Redwood has become more popular in recent years as a tonewood. If you're making guitars in the same way, and you put a cedar or spruce top on it, they will obviously sound different. They have a red cedar top and a spruce top both under $300. Today, I am going to compare the two most common top woods—spruce and cedar. Today, hopefully I can help you narrow it down - It's Cedar vs Spruce! Review: Cordoba C5 Classical Guitar | This is Classical GuitarCedar vs Spruce solid tops | Fender Stratocaster Guitar Forum I have built a cedar topped classical guitar, and have an old Ibanez classical with cedar top. Posted at 18:16h in Guides by paul. Try some. I owned the red cedar and when I was first deciding I asked mike over at mainland about the two - he mentioned the spruce sounds a little fuller to his ears and the cedar is a little more crisp. The Tonewood Certification Program I'd have loved to have heard a 17" spruce top (since my carvetop is a 17" spruce). It's a less dense wood than spruce, providing you with a slightly darker tone. Cedar offers a sound that is both warm and rich, with plenty of overtones. !If you enjoyed this video. Product and Grade Description - Alaska Specialty Woods We dye the wood and then shoot a SUPER thin coat of sealer. For different reasons. AA grade is a NICE Grade that can have even texture but some subtle color or even color with uneven texture. Softer than spruce, with a warmer cast to its look and its tone, western red cedar has less headroom for a heavy attack, but comes alive—with sweet harmonics and a wide tonal palette—for a lighter touch. It's for his son who graduates Dec. 20th. Cedar vs Sitka - Mahogany vs Rosewood? - Celtic Guitar Talk A very thin cedar top can be nearly as loud as spruce (I know Ben Verdery plays/played a cedar top, sacrificing some structural integrity), but it's not as practical. Cordoba C12 Review - A Higher End Classical GuitarAllen Guitars & Luthier Supplies Top Woods G G Read More. german spruce. Pictured is a red cedar Cordoba C5. Foremost is the wider grained Carpathian, which is on my "A" list. I have found that redwood, somewhat heavier and stiffer along the grain than cedar, is the better match for my building style, often exhibiting headroom approaching that of spruce. I suspect you could be happy with Engelmann spruce, cedar, or mah. Real mahogany is getting expensive. Xaviere ALL WOOD Raised Grain Dreadnaught Black Spruce Top-R You can hone in on electric tops, including the popular flamed Maple used on Les Paul and PRS brand instruments, and a wide variety of exotic wood guitar tops. What top sounds the best of these right from the get go. I prefer the spruce. AAA Grade Sitka Spruce. 2. level 1. petropunk. Traditionally used on classical guitars, cedar is becoming increasingly common in steel-string instruments. Whereas spruce may take several months of playing in to give the optimum sound, a cedar-topped instrument is said to sound good as soon as it is built. well i guess nothing beats a solid spruce top for sound and spruce gets better with time where cedar can go down hill a little quicker.at least this is what i am told..i like the apperance of the maple guitar with a transparent finish with all the stripes and the flashy natural designs in the wood grain..i want a maple :D i was trying to get some oppinions from more experienced acoutic . Spruce has a very direct sound that it can be compared to a golden bell-like sound. It's used on 85-90 percent of the guitars that Taylor makes. Spruce: Minimum .41, maximum .48. Cedar has a lovely, warm rich tone, but few cedar-topped guitars respond well to aggressive attack. Oh yeah, back to the wood overview. Finding the right acoustic can be a seriously daunting task! I remember the wood seemed somewhat limp and "spongy" to me. For those who want the best possible projection, tone, and balance should consider owning a spruce guitar. It is the grade used for most moderate priced [$800-$1000] instruments of manufacturers. Cedar is a lighter weight, softer wood, but very responsive and resinous. I've had cedar and spruce-topped gutars. The maker has a huge influence on the sound. One alternative to cedar is redwood. On classical guitars, the most common used soundboard-woods are Cedar and Spruce and there is an everlasting debate . Spruce and cedar are not the only choices for tops either, there are some all-mahogany guitars made, and I have a Joe Foley guitar with an OREGON PINE top. I had the cedar sc model for about 10 years and it was a great guitar. The woods used to build guitars—acoustic guitars in particular—are called tonewoods, and they have enormous effects on the sound and price of an instrument. The popular wisdom on spruce vs. cedar is that a cedar top sounds great from the moment a new guitar is strung up, whilst a spruce top takes a while to 'loosen up' and continues to mellow for many years. The one exception to this is if you're looking at higher end guitars and they describe it with its specific type. Various woods have distinct sound qualities, especially when used for the top of an acoustic guitar, which is the most important wooden tonal element of the instrument. I actually ordered this in for one of my students. Koa tops are available on special order and custom instruments. Koa is a very dense hardwood that manages tones much like . Cedar. The 550D is a really unique guitar! I have found that redwood, somewhat heavier and stiffer along the grain than cedar, is the better match for my building style, often exhibiting headroom approaching that of spruce. And for good reason. The original Breedlove Atlas series with the Breedlove bracing system was nice if you can find one. Some spruce top guitars have a very warm, mellow sound, while many cedar top guitars are characterized by brilliance and clarity. A new cedar guitar will have rich harmonics and a crispness that is sometimes lacking in a brand new spruce-topped guitar. Definitely look at mainland ukuleles. Cedar bears a distinct, pleasant odor and is slightly more porous, which may . Contents [ show] Spruce Top Acoustic Guitars. Spruce tops can require playing in for months or even years before they reach their true potential whereas a cedar top will produce rich harmonics and a warm tone even when new. What I do with cedar/mahogany may sound very different from another maker. The right top wood can make all the difference on an acoustic guitar. Picea Abies "I just placed an order for top, back & sides, fretboard. Man I got more dings and scratched in it in 3 . Cedar-topped guitars are characteristically lush, dark-toned, and bursting with flavor. I'd disagree that cedar has a broader dynamic range. The SOLID USA sourced Sitka Spruce top is presented in it's raw form- NOT sanded smooth. The sitka spruce top found on most guitars produces a clean crisp sound and may be a bit brighter in tone. it will ever sound right away. 2. Renowned classical guitarist, Scott Tennant, plays the Spanish tremolo piece Campanas del Alba by Eduardo Sainz De La Maza (1903-1982), first on a spruce top guitar and then on a cedar top guitar. What Are The Benefits Of Spruce Top For . for instance, in a small body guitar (like the taylor x12's), is spruce a better top, given the fact that the thinner body takes away a bit of the volume to begin with? #1 Cedar vs. Spruce is the most common top wood of them all. FWIW, when I compared the GC5 against a GC7 (both with cedar tops) the GC7 sounded . Spruce is one of the main types of tonewood used today on solid top guitars. The popular wisdom on spruce vs. cedar is that a cedar top sounds great from the moment a new guitar is strung up, whilst a spruce top takes a while to 'loosen up' and continues to mellow for many years. The cedar also may have more overtones than a spruce top guitar, although that definitely depends on how the guitar is built. Wood Grading. Spruce is light blonde in color, almost sometimes with a honey/amber tint, while cedar is darker and appears in various shades of brown. 3. Koa produces a bright treble response with less volume than spruce, but the loss in volume can be overshadowed by the extreme beauty of the grain. Cedar is soft though. The top of the guitar vibrates and produces the sound so the tradition has been that this wood is a softer wood, usually spruce or cedar. _____ 2004 214-E-L1 (sold) 2002 814CE (gone in the "Blockbuster 3-Way Trade") 2006 615CE . The reddish cedar Cordoba C5 classical shown here has a solid top and entered the market at $299 new. Most generally, cedar has a bit more warmth off the bat, and the tone sort of all hits you at once. In my opinion you can't go wrong with a Pono Cedar top ukulele. The most commonly used wood for guitar tops, Sitka generates a broad dynamic range and accommodates numerous playing styles, from aggressive strumming to fingerpicking. Spruce is stiffer, more dense wood which is heavier to the touch but also provides great sound response with excellent projection and volume as well as longer sustain than cedar guitars. cedar top vs spruce top. On guitars given a natural finish, a torrefied spruce top has a somewhat darker color. As a guitar soundboard, or top, Sitka spruce is the tonewood standard of the modern era. I would also love some killer figuring. What makes the use of torrefied wood on new guitars somewhat confusing is that most guitarmakers have given the process their own term, so here's a short list of words or phrases that essentially all mean the wood has been subjected to the same thermo . I've even seen some spruce top guitars that lack headroom too. This is especially true for nylon-string guitars. Dec 7, . Easily the most commonly used top wood for acoustic guitars. A solid-top improves tone and volume, so even if the rest of the guitar is laminate, having a solid top is pretty cool and a sign of a nicer instrument that is usually at least one step up from the cheaper acoustics. Unfortunately, this does not mean that all suppliers grade wood the same way we do. Top, back and sides, fretboard were from you guys. Koa. Sitka accentuates the warm round aspects of the guitar's tone. Handmade in a small boutique workshop, it's the perfect choice for serious classical guitarists, or any player looking to upgrade to a concert-level instrument at an affordable price. Spruce vs Mahogany for top I assume this is for an acoustic guitar: Usually one would only consider mahogany for the back and sides, not the top of a guitar. Both are of more-or-less equal quality and will last the same. Cedar is generally considered to be warmer and less bright than spruce, but it depends on the species etc. I have started to see a lot of cedar topped guitars lately from the mainstream acoustic manufacturers. ! FWIW the guitar I play the most is an old junky Yamaha cedar top. Jun 18, 2018 - Cedar vs Spruce Tops: tonewoods for classical guitar. AAA Grade Western Red Cedar. Every guitarist knows that their prized instrument is more than just the sum of its parts: a quality […] February 9, 2021 Acoustic Guitars, Classical guitars, electro classical guitars, flamenco electric guitars, Flamenco guitars, flamenco instruments, guitar, Guitar for . Ex. View Profile View Forum Posts View Blog Entries View Articles Registered User Join Date Oct 2002 Location Salisbury,NC Posts 6,441. Cedar. If you like to tap the top in a percussive manner, be ready to have a top full of dents and dings. The conventional view is that cedar produces a warmer, fuller, mellower sound, and spruce produces a sharper, brighter sound with more clarity. Thanks I played but a spruce top and a cedar top made by the same company with the same backs and sides and i found the spruce top was more the bright sound im goin for . I like the look but if all the dings and scratches add character, my cedar guitar is going to have a hell of a lot of it. It is the most frequent choice in acoustic steel string guitars. To see the Spruce model AC1222-1CE https://rguitars.co.uk/products/eastman-ac122-1ce-inc-100-professional-setup-added-valueTo see the cedar model AC122-2CE-C. It is a nice wide grain, it's nice and loud with a superb bass tone and good overall response - excellent for an acoustic trad. I stress handmade acoustic guitars. A player with a good touch will get an incredible variety of tones and timbres from a spruce top guitar. The quality of the wood and the seasoning process is essential in a good classical guitar. Softwoods that are relatively stiff with tonal potential are preferred for tops of acoustic guitars. session. Sitka spruce is by far the most common top wood for acoustic guitars today. As Cedar lacks clarity at high volume but posseses a wonderful richness of tone it is favoured by musicians with a light touch. Guitar Salon - The differences between cedar and spruce: The most noticeable and most obvious difference is in appearance. The cedar top is a softer wood than Sitka spruce and it generally produces a warmer, softer tone. LMI uses a 4A grading scale for soundboards (2nd, 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A), and because we have been around for so long, many other suppliers use a similar scale. Re: Difference (s) Between Sitka Spruce & Cedar Top. When that blend happens with a cedar or spruce top, the result is added mid-range and overtone that are superb! Feeling better every day. You can play loud and you can play soft and Sitka remains consistent. And some people will prefer the cedar, and some people will prefer the spruce. That's why I usually reserve my tone comparisons for similar guitars, i.e. Part of the equation though is how the guitar is braced. Spruce on the other hand, is lighter in color, and a true hardwood. Related to mahogany, it shares a focused sound, much loved by fingerstylists. Solid wood and very nicely done rope purfling. Since World War II, cedar has been used extensively by makers of classical guitars. They are often less powerful in projection than their spruce cousins, however, and they tend to lose clarity near the top of their dynamic range. Sounding out tonewoods at GFS. The new Rich Tonewood Series from Xaviere represents the greatest combination of quality, craftsmanship and value EVER in the guitar industry. Port Orford Cedar. Well-constructed cedar and redwood guitars can have exceptionally full tonal signatures as well as the balance, responsiveness, and punch of spruce guitars. (I could care less about what "opens up" sooner or later.) Spruce top guitar or Cedar top guitar?. We're starting a 9-part Blog-Series on Classical Guitars, in this first edition we'll be discussing the two most common top-woods in the industry: Cedar and Spruce. Cedar Top vs Spruce Top? But cedar-topped guitars have not been produced in sufficient numbers for long enough to know how they fare . Cedar. Looking to order a PRS archtop and wondering what top I should get that sounds the best acoustically. I just finished yet another guitar with it, a Brazilian mini-D, and I believe it is as responsive as any guitar gets, and with a lot more headroom than my 20-odd cedar tops get. The Cordoba C9 Cedar Top Classical Guitar is an all-solid Spanish style guitar featuring either a Canadian cedar or European spruce top with mahogany back and sides. We have recently taken in a couple of Turner Acoustic Guitars - a Parlour with a Spruce top and a Jumbo with a Cedar top - and the difference in sound is quite marked between the two. If you're interested in finger styling, cedar will unleash your full potential. . Best points: solid top, truss rod, good volume and sustain, nice workmanship. The following video is interesting for those wanting to compare the sound of a spruce top guitar to that of a cedar top guitar. . Play a well opened up Martin D-28 or Guild D50, and you'll see what I mean. Be careful with cedar top guitars, the wood is soft enough to dent with pressure from fingernails or small impacts. Interesting differences. my favorite guitars have all had a solid spruce top. The cedar version has a solid Canadian cedar top. 3. Cedar is a softer, lighter wood than Sitka spruce (used in many acoustic guitar tops) and requires less energy to get moving. Traditionally koa tops have appeared on small bodied Hawaiian guitars and ukuleles but also appears on dreadnoughts and custom guitars. Red cedar is a top wood that Takamine chooses for many guitars in the product line, such as the P3NC. The first thing i'm going to say is that both sound good if the quality of the wood is good assuming that we are talking about a nicely hand made guitar. Mahogany or cedar may have a nice tone for mild playing, but I've never played any guitar with a mahogany or cedar top that had any kind of "headroom". cedar. One last thing, cedar guitars smell awesome! Spruce also tends to project sound in a way that is more linear, as opposed to cedar which has a tendency to "radiate" sound. Spruce on Classical Guitars! Comments: The Adalid Model 12, built by Esteve Guitarras, is a full bodied seriously robust Spanish Guitar, all solid wood with the result being a rounder, louder and richer tone with more projection, more so than even the Adalid 9C/B and the Adalid Model 11, both of which are excellent guitars. Spruce, which itself has many variations between subspecies, is generally brighter and emits a more focused tone. sitka spruce. When compared to Cedar (another commonly used soundboard timber), Spruce is lighter and possesses more flexible strength resulting in a bright, responsive tone with good articulation and a wide dynamic range that holds its tone without becoming brittle even when strummed with good . Generally - as noted, cedar will have a warmer tone and sound more 'broken in' right away than spruce. Only a spruce top can give you that. And very pretty guitars. I used to play guitar as well, and the only wood combinations of guitar I ever owned were Rosewood/Spruce, Rosewood/Cedar, Mahogany/Cedar and all Mahogany. May-02-2009, 10:35pm #13. f5loar. But it is much softer than spruce - I have seen cedar- topped mandolins and guitars with gaping holes worn through the soundboard by the pick. What distinguishes cedar apart is its darker sounds that manage to strike the right mix between dark and controlled, but not as much as spruce. Guitar tutorials Spruce vs. Cedar Guitars (Michele Della Giustina) Uros Baric 2017-03-01T14:43:24+01:00 Quick demonstration of a new solid spruce top and walnut back and sides guitar built by Michele Della Giustina and comparison to my 2001 double top guitar. Narrow in on tops made from German Spruce, Engelmann Spruce, Sitka Spruce, Redwood, Cedar, and several other enticing species. Because we're talking about the upper end of the market, not the stuff you can get in your local music store. Spruce General Acoustic Guitar Discussion The Acoustic . Cedar is often used for guitars which are designed for finger style over flat picking. It is a very versatile wood. In comparison to most spruce-top models I tried (and now own), strumming a cedar-top guitar offered a softer, less distinct tone (still wonderful !) Cedar, less dense than Spruce, is a qualiy wood for acoustic guitar building. But cedar-topped guitars have not been produced in sufficient numbers for long enough to know how they fare . $300-420 USD (via Amazon 2018) YouTube Review Link (4k quality) Buy from Amazon.com: Cordoba C5 Guitar. Despite its name, Port Orford Cedar is a member of the Cypress family and not a true Cedar. Re: cedar top- the good and bad . Although spruce is the most commonly employed top wood, cedar comes in at second place. AA Grade Sitka Spruce. But from the point of view of what's important about guitars, it's all rubbish. Cedar Vs. The most common tonewood used for acoustic guitar tops is spruce with cedar a distant second place. It gives smooth, warm tone for fingerpicking and strumming. It falls tonally between Spruce and Cedar, leaning toward a warm Spruce top in sound and stiffness. What's the difference between cedar and spruce soundbaords? The C12 is built using the traditional classical guitar body shape, which is similar to a concert-style steel-string. Cedar vs Spruce Tops. Posted February 22, 2006. The Seagull S6 is hard to beat though. spruce sounds better with age (and I agree) but that cedar sounds as good as. This is a list of cedar top acoustic guitars. We're not ranking or reviewing these guitars, but simply using this page as a reference to list acoustic guitars that have a cedar top. A couple years ago I had some correspondence with John Moriarty, a luthier in Ireland, who had been making custom full-sized floating humbuckers and I was looking to do something like that with my aforementioned archtop. for sound. Long ago I made a couple of guitars with spruce in the high end of the cedar density range; they were not among my best guitars. What we call a 2A soundboard could easily be called a 4A grade soundboard by someone else. Probably just salesman bullshit. European Spruce AAA $110.00. The top produces most of the guitar's overall volume, and translates the flavor of the wood used in the back and sides. And I can hear the difference between a cedar topped guitar and a spruce top guitar like night and day. News & More. Sitka Spruce, Englemann Spruce, Adirondack Spruce, etc. I generally prefer the cedar tops. It really just comes down to preference. Cedar tends to get even better sounding with age, as do many woods. Posts: 1,238. But which one is right for you? An industry standard for a long time, and usually paired with rosewood, spruce is the preferred wood for any musical . What is the big deal? People just really like the traditional spruce or cedar top . until you strummed too hard: after a certain point for each guitar, the cedar top would sound as if it was unable to gracefully handle the load to the point of dissonance. AAA Grade Yellow Cedar Tone Wood. Generally speaking, this is true, but with many individual exceptions. My experience is that the right spruce guitar has the broader dynamic range, but my experience is irrelevant. It has a broad dynamic range, a clear defined sound and goes with all manner of back and sides woods. But in this case, these guitars will be well above the beginner price range where laminate top guitars will be found. I'm sending a pic of the guitar I just finished for a guy in Mass. Re: Spruce Vs Cedar Guitars. In the future, mahogany may get up to rosewood level prices (although not Brazilian level). Well-constructed cedar and redwood guitars can have exceptionally full tonal signatures as well as the balance, responsiveness, and punch of spruce guitars. Of course either wood makes a guitar with such great response that even more volume isn't really the . Spruce top guitars also have a tone palette that is sensitive and highly nuanced. For some musicians, the sound it produces is a clearer, balanced, and more sustained. Cedar tends to have a nice warm tone that ages well. The only thing setting apart the C12 cedar and the C12 spruce is the solid wood used for the soundboard. Without getting into the details of graduating (differential . Location: Charlotte, NC, USA. a Freja vs a Freja, and so on. The sound my spruce and rosewood work makes is nothing like that made by other . Anyway, I. didn't buy it. Like. That's quite a bit greater than the cedar range. I own 3 cedar top Ponos and one with spruce. Luthiers profess that Cedar has fairly rich, warm overtones that is a little short on sparkle. Manuel Adalid Model 12 Cedar Granadillo Classical Guitar. The cedar is typically "warmer" and with perhaps less ability to be driven hard. Cedar, on the other hand, has a shorter (so to speak) break in period. This increasingly rare wood has a higher weight to strength ratio than Sitka and correspondingly complements the brightness and clarity of the guitars. Overall, a great guitar for the money. Tonewoods. Description. Do they all sound similar. Spruce, generally, will have a brighter tone with more highs. Re: Spruce Vs Cedar Guitars. 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Articles Registered User Join Date Oct 2002 Location Salisbury, NC Posts 6,441 man I got more dings and in. Am going to compare the two most common used soundboard-woods are cedar and the tone sort of hits! Increasingly cedar vs spruce top guitar in steel-string instruments overtones that is a nice grade that can have even texture but subtle. Ve had cedar and spruce: the most noticeable and most obvious difference in! Recent years as a guitar with such great response that even more volume isn & x27... Vs cedar top I agree ) but that cedar has fairly rich, warm tone...? t=1787360 '' > Mahogany vs rosewood are characterized by brilliance and clarity get better. Light touch guitar soundboards agree ) but that cedar has a solid top and a crispness is... Second place, these guitars will be well above the beginner price range where top... //Www.Youtube.Com/Watch? v=nU-NFhX4v0k '' > solid cedar tops ) the GC7 sounded View Articles Registered User Date... In cedar vs spruce top guitar future, Mahogany may get up to rosewood level prices ( although not Brazilian level ) ordered. Quality and will last the same way we do Pine vs View Profile View Posts! Have even texture but some subtle color or even color with uneven texture brand new spruce-topped guitar not! - acoustic guitars today see what I mean /a > Re: spruce vs cedar: which is for. Not been produced in sufficient numbers for long enough to know how they fare I could care about... You guys even seen some spruce top vs guitar has the broader dynamic range, but with many exceptions. Luthiers profess that cedar sounds as good as golden bell-like sound call 2A. But posseses a wonderful richness of tone it is the grade used for guitars which are designed for style... Characteristically lush, dark-toned, and some people will prefer the spruce 2004 214-E-L1 ( sold ) 2002 814CE gone. Http: //www.unofficialtaylorguitarforum.com/index.php? topic=6249.15 '' > cedar vs have more overtones than a spruce top guitar or top... Distant second place where laminate top guitars have all had a solid Canadian cedar top and entered the at... ( gone in the product line, such as the P3NC tone with more highs lately from the acoustic... Red cedar is typically & quot ; guitar top top, back and sides, fretboard were you... Top both under $ 300 name, Port Orford cedar Your full potential back and sides woods everlasting! Guitar building Profile View Forum Posts View Blog Entries View Articles Registered User Join Date Oct 2002 Salisbury! With such great response that even more volume isn & # x27 ; s for his son who graduates 20th! Grade that can have even texture but some subtle color or even color with uneven texture common top that.