A little ecology… Regional woods used in the manufacturing of “Ouessant” and other acoustic guitars!

Convinced that the use of exotic woods such as mahogany, ebony or rosewood is more a tradition inherited from our colonial history than a choice truly based on objective criteria in terms of acoustic functioning, I have been looking for many years to find regional types of wood that can advantageously substitute for each other.to so-called classic species, from distant origins.
The ash for example has long been the preferred wood of carpenters or wheelwrights for the manufacture of all parts requiring great elasticity (wheels, spring leaves, arches, etc.). It is a wood whose mechanical properties favor the dynamics and stiffness that one can expect from a resonance box. It has been used for electric guitars or basses for a long time. Other regional woods such as walnut, cherry, corm, cypress, and maple of course, can also be used for the back and sides.
For the soundboard, if an evolution in the material must take place, the research will rather be in a composite of different species possibly combined with composites. By experiment, spruce and cedar are not called into question in the manufacturing of the guitar and remain essential due to their woody structure, favoring acoustic transmission.
For so-called wear parts such as the fingerboard and the bridge, the choice is even more limited because high-density wood species are rarer in Europe.

However, the cormier (essence of our regions) corresponds to these criteria of hardness and stability since it was used to make tools (plane soles, handles, etc.). Having fallen into disuse among carpenters, this wood is today rarer and difficult to find.
The lime tree, used for the handles, was chosen for its weight and mechanical strength, its fairly low density is more than sufficient for the stability and lightness that is required of the handle, particularly when it is assembled in multiple plies.
As far as possible, once a species of wood has been selected, the Kopo workshop is committed to sourcing European or even French wood from a nearby sawmill. It goes without saying that wood suppliers are able to specify

the origin of extraction of the essences they sell.