[FLRon]

Originally Posted by John Arnold

European spruce (AKA German, Carpathian, Austrian, Alpine, Italian, etc.) is considered by many to be the ultimate spruce for instruments. It has been used since before Stradivari was alive.
Euro spruce combines the light weight of Engelmann with the stiffness of red spruce. High stiffness and low weight are the key to making a guitar that is both loud and responsive.
I live in the SE US, and while Norway spruce is often planted in yards, I have never seen it reproduce....in spite of heavy production of cones. I suspect the summer temperature is too warm.
In the great tornado outbreak of 2011, a Norway spruce was uprooted a block away from my house. I obtained some of the wood, and it will be serviceable. But it is very wide-grained (the tree was born in 1954, just like me), and the many knots produce grain swirls ('knot shadows') that can reduce strength if they are in the bridge area.
My plan is to make a neighborhood guitar, where all the wood came from the area right around my home. For years, I have had plenty of hardwoods (cherry, maple, walnut, dogwood, hackberry, pecan, black locust), but until 2011, I did not have any spruce for a soundboard.

I too can attest to Norway Spruce not reproducing in spite of a plethora of cones every year. When I bought my country home back in Ohio in 2003 I planted 18 Norway's that were roughly two feet tall. In 13 years they grew tremendously but I never saw a single new sprout. Of course,if you're a grower it's simple to collects seeds and grow trees that way.