We’ve all been in the same situation – either we’re listening to a favorite song, or trying to find a new one, but not succeeding because the sound quality is lacking. It’s because of this that people are beginning to wonder what kind of wood their acoustic guitar is made out of and whether or not it has an impact on the sound. In this blog post, we’ll go over how you can tell if your acoustic guitar choice is made out of solid or laminate woods and some benefits for both.
Contents
There is a lot of confusion surrounding the difference between solid wood and laminate wood in an acoustic guitar. So before we go into detail on this, let’s get a basic description of each wood type.
Solid Wood
This refers to all the real, natural woods that have been used for making acoustic guitars. Examples would be mahogany, spruce and maple. The main benefit of using solid woods is that it will vary in quality and tone from one piece to another. For example, maple will sound brighter than mahogany. Different woods will also produce a different tonal balance as well. Maple on the other hand can produce very defined bass while mahogany can do the same for mids and highs. The downside of solid wood acoustic guitar construction is that it will sometimes suffer from warping and/or cracks during shipping if it is not protected correctly. It can also break easily if it is damaged by an external force or too much pressure while being played.
What Is A Solid Wood Guitar Body?
Solid wood guitars are made from a single piece of wood. The grain and color of the wood are unique to each guitar, as all parts of the guitar were crafted from the same single piece of wood, so each one has a different look and feel.
This makes it harder for manufacturers to craft each part out of multiple pieces of wood, which they can do with laminate guitars. However, many solid wood guitars have been crafted in a process that is similar to lamination.
Are Solid Wood Guitars Better Than Laminate?
Solid wood guitars are far superior to laminate ones when it comes to tone. They express the tone of wood much better than laminate guitars, giving them a richer sound that can’t be achieved with other materials.
With this in mind, there is no question that a solid wood guitar will sound better than a laminate one. Depending on the type of wood, your solid wood guitar will probably have more sustain and resonance as well.
How Do I Know If My Guitar Is Solid Wood?
If your guitar is made out of two or more pieces of wood, it’s a laminate and not a solid wood guitar. The differences in tone and sustain are too great to call them “laminated” guitars.
Are Solid Wood Guitars Worth It?
Solid wood guitars are considerably more expensive than laminate ones. If you can afford it, the difference in sound quality between the two will be well worth the extra cost. Also, if you plan on carrying your guitar around all day and sitting on it for a few hours every night, these guitars will last for at least 100 years with proper care and maintenance.
Laminate Wood
This refers to all the pieces of wood that are glued together to create an acoustic guitar. One of the main benefits of laminate wood is that it can be easily mass-produced. This makes it cheaper in terms of production costs and transportation so you can find these guitars in more places, especially online or in music stores. On the downside, there is no variation in tone like with real solid wood. The texture is also very uniform, unlike real wood acoustic guitars.
Now that you are familiar with the differences between laminate and solid wood, let’s talk about other benefits of both.
What Is A Laminate Guitar Body?
Laminate guitars are made up of multiple layers of wood for electric guitar, which can be solid wood or laminated wood. Lamination is a process where a number of pieces of wood are put together at the factory to create a thicker layer.
This allows manufacturers to save money by cutting down on the amount of time they need to craft each guitar. It’s also an environmentally friendly process that takes less resources to make the same thickness guitar as a solid one, as more trees aren’t being cut down.
Are Laminate Guitars Any Good?
Laminate guitars are an effective way to make a guitar with less wood. While they don’t sound as pure, they do have more resonance than solid wood guitars. This is important for two reasons: it makes them more responsive when playing, and it allows the sound to be tuned higher for more volume.
While laminate guitars may not be able to achieve the same tone as a solid wood guitar one, there are plenty of other advantages to considering laminate over solid wood.
Are Laminate Guitars More Durable?
If being more durable is one of your reasons for choosing laminate over solid wood, you may be right. Laminate guitars are created using a process that allows them to last for hundreds of years, and they’ve been around for centuries.
Again, we can’t say that laminate guitars will never break down due to less craftsmanship or poor tuning and maintenance, but the fact that this isn’t an issue in the first place will make you feel better about choosing one over a solid wood guitar.
How Long Do Laminate Guitars Last?
What you pay for a laminate is the amount of time that it will last, and that isn’t going to be true if you choose one made with less wood.
As mentioned before, laminate guitars are crafted using a process that cuts down on the amount of wood needed to make them. What this means for longevity is that they last longer than solid wood guitars, despite their lower cost. Structurally, they’re the same as other types of guitars.
Do Laminate Guitars Improve With Age?
Since laminate guitars are made with less wood, they can’t improve in the same way that a solid guitar can over time by absorbing more moisture and getting stronger. There are some that say that laminate guitars get better as they age because of this absorption, but there is no scientific evidence to prove this.
That being said, a laminate guitar will not deteriorate the same way a solid wood guitar will as it breaks down from use.
Benefits of Solid Wood
As mentioned before, one of the main benefits of solid wood is that it will vary in quality from piece to piece as well as tone. For example, some maple will produce more defined bass than others. This means that depending on the type you choose, you’ll get a different response from each string. When you use laminate wood, the only way to get a range of different varieties is to create countless layers of the same type of wood.
One other benefit of solid wood is that it will be more accessible than laminate wood. For example, if you are looking for a specific model or instrument out there, chances are it will be made with solid wood guitars. There may be some manufactured with laminate guitars though, but for the most part they tend to be cheaper and less desirable quality.
One more big benefit of using a solid wood guitar is that the longer you play on it, the sound will get better and better. This means that it will be very common for people to buy used acoustic guitars in order to improve their sound after playing on them for some time.
Benefits of Laminate Wood
As mentioned before, laminate wood is more accessible than solid wood due to its ease in mass production. It is also much cheaper than its solid wood counterpart so you can find them easily at any type of music shop. This makes it good for people who are looking to have an acoustic guitar for a hobby or something they’ll just play around with.
Doing your research is very important when buying an acoustic guitar and solid and laminate woods are a great place to start since it will cover the neck, sides and back of the guitar. You also want to check the bridge, nut and saddle in order to get a better idea of what the guitar will sound like.
The Difference in Guitar Sound Quality
There are many factors that will affect the sound quality of an acoustic guitar, but the type of wood is one of the main ones. When you use a solid wood guitar, you’ll notice that they are much louder than laminate ones. This is because there are certain types of solid wood that have better acoustic properties than other types, such as spruce being better for mids and bass while mahogany is better for mid-range frequencies.
The price will also be a good indicator of quality in addition to type. Solid wood acoustic guitars are going to be more expensive than laminate ones, but this doesn’t mean you should just buy them on the spot.
In Conclusion
We suggest doing your research on the quality of the wood. Doing this is going to make it easier for you to get a solid wood acoustic guitar that will stay in good shape and produce excellent sound for years and years.