Mike's Oud Forums

Wood species and reflection/conduction of sound waves..?

Oudistan - 4-20-2018 at 03:13 AM

Hello all,

I'm sure many of your know and understand how different woods, particularly spruce and cedar, react differently to sound waves.

Some members of these forums have contributed extremely valuable information regarding bracing systems, vibration modes, and have done extensive research using Chladni Patterns and oud tops.

That collective work (which was shared on these forums) has indeed made its way to many makers and has indeed resulted in more understanding of the acoustic properties of oud tops and bracing methods and eventually the production of better ouds in the past few years.

Does anyone have information regarding the reflective/conductive properties of sound waves by different wood species when used in a guitar/oud soundbox?

It seems that many players and even makers believe that the type of wood a sound box is made of has little to no effect on the overall sound of an instrument.

By simple interaction with some ouds made of different woods, it seems very clear that the type of wood used does affect the sound by a degree that I find comparable to the effect of the oud-top to the overall sound.

Any info is much appreciated.