Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey, fam.

It’s been a minute for me. I pop in pretty regularly, but haven’t posted in quite a while. I also haven’t done much building, but still love to stock my tonewood stash whenever I can. It seems like a number of the places that I’ve bought tops from over the years have either shut down or slowed down.

Where are you guys buying spruce, redwood and western red cedar tops from these days?

Thanks!

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sweat the small stuff.

I've bought very nice redwood and western red cedar tops from Felly Smith at Fiddleback Woodshack in Bend, OR.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

I’ve been getting Sitka Spruce and WRC from Brent Cole at Alaska Specialty (see the sponsors above). I get nice redwood tops from Vinces Strauss at Pacific Coast Woods (again, see the sponsors above). Both are accurate in their descriptions, very reliable, and easy to deal with. I used to buy Engelmann from LMI. The next time I need some, I’ll have to go looking for another supplier.

For red spruce specifically, consider Appalachian Tonewood in Lewisburg, WV. I always enjoy my visits with those guys, and bring home some great tops.

Shopping online rather than in person, and not focusing on a particular type of spruce, I consider OLF sponsors Aaron Hix, Alaska Specialty Woods, and (as always) StewMac, to be great places to buy wood. Of course, it’s harder to make sure you get what you want that way. The other OLF sponsors are likely also to be good suppliers, but I’m limiting my comments to companies from whom I have bought wood.

Tops Alaska Tonewoods for Sitka and Old Standard for Adi.

I really miss Euphonon, best Mahogany

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Hampton Brothers for Red Spruce, European/Caucasian/Sitka Spruce from radius dish uk, (still have quite a bit of nice Sitka from Lance) Sinker redwood from feelgoodwood (uk)
Sill got maybe 7 Lutz tops rom Shane as well.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Sitka, Lutz and Red Cedar from Pacific Rim Tonewoods. I’m local and have been allowed to go through the stacks on my own.

M

Big time jealous here.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Mike at Elite Tonewoods has the goods.

http://www.elitetonewoods.com

Music Spruce Canada for Engleman.

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https://www.instagram.com/fostinoguitars/
https://www.facebook.com/PuraVidaUkuleles/

Oh, man. Thanks, guys! This gives me some hope.

Am I crazy or is the supply of good soundboards really down? Like even Stew-Mac shows really low stock in Sitka spruce. And don’t get me started on the price.

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sweat the small stuff.

I have always bought my Sitka tops from Alaska Specialty woods-Great wood and prices, although the shipping from Alaska can be expensive...

A. Hix has great Adi on ebay or direct from him.

Also a guy on ebay named Arkady and direct from him.



If you keep your eyes open and beat the bushes you can find great deals.....

For example,I got 10 tops from Kimble woods on Facebook (he usually sells maple electric tops and necks) for $23 a set including shipping!-They are great tops-somewhat "colorful" But I like that-really stiff as well....

My last two orders have been through Acoustic Woods in Port Alberni, BC. I've ordered a few different grades and they have reflected exactly what is described on the web site. The variation in appearance is appropriate for the grade and price. But all grades and species have had excellent stiffness and resulted in great sounding guitars. I only wish I could build faster and order more wood from this company. They've been excellent!!
https://www.acousticwoods.ca/newsite/ma ... alog&cid=1

Terry, Thanks for the plug. But we are Alaska Specialty Woods,Inc. with domain Alaskawoods.com, and not Alaska Tonewoods. That name you referred to belonged to a John McCray in Ketchikan back in the early 2000's. The guy had Ripped off a lot of folks by sending firewood. There were LOTS of Complaints to some Business/ licensing agency in the State of Alaska, and he got shut down.
All the Best, Brent Sr

I was -this- close to being taken by that guy…

Quite a number of years back There was a complaint filed with BBB against the outfit, that the BBB then tried connecting to us.. I got that taken care of ASAP.
But because of the close proximity and name there were probably way too many[ even 1 is too many in my book] that connected us with John and stayed away. Good thing it's long past now.

I stumbled onto this page today and noticed the video clip taken from a drone camera.
I recognize the road. been there. https://grist.org/project/accountabilit ... -loophole/
I don't know of any large production tonewood producer or vendor of sitka spruce that doesn't source their log from industrial clearcutting of old growth Forest like in this clip. We're the only that I know of that doesn't harvest healthy green trees. We're 100% salvage sourcing our log. Only dead and down or very recently we acquired compromised that fell into the salvage definition, blown out or dead top and a dying tree and to salvage value that would be lost by letting the tree rot on the stump.