Transient bending waves in three wooden plates are studied. A rectangular flat spruce plate (from a guitar top plate) and two arched violin plates (of spruce and maple, respectively) are impacted by a small ballistic pendulum. The impact point is at the center of the guitar plate and the bridge position of the violin plates. A sequence of holographic interferograms of the events is recorded using a double pulsed ruby laser as the light source. The holographic setup is a standard one. The elliptical shape of the interference fringes shows that wood is strongly anisotropic. The shape of the propagating pulse changes with time, which shows the dispersive behavior of bending waves in plates. A solution of the isotropic Euler plate equation for a flat plate is compared to experimental results of the guitar plate, assuming that this description is adequate along the main axes of this orthotropic plate. The shape of the propagating wave pattern and the elliptical rather than circular shape of the violin imply an interesting coincidence