Handmade in Minnesota
Owasso Guitar Co. Acoustic Guitars 770 Grand Ave St. Paul, Minnesota 55105 (651) 560-6957
Tonewoods
Do your homework, know what you want... Wikipedia pages are linked below each species!!!
Adirondack Spruce
The king of the spruces! Known for its excellent strength to weight ratio, Adirondak (also called Red Spruce), is a pillar in some of the most well-known, best sounding acoustics ever. It has a strong fundamental response with plush overtones that to your ear, will instantly remind you of some of the best recordings of your favorite songs.
Adirondak Spruce is light, strong and rare. It has only two downsides and none of them are related to sound. Its strength to weight ratio is very high, making it a bit more brittle materially and therefore more vulnerable to changes in climate. It's also harder to come by in sizes suitable for an entire guitar-top, which means it's more expensive.
We offer Adirondak Spruce tops as an upgrade on all our guitars. Adirondak braces can be added to any guitar for no charge and is a staple of our signature H.M.S. Dreadnaught.
Sitka Spruce
Sitka Spruce is the bread and butter of an acoustic guitar. Resonant, strong and plentyful, this spruce is commonly found on more steel string guitars.
However, its strength comes as a double edged sword in some ways. Unlike Adi Spruce, which garners its strength from rigidity. Sitka Spruce has more elastic qualites, allowing it to bend much more before it breaks. This makes it a much heartier choice for a soundboard, especially when you factor changes in climate. The downside is that these qualities come at the expense of dynamics.
Port Oxford Cedar
A native of the Northwest, Port Oxford is not actually a Cedar, it's in the Cyprus family. With qualities similiar to spruce, it is resonant and strong and hearty to climate. The most notable feature of this wood is the smell. It smells incredible!
We don't often use this wood for tops, due to its scarcity. But, due to its high tolerance to climate chance, we use it frequently for the internal construction of our guitars.
Honduran Mahogany
This is a tried and true tonewood. Often under-valued due to its lower cost, Mahogany overs tremendous value for the sonic qualities it offers.
A staple in Bluegrass music, Mahogany is known for its warmth and projection. It's quite a cannon when paired with an Adirondak top. It's also very versitile when playing with other instruments, especially other guitars and cough, banjos, cough. Making it quite well suited for lead guitarists.
East Indian Rosewood
Indian Rosewood is quite simply the best tonewood available for the back and sides of acoustic guitars. It's proven reliable, competitivly priced and easy to find. Which makes it the best value available, if you value sound quality and price.
On top of its crisp, glassy and resonant tone, it's also beautiful to look at and a joy to work with. It smells great and I wouldn't be suprised if it tasted great too. Making it pleasing to all five senses. It can be used for bridges and fingerboards, too.
This wood is a great choice for anyone who plays a wide-variety of styles. Its frequency response also makes it the best choice for singer/songwriters.
African Ebony
African Ebony is a dark and dense wood. It's commonly used for bridges and fingerboards, but is used rarely for backs and sides.
This wood is harder to come by each and everyday, especially in the quality needed to make an instrument of lasting quality. It is a standard for fingerboards and bridges on all our instruments. However, we are currently looking for suitable, environmentally responsible alternatives.
USA Birdseye Maple
Maple is available in many forms for instrument making. Quilted or flamed, USA or European, it all pretty much sounds and functions the same, except Birdseye.
Birdseye maple is much, much stronger and stiffer than other forms of maple. It's great for everything from guitar necks to back and sides. Due to its extra strength, we make our bridge plates (piece of wood slotted into X-brace, under bridge area) using this wood.