# wood acoustics



## TarterWoodworking (Mar 12, 2014)

Does anyone know about sound acoustics and how it is used with wood to naturally amplify sound through vibration? Im trying to acheive the loudest and best quality sound through a small wooden amplifier im making for my phone for fun.... if it goes well they will be great gifts for family around Christmas time.

I've considered acoustic guitar techniques but I am not sure about shape and details...help please


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## Shells (Feb 20, 2014)

You might be able to find some more information from sites devoted to harp building. I would like to make a harp some day and have read a little about it. The sites discuss sound qualities of different woods.


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## Eeej (Mar 11, 2014)

Most steel stringed guitars have a spruce top, but spruce requires a fair amount of bracing, at least in guitar work. I would consider mahogany. I use it extensively in ukulele building, especially for tops. When resawn to about .075", it has tremendous resonance, and requires little if any bracing. I use a tuning fork (a small metal device used to tune violins) on various pieces of wood to find the highly resonant ones for my musical instruments. The fork can also help locate loose braces and cracks acoustically, since they buzz. 
Good Luck!


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## Eeej (Mar 11, 2014)

One other thought-cigar boxes! The better ones have mahogany tops and bottoms (though often laminated). I bring my tuning fork to the smoke shop and use it to select the loudest, clearest box for ukulele builds, some light tapping might accomplish the same thing.
Have Fun...


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

...the cigar store owner probably thinks you're an alien!
(Close Encounters of the Third Kind)


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## Eeej (Mar 11, 2014)

I do spend a fair amount of time at the smoke shop, for someone who doesn't smoke anymore....:big_boss:


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## MAFoElffen (Jun 8, 2012)

TarterWoodworking said:


> Does anyone know about sound acoustics and how it is used with wood to naturally amplify sound through vibration? Im trying to acheive the loudest and best quality sound through a small wooden amplifier im making for my phone for fun.... if it goes well they will be great gifts for family around Christmas time.
> 
> I've considered acoustic guitar techniques but I am not sure about shape and details...help please


A couple ideas-

For speaker enclosures, that crowd seems to really like MDF for it's sound projection qualities. It is very dense. I think Pat could mention more on that, but I haven't seen posts from him here in a while. 

For musical instruments, I had a close encounter with a group of violin makers... who bought some of my dead cedars. I got a great price for those 2 dead cedars. Seems they are always searching for naturally occurring dead cedars. The slow seasoning of the wood over time, along with the characteristics of the wood. They want them standing. They came out to fell them carefully themselves. (So the shock of a fall didn't stress the wood...) 

Cedar is probably at the opposite end in qualities than MDF. It is somewhat flexible, resonates, carries and amplifies sound. MDF being so dense, bounces sound off it's surface.


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