I have not worked with WRC since I first used Spruce, not because there's anything wrong with WRC, but I hear something in Spruce I can't get over. If asked (and unable to talk convincingly enough) I'd willing use it again.
NOT a hijack, but a short story: When I started building guitars, the logging industry was in full swing in BC, where I lived. It was virtually all first growth trees ranging in diameter from 2' to 8', and there were moved around in "booms" by tugboats. Hundreds of trees loosely grouped together and contained by trees chained in a row around the herd. Inevitably, the occasional tree popped out over the "fence" and drifted away. These trees, if not recaptured, became free agents and drifted where they would, often ending up on Greater Vancouver's beaches. While still a bit true today, there were vastly more fifty years ago. An enterprising luthier such as myself could grab a friend and go down to the beach with a two man cross-cut saw and a couple of splitting wedges and take home any amount salt water cured old growth Western Red Cedar. I did this many times, and was never challenged by authorities, nor did I expect to be.
This salvaged cedar had a unique quality that I have yet to see in the lumber yard or the supply house; it is the color of semi-sweet chocolate. I saw this in several different beached trees, so I believe it is the salt water, but I don't actually KNOW this, it just seems obvious. One of the "alleged" secrets if the Stradivari violins is that his spruce was (may have been) transported by water. Since he built due south of the alpine forests, it seems unlikely to me that water ways were the more convenient route, but marketers will say anything to add to the story . . . IMO, of course.
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