Spotlight: Sustainable Australian Tonewoods & Cole Clark Guitars

Cole Clark have been championing Australian timbers for use as Tonewoods since their inception in 2001. Sourced from small sustainable plantations and urban salvage efforts around Australia, these Australian made guitars have well and truly proved there's a world of tones outside the much-loved traditional timbers like Spruce and Mahogany.
Here we're showcasing 3 Cole Clark Acoustic-Electric guitars that use a variety of locally sourced tonewoods:
00:38 AN1EC-SSO Series 1 Grand Auditorium made from Silky Oak
04:43 FL2EC-BLBL Series 2 Dreadnought made from Australian Blackwood
07:47 AN2EC-BB Series 2 Grand Auditorium made Bunya & Australian Blackwood
We recorded these guitars through a Strymon Iridium on the 'round' amp setting for a fairly neutral sound, with a little of the room mic left in the mix too for string noise.
You can read all about Cole Clark's timbers on their website here:
coleclarkguita...
Shop our Cole Clark range online here (though given the variance guitar to guitar, we'd highly recommend you visit us instore to choose a guitar)
www.mannys.com...
We are Mannys Music, located in Australia.
Store locations here: www.mannys.com...
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Visit our website: www.mannys.com.au

[@scottjameswatson]

Recently bought an AN2 with Blackwood top, back and sides. I’m in love ❤

[@MannysMusic_Online]

nice! Gorgeous guitar!

[@solomonwaigani4512]

A terrific demo of fabulous guitars. 👏

[@MannysMusic_Online]

Thanks you!

[@horsimusmaximus3886]

That blackwood dreadnought... what a magnificent thing. Wonderful demo of stellar guitars, built with the right ideas in mind. Thanks guys

[@MannysMusic_Online]

No problems mate, 100% agreed on that dreadnought 😍

[@langzikesch25]

I had bought a CC FL2 around 10 years ago, I LOVED the tone and sound of the guitar but the neck was thicker and found that my wrist would fatigue during a 3 hr show. Have they reduced the width of the neck of the guitars in recent years as I would like to get another one? Greta vid btw!

[@johnshambor]

Magnificent video!

[@MannysMusic_Online]

cheers John!

[@JC-td4gg]

I wonder why no one has tried using blackwood for the soundboard in a piano?

[@norbitcleaverhook5040]

They look amazing but do they sound great like a Martin? They don't use spruce tops do they?

[@MannysMusic_Online]

No spruce tops to be found here, sustainable Australian woods only. Cole Clark guitars aren't trying to sound like Martins, if you want a more traditional looking and sounding guitar made with Australian timbers, you could check out Maton guitars, we'll be doing a video on them in the near future 😊

[@norbitcleaverhook5040]

@@MannysMusic_Online Do the cole Clarke's still sound as resonant without the spruce tops? I love the originality and they look amazing but would be worried that later I would be looking for more. I know people say, just try one. But to be honest, you really only get to know a guitar by owning one.

[@MannysMusic_Online]

@@norbitcleaverhook5040 the Blackwood and Bunya guitars in particular certainly have a beautiful resonant quality to them, Bunya has fairly similar qualities to Koa, not as 'lively' as Spruce, but beautiful in its own way. The resonant character of a guitar also comes from its shape and construction, so there's a number of variables model to model. So 'is it as resonant a Spruce topped Martin?' is a tough question to answer, but there's no denying Martin are the gold standard of traditional acoustic guitars. You're of course welcome to pop in to one of our stores and try a few guitars (and we encourage you to do so!), but we hear what you're saying re: getting to know a guitar over time.

[@norbitcleaverhook5040]

@@MannysMusic_Online Yeah I might do that. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

[@johnshambor]

@@norbitcleaverhook5040 try the cedar of Lebanon top

[@11KT11]

Were these plugged in through the whole video?

[@tobywilkes1670]

Thanks for the video deo. Found it a bit hard to compare and contrast the timbers though to be honest. Using different tunings, capo locations, and then amplifications (that were in nuclear for the BW and Bunya) and also different models for each timber made it very hard to get a clear idea of each of the tonal qualities. Just constructive feedback, not having a go.

[@SaintKimbo]

Agreed, I would have liked just to hear the guitars played unamplified using the same simple chords, not interested in amplification, can't understand this obsession with it for acoustics.

[@MannysMusic_Online]

Thanks Toby, very fair feedback - we'll keep that in mind for future videos :)

[@mhsim8819]

Not worth buying. Maton is the best

[@BryanClark-gk6ie]

Disagree.