A musical simpleton’s ear may say that all guitars sound the same; it is still the same sound of a set of metal strings or nylon strings that plucked or strummed together to make music. But, an experienced musician or an avid listener of music can both hear a noticeable distinction between two guitars with no difference other than the wood used on their fret boards.
There is a wide variety of woods used as materials when it comes to making fret boards, the most popular ones being rosewood, mahogany, and ebony. Rosewood as a material for making fret boards is famous producing sounds that are bright, smooth and sharp. Guitars with fret boards made of this kind of wood are usually used by those who play in the genres that highlight guitar solos and/or chords that use the higher (i.e. thinner) strings such as Trash Metal, Heavy Metal, Jazz, Smooth Jazz, Ska, and Reggae. The colors of Rosewood range from dark reddish or purplish brown to black with streaks of black and yellow.
Mahoganies are woods that produce very similar sounds with Rosewood with a subtle difference in sharpness; think of the sound from the Rosewood as colored red while the sound from Mahogany as slightly pinkish red. Fret boards made of this wood maintain their quality for a very long time because Mahoganies are highly resistant to abrasions and warping. Thus, if you want your guitar to last long or if you travel a lot with your guitar, be sure to choose guitars made of Mahogany.
Of all the woods used in making fret boards, Ivories are probably the toughest, although heavy. Ivories produce thin and blunt sound when used as the wood material for a guitar. Aside from the toughness and physical resistance of this wood to damage, some musicians aesthetically use this as the wood for their guitar for its jet black color.
As you can see, there are many different things about the guitar you should learn. Of course, the type of wood used for guitars is only part of it. You will need to learn how to play your guitar and this is very overwhelming for most folks. Sure, there are plenty of books, magazines, DVDs and websites giving you hints and tips, but getting private guitar tuition in Glasgow is really going to propel you to where you want to go.