Terrified oops Torrified Timbers.....

[dingobass]

Thought we needed a new topic of conversation so here goes.
Probably a question aimed at the Acoustic peeps more than us Electric builders but here goes anyway...
What are folks thoughts on Torrified (semi scorched or 'overcooked' tonewoods)??
In recent times there seems to have been a lot of it sold.. Are there any benefits to tone, as is claimed by sellers, or is it just another marketing ploy? Or is it a way of getting second rate plantation timber on the market at a higher price?

I must admit I know very little about it other than our Ash body kits are Torrified...

Discuss

[DrNomis_44]

Might just be a trend, but then again I don't know much about Torrified timbers either, it's a new one on me.


Having said that, I seem to remember reading an article in one of my Guitarist magazines from the 90's about a Steve Vai Jem electric guitar where the body was deliberately scorched with a blowtorch in places, I know it's not exactly Torrified, but thought I'd mention it anyway.

[tonyw]

Breaking in the timber to create tone hmmm grabs shotgun takes newish acoustic 10years old, out the back and now its terrified.

Not convinced its not a sales ploy, but then again i really have no idea, got my old birds here to play so dont really care about it.

[dingobass]

Bit like those doovalackies Stewmac sell that vibrate the guitar body, tone right or something like that?
Apparently Maton do something similar to break in their new acoustic Guitars.

I know that the Gavmiester uses them on his builds and he reckons they work so that's good enough for me

But I too am not convinced about the scorched earth policy when it comes to tonewoods..

[stan]

Mm voodoo mojo maybe. Although super dry aged timbers on old violins and cellos sound great, so perhaps it is a way of pushing the process along, dunno.
A bit like the cryogenic process of treating metal parts to align all the mystical bits, dunno.
I am guessing any side by side comparisons would be difficult to detect. Plus there are so many variables at play, I find it hard to believe any one variable to that degree does a lot.
In the end tone is subjective, who really knows what good tone is, in fact the word tone is not a good way to describe a particular guitar sound.

[Muzza]

Some people just leave their guitars in close proximity to their stereo speakers when they're not being played...

[DrNomis_44]

Mm voodoo mojo maybe. Although super dry aged timbers on old violins and cellos sound great, so perhaps it is a way of pushing the process along, dunno.
A bit like the cryogenic process of treating metal parts to align all the mystical bits, dunno.
I am guessing any side by side comparisons would be difficult to detect. Plus there are so many variables at play, I find it hard to believe any one variable to that degree does a lot.
In the end tone is subjective, who really knows what good tone is, in fact the word tone is not a good way to describe a particular guitar sound.

Maybe the word we should use is Timbre, a French word meaning tone-colour.

[dingobass]

You crack me up, Stan
I think you are right, it's some weird hoo doo stuff going on there...

[Tweaky]

I think you are getting Torrified wood confused with roasting....two different things.
The torrified wood is usually spruce, or some other wood that is used for a acoustic guitars top, Stew Mac have started selling it...it's basically slow, low temp kiln drying....it's to help stop wood shrinkage.
It usually takes a acoustic guitar around 60 -70 years for the top to dry out and shrink that much that the binding starts to separate from the top & side, and that was using seasoned wood from back then.
Manufactures can't source that sort of wood now, and go through too much wood to be able to store enough, long enough to get to the best moisture content naturally for their needs, so they have begun kiln drying what they can get to speed up the process.
The Japanese have been doing it for years.

The roasted woods, are usually figured maple used for guitar necks to supposedly make them more stable, these are roasted at 300 F, some longer than others for a darker look....they also do bodies, the MusiKraft site below explains what they do.
https://musikraft.com/product-info.php?pid175.html

I'm not sure about the torrified wood, it seems it is more for the USA market, were most of the states have large swings in seasonal temps than we do in OZ, and a lot of acoustic instruments tend to die in the USA when people use their central heating in winter....the tops just dry out and split.

As for the roasting, I think thats just a value added cosmetic thing that Warmouth and MusiKraft decided to do....I suspect some time ago at one of those companies a employee accidentally left some wood in a kiln too long and roasted some maple by mistake, then they thought, well we might as well use it and see how it turns out....Oh yeah, looks kind of cool, lets market it.

[dingobass]

Thanks Tweaks, I reckon you cleared that up.
It is all a tad confusing, Torrified/ roasted especially when I have seen both terms used for what is either one or the other...