Official Luthiers Forum!

I need some. Do some of our sponsors offer it? I looked and none had it listed.
If not, where can I get some?
Thanks!

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Check with BobC at RCtonewoods

LMI has it, look under their European heading.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Hmm,
Maybe the client would like to fly me and himself over to hand pick the top.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Thanks Jim.
I found it!
Will call Bob also.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Steve, try searching the fairly recent archives as I remember someone posting about an Italian source not long ago.
I think it may have been Stephen Kinnaird who was looking to Italian then.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

I get mine from Rivolta.

http://www.riwoods.com/home.asp

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

and I've heard mixed things about Rivolta
http://www.riwoods.com/
I saw the tops Bachmann brought to NAMM and it's really good stuff.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

The tops I have from Rivolta are what LMI would consider master grade. They're very nice.

I've gotten very nice tops from Rivolta. In fact I've never gotten anything but what I'd consider exceptional wood from them. They also have some VERY cool Italian cypress. It actually goes very well with the Italian tops.

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

Doesn't "German" spruce patina to a dark brown over time? I have some 'German' spruce that is 30+ years old, and it has medium brown patina where the air hit it (standard yellow where the tops where laid criss-cross on each other for storage).

My "Italian tops" I have are the best sounding tap-wise.

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Here is what a Parlor Guitar is for!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEa8PkjO6_I

Don't want to confuse you guys any, but under European Union law, the place of last processing of a product, and that would include wood, can be legitimately used to describe it. So, if a tree is grown in say Germany is felled and the timber is taken to say Italy, and sawn into sets, then legally it can be sold as 'Italian'. So Romanian wood may end up as 'Austrian', or Italian wood as 'German'. Pay your money and take your choice, unless you know the cutter on this side of the pond you can never be sure what your getting on your side of the pond.

Anyway, I've got sets from very reliable sources from all over Europe, and unless I write on them where they come from I can't tell the difference and that includes German, Italian, Austrian, Swiss and yes Carpathian, it's all Euro.

In reality it's nationality is totally immaterial, the growing conditions are what matter, was is north/south facing, what elevation? etc.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Well I thought I would add my 2 cents to this post. Where I buy the wood from is how I have been labeling and selling it. If I buy from a supplier in Italy then it's Italian spruce, Germany -German spruce etc. However I agree whole heartedly with Colin on this issue. I have no way of knowing where the logs originated. To reiterate what Colin has stated if I didn't label them when a shipment arrives I would have no way of knowing which came from where. I am revising my website and will be selling any Picea abies as Euro spruce. Here is a very good article (IMHO) on Euro Spruce written by Paul Hostetter
http://www.lutherie.net/eurospruce.html

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

I have had great luck with Rivolta. I only buy their E grade. They have been very light in color and weight and also quite stiff. The finished tops have a wonderful shimmer. I have made very balanced and responsive steel string guitars with them.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

Last time I was at an ASIA Symposium, Rivolta was there, along with many other wood dealers. I have bought almost all my tops (and the majority of my backs and sides, for that matter) by selecting them in person myself. So, there's another good reason to go to the Symposium in June! I'm hoping to pick up a few great Euro and Adi spruce tops there, myself.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

I have also had nothing but sterling experiences with Rivolta. Besides offering an amazing product at a great price, their customer service is bar none! They also do their own felling and get their wood from one of the most revered/legendary places in Italy in the Tyrol region. Very good stuff, IMO. I'm curious to hear the bad things that one of you guys has heard about them?....
-John

I am going to be controversial a bit.
There's some good info in Paul Hostetter essay, but I wouldn't take all of it too seriously.
Let's call it an opinion piece…
I know it's very fashionable to say Picea Abies is all the same, but it's not.
As mentioned before, elevation, slope and soil probably make a difference. That being said German, Austrian, Swiss, French and Italian Alps are mostly bordering on each other so I would guess the spruce coming from that region is probably very similar. But there are a lot of other different regions where Picea Abies grows in those countries and others, with different growing conditions and climates, and perhaps different sub-species (I am guessing), or say adaptability.
The German, Italian and Carpathian I use and have used are different and produce different results. It is subtle and may be my imagination, but I have no vested interest in using one or another. (My next project is to use French spruce coming from the Vosges mountains. Without a doubt it will be the best of all spruces…)
I see much less variation with red spruce, for example, coming from different places as distant as the EU spruces can come from. Same with Englemann. There are always exceptions and variations, but not that much.
It is also very fashionable to say that every piece of wood is different, regardless of species, but while true to an extent, I wouldn't take that too seriously either.

Anyway, I've not heard "bad", but mixed things about Rivolta. From a builder I highly respect: a fair amount (1/2) of what he received had too much runout for his use. The rest was stellar. He may be more picky than the average…

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

I have bought a few tops from Rivolta and they are lighter than the average German, Swiss or Austrian tops I have. Other people say the same: Italian tends to be lighter so there maybe is some truth here.

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Build log

How typically French!



This is impossible.



Interesting.
Joking aside, thanks for your input Laurent. I enjoy your contributions here and it's always good to hear different perspectives.

This is also my experience. The Italian I used did not come from Rivolta though.
Lighter, softer and not as stiff as the German I'm used to. Kind of like a super-Englemann. Made beautiful sounding guitars.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Well I have some German Spruce that fits the description of that Italian to a T.
and the surface really shimmers because the gentleman I buy it from hand planes the surface.

_________________
Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498