Considering the uniqueness of wood, even the same wood, no two pieces of wood will ever sound the same. But with that as a given, not only do different woods result in distinct sounds, but the cutting, aging and quality affect the sound as well. Many guitars are made from spruce woods. They produce good resonance, high strength to weight ratio and are easy to work with. German Spruce, which is now somewhat rare, has a rich warm sound well suited to classical guitars. Cedar is sometimes used to make classical guitars. It results in a well-defined and very immediate sound. But cedar will nick or blur out if driven hard and is not suited for vigorous attack and wide range. Mahogany is strong, stable and resonant, with a bright penetrating sound which works particularly well for playing with other instruments. It results in good trebles and bass, but a bit weak in the mid range. But its chief virtue is strength, which help keep the neck from warping. Rosewood has been the most revered wood. It not only has beautiful colors, it makes a warm rich sounding guitar with great resonance and volume. But the price these days is outrageous.

a denser wood will produce a fuller sound with more resonance. look at the front of the body. look for a guitar with a tight grain, (the lines are close together) but depending on what you are looking at about AUS 1200 will buy you a reasonable guitar for performances.

It also has to do with whether it's an acoustic or electric or an acoustic electric. But each wood has it's tonal qualities and strength. I have pieces of maple that sounded warm and round and closer to mahogany and maple that was bright and thin. Same for mahogany, one that was big and warm with a fat midrange and one with no tone at all. A wood I really like for electric is white korina or limba wood for electric guitars. Usually the best sounding guitars for me are ones that use a few different woods. The one's I build for myself are medium to light weight swamp ash bodies, mahogany or white korina necks and rosewood finger boards. All electric and I use Duncan pickups. You Can see them on Myspace, look in the picture section. http://www.myspace.com/texassouthernblues

I am a bit sceptical about so "called tone woods"I would agree that you wont make a good sondboard from a lump o stringybark, but i wonder if the question should be what properties are desirable for this part or that.And although German spruce is good or cedar is good ,there only good if they have the right properties. I base my statement on the Greg Smallman guitars romour has it that there is a lot of laminated parts in the body & composite braces of carbon fibre & balsa braces ,seems to me its fabricated to create a known density & weight. All that asside though ,real wood looks great.