Spruce top grain query.

[Silly Moustache]

i have recently acquired two new guitars from the same maker. Both have Adirondack tops, and I imagine pretty new growth.
One has very close grain, and the other, very wide.

I'd be most interested in the thoughts of luthiers here, about your opinions on grain width and tonal quality and stability etc.

Thanks in advance.

[charles Tauber]

You are looking for a correlation between grain and tonal "quality" and stability. As much as we'd all like for there to be simple visual clues that this appearance sounds like this and that visual appearance produces that stability, there doesn't seem to be one.

[redir]

The stiffest spruce top in my collection at this point is a Carpathian Spruce top with the widest grain I've ever seen. I've not measured it but it's probably 6lines per inch...

So yeah grain line count (annular rings) per inch are meaningless. The stiffness of a top varies greatly but can be controlled by thicknessing to a desired deflection or acoustic test.

What might be more relevant is how vertical the grain is. If you see a lot of silking then you have a well quartered top which indicates that for that given piece of wood it is the cut that provides the optimal stiffness. But even then it is dependable on many variables.

[peter.coombe]

Yep, close grain vs wide grain is purely an appearance thing. There is no correlation between grain width and stiffness or sound. The evidence has been published and is quite clear.

[kliend]

Your guitars are beautiful and now I am vying to purchase an Eastman next, quite possibly a single 0 or double just like yours! I really have been enjoying your youtube videos.

I recently came across this thread and it seems to be asking the same questions: https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=592380

Cheers brother

[Taylor Ham]

could it also be that some tonal differences attributed to wide grain are actually because those tops were more off quarter? it would appear from the surface that the grain is wider.

[Silly Moustache]

Thanks all, and especially to KLIEND for the referral to a previous link which in turn led me to Bruce Van Wart's video.

That's made me feel better about my wide grained Adi top!

[Mr. Jelly]

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

You are looking for a correlation between grain and tonal "quality" and stability. As much as we'd all like for there to be simple visual clues that this appearance sounds like this and that visual appearance produces that stability, there doesn't seem to be one.

This! Visually I like the wider grain. To each their own.

[John Arnold]

could it also be that some tonal differences attributed to wide grain are actually because those tops were more off quarter? it would appear from the surface that the grain is wider.

These days, it is rare to see tops that are so far off-quarter that the grain would appear noticeably wider on the surface.

[printer2]

Originally Posted by Taylor Ham

could it also be that some tonal differences attributed to wide grain are actually because those tops were more off quarter? it would appear from the surface that the grain is wider.

Plan on finishing this one for Christmas. Fairly quartered, roughly 4-5 lines per inch. If the tops were cut off quarter the grain lines would be wider.

[Pura Vida]

Wow. I guess what I interpreted as wide grain wasn't really *that* wide of a grain. I'll be interested to see the finished product.

[Silly Moustache]

Hi, I just took better images of the gran on my E40-00.
Whaddya think?