Official Luthiers Forum!

I've build two guitars now with redwood tops. One "reclaimed" and the other was Sinker.

I'm just not feeling the "love" for Redwood.

I've only built 6 guitars now. (#006 to ship next week) Three with Sitka tops, two with redwood and one with Carpathian Spruce.

So far my favorite has been the Carpathian.

Are you liking your redwood results - and do I need to be working this completely different than Spruce?

Seems like everyone that is asking for info on our guitars is in a love-fest over Redwood.

Not sure I get it yet.

I know - different strokes for different folks. My one shipped guitar with a redwood top - the owner absolutely LOVES it.

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P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

I've only made one from Redwood, some of the Carter Redwood from Hank Mauel, and it has been generally recognised as one of the best guitars (out of nearly 50) that I have made. I generally use European Spruce (Carpathian is just Euro from the Carpathian mountains). I treat redwood as a bit like a cross between Euro and Cedar, leave it a little thicker than Euro and tune the bracing as normal.

You can see and hear it here. http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=19044&hilit=Redwood

Colin

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

I thought redwood to be somewhat finicky...or less stable...Am I wrong?

Chris

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

I have only built one redwood (reclaimed) guitar and was pleased with the results. It has a slightly warmer tone than sitka with a little more depth to my ears. I ended up just under .120 in thickness for the top on am OM. It seemed to be a bit on the brittle side, and very stiff. Very easy to get splinters from.

I would definitely use it again.

Chuck

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I just finished my first redwood guitar. The client requested a redwood/claro dread. I was skeptical at first but he explained he wanted a dark, warm sound with huge bottom end. And he plays fingerstyle with mostly finger pads and a light touch. It was perfect for him. Lights up with a soft touch. But it is certainly not your banjo killing dread. It has a lot of overtones and is easily over-driven with a pick. I would certainly do it again under similar circumstances. And small bodies should be great with it.

By the way, the timing of this thread is just a tad early but in the next few days, I should be putting up a post advertising 100 plus sets of re-claimed redwood for sale. Some folks came across an old stash that was already milled in thin 8" boards. We picked out the quartered stuff and I resawed it into some very nice sets, mostly OM/classical sized. Just need to work out the final details with the owners. Stay tuned!

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

That's a good description of my small bodied Lowden, rosewood b&s with LS redwood top from Hank. It took me a while to learn to play it as I'm more of a strummer and used to banging out chords on my mahogany Martin 00 and my maple Larrivee OM. I kind of knew that going into it, I didn't really want another guitar that sounded like what I already had.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

Ah, the working artist's dilemma. Everyone wants to pay you for something you don't like to do. But if you've only done 2 redwoods so far, there ought to be plenty more improvement you can get by experimentation (and hopefully some ideas from the folks here who have built with it). On the other hand, building something that sounds wonderful only when played by the person it was built for is kind of cool. Plus I bet it makes it easier to let go of your creation

From my limited listening/playing experience with redwood, it does have a very different sound than spruce and cedar. I can see how it wouldn't be one's taste, and especially on a dread. I think it combines better with the small body sound. Although I do think walnut is one of the best matches to it.


Awesome, I have a small body redwood/claro on my building list, so I'll probably snag one of those.

I've only built 6 redwoods (2 om-14,1 000-12 and 3 parlors) all using big leaf maple back and sides......seems to be a more mellow sound with good overtones but not the strong fundamentals of sitka....seems that strong picking can overpower and blur the overtones....hence, more of a fingerpicking guitar...IMHO....or it could be the maple's effects, too. Different sounds from different woods?

I got 2 sets of I think called Lucky Strike tree from Don Williams stash I think in 2002. 1 was with koa and 1 coco both were very good sounding guitars. I liked it and would do another, but not particularly like the look of sinker stuff.

Paul,

For what it's worth, I've built one redwood topped guitar, and everybody seems to like it the best of the instruments I've built. I, myself like working with sitka the best.

HTH,

Chris.

Paul,
don't give up on it just yet. As you probably know I have built many redwood guitars and many sinker guitars. Actually not a lot of people were using Sinker back when I started using it. If someone asked me to make them a guitar with my choice of soundboard I'd go with Redwood for sure.... sinker or regular. But do remember, not all woods(redwoods or spruces) are created equal.

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com