Sitka Spruce from Alaska

[m02876]

I’m a new member of the forum. I have
played guitar since I was 12!
I love acoustic guitars.

I am troubled by what is happening in Alaska’s
Tongas Forest. Our Sitka spruce guitars come
from old growth forests in Alaska. The trees
are being cut down and shipped to China
to make guitars.

Doesn’t anyone else on this forum care?
Should we not make a stand?

I for one will not buy a new guitar made
from Sitka spruce.

What do other forum members think?

[L20A]

How long will it take for this to get locked?

[Wade Hampton]

Well, I live in Alaska and from what I can see the situation isn’t as dire as you seem to think. I do know that there is a lot more Sitka spruce available than just about any other popular top wood, and I also know that the percentage of spruce that’s used for musical instruments is TINY compared to the lumber that gets used for construction or for less obvious uses like toilet paper or disposable diapers.

It’s always good to be aware of environmental issues, but I suspect that your proposed boycott of Sitka spruce tops on guitars would have no effect whatsoever. Even if you could convince a significant number of guitarists to take part, the percentage of the wood that goes into musical instrument construction is so tiny that it wouldn’t matter at all to the logging companies.

In other words, they’re not mainly in the tonewood supply business. If the Japanese and Chinese and American disposable diaper manufacturers decided to impose a moratorium on the use of Sitka spruce, that would shake things up. But the musical instrument industry is no more than a drop in the bucket in comparison.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Ncbandit]

I understand your concern but that would cut out a ton of guitar options and I wouldn't have my awesome Alvarez MD60BG.

Alaska is so huge do you have any stats on remaining sitka forests?

[warfrat73]

You heard the thing on NPR today, huh?

[printer2]

I cut up a 2"x4"x8' stud bought at a lumber-hardware store. Resawed a bit over half of it to make the top,back and sides.



Top back and sides, glued together, cut up the rest of the 2x4 to make the neck.



Neck, body, all from one 2x4. 00 sized guitar.



How many 2x4's are cut every year? The amount of wood taken for guitar tops is a small fraction. Mind you construction lumber is usually not instrument quality wood. As far as going to China, that is what countries do. Sell things back and forth, that is where money comes from. California sells vegetables out of state and country. They are exporting their dirt and ground water. Aquifers are drying up. Will you stop them from selling vegetables? A lot of money comes into the state because of it. They also allow many of us to eat a balanced meal that we might not get as easily otherwise.

I like trees to stand and grow tall. But I also like building things out of wood. Hopefully we will one day balance the harvesting with the growing. Wood for instrument is as Wade says, a drop in the bucket.

[Borderdon]

You have a neighbour to the south, namely B.C. that still produces lots of spruce,
mainly Sitka, but also Engelmann.
The export of raw logs overseas has long been a sore point, but, infestation of the mountain pine beetle has hit reserves hard as well.
My local builders supply would currently have a large inventory of spruce lumber.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by Ncbandit

I understand your concern but that would cut out a ton of guitar options and I wouldn't have my awesome Alvarez MD60BG.

Alaska is so huge do you have any stats on remaining sitka forests?

Alaska is so big that it's essentially a subcontinent, but harvestable Sitka spruce trees are found mainly in Southeast Alaska, in the narrow panhandle along the Inland Passage where so many tourists take cruise trips. The trees themselves grow from Oregon up to the Prince William Sound area of Alaska, but only within a fairly narrow coastal range.

We don't have Sitka spruce growing in the Anchorage area - we're too far north for them to thrive.


whm

[Ncbandit]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

Alaska is so big that it's essentially a subcontinent, but harvestable Sitka spruce trees are found mainly in Southeast Alaska, in the narrow panhandle along the Inland Passage where so many tourists take cruise trips. The trees themselves grow from Oregon up to the Prince William Sound area of Alaska, but only within a fairly narrow coastal range.

We don't have Sitka spruce growing in the Anchorage area - we're too far north for them to thrive.


whm

Thanks for the information. I would have thought is covered a larger area.

[Birchtop]

[Wade Hampton]

It's true that Sitka spruce trees grow as far north as shown in the map that Birchtop posted, but the farther north you go the less commercial harvesting there is. The prime range is from that northern bit of Oregon up to the top of the Alaskan panhandle, about where you see that northwestern corner of British Columbia and southwestern corner of the Yukon Territory butting up against Alaska. I think there's also some commercial logging in some parts of Prince William Sound, which is that coastal indentation directly below the letters "S" and "A" from "USA," but it's not as much.

The map shows the range of the tree going up into Chugach State Park behind Anchorage, but I know there isn't any logging going on around here.

The trees aren't nearly as big this far north, which is probably why.


whm

[Wade Hampton]

By the way, every so often someone will read about black spruce, and wonder on here why black spruce doesn't get used for guitar tops. My usual response is: "You've never seen black spruce trees in person, have you?"

They don't like to admit it, but it's obvious that they haven't, or they wouldn't entertain the idea of using black spruce for guitar tops.

Here are some photos of Sitka spruce trees:

Sitka Spruce Trees

And here are some photos of black spruce trees:

Black Spruce Trees

Black spruce trees grow in subarctic conditions, and as a result of the difficult climate they grow very, very slowly.

In addition to being spindly and not producing wood wide enough to make guitar tops out of, black spruce is incredibly hard and dense. It would make a much better knife handle than guitar top.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Ncbandit]

Yes Wade it does make sense and very informative. We can get a bunch of tooth picks out of them there black spruce.

[J Patrick]

....30 plus years ago I spent a couple of summers reforesting Sitka Spruce clearcuts on Afognak island...near Kodiak.....yep I was a tree planter back in those days...the forest was owned and controlled by Afognak Native Corporation....fun fact...the island has the worlds largest single species stand of trees....nothing but Sitka Spruce...

.....back then every tree cut was purchased by a Japanese corporation..Mitsubishi....they were stashing premium trees in the Sea of Japan..saving them for future use for construction projects...temple building and such....not guitar tops...


....it would be hard to say how many premium guitar tops a single Sitka Spruce tree could produce....a whole lot of them because so much of the tree is usable....I do believe that there is little threat to the old growth stands caused by guitar building...

[foxo]

Certainly most major guitar producers all have some blurb about sustainability on their website from what I have seen. This Martin guitar uses Sitka spruce and it's FSC certified so one would assume the situation is under control?

https://www.martinguitar.com/guitars...ed/ome-cherry/