I'll have to admit I'm partial to several woods for my trumpets, but I enjoy seeing the woods chosen when others post pictures of trumpets they have made or purchased. I've been a wood hoarder for over 50 years, but my taste in woods I like for trumpets has changed over the years. Trying to deal with my allergic reaction to the rosewoods may change what I like even more....I like them, but they are getting to be more than I can handle....LOL! Regardless, I was going through the wood loft and found a few wood pieces I had forgotten I had. Hawaiian Koa is always a good choice for a trumpet........
So what are your wood choice favorites for trumpets if wood prices weren't a consideration stopping the decision?
In no particular order.. 1) Ironwood 2) Cocus 3) Rosewoods 4) Lignum Vitae 5) Osage 6) ABW 7) Bocote 8) Cocobola
You stated wood but I like some synthetics too
If I could only have one it'd be osage. Osage and mud cured osage are definitely my favorite domestic. I love ABW and snakewood and lignum on the exotics, but I'd be just fine with nothing but osage all so old they've darkened deep as walnut.
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That is a sweet piece of KOA burl
I like olive wood, could also be just as happy with osage
I've turned many many wood species over the years and I am an avid wood hoarder. I like the feel of black and white ebony, boise de rose, and English Walnut
under a nice sharpened turning tool they are easily turned and simply finished. The most enjoyable wood I've turned is huisache it felt like velvet even before sanding it was fairly dense and very finely grained but easy like butter to turn. I have no preferences of woods I hunt with. I use what I have on hand the turkey doesn't seem to care.
My favorites are Snakewood, Lignum Vitae, Desert Ironwood and Cocobolo - not in any particular order.
I can't say that I have a favorite. I tend to gravitate towards the harder ebonies. Cocuswood is on my list because I like the look of the dark, fine grained pieces and it fits the bill for being hard and heavy. Also like unique woods you don't see often.
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Brazilian Rosewood, Lignum, African Blackwood, Ironwood, Pink Ivory
Its hard to beat a nice piece of Olive, or Mopani.
Ironwood
Cocuswood
Osage
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Quote from: ol bob on November 17, 2022, 08:24:15 AM
Its hard to beat a nice piece of Olive, or Mopani.
Mopani has great stone and sound.
I gave my answer on woods a few posts ago but wanted to add, this is an extremely difficult question to answer is a few ways. How is the list being decided? Sounds, looks, history of wood, a connection to that particular wood, etc? There is just so much more to it than this wood looks great or this wood sounds great. My answer is in no particular order as it will change depending on what side the bed I get out of, but I based my answer on sounds first, history of the wood, and then looks. Anyway, I felt it was important to explain myself and also I like to ramble.
I have recently become a big fan of Olivewood.
Osage, ABW and Mopani are also at the top of the list.
Desert ironwood, bocote, osage to start.
That's hard to say. I really enjoy both Genuine and Argentine Lignum, ironwood, Macassar Ebony, Ringed Gidgee, Cocobolo, and African Blackwood. I think my all time favorite though is mud cured Osage. I have Blue Mahoe I really like too now that it's bluing up with age.
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Crow,
That block of Koa burl is the hardest and heaviest piece of Koa I've ever seen. I've had several Hawaiians tell me the really good Koa never leaves the islands. Back in the early 2000s, I purchased quite a bit of Koa from one individual, and finally he told me he was going to send me a block of the good stuff....this is the block he sent. Frankly, I had been very happy with the Koa I had been getting from him, but after I got this block, I understood the difference. And if you pick up this block of Koa, you will immediately know there is a difference. I wasn't able to get anymore....
Marvin, That is a sweet piece of Koa. I purchased a couple of squares for trumpets that were 5A curly. They were heavy and cost $$$$$$$$$$. I have`nt seen any like it in years. Koa does make a mighty fine horn!
Speaking about Koa got me to pull this piece out of storage. This is actually Australian Blackwood(cousin to Koa), generally a bit denser and a super tone wood. I bought this stuff from a logger in Australia ~15 years ago for acoustic guitar building. Never really used it, but I know it will make excellent trumpets. This piece is in the rough so hard to see the curl, but it is throughout the wood and beautiful. Anyway, just thought I would share another cool/unique wood for trumpets.
(https://i.imgur.com/3LJ1ijm.jpg?2)
Sharp slab wood Greg! I'm sure you will turn some fine horns from the aussie blackwood. My first trumpet from you is made from it. Sweet sounding horn!
Quote from: turkey stew on November 17, 2022, 05:40:06 PM
Sharp slab wood Greg! I'm sure you will turn some fine horns from the aussie blackwood. My first trumpet from you is made from it. Sweet sounding horn!
I thought I made one with it, forgot it went to you, that was a LONG time ago....lol
One of your design trumpets. It is a good playing horn!
Quote from: turkey stew on November 17, 2022, 08:07:39 PM
One of your design trumpets. It is a good playing horn!
I was looking back through my log book, almost 4 years ago, glad she is still a player for you.
Quote from: Tarheel on November 17, 2022, 03:53:27 PM
Crow,
That block of Koa burl is the hardest and heaviest piece of Koa I've ever seen. I've had several Hawaiians tell me the really good Koa never leaves the islands. Back in the early 2000s, I purchased quite a bit of Koa from one individual, and finally he told me he was going to send me a block of the good stuff....this is the block he sent. Frankly, I had been very happy with the Koa I had been getting from him, but after I got this block, I understood the difference. And if you pick up this block of Koa, you will immediately know there is a difference. I wasn't able to get anymore....
:icon_thumright:, well it was worth the wait
Blackwood , Ironwood, bocote, Cocobolo and Osage are some of my favorites ... but agree it all has to do with the tone i'm looking for regardless the woods, but i do agree woods do make the tones ....
Reading back through I've noticed that ebonies only showed up as favorites a couple of times. Although I've seen several trumpets made from burls they seem to be absent among the favorites. Hence I'd like to understand why that is.
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Many Burls woods aren't very strong due to lack of orientation of the grain and can be tuff to turn without a fair bit of tear out if you don't know how to sharpen tooling. A dull tool paired with a poor method of turning is the best way to ruin a nice piece of wood.
There are some excellent Ebonies (Macassar, B&W, Madagascar, etc)....and as Matt mentioned, the burls can be problematic, but fantastic if managed properly.
I really enjoy nice burl wood for trumpets....but burl wood can be cost prohibitive. There are quite a few other woods that fall into the same category of cost prohibitive, too. Personally, I am uncomfortable turning customer wood, so I try to avoid that. For me, if I'm going to have a problem, it's going to happen when I'm turning customer wood. Numerous times a beautiful block of burl or an expensive fancy wood grain has turned into a plain blank of nothing special. Quite a few times I've had a wood blank do the reverse and surprise me, but not as often as I would like....LOL!
I was wondering more about the sound quality of ebonies and burls. I'm a nut about aesthetics, but it all comes back to performance. I keep going round and round in my mind about the importance of the type of wood for trumpet sound quality. I've heard on here that two trumpets made from different woods by the same maker will sound very similar. My "opinion", which ain't much, is that is the case. Anyway, got off topic. My choices in woods are often driven by how rare and unique the wood is, which doesn't always align with tonality for a trumpet.
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Quote from: Meleagris gallopavo on November 21, 2022, 07:28:06 AM
I was wondering more about the sound quality of ebonies and burls. I'm a nut about aesthetics, but it all comes back to performance. I keep going round and round in my mind about the importance of the type of wood for trumpet sound quality. I've heard on here that two trumpets made from different woods by the same maker will sound very similar. My "opinion", which ain't much, is that is the case. Anyway, got off topic. My choices in woods are often driven by how rare and unique the wood is, which doesn't always align with tonality for a trumpet.
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I think it is a curse, but I can hear differences between various woods. Some Ebonies have great tonal properties, some seem more "dead" to me. Burls within the "good sounding" woods sound just as good to me, they are just a pain to turn/keep in one piece.
Quote from: GregGwaltney on November 21, 2022, 08:11:45 AM
Quote from: Meleagris gallopavo on November 21, 2022, 07:28:06 AM
I was wondering more about the sound quality of ebonies and burls. I'm a nut about aesthetics, but it all comes back to performance. I keep going round and round in my mind about the importance of the type of wood for trumpet sound quality. I've heard on here that two trumpets made from different woods by the same maker will sound very similar. My "opinion", which ain't much, is that is the case. Anyway, got off topic. My choices in woods are often driven by how rare and unique the wood is, which doesn't always align with tonality for a trumpet.
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I think it is a curse, but I can hear differences between various woods. Some Ebonies have great tonal properties, some seem more "dead" to me. Burls within the "good sounding" woods sound just as good to me, they are just a pain to turn/keep in one piece.
Depends on the individual piece of wood too.
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Quote from: Meleagris gallopavo on November 21, 2022, 04:30:57 PM
Quote from: GregGwaltney on November 21, 2022, 08:11:45 AM
Quote from: Meleagris gallopavo on November 21, 2022, 07:28:06 AM
I was wondering more about the sound quality of ebonies and burls. I'm a nut about aesthetics, but it all comes back to performance. I keep going round and round in my mind about the importance of the type of wood for trumpet sound quality. I've heard on here that two trumpets made from different woods by the same maker will sound very similar. My "opinion", which ain't much, is that is the case. Anyway, got off topic. My choices in woods are often driven by how rare and unique the wood is, which doesn't always align with tonality for a trumpet.
Depends on the method and extent of what is considered finished and how that is maintained. throughout the call making process. Rely on method primarily and secondarily in the wood or other material when building a call.
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I think it is a curse, but I can hear differences between various woods. Some Ebonies have great tonal properties, some seem more "dead" to me. Burls within the "good sounding" woods sound just as good to me, they are just a pain to turn/keep in one piece.
Depends on the individual piece of wood too.
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Kingwood is probably my favorite, both good sounding and easy to turn, I also like Cocobolo, ABW, and Desert Ironwood
Mopani, Lignum Vitae, African Blackwood, Bolivian Rosewood
I don't see any folks talking about bloodwood. Any reason why? It is almost identical in hardness to ABW with a cheap cost like Osage and looks good. Anyone have any reason why it hasn't gotten any love?
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I have a bloodwood that I really enjoy. Plays as well as the rest of them.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20221214/78c21e64be76eab8024df0adcf72c6f7.jpg)
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Quote from: RLAG on December 13, 2022, 10:47:30 PM
I don't see any folks talking about bloodwood. Any reason why? It is almost identical in hardness to ABW with a cheap cost like Osage and looks good. Anyone have any reason why it hasn't gotten any love?
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I have turned a few Bloodwood and they sounded great.....
Quote from: RLAG on December 13, 2022, 10:47:30 PM
I don't see any folks talking about bloodwood. Any reason why? It is almost identical in hardness to ABW with a cheap cost like Osage and looks good. Anyone have any reason why it hasn't gotten any love?
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Bloodwood really doesn't compare to ABW in hardness and density. ABW is a lot harder and much more dense. That being said, bloodwood shouldn't be a bad choice for a trumpet as others have stated success with it.
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That's my bad I had the Janka hardness for cocobolo and abw backwards in my head
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In years past, I've made several trumpet yelpers from bloodwood, and they sounded as good as any I made. I don't know bloodwood's janka hardness rating, but it's hard enough and will dull tools as fast as any other woods with that reputation.
Bloodwood Specs
Average Dried Weight: 66 lbs/ft3 (1,050 kg/m3)
Specific Gravity (Basic, 12% MC): .90, 1.05
Janka Hardness: 2,900 lbf (12,900 N)
Modulus of Rupture: 25,290 lbf/in2 (174.4 MPa)
Elastic Modulus: 3,013,000 lbf/in2 (20.78 GPa)
Crushing Strength: 14,310 lbf/in2 (98.7 MPa)
ABW Specs
Average Dried Weight: 79 lbs/ft3 (1,270 kg/m3)
Specific Gravity (Basic, 12% MC): 1.08, 1.27
Janka Hardness: 3,670 lbf (16,320 N)
Modulus of Rupture: 30,970 lbf/in2(213.6 MPa)
Elastic Modulus: 2,603,000 lbf/in2(17.95 GPa)
Crushing Strength: 10,570 lbf/in2(72.9 MPa)
Greg, thank you for that information. Obviously, there is a difference in the Janka Hardness; but for all practical purposes, I don't see a difference that would cause me to prefer one wood over the other for making a trumpet yelper. Both woods will do the job and serve the purpose.....
Cocobola is my favorite, just can't turn them anymore. Argentine Lignum is hard to beat for the sound. Gen.Lignum, ABW, Cocus, Ironwood, Olive, and snakewood are all good, in no order. Brazillion Ebony is not fancy but sounds great and is dense. Tight grained Osage is on the list as well.
Other than looks, does the type of woods really make a difference in the sound quality of a trumpet?
Quote from: Greg Massey on December 20, 2022, 10:37:34 AM
Other than looks, does the type of woods really make a difference in the sound quality of a trumpet?
Sure does to my ear.
Quote from: Greg Massey on December 20, 2022, 10:37:34 AM
Other than looks, does the type of woods really make a difference in the sound quality of a trumpet?
Depends on how it's built.
Quote from: Greg Massey on December 20, 2022, 10:37:34 AM
Other than looks, does the type of woods really make a difference in the sound quality of a trumpet?
You may see a consistent difference between woods that run on the high and low ends of density and hardness. To be honest I'd be hesitant to say much about wood and sound quality as it's so variable between makers and individual pieces of wood. There are consistent woods like ABW and others that seem to perform well.
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