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Who is everyone's favorite moon spruce supplier?

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never tried it, but I hear it's out of this world!

Moon spruce is not a legit wood species but a marketing thing so they can charge you more money.

Yawn. Another typical OLF response where someone asks a legitimate question and the answer is basically "Your question is not worth asking".
To David's question: I have been happy with Florinett in Switzerland. I don't care if Moon Spruce is really a thing or not. The wood I have received from them has been well processed, fairly low density, and mostly true to grade. As with any supplier a few of Florinett's tops in a shipment might miss the mark. Returning the wood back to Switzerland is a non-starter, at least for me. Florinett is very responsive and if you can show in pics what went wrong they will try to do better the next time. It was more important to me to develop a relationship with a supplier rather than enriching the postal carriers. Their prices are competitive, especially if you can go for a larger order where shipping and processing costs per soundboard are lessened.
Florinett's wood is in such demand that you need to get on the waiting list for next year's processing. If you need wood before then I can recommend Aaron Hix. He doesn't sell Moon Spruce specifically but his Euro spruce is very good.

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Pretty sure I got mine from here.

https://www.tonewood.ch/specialty-moon-wood/

I did a fairly small order over multiple grades from B-AAA and found the categories were pretty distinct, as in I think they graded pretty well. As per usual for me, I found the sweet spot between cost/value to be the AA range. Surprisingly affordable and sellable to clients at an achievable price point.

Don’t know if I really believe the moon has anything to do with it, but the wood was lovely and I wish I had more…

I didn't intend to rile anyone's feathers. My comment was only half in jest - most buyers have said the wood is very nice, but I haven't used it. I do think it's mostly about marketing, like "curly bear", etc, but hey! it's a free country (even if it is in Europe).

Clay is also correct in saying that moon spruce isn’t actually it’s own species, it’s still picea abies…

Moon spruce is total junk. What you want if you’re serious about building great guitars is moon larch.

I gotta laugh. The wood gets dried and aged, for years, in the best case. So what on this green Earth makes what phase of the moon is overhead when the tree gets felled significant? Does it have to be when the moon's right overhead, and does it matter if the moon's on the other side of the earth when the tree gets cut down? My opinion is that there's a good con in play.

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Peter Havriluk

To answer David's original question, Tonewood Switzerland (Florinett) is probably your best bet.

Their wood is air dried and generally pretty fresh, which offers a good opportunity to buy for the future and season the wood. It is also cut from split billets, which if you ask around with other dealers (like Rivolta) is not always the case.

Regarding the concept of "Moon Spruce", and does it matter? I don't know. But if Tonewood Switzerland tells you they only cut their trees preceding new moons in the winter, and I think we can trust their word, we can conclude that at least THEY believe it is important. Adding that sort of variable to your wood processing seems like a big inconvenience for a business.

I don't think it is a con, as I believe that they actually cut the wood when they say they do. There may be an element of marketing to it, but that seems to be more prevalent on the builder side than the supplier side. And while it is not cheap I think their prices are reasonable enough for top quality air dried Swiss Alpine spruce cut from split billets no matter what phase of the moon the trees were felled.

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The spiel I’ve read on Florinett’s own website boils down to them basically admitting they have little concrete evidence of any benefit relating to the lunar cycle under which the wood is felled. They think maybe it’s more stable but the jury’s still out.

They do mention that the old slow-growing high altitude trees they’re offering tend to yield stiffer lighter wood compared younger, faster-growing trees, which is not really new information.

So it’s high quality spruce, which makes nice guitars. The ‘moon’ bit is marketing material to help you, the starving luthier, entice someone to buy the resulting instrument.

Did I tell you guys about my Solar Spruce? It’s cut only between the hours of 3:00pm and 4:00pm, when the trees are under maximum UV-bombardment, causing the intracellular resins to coalesce in harmonically-sensitive structures which totally like add richer bass, or something.

The myth of moon cycle goes back many generations of Italian wood cutters, which does not in itself, verify its authencity. Like so many other ancient practices that continue to exist into the modern age, it shows people have a tendency to hold onto them. Another example that comes to mind is dowsing. Lots of people still use it for all kinds of locating purposes. But it has been scientifically proven to be not what it appears to be. It relies on people's subconscious inclination where things might be located which triggers arm muscles to trigger making the dowsing rod twitch without a conscious recognition of it happening. It appears to be an external force. Careful testing and a peer reviewed published paper showed that it works at the same level as pure luck. I highly doubt any scientific testing of moon spruce has been published.

I asked my brother, who just happens to be a warewolf, and he swears by it.

Dude asked for recommendations of trusted suppliers of moon spruce. Of all the replies posted only about 3 or 4 have actually used it and those that have have liked it and been satisfied with its value. It's not like you have to pledge an oath of allegiance to the concept of moon spruce to utilize and appreciate it.
How many people have enjoyed themselves at Disneyland or Disney World without believing for one second that it is "The Happiest Place on Earth"?
The point being claims are one thing and product is another. In this case Florinett's product is first rate and I don't really care about the claims.

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Stay with the happy people.
--Reynolds Large

Fortunately I’ve been subjected to neither…;)

You guys crack me up. I think In the future I'll keep doing posts exactly like this. Not only is it a good resource for luthiers it's also a comedy show. Contrary to popular belief I believe in old world practices handed down from generation to generation. I don't think Moon Spruce is not just for cork sniffers lol. Wood is a fascinating philosophical and realistic experience. I am a firm believer in keeping an assortment of all species available so I can build the best instrument I can and to be able to experiment. I love to to build and experiment with different species. Some of these guys who also say to get your bracing from Home Depot are also saying Moon Spruce is hocus hocus. Lol

Does anyone have a resource for Sunset Spruce?

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But the wood from Home Depot is indeed spruce that is perfectly suited for bracing. That is a fact. Moon Spruce on the other hand falls into a belief system and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that but that is what it is. People believe all kinds of things like little green men have visited us even though they would have had to time travel in order to do so

Here’s an interesting article on Swiss Moon spruce…

http://www.lutherie.net/eurospruce.html

I actually asked this question after I had already purchased 15 tops from Florinett, so I'm stoked that he seems to be the preferred source in general for Moon Spruce. One of the nicest things about building Ukuleles is that a master grade Top is in the $25 range rather than $150 to $250 for guitars. But I typically always get at least 1-2 Guitar tops as well. I have found that the Ukulele world is a bit more open to different species for tops.

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I have some of Mario's "moon spruce" from ten years ago. I don't care what it's called. It's great stuff. It was gifted to me but I don't know if the name would have sucked me in enough to buy it back then, but I wish I had more of it.

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

The time of the year they harvest "moon" spruce is during the winter months when the sap is down in the roots. Perhaps this makes a difference. But as someone has said, the careful harvesting and processing of the wood can certainly make a difference. It may not be any one thing, but all things taken together, just as it is with building guitars.

I think I’ve discussed the scientific basis for moon spruce before on this forum. Virtually ALL of the data in the scientific literature are from a seasonal sampling study conducted by Prof Ernst Zürcher from Bern University, with a rather limited sample size of Norway spruce. Parts of the study are published in peer-reviewed journals, but a global review of the study and its findings can be found in a book chapter: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289387492_Reversible_variations_in_some_wood_properties_of_Norway_spruce_Picea_abies_Karst_depending_on_the_tree_felling_date

To some extent, Zürcher was clearly looking for data to validate some traditional practices that were of interest to him. While there are weak but statistically significant findings that moisture relations are affected by lunar cycle, there is no convincing evidence that these translate into practical differences in the sawn timber in service, and certainly not for use in musical instruments. To my knowledge as a retired professor of forest genetics, there has been no credible follow-up work.

So, yes, promoting wood to instrument builders as “moon spruce” is 99% marketing hype, but doesn’t mean a given dealer is not selling excellent instrument wood.


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Thanks, Tim.

“We out dropping science son!”




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In my generation that would have been Carl Sagan rather than his Protégé.

some of the spruce at Hell Depot can be pretty good at times you just have to sort through it all...

I completely fail to see what temporal displacement has to do with aliens...if they have been here, technology beyond what we have would be required whether it simply be big ships and multi-generational travel times or some type of FTL propulsion...