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Purchased tops from Paul Duncan, he is seriously misrepresenting what he's selling. Trying to sell high grade tops which in reality are 2A or below. I purchased 20 tops from him and only 3-4 tops are actually usable as a 3A top. Avoid this guy like the plague. Selling crap. Save your money and purchase from a reputable seller.

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Did you take this up with the seller? I happen to know he's a pretty reasonable guy.

Also How are you determining grade?

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I purchased 5 Lutz spruce tops from him out of curiosity. I considered sending them back. I'm very privileged to have a lot of very old, air dried, split, tops from all over Europe, and I wasn't sure what to expect from Lutz spruce.

I believe they are graded only on aesthetics, and that always bothers me. To a Guitar Center employee, they'd look fine, but aesthetics don't concern me much and are of low importance to me in selecting tops (within reason).

As I have no prior experience with Lutz spruce, I am not sure how they compare to what other suppliers have. But the important qualities varied wildly. Of the 5, I liked two of them alright. The stiffness of the others left a lot to be desired. One had an E Cross of only 0.3 GPa. These are "AAA" tops. I probably should have sent them all back, as I am unlikely to use them.

The same day, I received another soundboard as gift from Gerhard Oldiges. We had been discussing spruce from the Jura region of Switzerland, where José Romanillos sourced his tops, and he sent me one he purchased from Stefano Moccetti that was cut in the 80s while he was working with José. It's an amazing soundboard, but one that many makers would reject for its coarse grain, random bearclaws, and other aesthetic "flaws". Yet it aligns perfectly with what José taught us, what he wrote in his books, and it closely resembles the soundboard of an ’81 Romanillos I had the pleasure of spending some time with.

I currently have a good stock, but I think when adding to it in the future, I'll go hand-select from the European tonewood dealers instead.

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Jay Duncan is an asshole. The pic is an example of what he sent me as a high grade. Real nice kindling

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What did Jay say about it? If it’s the Jay I think it might be, this is his first stab at selling top wood and may not have the grading experience that others do. Did it arrive sanded, or did you sand it?

It arrived unsanded. I had to sand it to actually see all the defects. A. lot of them were really bad. The guy talks a big game but doesn't know. anything about grading wood. When we were going back and forth he got rude as well as his business partner Paul B. Jabrayan who owns www.grandsalondeguitare.com and www.decasciaguitars.com

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Ferengi Rule of Acquisition number 239: Never be afraid to mislabel a product.

Ferengi Rule of Acquisition number 1: Once you get their money, you never give it back.

For people who don’t watch Star Trek: It is unflattering to have your business practices compared to those of a Ferengi.

Sorry these guys turned out to be Ferengi, David. I’ve run into a few myself. The list of wood sellers I trust to send me tops “sight unseen” has gotten pretty short.

I remember when either Shane or Mario, one of them when you bought Lutz from them they would add one set as protective covering for the stack you purchased. Or, in other words a B set that's purpose was the shield the good stuff in the middle of the stack.

What I see above would not qualify for that free, protective set we used to get when we ordered Lutz.

Sorry David what I see above is clearly crap.

Hesh the funny thing is the B stock that was a protector slice was typically a 3A lol....... We need Shane to come back. His Lutz was amazing. I still have 20 tops left over from Shane.

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