 2005 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015



Jerry Tekell of Italy, Texas asks:

As a person somewhat new to instrument building I’d like to ask: Why do most builders use spruce or pine for guitar and mandolin tops? Why not maple, for example? I’d love to use maple on the top as well as the back of my mandolins, but I wonder how it would sound.


John Calkin, GAL Contributing Editor, responds:

Softwoods (conifers) are traditional for instrument tops, which also makes them what customers expect to see. Don’t neglect the importance of this. There are real-world reasons, though, as well. A wood needs to be strong enough to withstand the forces of string tension and compression (if you are talking about an archtop mandolin) and also light enough to be set in motion effectively by string vibration. Quartersawn softwoods seem to fit the bill better than the wood from deciduous trees. I tend to think of softwoods as fluffy, since they have a lot of air trapped in their structures. Hardwoods like hard maple are more like a metal (in my mind, not in reality) since they are very dense.