Cedar as a top tone wood

[atbuckner21]

Good afternoon,
I recently purchased a Morris A5 (which I love) and it has a cedar top. It has plenty of volume and is a beautiful mandolin. I message Sonny Morris (builder of Morris mandolins) and he said that he is partial to the sound of a cedar topped mandolin. Does anyone else that builds have a similar liking to cedar as a top tone-wood? Thanks

[allowishish]

I don't build but I do have a cedar top guitar that I love the sound of. It's my campfire beater and I find that it plays/sounds best wiTh a light to moderate touch. To heavy of a right hand and it gets muddy but played right it sounds full and warm. It is one of two that I tend to reach for before another guitar.

Post a video of how the cedar top mandolin sounds please.

[George R. Lane]

My first Weber was a cedar top Gallatin, it had maple back and sides. I would say it leaned more to the darker side, just not as bright as a spruce top. It was a very pleasant sounding instrument, but not a bluegrasser. I friend now owns it antdplays the heck out of it. He has agreed when he tires of it, I have first dibs.

[Tim Griffin]

Max Girouard is building cedar topped instruments.

[Seattle]

I have a cedar top classical guitar that I like the sound of. All I can say based on that limited experience is that the wood is soft and easy to ding (at least mine is that way). I like it however. It's not a cheaper guitar ($1,000).

Cedar is just another option I think.

[Dave Hanson]

top British builders Fylde have used cedar tops for a long time, some great sounding instruments.

Dave H

[atbuckner21]

Thanks for the responses I was just wondering. I really love my Morris and wondered if anyone (especially builders) favoured cedar at times over spruce.

[Dagger Gordon]

My 30 year old Sobell 10 string mandolin and also my octave mandolin are cedar.
I also play a Lowden cedar topped guitar.

Works for me!

[John Kelly]

I recently finished a cedar-topped mandolin for a colleague and he claims it has the best tone of the four other mandolins he has - two with carved tops but all spruce. i am almost finished another I decided to build for myself having heard his. It is said that it gives a good tone from new while spruce tops need playing in, but of that I have no real evidence apart from the opinions of all who subscribe to this idea! it is lovely wood to work with and planes beautifully - I use only hand tools to thickness the tops (planes and scrapers).

[atbuckner21]

John,
Thanks so much for sharing I really love the cedar topped A5 that Sonny has made me

[Boge Quinn]

I don't build, and greatly admire those who can, but I have two Bryan England (custominlay.com) cedar-topped F5s. They are wonderful, plenty loud and with the darker, woody tone that I favor.

[9lbShellhamer]

There are several YouTube videos of Silverangel A's and F's that are Cedar too.

[Mickey King]

I have a Lafferty Deluxe with a cedar top that was built by Paul Scheider. It had that open sound from day one, like a mandolin that has been played many years and opened up. I think it is great for mandolins, kinda like redwoods built by Ken Ratcliff and Ray Dearstone.

[atbuckner21]

It's so neat and encouraging to hear about all these builders using cedar. I have always been a fan of cedar and I am happy to play a cedar-topped mandolin

[Phil-D]

What type of cedar are we talking about? Western Red? Eastern white? Canadian? .....

[atbuckner21]

Western red

[CES]

Western red

My Taylor 714 has a western red cedar top and IRW back and sides, and I really like it. It's a great finger picker, and really doesn't break up if strummed hard like some other cedar topped guitars I've played before.

On a bit of a random note, my Silverangel A style has cedar bracing from a ridiculously old telegraph pole (spruce top, maple b/s). I love the tone, and the smell...can't say whether the tone is any different than it would have been with spruce bracing, but I like it .

[sgriffith1962]

I hope this is not inappropriate, but where do you guys buy cedar tone wood? I googled and found a couple sources but have no idea who to trust?

[Clinton Johnson]

Several years ago I bought some from "Bow River Tonewood"..I used western red cedar for the top and walnut for back and sides. It was a great sounding mandolin but unfortunately because of the type tailpiece I used, one screw was a little high touching the top plate and developed a crack which began to grow while playing for some time. I wound up replacing the top with spruce and give it to my daughter to learn. Still good tone.

[Jeff Hildreth]

"I hope this is not inappropriate, but where do you guys buy cedar tone wood? I googled and found a couple sources but have no idea who to trust?"

LMI aka Luthiers Mercantile.. I am sure there are others.

I live in Western Red Cedar Country. Not my first choice.

[Clinton Johnson]

I've recently seen some western red on Bruce Harvie web site also..."Orcus Island Tonewood "

[Mandobart]

I have a western red cedar topped Morris F4,

a WRC TJ Jessen F4 OM (21.5")


and a couple redwood topped instruments

TJ Jessen 10 string mandola (17" scale)


and a redwood topped F4 10 string mandocello by TJ Jessen also (26" scale)


To me redwood and WRC are similar in appearance, grain and tone. I'm a big fan of these tonewoods!

[Wilbur Tabacsko]

I am currently working on two cedar tops, one two point and an A model. These are numbers 16 and 17. Of the previous fifteen, ten of those were red cedar. It works well and sounds are to my liking. Just ask ten of my buyers.
The two point is book matched. The A model is a one piece with 300 annual rings.

[Eddie Sheehy]

Yep! Orcas Island Tonewoods - Bruce Harvie (spruce) - should be able to get some for you...

[John Kelly]

Sarah's Song Cedar Mando test.mp3

Here is a quick recording I made of my new cedar-tooped mandolin mentioned earlier in this thread. it is a version of Phil Cunningham's tune "Sarah's Song" and was recorded clean via a condenser mic using Reaper then rendered to mp3 format. No enhancements were used at all - just the straight recording.