braintheory
Well-known member
Some of the newer guitars I have with old growth woods are supposedly over 100 years old, but not sure how old is necessary to be best. They still don’t sound like vintage guitars to meI would guess that "old growth" in todays World is 20 years or so.... for all we know the wood used in the 50's to build the magic Paul's and Strats was 150 yrs old. For sure they weren't all magic, duds are all over the place, but damn the good ones are fantastic and there is something going on with them. I have a 1934 Martin 0-17 I bought from an old codger waaaaaay back when for $400, and it is the literal Voice of Angels acoustic guitar, I've never heard anything like it, square frets and all. The guitar itself is almost 100 years old, the wood could be 200 years old.....
I myself have a 1911 Vicente Arias classical guitar that has a next level warmth and organic nature even over classicals I have from the ‘50’s and ‘60’s. It has cypress back & sides, which usually has a bright, thin, dry sound, but complete opposite with this one. One of my darker sounding guitars actually. Maybe a geological amount of time is needed for amazing tone haha
I had also a Langcaster with Kaori wood (supposedly 1000’s of years old). Sounded pretty good, but wasn’t a keeper. May have had poly finish though, so wouldn’t have heard the true potential of that wood
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