Official Luthiers Forum!

I was thinning tops today and for some reason I remembered somone here made an all sruce giutar. I am not thinking of or going to do that, but was wondering who did it and how it held up in all respects after a few years. Why thought of it I guess shows I haved limited thought process is at times.

Stan my friend I think that that was a member named allspruce and I have not seen him on the OLF since we transitioned to the new software.

I did see that, I think there is a guy in Norway who does them.

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Here is what a Parlor Guitar is for!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEa8PkjO6_I

I could be mistaken, but there is a guy over at harpguitars.net (allspruce) that made a spruce harp guitar. Fascinating project... though I would not try it. I am doing the same kind of thing, but using prettier woods.

Mike

The first one I heard of, and then got to play, was made by the Boucher brothers of Quebec .. the spruce goose it was called, the whole body made form Adi ..... other than being extremely white (that could be changed in the finish), it was actually a very nice sounding guitar.

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

Here's a video of the Claude Boucher workshop. He shows the all-'épinette' Spruce Goose at the end. The interview is in French but the images are interesting (e.g. boiling sides before bending on a heated form)

http://www.laguitare.com/2007/boucher/report_af_2.html

Ron Steiger.

He's over at the Luthierforum and at the harpguitar forum.

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Horton, MI

I bought that guitar from Ron. It is very nice and very unusual.
It still needs to have the finish applied and a bit of fine tuning.
It's all spruce trimmed in bloodwood inc. FB & Bridge. It hasn't been
played much because I don't want to get it dirty before finishing.
I'll look for some pic's.

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Here is something written by Erin Somogyi....

"Because of the dynamics of the guitar, tonewoods for faces need to be different than tonewoods for backs, if the instrument is to have the best and most even sound. The best guitar faces are made of high quality musical instrument grade softwoods such as spruce and cedar. The best guitar backs are made of high quality hardwoods such as rosewood, ebony, maple, walnut, koa, mahogany or any of a number of other suitable body woods. The consensus among luthiers is that face and backwoods need to be chosen from woods of differing densities because the resonant frequency of the back needs to be higher than the resonant frequency of the face, by at least a tone. "

How about all Koa and all mahogany guitars. I have heard some very good one.

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Perhaps the great one can explain why all mahogany guitars sound so good then. And what does "the best and most even sound" mean?

Ron's all spruce harp guitar was/is fabulous.

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Bob,

Spooky - we must be joined through the ether

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

I guess that was Ervin's evil twin, Erin, who didn't notice that greater density lowers rather than raises resonant frequency. Of course, greater stiffness raises it, but iirc, the lowering effect of density is greater here. Ervin wouldn't make that mistake (unless he was distracted by recruiting converts to his cult, the Seekers of Ervana ).

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

I played quite a few times an all spruce D (red for the top and sitka for B&S if I recall). It had a very pleasant tone, on the dry side and not bass heavy. Not unlike some maple, or even mahogany, guitars.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

I agree with Ervin that the 'jobs' of the top and the back are generally different, and that means they would normally be made of different sorts of wood. I think he's got some of the details wrong in the text that was posted, but as somebody who _never_ made a mistake in a 'net posting, I try to be understanding (and if you believe _that_ I have some lovely land in Florida you'd like that is dry twice a day....). Anyway, we do have to remember that taste is subjective, and it's possible to make a guitar out of nearly any reasonable combination of woods that somebody will find appealing.

I'm really fighting the urge to post something long and technical: I don't have the time right now. There seem to be good reasons why the rosewoods, and things like them, are preferred for B&S stock. OTOH, Flamencos, and some other players, get the sound they like from low-density B&S woods for their applications. It's all in what you want....

or carve it

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"It's a Tone Faerie thing"
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of course you could have a back and top of the same materials and still have differing resonant modes ... Jody