Many guitar experts and enthusiasts argue that older guitars create a better tone, sustain, and resonance due to the wood’s natural aging process. However, it’s hard to tell whether that’s a provable fact or just an industry myth, especially considering that, for the most part, only well-made top-tier guitars make it past their 50th birthdays. So, do guitars actually sound better as they age, and if so, why?
Here are nine reasons why acoustic guitars sound better with age:
- Wood becomes harder and more warp-resistant as it ages.
- The glues in older guitars have fully cured.
- Vibrations can make a wood thinner and more flexible.
- Frequent use can break up the sap in the wood.
- Only high-quality guitars last long enough to become old.
- Lamination interferes with the aging process.
- Controlled aging increases resonance and sustain.
- Acoustic guitars do not rely on pickups.
- Sound is subjective.
In the following sections, I’ll dive deeper into what makes acoustic guitars sound better as they age. Let’s get started!
Related: 10 things to look for when buying an acoustic guitar and 10 best things to do with an older acoustic guitar.
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1. Wood Becomes Harder and More Warp-Resistant As It Ages
The primary factor that affects the tone and resonance of an older guitar is the wood’s humidity level, as moisture plays a significant role in how a guitar vibrates.
To understand how humidity will impact a guitar’s sound, let’s take a deeper look into the wood’s grain and trace how it changes before and after the guitar-making process.
The Process of Wood Seasoning for Guitar-Making
Wood consists of cellulose, lignin, hemicellulose, sap or resin, and other trace elements.
Cellulose is the fiber that gives wood its structure, and it’s apparent in the long, string-like fibers inside the wood’s grain. These fibers form channels through which a tree can push water and other nutrients from its roots to its leaves. They also keep a tree from becoming too flexible.
Sap and resin do not aid the tree in moving water and nutrients, but they are a natural defense against pests and fungal growth. If you cut into a tree, it oozes resin or sap to create a crystalline “scab” and keep insects and fungi from infecting the plant. This substance has water in it to keep it moving, which adds to the overall moisture content of a tree.
Lignin is a rigid component that keeps moisture inside the tree’s cell walls. It takes a very long time for lignin to re-synthesize and weaken enough to allow the cells’ moisture to escape.
Since the cellulose, sap, and moisture in wood are still there when the tree falls, fresh wood contains a large quantity of water, making the wood soft, flexible, and burn-resistant. The wood is too weak to make anything at this stage – you must first dry it.
In guitar making, the wood-drying process is critical, although it may take a while. As the water in fresh wood dissipates, the fibers shrink, causing the entire piece of wood to shrink. During this process, if the water evaporates too quickly, the wood will likely warp due to the rapid shrinkage.
Still, if the wood is not fully dry before luthiers construct the body and neck, this shrinkage process will make the instrument prone to warping and cracking. Therefore, wood must slowly age in a humidity-controlled environment for at least a few months before being cut into shape.
How Wood Dehydrates After a Guitar’s Construction
Even after an acoustic guitar has been constructed, its wood retains some moisture that will eventually dissipate over several years. This moisture, called “bound water,” resides inside the tree’s cells, and it takes a lot of time for these cells to lose their dampness without bursting the cell walls.
So, as guitars age, they will continue to shrink slowly and minimally as they lose their bound water.
This gradual shrinking process can “stretch” the fibers in a wood, thinning it out and making it slightly harder as the moisture dissipates and attains equilibrium in the instrument.
Likewise, the wood will even out a bit as it ages and stretches, which is why older guitars usually feel thinner, straighter, and lighter.
This dehumidifying and stretching process often gives older guitars better resonance and sustain, as the wood is harder, thinner, and more even.
According to research from the Vibration and Structural Acoustics Analysis, woods such as spruce have lower resonance when they are fresher and higher in moisture content. However, samples of older spruce guitars with a lower moisture content produced high tones with higher volume and better definition.
In short, science supports the claim that a drier, older guitar can create a better, more articulated sound.
Still, it takes a very long time to see the results of this process. For example, the luthiers over at Martin Guitars state that it will take at least 40 years for their guitars to dehydrate and improve in tone, resonance, and sustain.
It’s important to note that wood will always contain some water and absorb more, but it will eventually dry out and shrink until it reaches the atmospheric humidity, where it will stay consistent. This phenomenon is called the “equilibrium moisture content,” or EMC.
2. The Glues in Older Guitars Have Fully Cured
If you’ve ever used wood glue, you know dry time differs from cure time. Dry time is the amount of time it takes for the glue to dry and hold two materials together, but cure time is the amount of time it takes for the adhesive to dehydrate, chemically solidify, and become as strong as it will ever be.
Most glues used for making guitars, such as PVA, hide glue, cyanoacrylate, and resin, cure within 24 hours. Still, just like your guitar’s wood, the adhesive will continue to harden and dehydrate over the following years.
As the wood and glue harden simultaneously, you get a stretched-canvas effect within an acoustic guitar, creating a more resonant sound chamber with an even surface.
Although the results won’t radically improve your guitar’s sound, the hardness of the glue will also contribute to better vibration within your guitar’s body, resulting in en