Different parts of the guitar body are made of certain wood species, selected by their specific properties. The sound board, which is mainly made of spruce or cedar, transfers the vibration of the strings to the resonance body by means of the bridge. The sides and the back of the guitar rather reflect the sound of the acoustic vibrations and are predominantly made of tropical hardwoods like palisander, mahogany or ebony species. These species have limited availability and are listed on the CITES Annex I and II. To substitute tropical wood species, thermally modified European wood species with improved acoustic properties and dimensional stability may be used (Pfriem 2007, Pfriem 2015, Zauer et al. 2016). Although the acoustic reflection of the sides and the back parts of a guitar body is an important property, there is not much knowledge about this reflection behaviour of wood. A few studies like the work of Hong (1989), Kang (2010) or Smardzewski et al. (2013) investigated the sound absorption properties of unmodified wood. Subsequently this study considers the sound absorption coefficients of unmodified and thermally modified European wood species in comparison to an unmodified tropical wood species.
Keywords: thermal modification, acoustic properties, wood species
Authors
Christoph Munk
Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development, Eberswalde, Faculty of Wood Technolog
Lothar Clauder
Alexander Pfriem
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