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This guitar company called Stonebridge is touting Aged Spruce tops. I found this quote on Guitar Gallery's site

Well, how do you feel about that?? Assuming they mean 'non-hygroscopic wood' is that even possible?

Btw, I like how it makes the wood essentially 80 years old, I guess it's just a coincidence that would be approximately the same age as pre-war Martin steel strings

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Jeremy Douglas

My only comment...Im glad my house isnt next door to Stonebridge guitars

Hmmm. "The wood is exposed to enzymes and micro-organisms that eat away everything from the wood that would decay naturally over time" So what are they using for the soundboard, air? What ever it is they better keep those freak'in enzymemicrobthingamajigs away from me cause I'm gett'in old fast enough thanks.

Cheers

Kim

To put it correctly: What you will be left with is wood that looks like a bunch of termite just had a big feast that will probably be too weak to resist string tension, but after draining your wallet of course.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

from what i've heard of stonebridge they provide great guitars at a low price, when compared to others.
I would be more careful commenting like this, if you're going to thrash someone, at least do your homework first..

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Frank

I have played a few and they were okay. Are these instruments made in the US or overseas? Just curious. And as for me, glad my house ain't too close to the factory either.

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"We might not be big but we sure are slow"

I think if they can age there tops and have better tone, than all the power to them. I also like to use aged wood when building my guitars when i can as i'm in the old air dried wood camp myself.But to be a believer in there process, i would have to hear the difference first.

I thought that part of the aging process was the resins getting hard. That's why some are baking tops? I didn't think it had anything to do with micros eating the wood. But I could be wrong for sure as I'm always learning here. It sounds like hipe to me just like because you use 80 year wood or BRW or have a mirror finish or what ever that you are going to get a good sounding guitar. It's pretty easy to build a pretty guitar, just takes the cash to buy the woods and a good artistic sense. And of course the woodworking skills. I'd rather rely on developing my building skills then some micros getting me a good sounding guitar.

Also how are they going to stop the microbe from further degrading the wood once it's past that "80 year" mark? It just seems like they're asking for trouble... I think I seen similar process of "aging" the wood on ebay by get this: They would pour something flammable (naphtha or paint thinner) onto an electric guitar body then lighting it on fire then putting the fire out.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

In my furniture business I frequently get commissions for "aged " pieces. I buy "aging solution crystals" from a very reputable paint company. It takes about 24 hours to make any wood look ancient. I doubt that it changes the structure at all, but it sure looks old.

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Dean

I always assumed stonebridge (based in the Czech republic i believe) were using a base or something similar to oxidise the wood, but obviously not. btw, they do it to cedar tops aswell.

The microbe may be something similar to yeast, where once it process the material from A to B, the mircobe will die when the concentration of B is too high (i think with yeast this happens when alcohol reaches about 16%), this would make it a self limiting process?

Of the stonebridges i have played, they have all been nice instruments, very reasonably priced, but i am not sure if any of them had the aged top option, i know that the antoine dufour signature model has one of the treated cedar tops, and it sounds quite good.

tbh, if it was that revolutionary, im pretty sure that Taylor, Martin and friends would have started doing this long ago.

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"Anything that happens, happens. Anything that in happening causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen. Anything that in happening happens again, happens again. Though not necessarily in that order." Douglas Adams

I'm suspicious of anyone who misspells 'hygroscopic.'

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

I think we can just about forgive them their spelling of hygroscopic as they're in what used to be Checkoslovakia (sp?). They also make Furch guitars and, although that sounds like a load of hype, I have a Furch ABG which is the best ABG I've ever come across.

Czechoslovakia

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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

Yeah, I knew that didn't look right, although it gets a lot of hits on Google. What the heck - most people can't even spell definately

These topics are always fun. Everyone want to set themselves apart from the herd.

Can't really hurt anything, but I do hate getting requests for the latest thing that somebody else does.

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I work in a music store and about a year or so ago, we held Stonebridge guitars in stock but they kept cracking and splitting... I always thought it must have been the wood that wasn't dry enough or something like that. We have a really poor humidity control there, but Stonebridge were (and still are) the guitars that we had the most cracking problem with.

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Olivier Gauthier
Montreal, QC

This would be the 'Stradovarious' effect. They are basicly saying they do purposely what happened to Stradovarious wood (cell insides eaten out by microbes, leaving only the cell walls) Gives a warmer more resonant tone.

I think its the Czeck Republic now.

This is like the 'Holy Grail" concept in Lutheri (make "Strad -Wood". Very cool, but does it work?

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

The Czech Republic is correct. Our local guitar store, Guitar Junction in Worthing stocks these. They are really good value at about £700-£1200. The top end hand build and are darn good not just for the money. As plant biologist by degree, the process they describe is valid if they are able to replicate it. Its basically waht happens to your tiop naturally over time, the internal elements of the wood cell structure decay, and 'dry' leaving only the cellulose based cell walls - in effect the top of a guitar will become lighter and stiffer over time as we know, and thus provide a better 'attack' and in most folks ears better tone, but be more susceptable to humidity changes and cracking. If they have a way of selecting certain microbes that feed on the decaying tissue and not effecting teh cellulose walls of the wood cells, then the theory is sound.

I have a fiddle that is about 150 years old, and it is certainly still hygroscopic. I wish it wasn’t, but it is.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

I think Bob Benedetto may have gotten hold of some of this wood:



-Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

LOL, good one!!

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

Hey Frank.
What are "the internal elements of the wood cell structure" that "decay" and "dry, leaving only the cellulose cell walls"? Where do they go? If they are eaten by microbes, where do the microbes go when dinner is over?

You don't HAVE to answer, I probably won't understand it anyway.

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

They just lie around with their belt's loose, pick their teeth and belch a lot. We have finally explained the Wolf Note!

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Waddy

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