Official Luthiers Forum!

[QUOTE=Shawn] The person that was selling the "Kermodie" spruce who is in Australia is a Luthier that I buy King William Pine,
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Shawn, how is the pine as a soundboard? I just bought a set and have no clue about it. Any input will be appreciated.

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

The Kermodie has arrived and looks great, better than I expected. Far better than the AA sitka I used on my first guitar. I bought one AA bearclaw and two AAA tops for a little more than the first AA sitka top cost at another local supplier - I can see why Barry found another source, spruce is really expensive over here, and this stuff is better quality and inexpensive. Nice and stiff with and across the grain, tight grain.

Barry has been great to deal with, I've also just bought a bunch of Tasmanian Blackwood from him as well. I almost bought a Tasmanian myrtle back and side set too, but I manage to stop myself.

I'd also be interested to hear of anyone's experience with king william pine, which isn't really a pine, I think it's related to sequoia.

The King William Pine (sometimes called King Billy) is a sequoia species.

It is a color that is similar to WRC but tends to be a little m ore orange, almost what you get after shellac on Sitka in color.

As a tonewood it is very fine grained and can have as many as 40-60 grains to the inch (!!!) but does not have the same strength across the grain as spruce. Strength it is very close to redwood but the summer wood is not as soft. It is plenty stiff lengthwise. Because the stiffness across grain is more in the range of WRC or Redwood, I leave it a little thicker, and treat it like WRC.

Because the color is a little darker and more orangish then pinkish like Sitka, it gives an instant vintage look. I have only used it for small "parlor" sized classical and slot head guitars (5 so far) and I can see it as a cool alternative wood for a top.

The sound is about in the same range as WRC or Redwood. In general it sounds almost as broken in as WRC or Redwood at the start but it also seems subjectively to have somewhat more focused highs. All of the guitars I have built with King William are less than two years so time will tell how they develop.

Now the only other downside...they can tend to be more resinous so unless they are already dry can tend to bleed. I have not had any tops with pitch pockets but have had tops that bled small drops which seep to the surface, much like is typical with some WRC. It is also tough to find tops that are an even color and it is more typical for them to be streaky. Because of this alot of Luthiers in Australia stay away from it.

While it is not a mainstream wood for tops, it does have a distinctive look and sound for someone looking to try something different. I stumbled on to it because I was hoping that the color would help for reproductions of pre-torres French and German "parlor" guitars I was building(Like Gary Southwell does in the UK).

There are Luthiers in Australia who have used it for violins and guitars but even in Australia they would still pick good Sitka or Euro Spruce any day. Jeremy Locke who builds very nice classicals, is in Australia and who knows Barry Kerr buys his WRC from Ed Dick at Acoustic Wood in Canada.

I believe there are others here who are in Australia...so what do you think?...Have you built with it?

Shawn, thanks for the information. You thoroughly covered any questions I might have about using the pine. I actually bought this set on ebay because I liked the streaky coloration. It will be some time before I get a chance to work with it and will watch for any bleeding. For those not familiar with the wood, here is a picture.

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

You have some good points there Shawn.
The wood PaulB has is the Kermodie and I know he will be more that amazed at the tone it has.
I'm not a stickler for "THE BEST" I often look for, what others call, substandard wood. I'm not to keen on sap pockets but I like the color changes in the Spruce tops. I don't see that as a fault like most. The best sounding tops I have seen have been the lessor grade.
The grain count Shawn mentioned. 90% of the Kermodie tree he sent mehad more than 58gpi.
I just stopped counting and didn't think I had counted correctly. Doing a recount confirmed the amount.
             
Being the wood addict I am, I was doing the "OVERDOSE DANCE" Thanks for your time. Greg I

I haven't built with it yet, but I recently got some Kermodie spruce and it's real stiff, and looks good, too.   Pretty normal price, too, didn't seem like I was paying a premium. He also has a policy that if you screw up the top then he'll replace it, which is pretty cool.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

Hey thats great to hear letseatpaste. Another nice thing he does "if you ask I think" will give you free Spruce bracewood. Any way you want to look at it you just can't go wrong.

   Greg I