Sitka Spruce - Sitka spruce is the top wood standard of the modern era. Its dynamic range is very broad, allowing for everything from aggressive strumming and flatpicking to fingerpicking.

Western Red Cedar - Cedar is less dense than spruce, and that softness typically translates into a sense of sonic warmth. If Sitka has a full dynamic range, cedar makes quieter tones louder, but it also imposes more of a ceiling on high volume levels driven by an aggressive attack. If one tries to drive a cedar top hard at a certain point it will reach a volume limit. Typically, players with a lighter touch sound wonderful on a cedar top guitar, fingerstyle players especially -  that lighter touch will be amplifieda little more, and one’s attach never reaches the ceiling.

Adirondack Spruce - Also known as Eastern red or Appalachian spruce, Adirondacy defined guitars of the pre-WWII era. Its availability is beginning to increase slightly, as another generation of trees matures, although they’re still considerably smaller than their old growth forebears. Current supplies of Adirondack tend to lack a certain aesthetic purity of look, but tonally, Adirondack is even more dynamic than Sitka, with a higher ceiling for volume. The payoff is the ability to drive an Addie top hard and hear it get louder and louder without losing clarity; it’s hard to outplay it.

Engelmann Spruce - Engelmann is also known as white, European or German spruce, although they are technically different species. It is usually visually distinguishable from Sitka by its creamier complexion. Engelmann trees these days are so small and twisted that we get a fair amount of runout and as a result, mismatched tops. Sonically, Engelmann has a mature tone, and yields a slightly richer midrange than Sitka, which makes a guitar sound a bit older. Old growth Engelmann tends to have a sonic attribute of smoothness or refinement to it, but the days of older growth Engelmann tress are essentially gone for now.

Hardwood tops - Certain guitars that feature hardwoods for backs and sides will occasionally also incorporate a top of the same hardwood. Think koa or walnut. These tend to have a similar tonal range to Sitka but will be brighter. An all-koa guitar, for example, will start out bright, but again, the more it’s played the more it warms up and develops bloom. An all-hardwood guitar really needs to be played a lot before it starts to sound full and rich. But once it does, it yields a very rewarding sound.

Tropical Mahogany - Mahogany is a good wood to anchor our survey of tones, as a lot of other wood tones can be described in relation to it. Its essential sonic profile is well represented in the midrange frequencies. Acoustic guitars in general tend to live in the midrange portion of the sound spectrum, but mahogany in particular displays a lot of midrange character. As a popular tonewood for many decades, mahogany has been used on scads of old school acoustic recordings, and that sonic heritage carries across various strains of roots music, from blues to folk to slack key.

Indian Rosewood - One of the most popular and traditional guitar woods of all time, rosewood takes that basic sonic thumbprint of mahogany and expands it in both directions. Rosewood sounds deeper in the low end and brighter on the top end. Like mahogany, rosewood is a versatile tonewood, which has contributed to its popularity. Once can fingerpick it, strum it and flatpick it.

Big Leaf Maple - A dense hardwood, maple’s tone is like a laser beam - very focused and dominant on the fundamental. Often described as having a bright sound, maple has fewer overtones than other medium density woods, resulting in quicker note decay. This makes it a preferred guitar wood for live performance settings with a band.

Acacia Koa - A tropical hardwood, koa’s tone blends the midrange of mahogany with the top end of maple. Due to its density, a new koa guitar tends to start out sounding a little bright and tight, somewhat like maple. But the more the koa guitar is played, the more the sound opens up, expanding the midrange and rewarding the player with a richer, sweeter, more resonant tone.

Walnut - Another beautiful hardwood, walnut has a similar density and stiffnes to koa, with a similar tightness initially. Like koa, it tends to have a bright top end, but with a more present midrange, somewhere between mahogany and rosewood. Walnut also starts off a little deeper on the low end, initially giving it a slightly woodier sound than koa. The low end will continue to fill out after being played in.

Cocobolo - Cocobolo is a dense, stiff tropical hardwood with a fairly bright tone. Sonically, it’s similar to koa, but resonates a little deeper on the low end, although it doesn’t have quite the full low end of rosewood or ovangkol. Fast and responsive, with moderate note decay, it’s articulate with lots of note distinction.

Macassar Ebony - Another dense hardwood, Macassar boasts a lot of presence and is typically clear and loud with a broad dynamic range. It seems to be a wood that is uniquely responsive to different playing styles. It has a strong bass and lower mids; clear and transparent highs that respond like an accelerator pedal as you move your right hand closer to the bridge and dig in a bit; and a slightly scooped midrange. Macassar likes to be played hard, and thends to take a slightly longer period of playing time to open up.

Ovangkol - An african relative of rosewood, it’s a great sounding wood that shares many of rosewood’s tonal properties, with a slightly fuller midrange and a top end that is not quite as bright as maple. Being lesser known than rosewood, ovangkol has been a sleeper hit over the years, asserting itself as an instant contender among unsuspecting players.

Sapele - It is sometimes mistakenly referred to as African mahogany because it closely resembles the West African wood khaya,which is commercialy known as African mahogany. Sapele is a highly sustainable, relatively fast growing wood. Tonally, it does everything that mahogany does, with a little extra treble zing.

The teen pop band Aly & AJ “designed” new guitar controllers compatible with both Rock Band and Guitar Hero which will sell for $69.99 each. The guitar by Aly features a heart and cross bone print in pink and brown. AJ’s guitar is in the shape of the Aly & AJ heart logo in bright pink with purple zebra print. (PDP is launching two guitar controllers with one size aimed at tweens ages 8 to 12 and other for teens and older.)