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First off, let me apologize and say that I have no photos right now.
I recently was given a block/billet of nicely quartersawn cedar. However, neither I nor the giver of said cedar knew exactly what type it was.
It had been sitting on a shelf for 5 years and was very dark and oxidized on the outside. I just resawed it this evening and noticed that it was quite a bit darker/chocolaty-er than my LMI purchased western red. It was very spicy smelling and had almost a menthol quality to the scent in the garage when resawing and sanding. I'd never smelled anything quite like it before. Is that typical to WRC? Could it be another type of cedar?
-i.

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Sounds like WRC to me, although I am not an expert. Probably old-growth and very rich in extractives. In the 80's, when cedar siding and shake roofs were all the rage, I had my hands on lots of WRC- it can be as light as pine, darker than walnut, or anywhere in between. Usually the darker stuff is more aromatic.

By the way, the extractives keep away bugs, but not carpenter bees or woodpeckers.........

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I just planed down a couple clapboards, I presume to be (Western red) cedar, due to color. I don't recall any scent though. I will be making 3 tops with it though.

I have a set of Western Red Cedar that is chocolate. Nice tap tone to it as well. Haven't decided what to pair it with though.

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Aoibeann

Jason Voth should be able to help, honestly he's seen more cedar than the rest of us combined will see in a life time.

It sounds like WRC to me too. I have a few chocolate brown tops so the coloring certainly can vary. The smell is interesting, that could be possible from the storage location, maybe it picked up something in the air over time.

Lillian, that's easy.....curly maple

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Rod, is the maple for visual or for a tonal combination? I'm not opposed to it, just curious.

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Aoibeann

Both

Honestly, I love the sound of my maple cedar OM (I gave it a deeper body though at 4 5/8" at the tail). It has a much more biting sound vs cedar/EIR and I attribute that to the maple. I've built two guitars of the same size but one is EIR back and sides and the other is the maple. The EIR gives that classic mellow, sitting by the fireplace, sippin' cocoa, watching the snow fall outside on Christmas afternoon type sounds where as the maple gives a slightly mellow yet crisper, sitting by the fireplace, sippin' brandy, watching the snow fall outside on Christmas evening . It just adds enough bite to the sound of the guitar that it makes you stand up and take notice, but not startles you out of your seat like a Maple/spruce guitar can do.

Of course, the bracing style and how heavy or light it is brace certainly may have more to do with it. But like I first said, both of the OM guitars I built are the same (same bracing layout and same general tap tone once shaped) so the difference certainly could be in the back and side wood.

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I'll keep that in mind. Thanks Rod.

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Aoibeann

WRC can vary from bright yellow to a dark chocolate. I have noticed the really dark stuff has a different, stronger smell to it. Whenever we run into a tree of it I try to take some. You wont see much of it as most guitar companies don't want it and this stuff is expensive.. The boss will kill me if I come home with too much of it.

I think the stronger smell is caused by aging or decay. It's hard to say.. But the smell is present from the time I see it (on the deck of the shake barge). Its hard to describe but its just a lot stronger. I work with this stuff enough I generally don't notice the smell at all.. Except with the darker wood. I've also noticed a lot of it doesn't end up having very consistent color when it dries, lots of streaking. Which would also make me think the color is decay.

We can't just go out in the bush and start falling WRC trees as they are protected. The cedar available these days is all salvaged and is everything from windfalls and snags to cutting up trees that were dumped into holes and swamps while they were building logging roads. Some of it hasn't been down 6 months and other stuff hasn't been touched in 20+ years. Where the trees are recovered from has a big impact on what the end product is like.

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And for a more sprucey kind of look, White Cedar is very nice. Not exactly spruce colour, but much whiter than WRC.

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