Cedar top.

[telepbrman]

Hey, I am wondering about cedar top mando's, in that what would a natural matte finish look like? I have never seen a cedar top, and when I think of cedar, you guessed it, I see a cedar chest at the foot of a bed....anyhow, I am looking to order, by years end, another custom Weber, and I am thinking of a Matte Cedar topped mando..thanks for your time, dy.

[siren_20]

Try checking out the Chad Fadley model Weber mandolins over at Greg Boyd's site... they have one matte, one gloss, and they all have cedar tops. Cool looking instruments.

[Rick Schmidlin]

The one Greg Boyd has is a killer. The only drawback was the neck was to wide for my hand. Besides that it is OX full of rich woody sound. For the money Chad Custom Yellowstone Cedar the best sounding F around!

[telepbrman]

This cedar top...bluegrass tones? Power? And punch? dy.

[Bill Snyder]

Knotty cedar furniture is not made out of the same wood as the Western Red Cedar (thuja plicata)used for instrument tops. Many of the classical guitars built have cedar tops. I have yet to see one that looked like a cedar chest.
To see one look at phynie's post in this thread. (http://www.mandolincafe.net/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=15;t=17762;hl=cedar)

[Rick Schmidlin]

As for a true Bluegrass tone with punch and drive the Cedar top has it. Just ask Chad to play one over the phone at Greg Boyds.

[greg boyd]

Hello to all,

It is a very interesting the way that we got into stocking Cedar-Topped mandolins.

We had been noticing over a few years prior to 2003, how several makers were employing Western Red Cedar with good results in new mandolins.

Around 2003 we began to buy a few Weber mandolins with Cedar tops. We began noticing right away that the "best" players at any festival would remark how "open" they sounded, and how strong and "woody".

It wasn't long before Eric Uglum picked up a Weber Fern with Cedar top at our booth in Washington at a festival. He wouldn't put it down, and arranged to buy it.

That was all we needed to start speeding up our orders to Weber for more Cedar-topped instruments.

Chad Fadely, our long-time employee here thought enough of them that in 2004 he ordered a Weber Yellowstone Cedar-top with certain tasteful appointments. The overall "look" and sound of his mandolin has caused lots of customers to order these same appointments.

What Chad did was effectively spot out the "cool" appointments that cause the mandolin to look very much "fully dressed", as well as delivering huge projection and tone, for well under $5000.

Cedar tops only cost about $100 extra on any Weber. We recommend it to be mated with ToneBar Bracing, as well as 2-pc bridge. We have received about 12 or so of these custom Yellowstones since late last summer, with 1 or 2 pre-ordered per month for store stock.

There is no gimmick - just a choice of wood coupled with choice of bracing and bridge, that yields results that make very experienced players turn their heads.

They range from around $3750 with just Cedar/ToneBar/Bridge changes, to $4650 which includes tons of great appointment upgrades:
Cedar Top, Custom Color, Custom Inlays(Flowerpot, Old-Style Script Logo, Dots in f.b.), Radius, Scalloped Extension, Matte Finish, Great Pickguard, Gold Hardware, Antiqued Bindings, Solid Pearl Tuner Buttons, etc... and sometimes a 1 3/16" nut width.

- Greg Boyd
House of Fine Instruments
311 Knowles St
Missoula, Montana 59801
www.gregboyd.com
406/327-9925

[Chip Booth]

Greg, how important do you consider the matte finish to the tone, or is this just a personal preference?

Chip

[jeffshuniak]

i have a cedar top mando.. its great for jazz.. it has a very deep full sound. i love it.. my opinion.. go for it..you can always get a spruce top anyway:;):