Materials for guitar back plates made from sustainable forest resources

A new type of wood-based material for guitar back plates as a substitute for Brazilian rosewood was produced based on Japanese cedar logs with a small diameter, of which the utilization is limited despite its availability. The sapwood portion of logs with a diameter of 20 cm was processed to veneers of 2 mm thickness using a rotary lathing machine. The veneers were impregnated with a low-molecular-weight phenolic resin, laminated in parallel, and compressed perpendicular to their plane. When the veneers were treated with a 3% or 5% aqueous solution and compressed to a density of 0.8 without adhesives, the specific dynamic Young’s modulus (E/γ, ratio of stiffness to specific gravity) and tan δ (damping) of the materials became almost the same as those of Brazilian rosewood in the lower-frequency range, not only in the longitudinal direction but also across the longitudinal direction. However, the frequency dependencies of the specific Young’s modulus and tan δ of the materials differed from those of Brazil...