1 7 ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES | JULY/AUGUST 2023 forests. To the authors’ knowledge, these are not used for musical instruments. On the other hand, Black Cherry and Bigleaf Maple, temperate boreal trees, do see limited use in production guitar models. The four pine species, Western Hemlock and Swamp Tupelo are not favored for luthiery. Alaskan Yellow Cedar and Douglas Fir are occasionally used in boutique guitar builds. There are over 200 soundboard/ body combinations in Table 1. Of these, most major guitar companies offer at least one model utilizing Bigleaf Maple or Black Cherry bodies paired with a spruce, cedar, or maple top. Few of the other possible combinations are known to have been evaluated. It should also be noted that some species commonly used for guitar construction are not included in the Granta database and therefore will not appear in these results, such as Acacia koa. SUMMARY The builders of acoustic guitars continue to respond to sustainability concerns surrounding key raw materials in the face of consumer expectations for instruments that look and sound like those made from traditional tonewoods. Balancing these expectations with the economic, environmental, and social aspects of sustainability is an ongoing and growing challenge. The purpose of this study was to determine whether alternative and sustainable tonewood species with key performance metrics comparable to established benchmarks might be identified using a commercial multiple objective selection tool. The results suggest a great deal of opportunity exists. The authors hope that this brief evaluation will encourage music instrument builders and buyers alike to continue to explore innovative solutions to create attractive and sustainable products. ~AM&P Acknowledgments Gratitude is expressed to David Cebon, University of Cambridge, U.K. and ANSYS for providing access to the Granta Selector software. Appreciation is also due to Steve McMinn (Pacific Rim Tonewoods, Concrete, Wash.) and Scott Paul (Taylor Guitars, El Cajon, Calif.) for helpful conversations on the complexities of the tonewood business. For more information: James D. Cotton, materials consultant, Issaquah, WA, jamesdeancotton@gmail.com; and John D. Wolodko, associate professor, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, jwolodko@ualberta.ca. References 1. C. Alexander, and N. Freeth, The Guitar, Running Press, Philadelphia and London, 2022, ISBN: 0762413298. 2. B.C. Bennett, The Sound of Trees: Wood Selection in Guitars and Other Chordophones, Economic Botany, 70(1), p 49-63, 2016. 3. C. Gibson, and A. Warren, The Guitar: Tracing the Grain Back to the Tree, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 2021. 4. Martin D-28, https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Martin_D-28. 5. Number of Acoustic Guitars Sold in the United States from 2005 to 2021, https://www.statista.com/statistics/ 439891/number-of-acoustic-guitarssold-in-the-us/. 6. M. Daly, Associated Press, Biden Ends Large-scale Logging on Huge Alaska Rainforest, PBS New Hour, July 2021. Retrieved from https://www.pbs. org/newshour/nation/biden-endslarge-scale-logging-on-huge-alaskarainforest. 7. 6 reasons Old-growth Forests are Really Important, 2022, https:// www.wilderness.org/articles/blog/ 6-reasons-old-growth-forests-are- really-important#. 8. CITES Appendices I, II, and III, https://cites.org/sites/default/files/eng/ app/2023/E-Appendices-2023-02-23.pdf. 9. G. Rifkin, Guitar Makers Regret Loss of Rare Woods, The New York Times, June 2007. 10. A. Bradbury, Out of the Woods: The Environmental Challenges Facing Guitar Makers, Guitar World, July 2021, https://www.guitarworld. com/features/out-of-the-woods-the- environmental-challenges-facing- guitar-makers. 11. C. Saufley, The Forest for the Trees, Premier Guitar, June 2020. https://www.premierguitar.com/what- will-replace-classic-tonewoods. 12. S. Paul, Branching Out, Wood & Steel, 3, 2022. https://woodandsteel. taylorguitars.com/issue/2022-issue-3/ sustainability/branching-out/. 13. S. Calvano, et al., Use and Sustainability of Wood in Acoustic Guitars: An Overview Based on the Global Market, Heliyon, 9, e15218, 2023. 14. Ansys Granta Selector, https:// www.ansys.com/products/materials/ granta-selector. 15. M.F. Ashby, et al., The Mechanical Properties of Natural Materials. I. Material Property Charts, Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A, 450, p 123-140, 1995. 16. M.F. Ashby, Materials Selection in Mechanical Design, 5th ed., Elsevier, 2017. 17. C. Barlow, Material Selection for Musical Instruments, Proc. Inst. Acoust., 19, p 69–78, 1997. 18. U.G.K. Wegst Wood for Sound, Am. J. Bot., 93, p 1439–1448, 2006. 19. S. Yoshikawa, (2007). Acoustical Classification of Woods for String Instruments, J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 122, p 573–573. 20. E. Obataya, T. Ono, and M. Norimoto, Vibrational Properties of Wood Along the Grain, J. Mater. Sci., 35, p 2993–3001, 2000. GET ENGAGED, GET INVOLVED, GET CONNECTED The ASM Sustainable Materials Engineering Committee meets regularly to connect and communicate about their shared interest in green materials and processes. For more information, contact committee chair John Wolodko or staff liaison Scott Henry, scott.henry@asminternational.org.
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