Sound Board

[Lane Pryce]

What is your usual choice and why? I'm exploring my options and am wondering if you guys use anything other than sitka spruce on a regular basis for your tops. Lp

[Dave Cohen]

There is no single "best" wood species for a top. The various spruces, western red cedar, redwood, Alaskan yellow cedar, some larches, , Douglas fir, etc., all have been used successfully for tops in both plucked stringed instruments and bowed stringed instruments. There is so much variation within each species that generalizations are difficult if not impossible. In other words, each luthier will have an opinion on what he/she considers to be the "best" species based on his/her results from the use of a particular sample of that species. Yet that sample may or may not be typical of other samples from the same species.

There are several sources of information on wood properties. Acoustician Dan Haines had an article over 20 yrs ago in the Catgut Acoustical Society Journal (now merged with the Violin Society of America, VSA), which as also updated about 4 yrs ago. There was also some excellent information, though somewhat generalized, in the old LMI catalogue, before LMI was taken over by the German firm. The best single article so far for luthiers was an article several years ago now in American Lutherie by David ("Kawika") Hurd.

Maybe Spruce will chime in with a slightly different take based on his broad experienced in cutting, processing, and selling tonewoods.

[Spruce]

"Maybe Spruce will chime in with a slightly different take based on his broad experienced in cutting, processing, and selling tonewoods. "

Thanks for the kudos, Dave....
Especially the "broad experienced" part... # http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

By far, the most exceptional tonewood (in fact, I wonder why people bother to build mandolins with anything else) is the extraordinary Lutz Spruce of Northern British Columbia and Alaska.
The mandolins that I've played recently made from this topwood must be heard to be believed...

Sure, one could settle for the brittle harshness of Red Spruce (the ultimate "bluegrass tone") that takes 25-30 years to break in, or the delicate detail of Engelmann spruce that is so suited for celtic music, or the docile overtones of Western Red Cedar that sounds as good as it will ever sound right off the bench (no break in required!!)...

But every single mandolin builder who has ever put a chisel to Lutz Spruce has never looked back. #The tones that emerge from this cross between White and Sitka
spruce (Picea glauca x P. sitchensis = P. lutzii) are simply stunning in their complexity, and the wood easily becomes the top choice for those wanting that woody chop that is associated with White Spruce (similar, if not identical, to Engelmann), plus the power and volume that Sitka is so famous for...

Also called Roche Spruce, there is simply no point is using any other topwood for a bluegrass mandolin (or any other style for that matter).

And the beautiful this about this tonewood is that it really doesn't matter how talented or experienced of a maker one is.
The wood is guaranteed to sound like an 80-year-old Loar right off the bat regardless of how thick you leave the wood or the arching one employs.

And it only gets better with age, peaking out tone-wise 37 years and 2 months after first stringing it up....

I highly recommend that you try this wood...
It will change the world of mandolin building forever...

[FrankenMouse]

LOL... A little acetone in your morning coffee, Bruce?

[Lane Pryce]

Gosh Bruce I'm foaming at the mouth after reading about the Lutz Spruce. If that were as an option for a sound board in the kit I am considering I'd jump on it! How does it stack up cost wise to the other tone woods and where can it be purchased? Lp

[Spruce]

"How does it stack up cost wise to the other tone woods and where can it be purchased?"

Because it only grows on remote islands and roadless valleys in the BC interior, the wood is basically unavailable unless one wants to go harvest the wood themselves.

The last piece I saw on ebay went for $147.33...

But well worth it!

[Jim Rowland]

I was the purchaser of the E-Bay Lutz wedge. Unfortunately,the UPS guy left it in the driveway and my wife backed her semi over it..but over my anguished screams I heard the most heavenly E flat ever made on earth. I believe I saw a beautiful rainbow colored vapor rise from the splinters and drift heavenward. Best $l47.33
I ever spent.
Jim

[Chris Baird]

I don't think Lutz can compare to the secret spruce that grows in the desert where I live. It's cones grow in exactly the shape of a mandolin plate and are perfectly tuned for the perfect tone. I will sell such a cone/plate for only $147.32.

[John Bertotti]

Hey Spruce is it true your working on a hybrid of that and redwood? Working for a top that sounds perfect all over and breaks in in 37 mins 2 seconds? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif John

[neal]

Oh, you guys!http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[John Bertotti]

JLP, in all honesty pick one you like and try it. They all have different characteristics even within the same tree. If you have heard many mandolins and find the tone you like from a consistent type of top try it. John

[crawdad]

"Maybe Spruce will chime in with a slightly different take based on his broad experienced in cutting, processing, and selling tonewoods. "

And the beautiful this about this tonewood is that it really doesn't matter how talented or experienced of a maker one is.
The wood is guaranteed to sound like an 80-year-old Loar right off the bat regardless of how thick you leave the wood or the arching one employs.

And it only gets better with age, peaking out tone-wise 37 years and 2 months after first stringing it up....

I highly recommend that you try this wood...
It will change the world of mandolin building forever...

LOL! I almost swallowed the hook on this one!

[Luthier Vandross]

I like western knotty pine, I salvaged some from a Gretsch.


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