Tonewoods that truly resonate
Master grade timbers producing concert-quality tones
While it’s true that you can make an instrument out of any wood, it takes a true tonewood to produce a concert quality instrument. While some of the big names in the luthier world scour the planet for an ever-dwindling supply of traditional tonewoods, Laurie has dedicated his career to exploring the unique and beautiful indigenous woods of New Zealand.
Living and building in the temperate Far North of New Zealand, Laurie has been privileged to discover and introduce to the world some of the most exquisitely beautiful woods used in musical instruments today. For over thirty years, Laurie has immersed himself in mastering the art and techniques of building with many of these new tonewoods, and in the process, has shown the quality of his skill as a luthier and the world class character of his tonewoods.
Sustainably sourced
In New Zealand today, considered from an environmental perspective, “indigenous timber can only be produced from forests that are sustainably managed in a way that maintains continuous forest cover and ecological balance. Only single trees and small groups of trees can be felled for timber production.”
Consequently, New Zealand does not have a large indigenous forestry industry, with native timbers very hard to source, and of those, only a limited number suitable for musical instrument production. Therefore, all of the species Laurie builds with have been sourced personally, often travelling many miles to view, resaw, and dry timber to his own exacting specifications, as and when opportunity presents itself.
The Laurie Williams tonewood inventory includes wood from recovered old mill logs (sinkers), and swamp logs (ancient kauri), as well as a few sustainably felled trees. The result is a curated collection of the most rare, exceptional, and beautiful NZ tonewoods that you will not find anywhere else in the world.
Below is a current selection of tonewoods from Laurie’s private inventory, along with the stories that accompany them.
Waingarara Kauri
Species: Modern Kauri (Agathis australis)
Luthier uses: Soundboards, bracing.
Tap tonal properties: Its tap tone is clear and bell like. As a soundboard it is alive with rich, warm harmonics and subtleties which, combined with exceptional sustain, gives this tonewood a musicality well suited to solo fingerstyle.
Visual properties: The grain is generally straight. Summer and winter lines are less distinct than the traditional spruces, being more homogeneous in density. It is a cream/gold colour when aged and can have streaking within a narrow colour range. The wood can, at times, exhibit a subtle figure or wave in the grain, giving it a shimmery and holographic appearance.
Description: Designated ‘modern’ kauri to distinguish it from the ancient kauri used for back and sides, Laurie’s stock of this tonewood comes from a tree of around eighty to one hundred years old and was selected personally by Laurie specifically for use as soundboard tonewood. In 2006, after years of building with this tonewood from salvaged sources, Laurie had the opportunity to select his own kauri tree growing in a private forest in Waingarara. It was a rare opportunity and he personally oversaw the felling and milling of the timber. This project was recorded in a feature documentary called ‘Song of the Kauri’.
It is also worth noting all soundboard bracing for his steel string acoustics, irrespective of what species is used for the soundboard, is also made from Waingarara kauri stock. This harnesses the excellent sustain of kauri and creates a greater degree of consistency across all his instruments, irrespective of the soundboard selected.
‘Old Man’ River Kauri
Species: Modern Kauri (Agathis australis)
Luthier uses: Soundboards.
Tap tonal properties: Its tap tone is different than Laurie’s Waingarara kauri. It ‘sings’ with a bright and distinct tone. As a soundboard, it is clear and ringing, with a distinct ‘presence’ that is quite mysterious and wonderful.
Visual properties: The grain is straight and very tight, as tight as the slowest growth spruce, which is somewhat unusual for kauri. Coloured from the river, each set has its own unique character and unusual markings and figure, indicative of its immense size and age.
Description: This tonewood comes from a recovered river log. However, only a section of the outer circumference of the original mighty tree was still intact, and it was from this that soundboards have been cut. From the size of the section that remained, along with the regular and tight growth rings, it is estimated that the tree was around 2000 years old when it was felled. Another curiosity is it has a higher-than-normal resin content than ‘modern’ kauri, which gives the wood a higher density, but also makes it very stiff and resonant, contributing to its bright tap tone.
Ancient kauri
Species: Ancient Kauri (Agathis australis)
Luthier uses: Back & sides, necks, decorative veneer
Visual properties: Due to the unusually long time periods of its preservation in peat swamps, from which it is recovered, ancient kauri varies remarkably in colour, grain, figure, density, and strength, from one log to the next, much more than any other timber.
Its most priced pieces exhibit a large scale compression figure in the grain. This can also be accompanied by curious ‘whitebait’ markings that seem to be a unique characteristic of the ancient kauri. These patterns contribute to making the best examples of ancient kauri one of the most rare, unique, and chatoyant woods in the world.
Description: One of the most uniquely beautiful, not to mention oldest (not hundreds but thousands of years!), is what we, in the Far North, call “ancient” kauri. It is recovered from peat swamps where it has been preserved in a workable state.
The extreme variability of ancient kauri makes selection for musical instruments tricky but the more highly figured examples tend, on average, to have a higher density and a better tap tone. Laurie has spent years searching and collecting the best and most striking examples of this wood, and it is with his unmatched experience working with ancient kauri that he offers the best examples from his own personally selected stock.
Signature Series instruments feature ancient kauri back and sides along with a matched ancient kauri neck.
Paraoanui Sinker
Species: Tanekaha (Phyllocladus trichomanoides).
Luthier uses: Soundboards.
Tap tonal properties: Bright, powerful, with clear overtones.
Visual properties: The grain is straight and tight with distinct growth rings. Its colour is creamy. It can exhibit subtle streaks and dark tone graduations due to it being a salvaged log of some 160+ years in the river.
Description: Conventional wisdom would suggest tanekaha is rather dense for a soundboard, however it has other significant advantages. It is very elastic (the old bullock drivers used it for their long whip poles) and has excellent strength, which allows the top to be dimensioned a lot thinner than traditional spruces. This more than compensates for the added density and yields greater sustain than the spruces. Coupled with Waingarara kauri bracing it produces a balanced, clear and bright tone with plenty of volume.
Laurie’s high opinion of this tonewood is such that he used it on his 20th Anniversary models with superb results. This particular log was discovered when a seasonal flood dislodged it from the river bed not far from Laurie’s workshop in the Paraoanui valley, where it was found by one of his sons, deposited upon the river bank that borders Laurie’s property. It was not a large tree and tonewood of the size required for guitars is consequently very limited.
Motuhake Tree
Species: Tanekaha (Phyllocladus trichomanoides).
Luthier uses: Back & sides, necks, headstock veneer, bridge, purfling, binding.
Tap tonal properties: Bright, powerful, and direct, the tap tone properties of tanekaha make it a very versatile tonewood, with this Motuhake tanekaha being used primarily for back and sides. As such, it is a rival for any of the rosewoods and offers a more responsible alternative for those who love the look of the dark woods.
Visual properties: The most striking distinction of tonewood from the Motuhake Tree is its rich dark colour, in contrast to the normal colour of the species. It varies from a rich red brown to almost black and can also have streaks of lighter accents. Depending on the angle of light reflecting off its surface, it can appear to change colour, hinting at the original colour of the wood prior to its many years in the river. The grain is silky smooth, with a rich, captivating lustre, imparting a rare and sophisticated beauty.
Description: No other log exemplifies the extraordinary degree of variation possible with NZ riverwood. ‘Motuhake’ means unique, or special, and it is the name given to distinguish this very distinctive tanekaha tree. It was river-fallen, meaning it fell into the river from natural causes. We know this because the tree was recovered with the entire root ball still intact. How long it had been in the river is not known but it possible to hazard an educated guess at the age of this wood by factoring in the time it takes to stain the mill logs that become trapped in the rivers.
Cut logs colour, starting from the outside circumference, generally exhibit river stained colour anywhere from between 6 to 10 inches, depending on the species and other factors. When the Motuhake tree was recovered, the river stained colour was all the way through tree. This tells us it has been in the river many hundreds of years, at least four or five hundred, but it could be a lot more.
Laurie acquired the entire Motuhake tree, and though it was not a large tree, stock levels are good. The tonewood has been processed by Laurie to yield all quartersawn timber, which, with its ‘rosewood’ like appearance, sets it apart from many of the rosewoods used today.
Taraire
Species: Taraire (Beilschmiedia taraire)
Luthier uses: Back & sides, decorative veneer, bridge, binding.
Visual properties: The colour is usually a light yellow/brown but Laurie’s stock comes from a rare ‘coloured’ taraire that was milled on private land many years ago. It has reds, dark browns and black spiderwebbing. Coupled with a dash of pale sapwood, it makes for a visually interesting alternative to the more traditional look, resulting in a refreshing original and striking instrument.
Description: Taraire is an open pored wood similar to rosewood, but a little lighter in density. It is representative of a genus, containing about 40 species, that is mainly tropical. From the laurel family, taraire is not a commercial species of any consequence, as it grows on fertile soil that is now commonly reserved for agriculture. Mostly obtained as a windfallen tree, on private farmland, it is unlikely that another coloured taraire will turn up any time soon but stock levels are good.
Feathered River Rimu
Species: Rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum).
Luthier uses: Back & sides, necks, decorative veneer, binding.
Visual properties: A beautiful smooth grained timber with similar density to mahogany. The heartwood varies in colour from a dark reddish to yellowish brown, and often exhibits irregular streaks. Cοmbined with a couple hundred years in a northland river, almost anything is possible and Laurie’s Dark River rimu is an unusual blend of colour and figure, unique to the tree and the river in which it was found.
Description: One of the most common indigenous species used today for furniture and architectural components. The variety that occurs naturally with standing trees means there is a greater chance of finding some exceptional samples in future years though stock, at present, is limited to the sample shown here.
River Totora
Species: Totara (Podocarpus Totara).
Luthier uses: Necks, back and sides.
Visual properties: Clean, straight grain is easily obtained but the addition of dark staining and streaks can add the charm and character of history.
Description: Totara is an important tree to the indigenous Mäori of New Zealand. Close grained and silky smooth, easily worked with a carving chisel, it is the pre-eminent carving timber of New Zealand and was traditionally used for building waka (canoes) and decorative carving.
A little difficult to dry but, once dry, is very stable, easily worked, and well suited to use as guitar necks. It makes a perfect alternative to Honduran mahogany.
Stock levels for necks is good. Laurie currently has some exceptionally figured totara in reserve for back and sides. Please inquire.
River Matai
Species: Matai (Prumnopitys taxifolia)
Luthier uses: back & sides, headstock veneer, bridge, purfling, binding, fingerboards.
Visual properties: Smooth, close grained timber, usually a golden tan or red, Laurie’s stock of back and side sets has a beautiful dark aged appearance with a combination of dark and light streaks giving it a strikingly beautiful appearance all its own.
Description: A timber possessing very fine qualities. Hard and brittle for a conifer, matai is naturally waxy and works to a satiny finish and wears extremely well, making it suitable for bridges as well as fretboards.
One of Laurie’s favourite timbers for binding because of the wide range of natural variations in colour. It offers excellent options from light golden colours to almost black, while always showing off the subtle chatoyance of its grain.
River Kahikatea
Species: Kahikatea (Dacrycarpus dacrydioides)
Luthier uses: Soundboards, classical guitar top bracing.
Tap tonal properties: Of all the many New Zealand species Laurie has worked with, kahikatea is perhaps the most like a traditional spruce in tone. Bright, loud, and clear. If the sound of a spruce top is what you are after, kahikatea compares well and can rival the finest spruces.
Visual properties: Straight, tight grain, it looks remarkably like a slow growth Swiss spruce but that is where the similarity ends. Normally a light yellow in colour. It has aged in the river to a darker yellow green that softens with age. Subtle light and dark streaks combine to yield a visual tone and character that speaks to its aged river provenance.
Description: A tall timber tree in the New Zealand forest, kahikatea grows in low altitude areas preferring swamplands where it develops large buttresses. Here it often forms stands of rickers (young trees) of the one species though it can be found in mixed stands throughout the forest. The lightweight timber of Kahikatea is pale in colour and does not impart odour making it historically, an ideal timber for boxes for the export of butter.
It is characterised by long straight lengths useful in the boatbuilding industry. Hence it is one of the more common species being recovered from rivers today and the variety for tonewood can only increase. Information inspired by NZ Riverwood.
