Thoughts on top wood for Fingerstyle...?

[chrismitchell]

Originally Posted by zmf

On a 12 string, your choice of finger picks might be more important than the tonewood. As well as the style. Kottke style?

I don’t use fingerpicks. Just flesh and nails. And yes, alternate bass, Kottke/Fahey style. Not against spruce just wondering why all fingerpickers go for it...

[Michael Watts]

Having owned and played Cedar, Redwood and Mahogany topped guitars over the years my personal choice is spruce. Ideally German or Moon-harvested Swiss.

[Lakewood_Lad]

There are so many great guitars out there that imo it's impossible to say which combo or which guitar is best for any given thing.

I have a spruce over silver oak and a cedar over rosewood. Both are lovely guitars and have great necks and setups for fingerstyle. Whichever I pick up sounds sublime to me when I play it. I think I'd pick the cedar over rosewood if I had to give one of them up but honestly tomorrow that might change and the day after that it might change back again.

There's no right answer. There's always another great guitar. I think that's why so many on the forum have so many guitars. I wish I could restrict myself to just one.

[RedJoker]

I play fingerstyle with just fleshy fingers. I have one spruce, one sapele, and one resonator that I play. Next time you're in a store, see if you can try a reso for fingerstyle. Mine's a lowly Gretsch Boxcar but I find it to be simply superb for the type of music I play. Obviously, I play each of the three but the reso was the one that surprised me the most and is outside of the normal suggestions.

[Methos1979]

Originally Posted by chrismitchell

As I have mostly been a spruce, mahogany player, and I see most fingerstyle players having spruce tops, what’s with the scarcity of woods like cedar and mahogany tops used by fingerstylists? PS-checking out all brands, like the idea of a cutaway and a full-scale.

While not a 12 string and no cutaway plus 12 fret body limits access to the higher frets, my current go-to for fingerstyle is does have a huge body with great low end and it is all flamed mahogany. But it's also a custom based on the discontinued Martin D-1 Authentic which did have a spruce top and wider fretboard. I prefer the all mahogany and 1 3/4" nut. But the tone is huge, warm, and wonderfully woody. Works very well for fingerstyle and strumming. I've owned several all-mahogany guitars that were great for fingerstyle but all before this one were small body, 00 12 fret guitars.

Pretty good looking too.

[The Bard Rocks]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

Hi TBR

My Olson Dreadnought is East Indian Rosewood/Cedar (Red Western), and it is an amazing guitar (and going on living in our house for 27 years). And I think most still consider Dreadnought a 'big' body.

Is your Olsen a 12 string? And it's an Olsen - the man knows exactly what he is doing, and has for decades. A 12 string often puts a lot more pressure on the top and a 12 string is usually a larger-sized body. I still think that for most people (and most budgets), it is generally not a great idea to subject cedar to those kind of stresses. I believe it would require stronger bracing and that is often accompanied by tonal loss.

Yes, there are many exceptions, but that's the point - they are exceptions.

[JERZEY]

You are going to play what you like. I love my cedar tops. They give you so much in return for so little input. I start my warm up low and slow. Sometimes I stay there. On my cedar tops I get clear, defined, audible returns for very little input. I love my spruce tops too but I get tired faster, have a harder time separating my melody/harmony voicings and Spruce lacks that warm tone I crave.

[chrismitchell]

Originally Posted by Michael Watts

Having owned and played Cedar, Redwood and Mahogany topped guitars over the years my personal choice is spruce. Ideally German or Moon-harvested Swiss.

Thanks Michael for the reply, have you played much 12-string Fingerstyle and what has been your preference? I like your style of playing with minimal nail, makes a great tone.

[Michael Watts]

Originally Posted by chrismitchell

Thanks Michael for the reply, have you played much 12-string Fingerstyle and what has been your preference? I like your style of playing with minimal nail, makes a great tone.

Thank you for your kind words!

I had a Leo Kottke phase... it didn't last long because I just don't have his right hand power. I still love 12-strings for fingerstyle though and my preference for soundboard wood remains the same.

Scale and neck length -> Body shape and size -> wood choice

[zmf]

Originally Posted by chrismitchell

I don’t use fingerpicks. Just flesh and nails. And yes, alternate bass, Kottke/Fahey style.

I'm flesh and nails too, and use the same style, and play a bit of Fahey.

Obvious suggestion would be to use the tonewoods Kottke and Fahey used, but Fahey used fingerpicks on spruce, which brings out more volume. So perhaps cedar might be the better choice without fingerpicks.

Just thought I'd mention it because I was just switching back and forth between spruce and redwood dreads, and it reminded me that redwood (or cedar) typically takes less effort to get the same volume as spruce when using flesh and nails.