guitar aging

[stevec]

Does anybody know from experience or otherwise, when a guitar ages, or plays in......I think that's the term, does the base, midrange, or trebles improve, is it an across the board improvement, or impossible to predict?

thx

stevec

[Miguel]

Hi Steve,

your question is quite broad. The aging of the guitar will depend on many factors: the type of wood, the quality, how often it is played (or not played), and a million other things. Plus, no two pieces of wood are exactly alike (even if they come from the same tree!). Between all these factors it is very hard to tell exactly how the guitar will age.
Why the question? what type of guitar do you have? what kinds of woods does it have? how old is it?

Miguel
GSI

[stevec]

M

The guitar is brand new, it still smells like fresh cut wood. Rosewood, ceder top. I know there is a ton of variables, your right its probably to broad a question. I guess I'm just anxious to see how soon it might blossum as well as broadining my own knowledge.

thx

Stevec

[Miguel]

Hi Steve,
Glad to hear you recently got yourself a new guitar! That's always an exciting thing. The aging is tough to predict, but that's part of the beauty of it all. It's like having a tree planted in your backyard and little by little realizing how it grows and evolves.
But leaving poetry behind, typically cedar top guitars break-in much faster than spruce tops. As a rule the tone produced by cedar is very rich to begin with, with a lot of overtones and harmonics present in the sound; spruce, on the other hand, is typically more 'focused', 'pure', and very clean sounding. Also, remember that cedar has only been used since the 1950's-60's (at least in a consistent manner), whereas spruce has been used for many centuries. Because of this, luthiers have a more or less general idea of how spruce ages. Cedar, on the other hand, is still history in the making. It'll be exciting to know what cedar top guitars sound like 50, or 100 years from now! You probably weren't thinking that far ahead, but it's a fun bit of trivia, don't you think?
Have fun with your guitar!
Miguel
GSI

[stevec]

M

The poetry gives me the appropreate perspective. And thanks for the history of tops.

thx

stevec