Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey friends,
anybody knows a source for pine soundboards? Not the exotic types, but regular Euro/US spruce-like pine. I saw a couple of makers used it in the past and I'd like to try building a guitar with it (for sentimental reasons...). I could perhaps use a 3- or 4-piece top resawed from local lumber yard, but perhaps there are other sources.
Many thanks,
Martin

https://www.guitarsalon.com/image/catalog/product/GUCLBOU-06709/1946-robert-bouchet-1-pi-cy-ex-robert-bouchet-1.jpg

https://www.guitarsalon.com/image/catalog/product/GUCLTOR-06205/1890-antonio-de-torres-pi-mp-1.jpg

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "Euro/US spruce-like pine." I know we are in different parts of the world and often terms mean different things in different places. Since you want to use this for sentimental reasons, I'm assuming there is a specific species you have in mind. Knowing what tree we are talking about can help.

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

The only pine tops on acoustics that I ever saw were from sliced up 2 X 4's from the lumber yard.

On the electric guitar side Fender is currently offering a roasted pine Tele and Strat and they look great too.

Some years ago one of the local suppliers sold White pine cut from a beam salvaged from the Pandora mill in Manchester NH. One of my students used it for a couple of guitars, and they turned out very nicely. Sadly, that supplier is now out of business.

Generally speaking, the White pine I've seen has tended to be low in density and soft compared with most spruce. If you leave it thick enough, use a large footprint on the bridge, and take care with the surface (as you do with WRC), it works fine.

Although I see trees large enough for guitar soundboards in my neighborhood, it's not usually cut with that in mind; it's hard to get nicely quartered pieces. Once in a while one will turn up. Also, the new growth stuff is far more open grained than the old spruce we're accustomed to. It works well, though,

Not going to be cheap but have you looked for German spruce or Carpathian spruce ?
Perhaps on ebay from somewhere like Romania? that might be a bit cheaper...
Madinter in Spain might sell some?

Interested to see what you find

Cheers
Tom

I've built a couple of guitars using Ponderosa Pine tops from my property. They had blue stains and a couple of worm holes too. They sounded very good and had good reviews by some local players (White Oak B&S). I've got some VG Sugar Pine stickered now. Some staining too, but if you want to try some, they're ready to go. PM me how many and pay for shipping.

Tasmanian Tonewood, a sponsor, has Huron Pine and King Billy Pine listed for tops.

Except neither of these are “true” pines — not even in the same taxonomic family. This is pretty common for English names of Australian timbers.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thank you, guys, this has been enlightening. I found out there's more than 100 species(!) identified as pine and some that are called pine but really are not (Huron Pine, Kind Billy Pine ). All with different looks and different properties. Around here, the most common is "pinus sylvestris", similar in appearance to spruce, with slightly more pronounced grain and slightly harder / stiffer. As Allan mentioned, not cut with soundboards in mind, but I'll try to find something locally, to keep the look i have in mind. If not, I'll definitely write to you, Carl to take you up on your generous offer.
Many thanks!

Not that I want to be reminded of anything as violent as a hurricane, but at least re-purposing some of the debris made sense. I built a few (so far) from trees that were otherwise going to waste. Had to get a neighbor with a tractor to load the piece I saw up for guitars. It's long leaf pine top with oak (more debris) back and sides and neck. I call it my "Hurricane" model. So when you start playing this one,... you'll be pickin up a storm

trouble with attaching pic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm_LDvmhvdM

Sorry bout that...

I have some guitars made in Vietnam in the early 90s with pine tops. They are four piece tops made from US machine gun crates. All the guitars in VN from that time were made from those crates as there was an abundance of them and a complete lack of spruce. Not sure what kind of pine although the appearance was pretty much like spruce only softer. They sound okay although not quite as dynamic as spruce.

Love the look Surveyor! So much more interesting than plain ole spruce. How does it sound?

Sent from my SM-A526B using Tapatalk

_________________
Pat

The two guitars you've used as reference, Bouchet's first guitar and a late second epoch Torres are a good example of pine being a more than suitable top material. Unfortunately I've found pine to vary considerably in weight and stiffness, I've also noticed it needs considerably more aging and drying to become suitable for guitar making than spruce. Your best option might be to find reclaimed material that is suitable for guitar tops. Pepe Romero Jr. reclaimed some of the roof beams from the hospital real in Granada Spain (built in 1492) a few years ago and the results are quite impressive. He shared the material with German maker Edmund Blochinger and both Romero and Blochinger have made some incredible instruments with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVfTbgXOytI

I have posted pictures of this one before, but it seems appropriate here.

This is a Harmony that I re-topped in 2021, using pine boards from old wine crates. It has a 4 piece top. I call it the Harmony Sauvignon. It has changed hands a couple of times since I built it, but I tracked it down a few months ago, and found out that it is located in a northern state. I asked how it was handling the extreme winter weather. He said it is still stable and still sounding great.

The pine I used came out sounding great! I don't think most anybody could tell if a "blind" test were made between it and spruce. One thing though, I let the sawed up pieces (2-piece tops) age for several years and as it did it turned to "rich lighter" . I ran it through my sander once, that was a mistake. Had to trash the sanding belt it gumed up so bad.