Official Luthiers Forum!

I would like your opinion. I was able to snafu some quarter sawn doug fir from some 50 year old bleachers they tossed at work. Here are a couple of pic. Have you ever used doug fir as a top wood? Would you mess with the wood shown here?

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Mark Ewing
Columbus Ohio
"Trees are an important and precious thing. We should build good things with them. Building good guitars with heart are the best use for them." K. Yairi.

The few things I have heard have been positive. I have some very old Doug Fir around that I have been wanting to try so I'm looking forward to the replys from others.

Mark

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Wisdom is justified by her children

grab it man! David Freeman, had some nice sounding doug fir at the Gal gathering ! he was lucky enough to find some big enough for a one piece top! Jody

how does it sound when you tap it?

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sweat the small stuff.

I am also very interested in this wood for carving small archtop guitar plates (L-1 size).

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Tom Krebs

David Freeman was one of the lecturers at the convention , I didnt get to tap the top, but the guitar sounded good when played! Besides , you cannot talk in general terms like that ,some spruce, sounds good when tapped , some does not , even from the same tree,.The wood definatly warrant consideration! Jody

Douglas Fir has definitely been used as a top wood. If it has a good stiffness to weight ratio (and you're not trying to sell the guitar) I would go ahead. I have a set in my stash that I plan to use in the future. There is a Luthier and tonewood dealer, Larry Stamm who sells Fir, I have never seen him on this forum but you might look up his website for a little info and perhaps ask how he approaches it.

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David White, Toronto

"All my favourite singers can't sing."

A high-end classical maker I know used to offer fir as an option. While he now only uses euro spruce for it's superior projection qualities, he has built many fine instruments with fir. Again, it will likely project less than a spruce top. I'd give it a try if I had some lying around.

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-Clint Beacock

Some pieces of Doug Fir can have a lot of pitch that keeps oozing which can be a pain, but only some. Genrally Doug is supposed to be stiffer and heavier than Sitka, but I have found there are many examples that overlap Sitka(which really means it is "in the ballpark" with much of the spruce out there, and I have even found Doug Fir that was far weaker than average Englemann). Doug Fir, Hemlock, and Sitka all are used as a structural timber in the Northwest. I have found bits of each that fit the bill for weight and stiffness, and ring like a bell. To me good wood is good wood. If you are selling a guitar, people often look for species X irregardless of the actual piece of wood. So unless the customers perception is favorable to Doug Fir, you may need to put perception over function. Offering less known woods as an "upgrade" is pretty smart as many view price follows quality or performance.

Since you have access to the wood, and it has potential, saw some up and see what you get. Shoot even if it does not have favor with customers today, you can use it for personal guitars, and down the road when it is a commonly used wood you will have great seasoned stock to offer. You can never have too much quality seasoning wood on the shelf.

Rich

I think your use of the term "snafu" was amusing!

Let us know how it works out.. Looks like a tight grain.

Mike

I thought snafu was an acronym for "situation normal, all f***ed up"

If this is the same wood they used to use for stair treads...I have tried it for archtop carving. It is really freak'n hard to carve. I have a violin top in my car right now that we started a long time ago and gave up on it due to how hard it was to work with. I would think as a flattop...top, it would be very stiff and would probably work out ok. The stuff I have at the shop is very straight grained and looks very much like spruce from the front. I thougth it was going to be perfect for the fiddle, but it is really dense to carve.

I am bring that top over to J Resslers tonight along with some other carved tops just to stimulate the conversation of tone-tapping etc.

Joe

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Joe

Your interpretation of the an-acronym is correct. It is military phraseology, but it also is used north of the border to denote snagging something just in case it is needed. It works.

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Mark Ewing
Columbus Ohio
"Trees are an important and precious thing. We should build good things with them. Building good guitars with heart are the best use for them." K. Yairi.

I have a variety of different qualities in this wood. Different weight, different grain texture (tight to course). What top thickness would you be shooting for; .115-125 or so, thick thin? What determines that for you?

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Mark Ewing
Columbus Ohio
"Trees are an important and precious thing. We should build good things with them. Building good guitars with heart are the best use for them." K. Yairi.

I believe that Tim McKnight has used it quite successfully. Maybe he'll drop in on us and give you his impressions. I have a couple sets from a good friend that I'm looking forward to using some day.

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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."

I used 6/4 vertical grain doug fir for my bench top. Works great.

As an older guy, I have only so many guitars left in me. That is to say, no time for dinking around with something out on the fringes, as douglas fir is. (Seen many out there? Seen ANY?) I'll spend my time with the well proven spruces and cedar. But my goal is a superior sounding instrument; your goal may be something else.

Give it a try, and let us know how it works out.

Larry