Yes, wood matters. What is left out of the wood matters conversation all to often is the social acceptance of some species over other species regardless of how good tonal properties may be. Many acceptable wood options are left out of the clique because they do not look pretty enough, fail to have an exotic name, come from an exotic location, or have not yet been hyped or exploited yet because of profitability. I know, this might sound familiar to some, like a Hollywood celebrity. Say, Norma Jean for example. Who is that you might ask? A young woman who was unknown until she was exploited and changed her name to Marilyn Monroe. Then she was the best thing since sliced bread. Their are wood species out there right under your nose, that kick but tonally, or at least hold their own. They do not get a shot because no company, small or large wants to risk investment in the face of the lack of acceptance of a wood that is not so pretty. Has nothing to do really with tone, just social B.S., money, and some degree of hypocrisy. Yes wood matters, but there are other factors involved.
True story.
Ken Parker, of Parker Fly fame, sold his company (and the rights to his name) about 10 or 12 years ago. He eventually decided to return to his first love, which is building archtop acoustic guitars and, typical for him, advancing the form in sonic & functional ways. His perception is that, for the most part, current-day archtop builders take the basic recipe and build strategy for granted and focus more on the visual elements. (especially the fancy inlays!)
Anyway, I reconnected with Ken back in 2010 and, as I lived about an hour from his shop, I became his test mule -- when he finished a guitar (he builds about 5 or 6 a year) he'd call me up and ask me to come down and play it for him. Things led to stuff and I eventually commissioned one of my own. During the time I was pondering the possibility of doing that, Ken acquired a hunk of wood that had been a beam in the original R.J. Reynolds tobacco drying barn in Lexington, KY, built in the 1850s. The wood was tulip poplar, which was once common as dirt across the southeastern US, and grew unusually tall and strong.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liriodendron_tulipifera
Ken made a few test pieces and it blew the doors off all the tests he uses to determine if a particular piece of wood is going to make a good guitar. He shared his excitement with me -- and I saw the wood in the state in which he acquired it. (it was definitely a big old beam) Oh, one other relevant fact: IT'S GREEN. As in the color green, sort of an olive green. A bit iridescent when cut and planed and sanded. OK, so, Ken wants to build an archtop out of this stuff. The back & sides & neck veneer, that is; the top is spruce for the same reason everyone uses spruce or something like it for acoustic guitar, violin, etc. tops -- it's the best wood for that particular job which has been determined through centuries of experimentation. Here's the problem: Ken's guitars are all individually commissioned, and the starting price is $30K. Anyone who is in that market (and that's a pretty small number of people, for several obvious reasons) is most likely going to be pretty conservative when deciding how to spec a musical instrument with that sort of price tag.
In my relatively privileged position (mainly as a KP "insider") I told Ken, I love the concept.
Build me the SECOND one. Happily, that's exactly how it played out. Moreover, when Ken finished the first one, not only did I get to play it, I did so in Ken's hotel suite at the NAMM show where (a) he had one with mahogany and one with maple along for the ride, and (b) there were a bunch of amazingly good pro guitar players who came by to check them out. So not only did I get to play each of the three to my heart's content, I got hear really good players play them. And I got to jam with some of those really good players so I could hear the green/poplar guitar in the context of playing-with-other people. After that I was 100% confident that the poplar would work for me. I sent Ken a deposit, he got to work, and the rest is history.
Here's a photo of one of the jam sessions. The other guys are Jay Roberts (yes, that's Howard's son) and Lexington, KY's own Ben Lacy. Two world-class players.
