Mahogany v. Rosewood

POSTED BY: Dave Keir

POSTED ON: 05/04/08 19:17:58

Yeah, well. Much has been written. For the uninitiated we're talkin' guitar tonewoods here.

I have two guitars (well, two that are being regularly played) which are identical apart from some cosmetics and the woods comprising the backs and sides; to whit: one has mahogany back and sides, the other rosewood. Do they sound very different? Well...

To my - and most keen guitar players' - ears, they sound very different. To a lay person, if a difference is detected at all it will be something very subtle and maybe inconsequential. Certainly the difference would be hard to describe. However, in an effort to articulate the difference between these woods, guitar players and guitar makers have spawned a vocabulary lifted directly from that used by wine buffs the world over. Below is a summary of the terms I've seen used for each tonewood, in turn:

Mahogany: a dry and crisp sounding tonewood which emphasises the fundementals of the note. It provides a ping in the trebles, a snap in the mids and a growl in the bass. Its overall sonic palette has a definite underpinning of wheat (honest - I've seen this written!).

Rosewood: a dark and complex tonewood whose sound is overlaced with rich harmonics. It has a deep and almost reverberant quality. It provides a zing in the trebles, a bark in the mids and a grumble in the bass.

To extend the association with wine, I would equate the mahogany with a crisp Chablis and the Rosewood with a full bodied Claret.

So there we are. Very fanciful and probably gobbledegook to a non-guitar player. I only feel slightly foolish due to agreeing with these descriptions, by and large.

Oh, and another thing in passing: I was recently relieved to read that jazz players generally don't take to rosewood guitars because of the very richness of the harmonics that rosewood emphasises insofar as these harmonics render the already complex chord forms used in jazz to a confused mush. Hitherto, I thought it might just be my imagination.

Mixing it (in the studio!)

POSTED BY: Dave Keir

POSTED ON: 04/26/08 13:57:39

Getting to grips with some new titles is always interesting for its own sake - but it also refreshes the ears if they’ve been only fed a diet of familiar sounds and songs thereby slowly losing critical acumen. At another level, there’s the odd effect caused by continuously recording and mixing solo acoustic guitar and vocal. That kind of presents my ears with a pretty constant sonic palette and while that’s great for becoming sensitive and attuned to subtle nuances, it does become make me feel satiated with that sound world and in need of some contrast.

An easy short term fix is just to slip in a CD in the hi-fi for some sonic wash and rinse, but from time to time a real break is needed; some distance between the recording (say) and the mixing and the “auditioning”. It’s at this time I’ll explore swing jazz or immerse myself in some Sibelius or Mahler, or get out some maps and plan some days in the hills. I may even take a look at the TV but I always end up staring at twenty-four hour news channels or endlessly scrolling the schedules. Occasionally, a favourite movie DVD will get spin…

But not too long and I’m back in the chair again, mulling over that soundworld and trying to hear it with someone else’s ears. Just a guy with a guitar: who’d have thought it would be so involved?

The Zone

POSTED BY: Dave Keir

POSTED ON: 04/23/08 19:20:06

A recent thread on an internet forum got me thinking. The original poster criticised guitar players who concentrated too much on technique and not enough about putting their heart into it. Good point. Perhaps it’s a lack of confidence in playing accurately that causes some players to become a bit mechanical in their execution of their music. Perhaps some simply don’t have an “artist’s soul” (I don’t buy it either). I get nervous sometimes on stage and that sure inhibits getting in the groove! On the other hand, it’s seems to me that to play challenging pieces requires a certain amount of due care and attention to what your fingers are doing. Gifted players, or players who have the time or dedication to practice six hours every day, may have their stuff so well under their fingers that they don’t have to think about it and can put all their concentration into expression during performance. But for us mortals it’s a different story.

To let go while remaining in control. That reads like a paradox, all right. But I take it to mean being “in the zone”. It’ll be good for me to keep it in mind and by doing so perhaps I’ll achieve it more often.

Site Updated

POSTED BY: Dave Keir

POSTED ON: 04/18/07 23:40:15

Hi!

Well I've just upgraded my account to pro and have opened my shop and digistore. Please wander along and take a peep! (Thanks Jen!)

The store contains my CD "Interim Reports" and the digistore contains 192kbps MP3s of the songs on the CD. (Two of the 192 kbps MP3s were larger than the 8MB limit so I've uploaded 128s and priced them less, accordingly.)

I've updated my audio page and it now has all the songs from the CD for hi-fi streaming. I've also uploaded here 3 songs for my forthcoming CD ("Po Faced", "How Well", and "I Don't Think So") which are in early "mix" stage and which are available as FREE downloads.

I've included a whole bunch of stuff like lyrics and some words about the songs and some more photos.

I hope you find some of it of interest. I just spent all night doing it. Labour of love. I need a drink now.

Cheers!

My Blog!

POSTED BY: Dave Keir

POSTED ON: 04/16/07 13:19:19

Please click here to visit my blog at my personal website.

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