Official Luthiers Forum!

Has anyone ever tried redwood for an archtop? Or any other different woods
than spruce?

Adam, good question! I have been tempted but haven't had the cajones to dedicate the time to try something so "non-traditional". A couple of years ago I asked a prominent archtop builder the very same question, to which the response was "let me know how it works out".

We've all heard about the pine top with knots archtop Benedetto built and claimed sounded as good as his spruce topped archtop. (Sold on eBay for a small fortune). So no reason redwood wouldn't work on an archtop.

After seeing the killer redwood top guitars posted here aesthetically it would look absolutely killer on an archtop.

Still not enough cajones on this end to try it

poplar and mahogany for tops? I've seen them for backs, hell, poplar is a traditional wood for bowed instrument backs (and the quilt poplar I saw at Rivolta was absolutely stunning stuff...).

I seem to remember reading about a cedar-topped archie.

I've used both cedar and redwood for archtops, and they both work about as you'd expect acoustically. Just remember that both of them have more of a tendancy to split than spruce, and archtops can lead a pretty hard life.

Thanks for the insight Al. Me thinks I will stick to spruce.

Thank you all for helping out. For my first archtop I think I will go with some
lutz. Although, I would like to try redwood eventually.