To make guitars with high sonic quality, it is essential to understand the

relationship between the physical characteristics of the selected materials and the acoustic

characteristics of the final instrument and how they will be perceived. The selection of

wood for the soundboard is a crucial step in the guitar-making process. One relevant

physical characteristic is internal material damping, about which, however, only little is

known in comparison to other characteristics such as density and Young’s modulus. The

present study investigated the relationship of soundboard damping to both physical and

perceptual aspects of guitar sound. Three similar steel-string guitars were built with the

damping of their soundboards varying between low, mid and high. Measurements of

the transfer function and the plucked tone decay of the final guitars were carried out.

A listening test and a playing test were conducted. The participants were asked to rate

preference and seven sound attributes comprising loudness and both spectral and temporal

aspects. To prepare the listening test, a short sequence was recorded by a professional

guitarist with each guitar. The results suggest that varying soundboard damping had no

practically relevant influence on the physical and perceptual aspects of the sound of the

guitar used in this study.