Official Luthiers Forum!

Given the fact that environmental conditions can and do impart environmentally specific attributes within a given species, and the fact we like to take advantage of these environment specific attributes. To me it seems both logical and prudent that sub-names and or nick names are applied.

Now insuring you get those attributes, well that is a different issue all together

JJ, as you probably know, picea abies has a much larger growing range than Carpathia + the Alps. It is by far THE most common wood up here too, and is used for construction and pulp mostly. Here, it is a relative newcomer; as little as 800 years ago it was only found in a few areas. Due to the numerous mountains and valleys commercial harvesting is not practical in in some remote parts of this country, and there are stands there with large specimens as old as 450 years. Instrument makers in this country have traditionally gotten their spruce from some of these places; many of the Hardanger fiddle makers for example like to use spruce from the Norefjell mountain. Of course nobody is cutting it and selling for tonewood here, and so far I've only made one mandolin with it; nice, clear, quartered pieces large enough for 2 piece guitar tops have unfortunately proved very hard to come by.

So it is the same species, but is it the same? I think my Italian spruce is generally a bit different than the local spruce, I even think it smells a bit different when I work it. I don't think local growing conditions can account for all all differences, but I am pretty sure good tonewood can be found in lots of areas where you don't normally hear about on these forums. If this was a Hardanger fiddle or perhaps 'langeleik' forum, you'd all be pestering me to get you some of my spruce!

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Regional nicknames did help me to remember and distinguish the species of spruce when I first jumped into this craze,luthier. I try to attach certain consistant chararteristics to each of them to help me distinguish them. The more I read the wider the opinions run and it gets very confusing. I guess where I'm at is that I've tried and liked Lutz and thought that I might spend a little more and try the hyped Adi. I guess I was trying not to disappoint myself. BTW, I play fingerstlye, loudly. Clinton

What Colin said...

I've got one top that I know is 'Carpathian' (at least, the guy bought it from the sawmill in the Czech republic or somesuch), and I've handled quite a number of other tops from the same guy. I've also handled/sifted/flexed literally hundreds (and bought about 150, overall) tops at Rivolta, all Italian spruce, and...well, in terms of looks, flex, feel, they can be interchanged. Some of them. The carpathian was pre-selected by a local tonewood dealer who sorts and selects well, properly. The stuff at Rivolta is graded based on the look of the piece, and variability can be quite huge; it's the stiffest stuff I've handled, feels a little softer than the few Adi tops I got to handle at Steve Roberson's a few years back, but it certainly matches or occasionally even exceeds it when it comes stiffness. Weight varies from as heavy as Sitka to as light or lighter than Engelman/WRC density, sometimes with really quite stunning stiffness to boot - I look for relatively lightweight tops that are among the stiffest there; I left quite a number of astoundingly stiff (but not stiffer than what I took) tops there because they felt a little on the heavy/dense side.