A question of Spruce
 

I was in a well stocked dealer yesterday having a browse, lots of lovely Martins, Gibson, Taylor, Santa Cruz and what struck me was the amazing looking spruce tops with infinite cross silking / feathering (add your own description here) and it got me thinking as to how this phenomenon occurs.

When I look at my own guitars, my '57 00-18 displays virtually none of this effect with the '65 D18 a little more but nothing like a lot of modern guitars and I started to wonder, Why ? Is there mileage in the notion, trees were really old when my two were made and that younger trees used to make present day instruments, naturally display more of this visual effect. Is it an indication of quality ?

It's my understanding that silking is more evident in spruce tops that have been perfectly quarter sawn.

I love silking... and I also understand it's found in quality Spruce tops.

it probably fades out over time with the sunlight hitting it etc.

Once the top darkens you probably can't see it.

It is lovely to look at a nice fresh white spruce top with beautiful silking.

What you are seeing are the medullary rays in the wood. They tend to show up when the wood is perfectly quartersawn. Quatersawn wood will tend to have the greatest strength along the gain lines. They do not inherently make the wood sound better. But, the "silking" is a good visual indicator that the wood you are getting is going to be the highest quality cut that the specific, unfortunate, tree could donate to your fine instrument, and for your listening pleasure.

From Wiki:

In botany, medullary rays (pith rays or wood rays) are sheets or ribbons extending vertically through the tree perpendicular to the growth rings. The cells in each ray are elongated and horizontal. These are living cells, unlike the dead cells of the wood xylem. The rays allow the radial transmission of sap.

I suspect it is because modern tops are more accurately quarter sawn, so it shows more. It also probably does fade over a long period of time,

Happy spruce
 

The spruce in my guitars is very happy to have been sawn and given eternal life in my appreciative hands and those of my successors rather than becoming worm poop after a few more years of life. At least it sounds very happy. (I might feel put upon if my body parts had been contributed to someone's hobby but I'm a quasi-sentient being so that's different.)

Now you all have me curious; I’m going to have to go check the silking on some of my older instruments. But my distinct impression is that silk in a guitar top doesn’t fade or go away. I don’t know of any process whereby it should.


whm

That's my understanding too, Wade, although I'm not a luthier. I'd like to hear more about that.

I dont think it goes away, I think it gets more difficult to notice on darkened wood or aged finishes as its a pretty subtle feature -

Some silking present,

1930 Harmony

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LnR1wZeB2...1600/hawk2.jpg


1922 Martin

http://www.guitarbench.com/instrumen..._17401/111.jpg

I think as the wood ages you will still see the silking but the color will be darker.

It's a physical property of the wood like the annular rings so I don't think it will fade out in time. I think they are beautiful.

I would tend to agree based on my experience. I have a German Spruce top with some silking that is 13 years old and has darkened but the silking is still evident and a 5 year old guitar with a red spruce top that has beautiful silking visible. I do store my guitars in cases so don't know if that adds to the preservation or not.

Best,
Jayne

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...a7b7b1783b.jpg

Ok I’m learning something new today. What is this silking thing? This guitar is 40+ years old. Is that the silking I see at certain angles?

That's my understanding. This 2002 Guild JF30-12 has a AAA spruce top....

http://user.xmission.com/~dcc/jib786.jpg