Luthier’s Research - A Tonewood Xylophone 

for best comparison you should make the same note out of different woods as well. :)

I am a retired woodwork teacher. The music department had some chime bars consisting of an aluminium rod suspended on monofilament nylon, above a deep groove in a wooden handle/base. I thought the kids could make them as a project so I copied one in every detail, the same hardwood, same bar, same nylon string. It just went 'dunk'. I never worked out why. Probably, with 30 yrs hindsight, it was the wrong alloy of aluminium with too much internal dampening. I am not musical, I'm an engineer by training and from what I remember about vibrating beams, the node is at the quarter points, which is where the bars should be suspended for maximum note duration. Looking online that appears to be true for Xylophones.

That ending was AMAZING! 😊😊😊 brought a huge smile to my face haha 😆

My very limited experience with xylophones says the keys shouldn’t rest on their ends but rather at a position roughly 1/6 of the total length in from the end. It’s about nodes, much as for a string, but since they’re scooped they don’t have the same linear performance. As I said, limited experience. To compare species you could either: - make the exact same dimensions and profile and compare the note and sound - keeping the length the same change the profile to achieve the same note and compare sound and sustain - keeping the profile consistent and only change the width, see what that does. 👍👍

I’ve built a few guitars with American chestnut harvested from 150 year old hewn barn beams. I used it after dropping a piece on my shop floor from the planer and hearing it ring. So I took my 1.5” thick planks back to my mill and sawed them into thirds. Next semi-hollow body is in the works now.

You never cease to amaze me! Good job, THANK YOU!!

Great to see you back Daisy! Always entertaining and educational 👍🏻, thankyou as always.

Great video, really enjoyed it. I’ve learned so much. Paduk has got a lovely tone. Nice to have you back. Peace and love from Boston Mass.👏👍🎶🎸

Love your spirit of adventure! Can clearly hear the difference.👍

I have the utmost respect for your craft, seeing how difficult it is to shape a sound using physical means makes me appreciate modern audio signal processing techniques as well.

Thanks Daisy, you’ve certainly made me think about wood in a different way, as a guitar player and a woodworker 😀

Brilliant - on many levels Daisy. Thank you!

I think that this was a very interesting project. I enjoy all of your videos. Super talented.

Your videos are always very interesting and your presentation style is great. Thank you for sharing your work. 🙂

I loved the video , very cool Z-Phone, and it looked awesome as well as sounded nice

Most excellent and informative video. Well done.

As a piano restorer and musician I find your videos both fascinating and informative, and having recently subscribed I shall now watch some more. Many thanks for posting.

Hiya Daisy, Great video, thank you. Well, I learned a lot. All grist to the mill of musical growth. Stay safe, Steve...

I've never thought of using pen blanks for anything other than pens. You freed my mind in that aspect, and I'm likely going to use them to make board game pieces in future because of it. Thank you!

I greatly appreciate your commitment to your work and the way you skillfully balance your various responsibilities. Your remarkable talent for explaining complex concepts with clarity and brevity is truly admirable. Moreover, I am certain that your compassion and empathy have made a positive impact on the lives of those around you. It is also admirable how you incorporate the values of your Lutheran faith into your daily life, which has helped shape you into the inspiring and compassionate person you are today.

Good to see you, it's been a while! Very interesting (yes, I could tell the difference).

Great to understand WHY the tone woods create their sound. Instructive and entertaining!

That video was way more entertaining than I was expecting! I'm your newest subscriber.

Outstanding work and interesting demonstration of the music of wood! As a keen guitar player this is truly fascinating.

Great video Daisy

Fantastic experiment! I've thought of doing something similar, but tuning each bar to the same note. I wanted to see if you could tell how each species colors the tone.

From 1975 to late 1994 I owned a Travis Bean Guitar made from Burmese Paduk. It was the 3rd guitar they made and the first one with a serial number. Trying to find it, but the Paduk was stunning!

As always, a fascinating video. I am debating on tone woods, among other choices, for my 3rd build. This was quite timely, thanks.

Very interesting. Have to think about all that.

That was cool, a good watch eh! ❤

that is so cool!!!

I really enjoyed your experiment. To me you are a true luthier and I envy you. I shall have to come a subscriber. 😀

Very interesting, Daisy!

Love your channel and all your videos!

I love your educational content.

My Martins are rosewood. Great job and a different perspective on tone woods.

Very nice articulation! 👍

love the outro!!

Creative ❤

Love your content! Keep going!

Very Cool, Thankyou. Nice Work. Cheers

Trial and error and persistence, well done, great result.

Learnt a lot, thanks!

Padauk and wenge sounded lively with a pleasant ring .Im off to buy some paduak for a bridge and nut.Interesting video thanks.

Thank you for 'X'-panding our Noggin! Just Lovvve the sound of "Padauk!" The 'worrrd,' not just the Wood! .. :-))

It’s a lovely looking xylophone if nothing else! 😂

WoW thanks for the vid! 🤙🏼

I liked the song at the end. “Under the sea” 😄

Hi! Good video of some interesting subject🤗 I'm having some decent woodstock of old pallets from Indonesia. I haven't yet figured out the species of 'em but did some tonal testing with them to determine how to use them with my builds. I had a set up with mic and recorded knocking 'em while hanging the board from wire. From my DAW i compared the signals between the boards and there was some variations in density, mass, color and so. My focus was in sustain within assuming that more dence, more sustain but noticed that those lighter ones had a quite good sustain too while the tone was more airier and bright. I think to run that test again with more parameters to record..

Amazing

That was a great review of timber timbre.

Very nice! I think this type of study would be very valuable applied to the body of a pedal steel guitar. So far, the PSG's that I find most inspiring to play are old vintage models with beautiful solid wood bodies. But I don't think I've ever see one built of exotic tone woods.

To lengthen the African black wood key, you could glue extra black wood.

Always interesting and different thanks. I would also point out that as wonderful as Paduak is besides the dreaded red dust clean-up issue., there is considerable concern about overexploitation leading to Paduak being added to Cites appendix 2 meaning it will now needs Cites paperwork to be moved and shipped. This allows closer monitoring of the volumes being taken and gives vital information to conservationists. Ultimately it may mean there will be import quota's. in the future. Both Paduak and African mahogany Kaya were recently added at the last Cites Cop. As much as a good-sized Paduak Tree would produce many guitar sets and there is really very little wood in a guitar in comparison to a sideboard or table it is these species exploitation for other industries that cause the real issues.

great sound demo

Life is full of surprises! RU-vid's algorithm threw this at me and I was blown away by your vivacity. I know nothing about music or instruments, for that matter, football too! I do like to make things which are useful, often from what I find lying about. So your impressive practical skills are a big draw for me. I'll check out more of your work, Daisy .

HI Daisy, Interesting video it's put another spin on the tone wood debate in the electric guitar world, that a lot of people seem to ignore. The fact that different woods have different resonances and different resistance's at different frequencies to acoustic sound wavelengths. "Bravo" Daisy "👏 Bravo". Best 👍regards. John.

sandpit play time....... what a learning curve!

Could definitely hear the differences in pitch and tone. Fascinating video, thanks!

I've used Paduk, it's got great "stain ability ".

Loved the Little Mermaid ending!

Great video

That was realy cool. Yeah I could hear the notes, at the very least it wasin relative tune with itself. I'm wondering if some kind of passive sound box could be put under it to make it a tad louder.

Interesting ideas, well presented. I've subscribed. Either this means the RU-vid algorithm knows my viewing habits well (very likely) or I was simply fortunate (less likely but possible). I'll be watching more of your videos after this one's over.

fun video! please show us the instrument you're working on when it's done! and thanks for discussing the importance of sustainability and impact on wildlife.

There will be more efficiency and a stronger fundamental if the keys are suspended from there nodes. In principal this node point will be a quarter of the bar length from each end but in practice is more like 22 percent because the ends are free. If Indian palisader is sweet then palisader nigra is chocolate. I enjoyed the video.

In my experience with marimbas, paduk sounds good, but there is a depth to rosewood that's hard to match. Paduk is more common in "student" instruments since it is less expensive to source. I'm not sure if the difference I hear is an actual tonal difference in the wood or a result of more attention and craft being put into more "professional"-and thus more often rosewood-instruments.

Hi Daisy. I don't posess accurate ears, but there is a distinctive difference in the notes from the padauk keys. I wonder how the tone characteristics of each type of wood would tend to age relative to each other - maybe every individual tree or plank will have a different future?

Really interesting. Thanks! I'm curious if there's any difference in sound for a block made of a single piece of wood vs one made of two smaller pieces glued together?

❤❤❤❤❤

I'm a recent subscriber and am very much enjoying your videos - very well done!!! I'd like to hear two or three notes together: I wonder if that would enable finer tuning by comparison with the other keys (notwithstanding the use of the technology at your disposal). Playing individual notes (which don't resonate) in succession doesn't give the ear much time to process the note, but playing them together will reveal any subtle dissonance, provided you've nailed on the tuning of the "reference" note.

My favorite is African ebony fretboard on my Epiphone SG 2012 Custom Shop Edition . It’s extremely bright and vibrant. My next favorite fretboard is my 1996 50th anniversary Fender Squire with genuine Brazilian rosewood. My 3rd favorite fretboard is my Epiphone Les Paul standard with Brazilian Ironwood fretboard this is the 2019 collectors edition. Then I like my 1987 Epiphone Stratocaster made in Matsumoto, Japan with a custom CRATE/ELECTRA 3 piece maple neck and Indian rosewood fretboard it’s a very thick fretboard and it’s as good as ebony.

I want to build an electric guitar with wooden resonators (like some sticks from this video) inside the deck for every tone. But I have no idea what I want :D Have to start trying.

I prefer the tone of the African Blackwood over the Paduk or the Rosewood. Nice experiment!

Great experiment and yes can hear all the different notes produced maybe trying different ways of striking the keys would give you more clarity and also help the notes ring out a little more

Thank You Daisy Tempest! You should name your xylophone something like "Middle Surprise"

I’m curious if you had the keys resting on springs instead of felt if they’d resonate more.

Have you tried mvule as a tonewood? We started a small guitar building project in Kenya called Kucheza Customs, and it turned out that mvule is a great option for fretboards available here. It's dense enough and works great in combination with mahogany. Though it looks a little unusual when a fretboard is brighter than the neck

Padouk looks great, is wonderfully workable and smells like vanilla. What's not to like?

Good work girl ! You may want to consider, placing very soft rubber grommets, under each hold-down pin, on them. Kind of very similar, to cotton washers, on cymbals in a drum kit. Maybe even have only ONE hold-down pin, in the middle, with a 2 inch round fiberglass washer, to keep them stable...? just ideas.....

Cool video....thank god i play(and occasionally build) solid body electric guitars though.....you can build them out of anything and ll sound the same if you use the same scale length and electronics....

Hi, I know it's critical in acoustic guitars to tune the box by shaping the bars, bridge plate and grading the top for the overall tone to match a frequency, quite cumbersome and amazing job. On solid body guitars like a Tele, what are your thoughts if it makes sense to try to tune a slab with so many variables as wood density also, but the pickups and the amp itself? Wonderful video and wish for you great success. Thanks Daisy.

What difference does the kind of paint, lacker or vernish make to the tone of the used wood?

Shoulder strap and a some contact pickups on that and you may just start a guit'rimba (marim'tar) revolution? There are some videos on RU-vid of an all spruce guitar, built by Dick Boake formally of Martin. Think he calls it the Spruce Goose and it sounds great.

What about Fiji sourced Rosewood used on some Gibson electrics? Or Bolivian?

3:06 in the morning and my brain says, "Why bother sleeping, let's consider what Daisy was up to". Tone woods 'reflect' the frequencies they are subjected to. Counterintuitive to me was the fact that dense wood resonated low frequencies better, and lighter wood, the high frequencies. Which would be why both are needed in an instrument (full range resonance). The luthier's skill resides in how 'bright' the reflective resonances are. How to subject the qualities of the wood to resonance. In the physics of sound, super nodes occur where there are points of sympathetic resonance. Clueless as to how these are achieved, I do know that they set up the half tone responses, and sound holes let them escape the body of the instrument (the jump effect). I was surprised that the dense wood sets up the slower vibrations. I thought that, being more rigid, it would reflect the faster vibrations better.

Best part of the video is the joinery at the end 10:28. Exceptionally nice woodworking! Not really sure how any of the rest relates to guitar making.?.

The rosewood sounded just a we bit flat. Cant say I ever played a guitar made from padouk, but with it's brightness, I think it would sound great on a 00 or 000 style guitar.

Dumb question, but what do you do with all the sawdust?

A strobe tuner uses light effects, rather than sound, to find the frequency at which something is vibrating.

What kind of glue are you using? And do you think there's any benefit tonally (or otherwise) to hot hide glue over synthetics like PVA

I've built two resonator guitars entirely out of padauck, they sound great, but what a mess when sanding!

Your experiment is very intelligent I’m very impressed with your advanced intelligence the British people are very smart.

On the notes tou played, i think fhe Wenge had fhe sharpest clearest sound. Do each of the woods have a preferred frequency / set of frequencies? (Harmonics etc)

Very good video, thank you. I would like to make you a query. Have you ever built a guitar without a soundhole? In that case. What acoustic differences have you noticed compared to traditional models? Thank you very much again. Greetings from Argentina.

In the Philippines there's a wood called Molave. Wonder how it would " sound " ?

I urge you to try Ipe wood for some guitar parts, it makes amazing fingerboards and bridges. It is extremely hard, looks good, and rings like a bell.

Unda da sea!

Wood has a personality, just as people do.

would be interesting to have a xlophone thing where they are all the same note but all different woods. Would let you hear the differeces most clearly. Could show it to customers so they get an understanding of the differences. Because it would look like an instrument but is a not really it would probly be Art (or summat)