quarter sawn/back sawn

[mlp]

hi there, pretty new to all of this. Am building my maiden acoustic at the moment, i have bought a few books on acoustic guitar construction and also googled way too much! From what i have read all tonewood used should be well quarter sawn,but i have seen a lot of back material being sold going from quarter sawn into back sawn ! is it acceptable to use this wood? has anyone had any experience using Tas blackwood in this way? any reply would be great. thanks

[Kim]

Hi (insert name here)

Welcome to the ANZLF

To answer your question I think it is best to say that well quartered wood is always best as it has less cross grain movement in relation to changes in relative humidity. That said there are also 'many' species that are quite stable even when riff of indeed flatsawn. Cocobolo is and example, as long as no localised areas such as knots etc are present, once it is dry it really is quite stable, as are most of the rosewoods. As for Aussie/Tassie blackwood, their is so much around that I would not bother with flatsawn, however a bit of skew in a set is not a bad thing.

Cheers

Kim

[mlp]

thanks for the information Kim
Marcus.