Quote:
Originally Posted by ewh2
I've never heard of a 'Golden Pencil Cedar' soundboard before. Whenever I've had a look at the McKnights website (which is a fair amount) I'm amazed at the options when it comes to tonewoods/and Tim's insight and knowledge of tonewoods.
Tim McKnight is the Willy Wonka (of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) of tonewoods.
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Willy W here ...
Here is a history and olfactory test for some of you old enough to have used wooden pencils back in the day. Do you remember the aroma of a freshly sharpened pencil as you stood in line to sharpen your pencil in grade school? Well, the wonderful aroma came from a tree that is known as "Golden Pencil Cedar". It was the Cedar of choice for the pencil industry, many years ago. I am not sure what wood they are using now but its certainly not as easy to sharpen nor does it have the aroma.
I first learned about this wood from Les Stansell who has used Pencil Cedar to build some world class guitars. I believe Howard Klepper has used it as well? I was fortunate to purchase a few hand split billets of this Cedar about a decade ago. It is much lighter in color (hence the "golden" moniker) plus it is considerably lighter in weight than the average run of the mill Western Red Cedar. I do not know what the Latin name of the wood is only the common name.
Any Cedar is difficult to work with in the fact that if you get anything harder than Jello even close to it the wood will often result with a ding or dent. However, once the finish is applied it isn't nearly as susceptible to dings as it is while in the white. If you moisten the wood with a few drops of water it releases that wonderful aroma that brings back memories of bygone days. Its truly unique wood with a voice all its own.