Official Luthiers Forum!

I just bought some Port Orford Cedar from Lance (nice stuff!)

I have used western, but not POC.

For those who have used both, any preferences or differences in using one over the other? (Other than the POC smells really good!)

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John Ressler

They have Cedar in their name, but that's all.
Port Orford Cedar isn't a cedar at all, it's a cypress kind.

That said, these are two completly different species. I have a few sets of wonderful POC, is it stiff like hell, but I have not tried it yet.

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

They have Cedar in their name, but that's all.
Port Orford Cedar isn't a cedar at all, it's a cypress kind.

That said, these are two completly different species. I have a few sets of wonderful POC, is it stiff like hell, but I have not tried it yet.

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

POC and WRC are both in the cypress family. WRC is soft, light and brittle. I usually thin from to .115-.130" or more for steel string guitars depending on the voicing of the particular top and the size of the guitar. IME the sound is very responsive and clear with beautiful overtones but without a lot of headroom. Great for fingerstyle playing. POC on the other hand works more like a spruce. It's not as soft or light as WRC and not at all brittle. I have thinned it in the range of .100-.115". It has a responsive voice with great overtones but unlike WRC it has a lot of headroom similar to red spruce. A very versatile tonewwod.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

Both are in the cypress family, but what I mean is that WRC is in the Thuya genius, wich refers to a 'true' cedar, wich POC is not.

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

Sorry, I believe you are wrong. No disrespect intended.

Western red cedar is not a true cedar.

"Not a true cedar, just a northwest rainforest “giant”
The western redcedar is actually an arborvitae - a “false” cedar."
from :
http://www.oregon.gov/ODF/urbanforests/ ... r.pdf?ga=t

cheers

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

Slow on my edit

First Spanish Cedar, now WRC??? What is the world coming to?!?

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-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube

We'll soon lear that cedar never existed at all.

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

What about French Fries and Spanish Onions?

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

sorry, what are y´all talking about? what´s cedar?

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

It's the logo of lebanon. I guess it's some mystical or mythical tree.

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

AFAIK, Cedar of Lebanon is a true cedar, unlike the junipers, arborvitae, and cypresses that we have in North America.
I have only handled POC, and it is much stiffer and denser than WRC. It is similar to the difference between Engelmann and red spruce.
My one all 'cedar' guitar had Eastern red cedar (juniper) back and sides, and an incense cedar (cypress) top.

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John

Why do they name all these different woods with what they aren't really?
Doug fir isn't fir, etc.
Spanish cedar isn't really cedar?
Mahog is all over the map.

I'm going to re-name all the different wood,
a new system.
Might take a while.

Us country folk just don't have that big of a vocabulary for trees. Does it have a strong smell? Cedar. Is the wood medium brown without clearly visible grain lines? Mahogany. Is it dark brown and hard? Rosewood. Heck, it doesn't even have to be brown (bubinga) or particularly hard (higuerilla), just make up a rosewood name for it and people will pay twice as much

A method of nomenclature has been done Alan and for the very reasons you lament about. Scientific names.
Genus and species names leave no doubt as to the particular tree or animal.

You find more of this confusion in the name of woods than in the names of trees . Mostly for commercial purposes as in the name Mahogany being applied to luans and different African woods that resemble the true Mahoganies of the Americas.
L.

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

Wow Oak view meadows subdivision next door , has no oak , no view no meadows, well ,welcome to america no misnomers here

Even scientific names don't seem to have much permanence anymore. Quite a few plants and animals have been reclassified and given new scientific names since when I first learned them.

well, i guess the 1st explorers of the new world should have brought better botanists with them when they started naming things - they made it hard for us guitar builders!a very bad offender is Alaskan/Yellow/Nootka cedar : it´s been named Cupressus nootkatensis, Chamaecyparis nootkatensis, Xanthocyparis nootkatensis and Callitropsis nootkatensis!!! well, at least people seem to agree on the nootkatensis part...

cheers,
miguel.

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes