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What is LS?

Several of the redwood logs harvested by Craig Carter were given names (and abbreviations):

LS – Lucky Strike
FA – Fine Arts
TA – Truly Awesome
ST – Singing Tree
TB – Tono Basso

All of them had distinctive tonal properties.

Here are THE Definitions, as described by Alicia Carter, in the last
century.


FA “Fine Art” Log

Salvaged log from old logging operation. Estimated down 40+ years when split into billets (summer 1998). Some Mstr. & AAAA sets were sold to Martin Guitar – later bought back for resale. Approximately ¾ of log lost to splits and rot. Remaining billets, when sound, produced sets that were tight grained, very stiff and of variable coloring. Color ranges from mid to dark (chocolate) brown, with strips of lighter coloring. Some sets are very dramatic in coloration – striped in gold and varying shades of brown. Not the usual soundboard look, but can be outstandingly beautiful. Tonal qualities seem to be particularly strong in the upper registers. Special techniques will need to be developed to work with this wood as it is very hard and stiff – soundboards probably need to be very thin.


LS “Lucky Strike” Log

Craig Carter’s now famous log. Craig located this log in north-facing freeway easement through a redwood forest. He estimated it had been down about 30 years. It fell downhill across a small dip, suspending a good portion of the log in the air; thus it cured in ideal conditions. The portion salvageable was about 3 feet in diameter, 60 feet long. (Unfortunately, much of the best part of the log was lost to fence-post hunters.) Craig began to harvest it in Fall 1993; final harvesting was completed by Alicia and neighbors in Spring 1997. Some soundboards were cut by Craig as early as Spring 1994, including most of those re-purchased from Martin Guitar. Soundboards from this log have been made into fine steel string (including arch top) and classical guitars. Smaller billets have produced mandolins, as well. Stiffness to weight ratio is said to be excellent; grain pattern and coloration generally even, very straight, with lots of “silk.” Sound characteristics combine the warmth of cedar with the clarity and color of spruce. This log set very high standards for redwood soundboards – ones almost impossible to match. Craig cut into over 100 downed logs before he found one – the LS -- that met his exacting standards. He was a classical guitar player and planned to use this wood for his own classical guitar building.


ST “Singing Tree” Log

Alicia discovered this log in the vicinity of the LS log. It had fallen across a steep slope so that the upper side was embedded in the earth and the downhill side largely free of earth contact. Neighbors helped Alicia harvest this log, which she cut into soundboards and marketed to individual luthiers and companies. When the log was being cut into rounds with a chainsaw, she stood on it some 30 feet from the cutting and heard it ring like a tuning fork. (Thus the name.) The wood is warm in coloration – rust, orange and gold shades, generally striped. Tonal qualities are also warm, more like cedar than spruce. The only sets remaining for sale are those recently repurchased from Martin Guitar.


TA “Truly Awesome” Log

This log was purchased from a mill on a private ranch. The tree on a slope and was said to have fallen naturally, due to heavy storms, in 1995. The log was one of three, cut 20’ or more from the ground. It was 5 feet in diameter, 17 feet long – an estimated 10,000 lbs of wood. It was hand split in Fall 1998 and the first sets were cut in Spring 1999. Because of its large diameter, it was sometimes possible to get two rings of billets: inner ring and outer ring. All billets split beautifully – very straight. The inner ring sets were naturally cured; they exhibited excellent stiffness to weight and sound characteristics. Soundboards made from this inner ring wood are pale gold with tonal range rivaling that of LS soundboards with a lighter weight. There were only a few of these inner ring billets, as the center of the tree had center or “wind” splits (common in the larger trees) and areas of uneven grain. Billets from the outer ring were bright, blood red when initially spit – very “green.” There were some billets taken from mid-diameter, also. When soundboard sets were dry, they were too “green” to use in guitars. Coloration was streaked and tone undeveloped until soundboards aged, air dried, for several years. As a result, most of the TA log remains in billet form. All soundboards now available were cut between January 1999 and March 2000. Outer ring sets (what is mostly available) are fine grain and stiff; coloration appears streaked before the sets cure, gradually clearing to gold. Sets cut today from mid-range billets should be ready for building when air dried, approximately 2-4 weeks. Sets cut in 1999, mostly from outer ring, have been made into fine guitars with unique redwood tonal characteristics: warmth of sound combined with clarity and broad tonal range and color.


TB “Tono Basso” Log

The TB log was purchased when it became apparent that the TA log would not
yield sets for immediate building. It was from a tree that fell in approximately 1983. This log was also 5 feet in diameter and 17 feet long – 10,000 lbs. of wood. The log was split into billets in Winter 1998-99 and some initial soundboard sets were cut immediately. Inner and outer ring billets were split, with some billets split mid-width. Soundboards from inner ring billets were generally unsuitable due to wide, uneven grain; outer ring soundboards were, once more, too “green” to build with when dried. Most of this log remains in billet form. Some of the billets taken from mid-width yielded soundboards with striking bass tone characteristics, hence the name, “Bass Tone.” Mid-width soundboards quickly lost color streaking and were very beautiful, with “beeswing silk” – a unique, checked light-reflective pattern that looks like golden flecks of mica. As with the TA soundboards, outer ring soundboards were initially undeveloped, tonally, and streaked in color. Once these soundboards were cut and air dried, tonal qualities gradually developed and coloration evened. This log is characteristically striped in color pattern but stripes are usually subtle shading differences rather than distinctly contrasting colors (as with the FA soundboards). Color tones are mid-brown rather than orange or gold. Successful guitars have been built with TB soundboards, especially when instruments are designed to take advantage of the unique bass tonal characteristic.

I don't think the name thing is all smoke and mirrors, but you're right that it can get out of hand. I think it's kind of neat having a little history or connection with where the wood came from, even if it's just for marketing or for the warm fuzzy feeling. Obviously just giving it a name doesn't automatically turn into obscene prices. You don't often see other makers marketing their TB or ST redwood or whatever, or at least hear many players talking about it.

I know that Carter stuff was graded pretty carefully, too, though I don't know if Hank Mauel (who sold off the Carter inventory for Alicia because of wood allergies or something) or the Carters did that. They did have different grades of LS and the other woods, though if I remember most of the LS stuff was AAA or master. I had to look pretty close to be able to tell why one was master and the others were AAA, and the only difference I could find was that the grain spacing was more even on the master. It gave me the impression they were picky about grading it out. Otherwise, it's all stiff, well quartered, silky beautiful stuff.

I'm curious if the one Todd had was really an LS top. Obviously different parts of the tree can have different characteristics, but it just sounds so different from what most other people report about LS. Anytime the price goes nuts like that you run the risk of people passing it off as something it's not.

Well now we know where Mario got his idea for giving logs names.

There is some awesome redwood out there that has no name. In fact, some of that no name wood has been more impressive than some of the "named" woods.

The name stuff can be deceiving. For example, the LS top Todd spoke of on another thread recently. That top was not what one would consider LS quality - cross grain stiffness was poor. Yet the top was purchased for an obscene price. Think about it - if it didn't have "a name" and was purchased for its characteristics, it would have sold for 1/6th to 1/8th of its named sale price.

And were the name thing really comes into play, is when inexperienced luthiers or players buying tonewood get into the game. Marketing x Ignorance = Disaster. Unless of course, you're selling.

Filippo

Goodin asked:
"How is Young's Modulus applied to luthery?"

Hurd has quite a thorough discussion of this in his book. He uses the Young's modulus along and across the grain to predict how stiff the top will be. I use a simpler system in my building.

Basically, Young's modulus is a standardized measure of how much force it would take to stretch or compress a piece of material of a given size by a certain amount. Since the stiffness of a piece of wood in bending depends mostly on the fact that it's being stretched and compressed on the surfaces, the Young's modulus and thickness of the piece are good indicators of how stiff it will be.

I tend to discount the stiffness across the grain _in_the _long term_. Wood cold creeps, and the distortion of the top under load tends to reduce the effect of cross grain stiffness in resisting bridge torque over time. Thus in my own work I use the lengthwise Young's modulus to figure out how thick to make tops.

Basically, if you start from a top that worked, and you know the thicknes and Young's modulus, you can derive a 'stiffness index' number. The actual stiffness of the top plate itself will be proportional to the Young's modulus (E) times the cube of the thickness, so you just do the math. If the E value was 10,000 megaPascals (metric units), and the top worked well when it was 2.5mm thick (.100", more or less), then the stiffness index number would be 2.5*2.5*2.5*10,000=156,250.

So, suppose you have another top that has an E value along the grain of 15,000: how thick shjould that be to give the same stiffness? Dividing the new E value into the stiffness index number gives 10.416, which is the cube of the new thickness. The cube root of that is a little less than 2.2 mm; about .086".

This is a simplified system, but it seems to work well enough for the usual range of tops that you get from suppliers. I would not be at all suprised if it was not as successful with tops that had exteremely low or very high cross grain stiffness.

The important thing is that, given the range of variation in properties that you see, even for tops of the same species, this gives you a way of working 'to the wood', rather than simply to a recipe. Either of the tops in my example could have been Engelmann spruce, and other species vary about as much.