Official Luthiers Forum!

A friend of mine is a caretaker at an estate here in new york, he has said during the last wind storm some large ( for cherry) cherry trees were taken out by the gusts, so I am wondering what is the smallest diameter of tree that can be successfully harvested into back and side sets? Thanks Jody

I would guess about 20"s

It is hard to say , there are many variables. Even at 20 inches you won't get many but you may get a few. You don't know till you get into it. A 2o inch tree , with the sap wood taken off ( 2 inches off the out side ) and the heart ( 4 inches out the middle , ) 20 - (2+2) -(4)= 12 divide by 2 lets 6 inch boards.
I would think somewhere you may get luck on a back. Your odds are kind of on the slim side. Then you need to hope there are no knots or wind breaks and sap pockets. It is my experience you may need about 30 inches .
Again you never know

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

It all depends on the tree and the type of back you want.Some like sap wood on the back.I do.You will get pith pockets with cherry alot, but they can be epoxy filled.So 28" would be a good prospect with those.Still, the bigger, the better, as you have more option moveing the pattern around for better grain orientation.Tree quality is the most important thing to me for guitar building and cherry is very prone to cracking while drying just like rosewood and ebony.So good selection is very important.

But don't forget that you can get necks from smaller trees and quite a few guitars have been built with cherry necks. My experience with birch is that you can indeed get back and sides out of a 20" diametre tree, but that would be minimum and your recovery (as John mentioned) may not be high. But if you get a few sets to me it is worth the exercise! At 24" you will be a whole lot better. On back and sides there is less concern for all of the things we worry about in top wood (where I need a minimum of 36" to make it worth while) so sapwood and wider grain near the heart are less of a concern. Go for it and let use know how you make out.

Shane

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Canada

Not sure if it's the same for hardwoods, but for softwoods you need to take out the juvenile wood, which is the 1st 30 years growth. John is this what you mean by the "heart"? As opposed to the "heartwood" which is everything but the sap wood.