Stars of Africa: South African tonewood

Figure 3

Wood physicist Martina Meincken presents the results of a study investigating whether indigenous woods of southern Africa might be suitable for use as tonewood for instruments

Tonewoods are wood species that possess certain desirable properties that make them suitable for the construction of musical instruments. Any good tonewood should have an even grain structure, be defect-free, and be dimensionally stable, i.e. not shrink or swell noticeably with environmental changes…

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