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Anyone have experience with this outfit?
(Eurotonewood.com)

Carpathian spruce tops

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

He has been an ebay seller for about 10 years with a good reputation. I have ordered from him on several occasions and been satisfied. Sometimes the lower priced tops are not bandsawn perfectly straight. When laid out in a bookmatch they can have a slightly rippled look - the plates don't lay perfectly flat. Take a look at some of his lower priced auction pictures to see what I mean. Once joined and thicknessed the tops are fine since the top plates come thicker than .25". When I spoke with him years ago he wasn't considering runout when he graded tops. I think he does now.

The main thing is the price - these tops are really inexpensive. I have bought about 10-12 high-AA to AAA grade tops from him (ebay) and never spent more than $35-40 (usually $25) per top. They are all quartered, no runout, no color. Hopefully this helps.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/eurotonewood/m. ... ksid=p3692

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

I've ordered a couple of tops from him and they are fine. Don't know what they sound like and don't know that I will ever be able to finish one. Think they were the more expensive tops and are very good looking, tap nice.

I have bought from Art on ebay and also directly from his "shop". (He is just north of Philadelphia). This blanca is one of his tops, a grade below his top grade. I've been happy with all my purchases from him.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

I have bought from him for several years. Always happy with the tops I bought. - Mike

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guitarsbygiltzow.com

The link below is to a discussion about one of two bad experiences I had with Art. He ultimately made it right, but very begrudgingly. In the other instance he refused to budge. I have some very nice tops from him, and some others that were sold as very nice tops but were not. It's a roll of the dice with Art.

http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=35123&hilit=carpathian+master

To carry this a little further, I can't speak for others, but my sets were very nicely quartered and were the HQ tops. They were really stiff, and I thought enough of one of them to use with my last, best BRW back and sides. The sides are bent and ready for kerfing, top is braced in a laminated X/ladder with triple tone bars, and I think I will finish the rest off by teaching my wife to do the rest of the building. Then we will have Charlie Hoffman apply the laquer. There is just too much potential in that guitar. Think I will get on it this week and maybe I can do some teaching...no, dear, do it like this...

Just to be contrary (who me?), I once built an F5 mandolin with horrible ////\\\\ rift red spruce from Ted Davis. Was just a free chunk he sent along with some beautiful wedges. Curiosity got the best of me as he said it was a left over chunk of his fabulous '95 or '97 downed tree (I forget which), but Ted really liked that tree and so did I from the quartered mandolins I built from it. Of course it is difficult to determine on a carved top exactly what quartered is, but it made an excellent mandolin, so there you go.