Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey there.....
I am about to start on build #4, and things are going great for me......I absolutely love building guitars. My questions is this.....I have access to a really nice Redwood top, which I was planning to pair with a pretty nice Mahogany set I have......I wonder what all of you have to say about Redwood as a Tonewood? I have read both positive and negative reviews, so I would like to hear from you folks on this.

Thanks a lot in advance....!!

I've built two guitars with redwood tops and was very happy with both of them. The one that I built three years ago has been one of my two or three favorite sounding guitars of all the acoustic guitars I have. I'll definitely use redwood again. So, that's a positive review from me.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

I have built a few with redwood. It makes a very nice sounding guitar. With appropriate thickness and bracing, it makes warm and loud guitars.

The wood is easy to crack. It can also respond to stress by shedding a layer. I’ve had braces come loose with a layer of redwood attached. Not wanting to waste a guitar to failure, I have only been using redwood tops on the guitars I build for extra light strings.

I've built a couple with redwood tops. I am very pleased with the sound. My major difficulty (not really dealt with as well as I had hoped) was keeping the top flaw-free after "final" sanding. The redwood is soft. Take care -- and keep your work surfaces scrupulously clean.

It's my favorite. Some pieces are as light as cedar, and some are as heavy as spruce. It is brittle, but also has very low humidity expansion. Mahogany has a little higher expansion but also higher split resistance, so if you brace the back at 40% and top at 25% and don't use ebony for the fingerboard, the guitar will likely be immune to humidity trouble.

Here's one I'm working on now. Wish me luck

Redwood is about all the wood I use when I make softwood tops. Over the years I have sold off a lot of my spruce and cedar, because I love redwood. Mostly I build with curly wood, and that's dangerous. Curl is runout and thin tops can be extremely fragile. i have lost several guitar and uke curly redwood tops. If there are issues, they generally show up before the instrument is completed, which is a good thing. If you can get them through to completion, I think they sound great. Good luck with your project.-Bob

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“ The meaning of life is to find your gift and the purpose of life is to give it away” Pablo Picasso

Redwood has the most variance in material properties of anything I’ve encountered. Just cause it’s redwood and looks nice, don’t mean it’s a good top…I’ve basically given up on it, but then, most suppliers have told me to bugger off for sending so much back, lol…

Check with Dave Maize, he'll get you hooked on the good stuff

I’ve got a few sets but have yet to use them. But I’ve heard this same thing from one of my guitar building mentors. He refuses to use it.


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Working on my first one now…..

Walnut B&S.
Wish me luck.