alternative top woods

[eerbrev]

Hello everyone,

I wasn't entirely sure where to post this, so redirect me if I'm in the wrong spot, but I was curious as to whether luthiers have experimented with alternative top woods?

Basses usually have Spruce tops, and I have seen a few with Cedar tops, and seen pictures of a bass made out of Koa, but are there any others? I always though that if the properties were correct, Redwood would be great for basses. I mean, how many one piece tops could you get out of a single redwood tree?

regards,

Alex

[PsychoScout]

Originally Posted by eerbrev

Hello everyone,

I wasn't entirely sure where to post this, so redirect me if I'm in the wrong spot, but I was curious as to whether luthiers have experimented with alternative top woods?

Basses usually have Spruce tops, and I have seen a few with Cedar tops, and seen pictures of a bass made out of Koa, but are there any others? I always though that if the properties were correct, Redwood would be great for basses. I mean, how many one piece tops could you get out of a single redwood tree?

regards,

Alex

koa => a contrabas-ukulele?

[xwtb]

For the construction of their notorious "Low Cost Bass", per an article in American Lutherie mag back about 1990, Lyman and Styler suggest these alternatives to spruce: redwood, western red cedar, Port Orford cedar (actually a species of cypress), and douglas fir. They also speculate that white pine, southern yellow pine, and other cedars, firs, larches, and hemlocks might be usable, as well as mahogany, yellow poplar (tulip), and true poplar. Of all these, they prefer redwood, saying that it'll give a good sound even if left relatively thick, which is necessary because of its tendency to crumble.

[Eric Hochberg]

Originally Posted by xwtb

Of all these, they prefer redwood, saying that it'll give a good sound even if left relatively thick, which is necessary because of its tendency to crumble.

Yikes, doesn't seem like a good choice then, does it? If this is the top alternative pick, then I can understand why spruce is the standard.

[bamba22]

Redwood is the best..
brazilen Redwood, but it also cost

[Matthew Tucker]

Originally Posted by bamba22

Redwood is the best..
brazilen Redwood, but it also cost

I think you're confusing redwood with rosewood. Not same. Not use for tops.

Western Red Cedar has worked well for me. Redwood is even softer and although I have some I don't think i'd build a bass top with it.

[longfinger]

For acoustic guitars, both steel string and nylon strings, the solid tops are typically spruce or cedar. For DB, I've only heard of spruce tops, not cedar... How come cedar is not used much?

[Matthew Tucker]

probably because spruce works really well and is plentiful in USA and Europe.

Both Spruce and maple are very nice woods to work with and are proven. Other woods can work but have their challenges, for example, cedar is much softer than spruce and therefore dents more easily.

[james condino]

Redwood, specifically coastal or Sequoia Semperiviens as opposed to Sequoia gigantica found inland, comes in quite a broad range of hardness and density ranges. I've made a lot of guitars out of it- probably close to 25. Some of it is a mushy mess that I'd never build anything out of, but a very few trees are incredibly stiff and hard. Sequoia gigantica generally breaks up so much from being felled due to its huge size and mass that it usually is filled with checks and cracks.

If you are searching for something different tonally or structurally, I would possibly consider an altermative material. If it is just a factor of cost, for all of the work you've got to do to carve a nice top, the price of spruce is pretty small. Sitka is pretty easy to find in double bass sizes. If you know where to go, you can get a lifetime supply of bass tops for the price of a US forest service firewood permit= maybee $20. I'll be harvesting red spruce later this spring by that method.

j.

[uprightben]

I recently did a little work with alaskan yellow cedar, which is really a cyprus, and was struck by how similar it is to spruce in mass, hardness and appearence. I was able to get a drop that is big enough for a violin top, but I'm gonna let it season for at least a year before I mess with it. Of course, I think that stuff is pretty expensive.

I have always been curious about alternative tonewoods, but I have to say that the more lutherie I do, the less curious I get about an alternative to spruce. It seems to me that it is just the most ideal material for a soundboard.