As the OP I’ll third the Happy Birthday! December babies have to stick together!
As the OP I’ll third the Happy Birthday! December babies have to stick together!
My avatar is of my OldWave Oval A
Creativity is just doing something wierd and finding out others like it.
Eastern hemlock is such a valuable tree that you can walk through reforested areas in the northeast and stumble across massive, old growth hemlock.
Think about it.
Not all the clams are at the beach
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Friends had a large, mansionish timberframe home built in Vermont of this wood as it was what the builder could find at the time. I was worried that it would be a mistake since the wood has a reputation for splitting and brittleness in this use. As far as I know, it’s still standing up.
That's consistent with a statement in the US Department of Agriculture Sylvics Manual entry on eastern hemlock (Tsuga candadensis), "Older trees are susceptible to radial stress cracks and ring shake, particularly in partially cut stands" (https://srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/misc/ag...canadensis.htm). Western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) wood has a (slightly) better reputation and it's possible that MontanaMatt's sill is made from western hemlock.
Going back to John Bertotti's original question, I remember reading somewhere that French guitarmakers used their local pine successfully especially during the World War II era. I remember reading this originally with regard to Busato, but haven't been able to track down that reference. However, in this interview Jean-Jacques Favino does mention purchasing French Pine for guitarmaking (https://www.favino.com/en/history).
That being said, I'm not sure how similar French pine would be to eastern white pine and would hesitate to generalize between species. (Did you know that there are ~120 species in the genus Pinus? Lots of diversity of wood characteristics, I'm sure!)
Steve Weill (of Givens Legacy) was making A-5 style mandolins with pine tops as of a few years ago. I was at the University of Idaho Jazz Festival in 2016 or 2017 and he had brought one to play. We played it and compared it to a Collings and a Givens and it was very nice (strong fundamental). Sorry I don't have more detailed memories of the sound. Steve was really excited about pine tops on mandolins. I believe he was using Ponderosa.
Dan
Only thing worse than getting old, is not getting old.
Had gigs Sunday and today, playing for seniors as a senior. Getting to be as venerable as my audiences...
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