I use a number of different species of tonewoods for the soundboard or top, and the back & sides, depending on what kind of tone or sound is required. Sometimes cosmetics is an important consideration, but in most cases guitarists have preferences for a bright, or mellow, or sustained, or trebly, or bassy, or clear, or crisp tone, depending on personal requirements or the type of music they play.

Wood color also plays a major role in people's perception of what a guitar sounds like. Darker woods are perceived to have deep, mellow, dark, full, bassy, intimate tones/sounds, whereas lighter woods are perceived to have trebly, bright, clear, thin, louder, penetrating tones/sounds. 

Certain species are more suitable to satisfy certain preferences, but the combination of soundboard tonewood, the back & sides tonewood, including the entire building process and physical dimensions, together with the player's style and tone producing ability, will determine the final tone or sound that the guitar will produce.

Soundboard or top tonewoods:

Spruce (Picea rubens/sitchensis/engelmannii/lutzzi/excelsa/abies): Different species variants include Adirondack, Sitka, Engelmann, Lutz, European variety (German, Carpathian, Alpine/Italian), and various hybrids. All of these tonewoods are suitable for classical and Flamenco guitars, although individual pieces of wood will be more suitable for classical guitars, and others for Flamenco guitars, regardless of the species.

Western Redcedar (Thuja plicata): Different pieces of this tonewood can vary dramatically, regardless of color, grain width or count, or weight. Even book matched halves can be vastly different. Its strongest trait is the marvelous overtones and harmonics that this tonewood can produce. It is also known to open up almost immediately, more so than Spruce. Western Redcedar has been in use for the last 60 years, most notably by world-renown builders Ramirez, Fleta and Friederich, amongst others.

Redwood (Sequoia sempervirons): A fairly recent addition to soundboard tonewoods is Redwood. It exhibits all of the characterisitcs of a good Western Redcedar top, but also includes most of the tone traits of good Spruce. This is an excellent example of a dark colored wood with bright, sparkly or clear sound/tone. Current supply include age-old reclaimed  bridge stringers and sunken logs (sinker wood) recovered from rivers and lakes. These logs produce highly sought-after soundboards with dramatic color and stain variations.

TO BE CONTINUED