Fir top...

[T_Crow]

I have been talking to Darby at Rose about a used fir-topped model that he has. #I've never played a mando with a fir top. #How do they compare to the spruces?

[Spruce]

Depends on the Fir and the maker...

What are Darby's opinions about the Fir that he has?

That's the person whose opinion you should listen to...

[evanreilly]

I have a Fir-topped mandolin. The builder believed the slighter stiffness of the Fir would allow for a thinner top overall. It did, but the Fir proved to be a bit too inelastic & split. The mandolin sounds great, but it did need a few repairs for splits on the top. The builder now uses Spruce and had replaced the few instruments with Fir tops that were problemmatical.
In hindsight, an interesting short-lived experiment.

[Spruce]

Well, there have been a lot of mandolins made successfully from Fir, including a lot by makers who didn't know they were using the stuff...

European Fir is commonly mixed in with spruce even today in Europe, and has probably found it's way into more than one mandolin by makers who thought they were using spruce, including some major manufactures...

Siminoff touted it as being good wood in his first book, and I'm sure a lot of people took his advice. #

I built few mandos out of Douglas Fir, and they're still around and sound fine.

There are a lot of Firs, too.....
California Red is a beautiful wood, as is Noble. #True White is good tonewood, as is the European species (whatever the hell that is).

Douglas ain't the only candidate...

[T_Crow]

Thanks for the relplies. I was really more curious than anything. I work in the timber industry in the Pac NW and we grow Douglas, Grand, Noble, Sub-Alpine, and Pacific Silver Fir. I've just never played a mando with a fir top before. Very cool! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Ken]

I built one of my mandolas with a fir top, still have it after more that twenty years and no problems with splits (a few repairs when it was dropped, but that's another story). It is graduated thinner because of the stiffness. Tonewise I'm happy with it. Lots of sustain,loud but not harsh.

Ken