I do not wish to rain on anyone’s parade, but I do want to inform those of you who are following me faithfully enough to be reading this of a thing I have observed about Pernambuco, one of my top favorite tone woods.
I have made roughly seventeen P guitars from wood extremely close to perfectly quartersawn, and about 7 from wood that has part of the back flatsawn. They all sound terrific to me, but that is not the story here. Not a single one of the quartersawn pernambuco guitars has developed a single spontaneous crack. One does have a crack, but it is from mishandling: I did it myself. That is not the story either, it is what was expected.
What was not expected is that ALL of the flatsawn pernambuco guitars that I have made have developed spontaneous cracks exactly in the flatsawn section of their backs. That’s all of the flatsawn, and none of the quartersawn. One does not need a degree in statistics to jump to the conclusion that using flatsawn Pernambuco is beyond risky. In my experience it is a near certainty that unless one takes serious measures with humidity control such a guitar WILL crack.
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