Giant sequoia "Pioneer Cabin Tree" fell 1/8/17 - will it make good tops?
 

Hi all, maybe you all heard that the giant sequoia "Pioneer Cabin Tree" in California fell during a storm last sunday. Will anyone be able to save some wood for guitar tops? Woud it at least make for a good tonewood?

From what I read it shattered on impact. So... doubtful.

It doesn't look shattered
 

...in this picture.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/iconic-p...ifornia-storm/

Redwood
 

Good question.

I live in a house built of tongue and groove old growth redwood built in 1929. I often wonder how many fine guitar tops are in my walls and ceiling!

Let's hope someone can use this wood!

Cheers

Paul

If I had your walls and ceiling, I can imagine myself choosing one section of either, and replacing one cut out guitar-set with a pine insert.

When the giant Sequoias were found outside of Wawona, inside what is now Yosemite, loggers went up to fell them and found they shattered on impact making the trees unusable. There are still several trees on the ground left as evidence in the Giant Sequoia Grove.

While there may be usable wood, shattered means there are cracks throughout, many possibly too small to detect until the strings go on. A poor investment for guitar making, but wouldn't be much a problem for construction work.

The linked newspaper article says they don't know why the tree came down . . . Could it have had something to do with cutting a huge hole in the base?

Giant Sequoia is not the tree generally used for guitar making as that is the Coastal Redwood. It probably can be used, but I've never seen the wood offered by suppliers. I have used the Pencil Cedar that grows is the same or adjacent region in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and it works just fine.

This tree is up in my neck of the woods. Have been to see it many times amidst the grandeur of its brothers and sisters. Sad to see it come down after all these years. I can't imagine that after the impact of its fall there would be much usable material left.

Years of prolonged drought, and the deluge we've experienced within the past week have all combined to create its downfall. Well that, and as Bruce said, having a hole cut in it could have contributed...

Coastal redwood and giant sequoia are not even in the same genus--one is Sequoia, the other Sequoiadendron. At one time they were put in the same genus, but were more recently found to have diverged enough genetically not to warrant that. The giant sequoia has never been used as lumber because the trees cannot be felled without shattering.

I am really saddened by the news of the demise of this tree.

One of my earliest childhood memories is of seeing pictures of this tree and marveling at the sheer size of it. I always wanted to see it up close and personal, and I am kicking myself that I didn't avail myself of the opportunity when I spent a few days in California some 17 years ago.

If I'm not mistaken that's not the only 'drive-thru' tree in that forest. There certainly are plenty of other big ones left. Hopefully no one thinks to carve out tunnels anymore.

It is sad to see such a great tree fall. But that being said, like a dead buffalo we should use what can be used, so the question I have is who gets salvage rights to this tree? and is there anywhere one would be able to inspect any lumber that might be salvaged from it. I'm in the area, or close enough.

I would not want to assume that there is any usable material, on the other hand I would not want to assume there is not.

I just think it would be cool to make an instrument out of such a historic tree with such a story behind it. Think I'll google around and see if I cant find out what they're doing with it.

If anyone has any info, please post it.

edit; in state park, it will sit and rot and be part of the ecosystem, so they say, so no tree for me

If the greenies have anything to do with it, there it will stay until it has become forest much. It would make a nice warm fire.....(who said that) Certainly, the wood may not be suitable for much in the way of fine instruments, but may well be suitable for other finely crafted items.

Rick Turner had an acoustic made from giant sequoia. I was really interested in which grove it came from since we live fairly close to a few, but he wasn't sure. Drat.

I had dated a woman who lived in Ft. Bragg that had 4 acres that many huge living Redwood trees as well as some monster stumps in various stages of decay. While searching around one day I was able to find two huge stump rounds that had been cut at about 2" thick. These rounds were at about a 6 to 7 ft. diameter, quite huge, both had severe rot and decay because they had been siting there cut for gosh knows how long, my estimate was at least 100 years. At any rate I was able to take a chain saw to them and cut out 2 substantial chunks of usable material and have since made one guitar and have enough to do one more plus lots of scrap for inlay or what not. The material dried for several year prior to using.

So anyway here is a pic of the guitar I made. The material was so dense that I opted to use the stump for the back and then used some old growth perfectly quartered stuff for the top, with the white edge growth laid out in the center. I have learned to not do this as I have come to find that the white parts of the redwood have high damping and helps kinda kill the tone as it sits in the most dramatic impact zone on the top, the center. But it's ok, certainly not my best sounding guitar.

http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps2xwpbeg9.jpg

http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/r...pseeh3ayna.jpg

never bothered to take nice photos so the angles of the shots are kinda obtuse

it has both an arched back and top as all my instruments do

as always, cat not included in price :D