Wood discussion with Michael Greenfield

[rob taft]

Interesting discussion about wood with accomplished luthier Michael Greenfield.

[Jx30510]

Very interesting, thanks.
Not wood, but my experience with a recent test with tailpieces.. I have just bought a ES135 which has it's original tailpiece made of unknown material. I have an ABM high end (and costly) brass bell thing tailpiece in my spare parts.
When I hit the 2 tailpieces (not mounted on the guitar), the Gibson gives a higher note ring than the ABM.. Not less ringing quality, just different..
I also have an ABM Nashville bridge made of the same material, "solid bell brass", against the original one on the ES-135 which is brass? Or ping? Well it's lighter and brighter when hit..
I tried to mount the ABM Tailpiece and bridge on the ES-135.
When I tested the guitar (same new strings, same amp, same pick, same everything..) it had lost much of it's touch sensitivity and airy quality for a much heavier sound.. As if I heard more of the metal than the wood.
In my opinion, the guitar lost much of it's personality and "mojo". Because the ES-135 has lot of that "mojo"
So the high end and very expensive ABM are bad? No, just different, and I hardly believe that a guitar is the sum of it's parts, which in good cases make a wonderful guitars just because each element interacts in a good way. Very experienced luthiers know how to blend every element of a guitar to make it finally ring in a certain way.

I'm saying this because I think this applies to wood.. A good rosewood, very dense and with it's owm characteristics may work on a build and not on another, wherever it comes from.
They are dogs with Brazilian rosewood

[Jx30510]

And to go a little further
I recently exchanged my 2022 Gibson ES-339 for the aforementioned Gibson 2002 ES-135. Same Gibson Classic 57 pickups.
The ES-135 is a much better guitar.. Is it the woods, the age, the build quality? I don't know. They are different guitars (neck is maple on the ES-135), but you just can feel the ES-135 has more of everything.
Now, take a look at the rosewood on the ES-135


Now the 2022 ES-339



The fretboard of the ES-135 is very hard, very dense, and has a very bright and firm "pluck" when hit.

The ES339 has a soft and open pored fretboard.. When hit there is almost no "pluck" thing that the ES-135 has.. It just absorbs the hit..
I know there is the maple vs mahogony neck under the fretboards, but it is the rosewood I can hear in my tests.

I suspect that the rosewood is lesser quality on the recent one, but it's just what I hear and see.

And this posts relates to the video by the OP when I see them hit the pieces of wood, or the story behind Stradivarius testing the speed of the sound coming from a piece of wood when hit
Very interesting

[iim7V7IM7]

Michael Watts’ videos are always enjoyable. Michael Greenfield articulates some wise insights in the video that are more applicable to acoustic flattops (his specialty, while he has built a few archtops and classical guitars). Michael W was traveling the US creating content for The Archtop Foundation. He was making a number of these at the Rocky Mountain Archtop festival. He made a number of videos with George Gruhn, Cris Mirabella, Ken Parker and Michael Bashkin before returning to the UK. The foundation is based in Burlington, VT which is a short drive to Montreal where Michael Greenfield’s shop is located.

[gitman]

Mr. Greenfields articulations for me are proof that he is a highly experienced, thoughtful, observing and critical artisan/luthier/builder - many more so-called guitar experts should listen to his takes on so many things re woods and building etc with which he bursts as many bubbles and clarifies as many misconceptions.... certainly not restrícted to just flattop guitars. I'd listen to his opinions any time as opposed to the self-indulgent and self-agrandizing "lectures" of some his contemporaries...

[st.bede]

I never see myself buying (what I assume is) an expensive acoustic guitar, but the vid was really fun.