Official Luthiers Forum!

I notice that RC Tonewoods has Spanish Cedar soundboards. They appear to be very pretty, a reddish color. There is no description of the tonal or working qualities. Does anybody know what it's like? Have you used it? I'm not sure what B&S wood would work well with it... from a sonic or esthetic standpoint. Any thoughts? Any photos of a build with it?
Thanks,
Steve

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Spanish Cedar is a hardwood. Nothing much in common with WRC or spruce or whatever else usually used for tops.
Some people do mahogany, koa or walnut tops, but I would never use hardwood for a top myself.

That said, it might work...

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

I've only used spanish cedar for necks. Its very similar to mahogany but lighter and softer.
I would expect it to sound somewhere between spruce and mahogany...probably closer to mahogany and be very mid-rangey. I like the all-mahogany top guitar sound so I bet it would be very nice with a mahogany body.
It would sure be a nice smelling guitar.

Spanish cedar varies a good deal, I have some as dense as heavy red mahogany, others are very light. I have one neck blank with more than 10gpi which has Engelman spruce density, but this is rare. However in the Sitka/Adi range there are lots of blanks. Some are quite finely grained. Not sure a 2 piece top of excellent grain and cut can be easily found, but resawing a couple select neck blanks should produce a beautiful 4-5 piece top with both tight grain and spectacular rays. The neck blanks usually have a lively open taptone, and given the right physical properties it must sound at least decent and make a much better soundboard than mahogany or koa.

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Build log

I bet it would make a good top. I've done several mahogany top guitars and they all sound great, different yes but still cool.

I built a 00-sized guitar of Spanish cedar, top back & sides, I guess neck too. It sounded great, very responsive. The original owner sold it to a professional musician, who tours with it.

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https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008907949110

Steve ... Spanish Cedar will work just fine for a soundboard. If you like the sound of a mahogany soundboard then you will like the cedar. If it didn't work well we wouldn't be selling it.

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