i currently am focused on building small guitars -parlors and such, strung with extra lights and i really like cedro (spanish cedar). i primarily choose it for it's lightness because of my interest in building guitars for people with mobility issues, aches, pains, shoulder problems, etc... and reducing neck dive is a primary concern for me to keep the cg of the instrument optimized as much as possible.
were i to build a dreadnought guitar that someone would use mediums or thicker strings on, then i would give more consideration to neck re-enforcement but i'd do this
regardless what the neck wood was anyway -it's just good craft imo.
working wise, it at least smells nice and cuts well. i don't notice any taste difference with 'hog as they both taste bitter to me. (why do we care what wood tastes like again?) actually 'hog dust makes me feel dopey after a couple of hours. one thing that is a slight irritant are the hidden pitch pockets one finds in cedro but this is a minor problem.
would i walk away from a guitar with a neck made from spanish cedar? -no. i could care less with what and how the instrument was crafted. it's all about if the guitar has something to offer soundwise that i'm after. for me it would be silly (no negation intended) to walk away from a guitar crafted from a "controversial" material or method regardless if the arguments for or against have any logical basis or not.
imo with the exception of carbon fiber, a truss rod is a must on a new, modern, steel string guitar. but if you're buying vintage -let's say 1930-36 or earlier?, then you probably don't have much choice.
to be honest i've played and have been around a lot of vintage guitars -mostly old parlors of many, many brands, i'm guessing nearly a thousand of them. since the majority of these that i've been exposed to were made between the civil war and 1930 i suspect that a whole bunch of them had cedar or mahogany necks. the main issues that i see is neck movement and top warpage. not the neck shaft itself, but the entire neck moving upward at the heel block and the top rolling up at the bridge -basically the guitar colapsing into itself. i've seen split fretboards and broken/repaired headstocks primarily due to owner mistreatment and a mis-understanding of humidity. imo i don't think the concern is 'hog vs. spanish cedar but the general mistreatment by father time, mr. weather, and numerous owners.
if you were interested you could pm
steve of vintage parlor guitars fame (shameless plug) for a more informed opinion regarding (i would think at least) the sum of smaller guitars made with various materials in the last 100+ years or so. he may even have input on larger body guitars as well.
