Spruce laminate supplier

[Tim2723]

Does anyone here know of a supplier for the spruce laminate used for inexpensive guitar tops? I need to find this material in about a 3x3 foot size or larger.

Thanks.

[David Newton]

I think "Aircraft Spruce" company sells spruce plywood.

[Paul Hostetter]

Most inexpensive guitar tops are a sandwich of fluffwood (basswood, mahoganoid) between two layers of spruce. Yamaha used to make ply tops from three layers of spruce, which is why I believe their ply tops sounded relatively pretty good. If you need this stuff for something with any sonic expectations, you might find it's easier to make it yourself from commercial veneers. 3x3 is pretty big!

[Tim2723]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the input. But when you figure that about a bizzilion guitars a year are made of this, there HAS to be a commercial supplier of it in large quantities. Where do the Pac Rim makers get their plywood? Thanks again, you guys are the beast!! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Jude Reinhardt]

No, but if you could live with laminated birch soundboard material this place can fill your need. I built one of their harp kits a couple of years ago and it has the birch sound board.

http://www.harpkit.com/Merchan....upplies (http://www.harpkit.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=0007supplies)

Jude

[Tim2723]

Thanks Jude. Baltic Birch is my fall-back position if I can't find spruce ply. Actually, the instrument I've commissioned is a zither-family instrument very similar to a hammered dulcimer that's being built by a well-known folk harp maker. I'm asking around on his behalf, as he is also having trouble finding a supplier.

[Paul Hostetter]

Birch versus spruce? Think about tone!

[Tim2723]

Yeah, I know. The problem is that this instrument uses an unusually large soundboard and depends on laminates to add strength. A solid spruce soundboard isn't out of the question (the ribs and back will be solid), but the soundboard would need to be allowed to float to prevent cracking. That's not the biggest of deals, but it requires a significant design change and might limit some of the additional features I want to install. A laminate, spruce or birch, would have the necessary strength. Solid woods were of course used in decades past, but there are very few existing examples all of which have cracks.

I understand that it's proper to add mandolin content to threads on the Cafe, so here goes. If you haven't already guessed, this is not a mandolin. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Paul Hostetter]

Well, it may be big but it's got nothing on a piano, and they're always solid spruce and for the most part solid spruce endures. Again, if I was making this thing and was certain only a laminated soundboard was going to do it (planning on playing outdoors a lot?) I'd make the ply from scratch entirely of spruce.

[markishandsome]

Why not use a solid piece of some hardwood? Maybe not birch, but think of all the Koa topped guitars out there. Paul has suggested Padauk a few times in the past, but I tried it once and the top shattered into a million tiny pieces. I've seen harps with curly maple soundboard before (at least I think it was the soundboard, I'm not really a harp guy). If I were commissioning a large unusual instrument for what I imagine is big $$$, I wouldn't want a plywood soundboard.

[Tim2723]

Thanks for all the input guys. I've disussed it further with the luthier and we've decided to go with a solid spruce floating top. Just as a piano's massive steel frame takes the tremendous force of the strings, the force of the strings will be taken up by the outer frame of the zither. And like a piano, the top will float (not be glued down) to let it expand and contract on its own.

[mandolooter]

cool...problem solved!

[Tim2723]

Yeah, ain't it neat when a thread comes to a logical conclusion? Thanks again guys!