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I was digging through old stacks of wood at my local lumber yard and founf a 6 1/2' X 7 1/2" X 1 1/2" piece of old redwood. Smells like redwood anyway. I need some advice. I cut a 20" long piece and planed both side, squared it up and wiped it with mineral spirits. Can anyone tell me from these less that professional pictures, if this is the type of wood used by clasical guitar makers. I resawed a piece and it seems to have a very nice, sustaining yap tone and it is very tight grained. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks guys and gals.

Yap tone??? Sounds like my wi.. Never mind.

Doug I hope she dosen't read these posts!! I would hate to have to clean out the spare room for you, not that we wouldn't enjoy your company, but, you know, you're probably better off where you are. That cedar is almost ready to send pictures, probably Monday or Tuesday.

Shane

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Canada

Thanks Shane.
She's got a great sense of humor. I don't think she would be upset at this, but then we'll never find out cuz she does not read these posts. But I love her deeply. She ia the glue that holds me together.
Any opinons on the wood?

Women are good that way....they do humour us often. As for the Redwood I have no experience with it. But guitars are made with Mahogany and Koa tops fairly often and they hold up. I think that Hank gave great information on redwood on that post that sprockett has going. He suggests to just keep it a bit thinker (.130). Spruce has a very long fibre, that's why it works well for soundboards, it can be thin and light and still hold up structurally, if it is cut right. Cedar is like Redwood I think. Needs to be a bit thicker to deal with the stresses if used on a steelstring instrument. Your board looks well quartered and tight grained. Slice off one set and see how stiff it is. If it is stiff then I would say you are in great shape and just heed Hanks advice.

Take good care

Shane

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Canada

I build classicals and have had good success with Redwood tops and build with them much like I would Western Red Cedar.

Richard Schneider used to use Redwood for sides and backs as well but if you are going to try bending Redwood note that like Western Red Cedar it can be prone to splitting. It is not easy to bend by hand but with a Fox style bender I have had moderate success with it...At one time I wanted to try a Kasha/Schneider Redwood classical but am too traditionally spanish in my approach to building that I went back to what I know but have heard some very nice Schneider redwood classicals.

Thanks Shawn. I was only thinking of cutting sets for tops out of this wood and trying to sell them. I just don't know if this wood is cut right for that application. I've never delt with redwood before. It seems to be pretty stiff and tight grained though.BlueSpirit38597.1743055556

[QUOTE=Shawn] Richard Schneider used to use Redwood for sides and backs as well...[/QUOTE]

Shawn...Nope. Just the tops and backs. He used Brazilian Rosewood for the sides.

You are right, my mistake. All I remember of the Kasha school guitars was the overly round shape and the bass that just didnt quit. I hadnt thought of them in a long time but once you jogged my memory I do remember the BRW sides...I also remember that the price of his guitars was really up there.

One of my first dedicated luthier tools was a wooden gramil kit that LMI sold that Richard Schneider had designed.

It looks good to me. grain is reasonably vertical. How is the runout?

Schneider did use redwood for backs on several Kasha-style guitars. I
don't know (but doubt) that he used it for sides.

I've built around 20 steel string guitars from redwood and love it for
small-bodied, fingerstyle instruments. Rich and warm tones, incredible
sustain, more dynamic range and better high trebles than cedar. But all
that comes at a price.

Redwood is quite brittle, not elastic as is good spruce. The fibers peel
easily and it's more difficult to level. Its strength is good enough for a
steel string if it's properly cut and seasoned, but if there's significant
runout I wouldn't use it. (I avoid "curly" redwood for that reason.)

Craig and Alicia Carter were the main promoters of redwood as
soundboard material. They did everything right, from carefully resawing
the split billets to air drying to critically assessing each set. I believe that
Hank Mauel still has some of Alicia's stock since she retired from the
business.

Most lumberyard redwood is handled casually (the most common uses
being grape arbors and bathroom paneling), I'd be very careful about
using it -- and even more careful about selling it!

Hey Doug,

I've had good luck building classicals with redwood I've found at my local hardwood retailers. Yours looks a lot like what I've found. So far, I've bought probably 30 feet of it, and resawn a bunch.

Here's a shot of the top of one of my current projects:



And here's a shot of a completed guitar built from some of this redwood:



I find that, soundwise, it falls somewhere between spruce and cedar. Stiffness is excellent. Make sure you flex it before joining the plates though. Redwood can have hidden weaknesses and can crack along the grain lines easily. A good piece will put up with a fair amount of flex, but a weakened one will snap with little pressure applied.

Best,

Michael

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Live to Play, Play to Live

Here is a photo of a Mahagony redwood OM I just strung up on Tuesday. I haven't had time to take other pictures of it. I found it pretty easy to work. It did split out when I cut it to shape so I made a gramil and scored it for all other cuts. It was very stiff and rang like a bell when tapped.


PS. The reason my mouth is that funny shape is because I'm such a hot picker that I have to blow on the strings when I play to keep them cool.

PPS. Thanks to Don Williams for the redwood.
Mike Mahar38597.4521643519

Wow, Mike that's gorgeous! Can we see more views?
That looks like the stuff we labelled "B", which was my favorite of the bunch as far as tap tone and stiffness.

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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."

Thank you all for your comments. I think I'll go ahead and make a top, brace it up and see how it comes out.

Mike Mc, your right, mine does look a lot like your pics.

Mike, beautiful guitar!! Any more pics???

John K. I don't see much runout. A little I guess but nothing significant.

Rick. Believe me the last thing I want is to put a faulty product out there. Thanks for the info and the heads up