What is a "Selected Spruce Top"?

[molinee]

I may be the only one here who doesn't know this answer but; When a top is advertised as "selected spruce top", does this mean that the top is a SOLID top or can it also be listed as seleced spruce and it is a LAMINATED top? #The reason I am asking is that many times I see selected spruce top and many times I see "solid spruce top" so I am thinking that there may be a difference.
-thanks

[junksuph]

I'm sure that what is meant by "select" spruce top is one that would be bookmatched, with even grain, no sap pockets or flaws, and tapped to see what tone it produces before it's even touched with a plane or saw. Certainly, "Laminated" would not fall into the select catigory in my shop, however, Martin is producing an arch-top guitar utilizing a laminated top, and it has a $3,000 price tag. I don't think that anyone has been able to produce a laminated mando top that can hold a candle to a finely carved/tuned top. The closest thing I've seen Is a friend of mine steam bent two piece tops out of 1/8" guitar top spruce, with amazing results, but he went through alot of wood till he got a top that was suitable for use. He's a professional musician, and uses that mando in his band.

[Michael Gowell]

Re. the Martin guitar referenced above - I'm under the impression that laminated tops are widely used & accepted on archtop guitars. #It may have to do with the difficulty of carving a such a large piece of solid wood thin enough to be resonant and yet remain crack-free.

[junksuph]

I hear Ya! The Martin archtop was a beautiful piece of work, but weren't most of the earlier archtops carved? I don't know, educate me if you can. I know that most stand-up basses sold today are laminated. Most wood suppliers offer book-matched sets for guitars and Basses too. Cripes, I couldn't imagine how much work carving a Bass top and back would be.

[SGraham]

I began playing on an inexpensive Dean mandolin. In their parlance, "solid" spruce top means it's made of solid spruce, while "select" spruce top means it's made of laminated wood. I don't know about other brands, but if I saw something touted as having a "select" spruce top, I'd assume it was laminated.

[groveland]

Regarding the laminated archtop guitars - It's usually by design - and when fitted with a pickup it provides the best response without feedback. In that case laminated is not a compromise.

[Bill Snyder]

I don't know about other brands, but if I saw something touted as having a "select" spruce top, I'd assume it was laminated.

Several inexpensive, starter level mandolins list a "select spruce top" amongst their features. That leads me to believe your assumption is most likely correct.

[sunburst]

When a top is advertised as "selected spruce top", does this mean that the top is a SOLID top or...?

From my experience in "the industry", that is "sales speak", meaning someone walked over to the pile of spruce tops, and selected one.

[Paul Hostetter]

I agree with John - I don't think it bears any implication about solid or laminated, or any suchathing. When you see what most spruce looks like, you know why 99.99999999% of it ends up as newsprint. The remaining .000000001% is selected for use in instruments. No big knots, no overt cracks, grain under 1/4", etc. So reassuring.

In cheap instruments I assume laminated unless it says "solid," and that much seems fairly reliable industry-wide. The term "select" is utterly meaningless.

[Michael Lewis]

What John and Paul said. "Sales speak" for sure. The problem is that prospective customers want to know and be reassured of quality, while prospective sellers want the customer to think the very best of the product whether it is true or not. Many words and phrases are used to imply facts and qualities that may not exist in the product. Caveat emptor (let the buyer beware)
I don't state that my instruments are made with "solid" wood even though they are. Hmmm . . . maybe I should start an advertising campeign.

[molinee]

Thanks guys for all your input. #It would appear that there is no simple answer... I guess the buyer beware as stated above is indeed called for.

[Greenmando]

Where is the ads stating "select spruce" ?
Just wondering who would even use the term.

[molinee]

Just some examples of hundreds of these...

(Back and sides made of Brazilian rosewood. This model comes with a "selected spruce-top" and herringbone-patterned trims for sound hole and top-border. Euro #1650.00)


"A" style body
Select Spruce top
Mahogany back and sides
Maple neck
Rosewood fingerboard
Adjustable bridge
Chrome geared tuners


Select spruce top
Maple Neck
Rosewood fingergboard
Adjustable bridge
Gold tuners-pearloid buttons
Nice tone--easy to play

[Peter Hackman]

Paul, are you testing us? Your figures add up
to 99.999999991 %

[Paul Hostetter]

Well, it was late at night!

[MML]

In the early Gibson catologes the term "finest select spruce" is used quite often. And they were masters of marketing with some of their jargin.Needless to say that all selections of spruce are not equal, some are better than others...those would then be the select ones

[SGraham]

I'm sure every field has its marketing euphemisms. In jewelry, many dealers use the term "natural" to indicate a natural gemstone, and "genuine" to indicate a synthetic one. I think "select" spruce is like that--salespeople harnessing the mighty power of word connotation.

Steve

[molinee]

......so we are saying that... a "select spruce top" might be a solid top or it might be a laminated top depending on who is selling and who is buying and who is advertising #..... :~)
-Thanks again

[Denis Kearns]

Came across this old thread while trying to figure out if my new Stradolin two-point mandolin is a model 1500 with “selected spruce top” or a model 1501 with “white spruce top”. The white spruce is mostly likely Engelmann spruce, while the selected spruce may be Sitka spruce. Without taking a sample and counting the resin tubes, I can’t determine which species provided the top for my mandolin. I doubt that any laminate would be used on a two-pointer. I posted photos of my mandolin under Calocedrus on the Stradolin group page. Make sure you hit “view all” to see all the photos. I’m guessing that my mandolin is late 40s - early 50s. It’s featured in a 1952 Speigel catalog.

[rcc56]

There is a variety of spruce that grows in Michigan's upper peninsula that is called "white spruce." I don't know how much of it is left, but before WWII, some of the trees grew big enough to produce instrument tops.

But I have no idea of whether or not the people who have written catalog descriptions over the years were aware of "Michigan white spruce." See John Hamlett's earlier post about the term "sales speak," which has been around for well over a hundred years.

While to me, the term "select spruce" would mean spruce of high grade, to a catalog writer it means whatever they want it to mean at the moment.

[Zach Wilson]

I've heard it said this way; Solid is solid, and anything else isn't.

I think companies use "select spruce" to dress up the word laminate.

Just my $0.02

[John Soper]

And then there's always the question of carved Vs pressed top... stating that an instrument is an arch top doesn't guarantee that it has a carved top.

[Anglocelt]

I am looking forward to a bargain 'rejected spruce top' mandolin.

[Cobalt]

I'd think a look at the cut edges of the f-holes would be a good indication of solid wood or otherwise. Though you can't usually look that closely until you have the instrument in your hands.


Photo of my Strad-O-Lin.

[HoGo]

I am looking forward to a bargain 'rejected spruce top' mandolin.

My first mandolin has both top and back from rejected wood. And several later ones as well. Mostly rejected by snobbish violin makers as "not good eough". I took the bad wood from them and all of them made excellent succesful mandolins.