3A Sitka or 3A Adirondack ?

[Sperry]

Speaking with a mandolin builder, I see their best offerings use Adirondack. For a few bucks less, Sitka. As my only experience is with guitars, I find the Sitka to be a little sharper with maybe more highs. And the Adirondack (red spruce?) to have a more woody tone. My impressions might be skewed by the instruments differences.

Is this on point or am I way off?

[redir]

I would bet you $10,000 bucks you and as many friends as you choose could not tell in a blind test in a dark room which one is which. So that's something to think about.

[charles Tauber]

Originally Posted by redir

I would bet you $10,000 bucks you and as many friends as you choose could not tell in a blind test in a dark room which one is which. So that's something to think about.

Yeah, but which one did you vote for, Sitka or Adirondack?😇

[Sperry]

As always, gentlemen, it is great to hear from you. I'm not an instrument builder, but from the dozens of guitars I've played at Acoustic Vibes Music, the Sitka topped guitars have seemed a little tighter and precise in tone, with the Adirondack being fuller and warmer.

I tried to create the poll to allow anonymous voting, hoping to have a deluge of opinion. Oops. Gonna check back periodically but prowl around Mandolin Cafe for now.

The thinking is that tone comes down to individual instrument, the sum of its pieces and especially construction techniques? And best not to back oneself into a corner by declaring one better than the other?

Here are a few non-related pics, what I've been playing around with lately:

[redir]

Well it looks like you did a fine job putting that violin back together again.


"The thinking is that tone comes down to individual instrument, the sum of its pieces and especially construction techniques? And best not to back oneself into a corner by declaring one better than the other?"

Yeah pretty much imho. You will find some builders out there that refuse to work with Sitka for example, and then others who say that all the spruces fall within a very similar range of values that are important for instrument making, mainly stiffness. So for example it may be true that on average Rd Spruce is stiffer along the grain then Sitka but there is so much variation that it's easy to find a piece of Red Spruce that has values that are just like Sitka or even pushing into Red Cedar.

Guitar factories simply build to specifications. So they may have in their recipes for building guitars a different target thickness for Sitka versus Red Spruce but since they don't actually do any engendering testing on individual tops then all the guitars they make are subjected to the averages and they cross over from species to species.

Since you are working with an actual luthier, I assume a small shop builder, then it gets more interesting. So in this case though he or she could use Sitka or Red Spruce and still give you the target sound you desire simply by working the top wood to target values, bracing, and so on.

So it's probably best to just have that discussion with your mandolin maker and get their opinion(s) on it.

[Sperry]

Thank you. An even greater accomplishment, it sounds amazingly like an old violin. An inked repair note suggests complete glue failure prior to 1886. When I got it, the same thing. The hide glue was still tacky with an astringent odor. The kid who bought it was thrilled. He may or may not have been a genuine 'broke musician' but jumper cables on the back seat of his beat-up junker were a nice touch.

Speaking of spruce, Bavarian spruce is prized among violin owners; you can find a 100+ year old violin for a couple of hundred bucks with identical top wood as a $50,000 violin.

Small builders are in the picture, as is Weber, with their Yellowstone and Rawhide A-model mandolins.