Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi-

For those of you who use red spruce for bracing - who is your favorite supplier and why? I know Steve at Colonial has red spruce for bracing. Has anyone used www.adirondackspruce.com before? I think John Mayes mentioned using this supplier before and he liked them. They sell by the pound and it looks like a great price.

Also, where does everyone get their red spruce tops from?

Thanks-
John

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

John,

I use www.adirondackspruce.com for my red spruce bracing, although I've been using lutz more as of late. But the mr.griffen has great product at a great price. for $100 you can get enough to do 20 guitars or more.

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

John,

I have found Steve at Colonial is not only a great guy to deal with but he also offers very good prices to OLF members. He has very good red spruce bracing and tops and if you have a special requirement in mind he will gladly go the extra yard, just give him a call.

Cheers

Kim

Kim-

I have bought a few goodies from Steve and he is great and so is his wood. I'll have to call him about his bracewood. Thanks.

John-

The bracing stock at adispruce.com has 3 categories - $2/pound, $3-5/pound and $5-10/pound. Which do you use? $100 to do 20+ guitars is great. I have some very nice euro bracing and lots of great sitka and lutz bracing. I just wanted to try red spruce to see if I like it - everyone else I have spoken with says it's nice bracewood.
Also, you had mentioned somewhere that the nicest red spruce tops you have seen, come from a certain seller. Do you remember who you got those tops from?

Thanks guys-
John
John Lewis38964.8397800926

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

I have used adirondackspruce.com - since I live fairly close to them, I have been able to go there and pick out the wood that I've used. It's a great place to visit, just to see all the wood -

I've used some adi bracing from adirondackspruce.com. Very nice stuff. And they're most helpful too - I had lots of questions and they explained all sorts of stuff to me.

New England Tonewoods will be carrying some red spruce in the future...

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Hi John,
I have red spruce.

I've gotten some very nice Red Spruce from Steve at colonial.
I've also not found any red spuce to be a stiff as the best sitka that I've measured. Anyone else experience this?

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

The red I have used/have is about the same as good sitka. Tone is obvisouly different, but I end up at about the same thickness when flex testing.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

I'm sure others are good sources but I've used adirondackspruce.com exclusively for bracewood. Quality, price and delivery have been A+++. Stock has always been perfectly quartersawn requiring no splitting and ready to rip.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Here is the page that shows the 3 different grades of bracewood that adirondackspruce.com sells. What grade has everyone bought and WHY? Doesn't the "ugly" wide and dark grained red spruce have the same physical properties (stiffness) as the pretty stuff? It's bracewood and if you are splitting this stuff to use it, it's going to be quartered with little runout. So, it makes since to buy the $2/lb bracewood instead of the $10/lb bracewood, right?

Is there something I'm not factoring in here?

Thanks guys-
John

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

Last time I bought from them I got a mix of the top two grades. More of the medium grade. The fine grade wood in case the customer wants it but I really don't feel a lot of difference in the stiffness of it.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.