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Hello,

Has any one had any experience with Carpathian spruce on a classical build?

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Guitar Building = Continuous Improvement Process

I think Alex has, and others, for sure, but it is similar to most Euro Spruce, and is ,as the others are, Picea Abies which grows in the Carpathian Mountains around Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and the Ukraine.

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Waddy

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Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Yes, I routinely use Carpathian spruce soundboards and bracewood that I selected in person at Art Royter's (Eurotonewood) outside of Philadelphia. A few of the early sets I have used have been from the Ukraine, but the majority are from Romania. Both sources have had excellent tonal qualities. I have been extremely happy with the resulting sound in my classicals (and small jumbo steels). I make sure that the density of the sets are between 0.40 - 0.42 g/cu cm.

It's just ordinary European spruce with added marketing. Just select your top the same as you would with any other piece of Euro. If I jumbled up all of my Euro tops without marking them then the German, Austian, Swiss, Italian and Carpathian would be almost impossible to separate.

My current favourite for classicals, and the one I'm being asked for most is Caucasian, but that IS a different species, it was very widely used in many 19th century Spanish instruments.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Colin, Do you know the tree species name for caucasian spruce? Where does it grow?

It's Picea orientalis, grows, as it's name implies, in the far eastern areas of Europe and western Asia. Just as European spruce is known as Alpine spruce because it grows in the Alps, the main area for P. orientalis is the Caucasus mountains. I get mine from Turkey.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.