I Wish I Knew This Before Buying An Acoustic: THE TOP

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The top (or soundboard) of a guitar is the most important part of any acoustic. In this video I am
comparing 5 different woods so you can hear how much it affects the tone.

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Hi, my name is Paul Davids! I am a guitar player, teacher, producer, and overall music enthusiast from the Netherlands! I try to inspire people from all over the world with my videos, here on YouTube.

0:00 The importance of the top
0:23 Guitar factory
1:30 The five woods
2:05 Full comparison 1
2:28 Sitka
3:45 Cedar
5:53 Hawaiian Koa
7:31 Sinker Redwood
9:56 Indian Rosewood
11:58 Full comparison 2
12:36 Conclusion

Thank you for watching!
Paul

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50mm:

[FurchGuitarsOfficial]

Lovely video, Paul! Your playing truly does justice to these beautiful guitars. Thanks again for visiting and spending time with us—we’re already looking forward to the next meeting!

[Incandescentiron]

This is the best comparison of tone wood I've seen. Thank you for posting.

[dcarpenter]

The Sinker Redwood sounds best to my ears with the styles you are playing in this video. Good volume, great definition, great clarity. And it looks beautiful.

[tr]

First 30 seconds in and I can already relate. Also... if you hold the guitar slightly tilted on your lap so the BACK is also free of touching your belly the guitar resonates even better. So both top and back are essential and holding the guitar "right" makes a difference. Jocelyn Gould mentions this while visiting the gentlemen of That Pedal Show. Be sure to check that!

[rogerdsmith]

The only additions for your comparison I might suggest, would be a mahogany top and a walnut top.

[harka]

I am happy to be able to say that I own a Furch by myself. And I remember the day in my guitar shop, trying out various accoustic guitars and then they handed me over one with a cedar top. I immediately fell in love and to this day consider it the best accoustic guitar I will ever have and play What a sound and what a difference - at least for my ears !

[SlimeyGuitarStrings]

I love these videos, they're so helpful. The first 2 videos helped me start my search for a nice acoustic a year or two ago. My only critique is that I think a mahogany top really should have been part of the comparison because all mahogany small body guitars do something pretty special.

[fj.guitar]

This is so informative!! Especially, when you want to buy a new guitar. Thank you Paul🙏🏼

[psher]

A wonderful video - superbly researched and presented, so many thanks! I studied wood science many years ago and my honours project was on the dynamic response of tonewoods in guitar construction and one important characteristic of tonewoods is that final selection must consider that "there is likely to be as much variation whithin a species of wood as there is between species"

[tommylitchfield]

I'd love to see a video with "identical" guitars with various spruce tops. Engelmann, Sitka, Alpine, Adirondack, and German. Maybe Sitka with Sitka vs. Adirondack bracing, Forward vs. standard bracing, etc. Does bear claw affect the tone as much as it makes the wood beautiful? And yes, prove to everyone else that uncoated D'Addario phosphor-bronze medium gauge strings are superior to all others for tone :)

[lofomuses]

Yes, it needs to be STRINGS for Vol 4. Many of us have only 1-2 acoustic guitars, and cannot change top materials so easily! But what can we do to change our tones by using different types/brands of strings?

[EliasThury]

Cedar is easily my favorite top wood. In college i had a cheap takamine dread with a cedar top and im still chasing that sound.

[PeteA]

Great comparison video, as usual, Paul. A couple of thoughts here. I would have liked to have a mahogany top included. Loved the sparkle of the Koa in this comparison. Going forward, perhaps a comparison of various spruce tops (Adirondack, Sitka, Engelmann, White, European). Strings would make for a great comparison as well. I find that different string materials go with different tone woods. For example, I love Kovar strings on an all Mahogany guitar.

[MDCapitanio]

I have both cedar and sitka top guitars. I just love how the cedar reaches its limit on dynamic range. It gives that punchy feeling without the effort.

[GaborTheNeuron]

Very good comparison. My favorite is the Koa. The video and sound quality are top-notch as usual.

[roymeyer]

Great comparison! Cedar has been among my favorite top woods for a long time. I went shopping for an inexpensive campfire guitar years ago and landed on an entry-level Seagull. It sounded so good that it quickly got promoted from campfire guitar to one I played alongside my solid wood Martins! That made me think I was a huge fan of Seagull's tone, and over the years I've owned a few all-solid models from their Maritime SWS and Artist lines, but none of them quite captivated me like the cheap one did. Turns out all that incredible magic was in the cedar! Now a cedar-topped all solid wood acoustic is one of my must-have future guitar purchases.

[oldmanzen]

Fantastic video. Thanks for going through all the work of getting them made, shipped, then making the video. Well worth it, as this was great.

[grootzijl]

When you asked the question on what to cover next in this series I immediately thought strings even before you mentioned it. I've recently bought a new guitar and I am experimenting with what kind of strings I like best on it, and read quite a bit about the subject. And there is so much choice it's overwhelming (gauges, different tensions, differen cores, alloys, coated vs non coated etc.). I'd love to see your take on the subject. Btw, you got me into Travis picking and I'm loving the Acoustic Adventure course, thanks very much!

[kentvail]

This is the best comparison video I’ve ever seen!!! Love Furch guitars too!! Thanks for posting this!!

[dwarfyh]

Stunning guitars and a great explanation and demo of the different sounds and capabilities from you and Furch