Machining wood versus hand planing for tonal quality

[george wilson]

Just choose harder spruce. That's what I like.

[Chris Fournier]

Just choose harder spruce. That's what I like.

I would agree. Although red cedar classic is my favourite nylon string guitar top material.

[george wilson]

Cedar will never have the longevity of spruce. The cedar myth started when Ramirez,being cheap by nature,bought up a bunch of old,large cedar mine timbers,and had them quarter sawn into guitar top wood. I have made a few guitars with it. They are too dark sounding to suit me. Cedar does not have the inherent strength of spruce,or the ability spruce has to rapidly spread vibration.

Ramirez himself has been described to me by a friend who knew him as hardly being able to cross the street by himself. His father was the great builder. The modern shop employs several good luthiers who make the guitars. They are permitted to use a cheap looking rubber stamp with their initials on it to stamp on the neck block of guitars they make. My friend,back in the early 60's,was a commercial pilot. He'd fly to Spain,and while there,buy a Ramirez to re sell. They were cheap in Spain at that time. Ramirez would obligingly fill out a receipt that said the guitar was bought very cheap,to help get it through customs without big taxes.

[Chris Fournier]

Cedar will never have the longevity of spruce. The cedar myth started when Ramirez,being cheap by nature,bought up a bunch of old,large cedar mine timbers,and had them quarter sawn into guitar top wood. I have made a few guitars with it. They are too dark sounding to suit me. Cedar does not have the inherent strength of spruce,or the ability spruce has to rapidly spread vibration.

Ramirez himself has been described to me by a friend who knew him as hardly being able to cross the street by himself. His father was the great builder. The modern shop employs several good luthiers who make the guitars. They are permitted to use a cheap looking rubber stamp with their initials on it to stamp on the neck block of guitars they make. My friend,back in the early 60's,was a commercial pilot. He'd fly to Spain,and while there,buy a Ramirez to re sell. They were cheap in Spain at that time. Ramirez would obligingly fill out a receipt that said the guitar was bought very cheap,to help get it through customs without big taxes.

Cedar certainly doesn't have the playing life span of spruce but I find that it sounds far better right out of the gate. Pretty subjective stuff I'll admit but I'd take a cedar classic over a spruce any day, of course it's all in the ears and mine like cedar. Now plywood's got real tone that lasts forever...

[Matt Lau]

First off, I'm a hobbyist.
George is a great luthier, and his word should have more weight.

Personally, I really like cedar and the spruce I favor tends to be considered ugly.
I prefer properly air dried wood (I feel that it's more stable), but properly kiln dried wood works.
I prefer quartered wood over flat--for stability, not sound.
I prefer split braces--for strength, not sound.
However, I have some Adirondack spruce from 85 years ago that is stiff as all getout, brittle, and extremely light...almost like cedar on steroids.

Wood is an interesting material...don't you just love it?

-Matt

ps. George, I think my maestro agrees with you regarding Ramirez...something about being a talentless prick. On the other hand, he has respect for Fleta (ugly, but well put together) and Hauser (first class craftsmanship, but unforgiving). Did you ever know of Randall Angella?