Have you ever played a guitar with a Redwood top?

[warfrat73]

Have been curious... lots of mentions of responsiveness. What about headroom?

[Kh1967]

Yes...all Bourgeois. Very sweet sounding guitars, with enough headroom for me. But, I am not playing bluegrass. ;-)

[whvick]

Aren’t some classicals redwood, or are they mostly red cedar?

[bbatko]

Here’s one listed for sale.

https://youtu.be/ALtWKBgG1Vg

[jseth]

Yes I have... I've played a fair number of them, from different builders; mostly Taylor and Breedlove, but a few Goodalls - and they were ABSOLUTE gems!

It seems to me, not being a builder, that redwood is one of those woods that you have to "know" how to work to get great results. Not one of the Taylors or R Taylors I played was anything close to "great", although, in fairness, they were mostly "sinker" redwood. The Breedloves I have played with redwood tops were all very nice sounding guitars, but they all had REALLY small voices (except for one); lovely tone and balance but far too quiet to be considered "great" in my opinion.

Now, the Goodalls I have played with redwood tops have each been stellar instruments, and I've played everything from the Standard to a Parlor with redwood tops... without exception, each one has been wonderful; absolutely responsive, very, very fast to react to the slightest touch, warm and rich without sounding muddy.

According to James Goodall, redwood has "more" headroom than cedar, but is not as strong as spruce... not for the heavy-handed picker or strummer who tends to "bash" a guitar.

I have a Goodall Grand Concert, redwood over mahogany, and it is a glorious sounding guitar! Fastest to respond that I've ever played, quite loud with even a soft touch, but it holds up to flatpicking and strumming very well - played it in an "Old Time" music jam with 2 fiddles, 2 banjos, 2 mandolins and a couple other guitars, and my little Goodall cut through all that quite easily...

The one Breedlove that I played with a redwood top that had a good, solid, strong voice was a recent construct, with Bubinga as the back and sides wood. It reacted the way I would expect a redwood top'd guitar to react... fast and even response, warm, and plenty of headroom. Maybe the new method that Breedlove has has helped them with their redwood guitars as well as the other spruce tops... they've begun to "frequency match" the tops and backs via some sort of computer analysis...

Love redwood, ESPECIALLY Goodall redwood top'd guitars!

[jaymarsch]

I have played several and haven’t liked any of them any better than cedar topped guitars that I have played except for a redwood topped harp guitar by Mike Doolin. That was special.

It depends on the builder like with other tone woods.

Best,
Jayne

[Mandobart]

Originally Posted by Hasbro

Will I like Redwood if I'm not that fond of Cedar? Also, what is a good back and sides wood if I typically gravitate towards mahogany?

IMO, no. I have 4 western red cedar topped instruments and two redwood. They are very similar in looks and sound. Warm, mellow, rich in tone.

I really like WRC or redwood paired with maple.

[zmf]

Originally Posted by AMW

I'm somewhat curious about the B/S on that guitar. Given that the striping looks uniform over the guitar.
Thanks.

[tadol]

I recently picked up a new Santa Cruz FTC with a redwood top, and its quite an interesting thing - its got an amazing bark, with a strong mid-range and great clarity. I think I’d be unhappy if it were my only guitar, as it’s not a do-all strummer, but I have that well covered with other guitars, and I am really enjoying getting to know this guitar. What it does well, it does exceptionally well, and I think redwood is a very interesting option for soundboards - but it doesn’t seem to blend as well as spruce. So its never gonna be the ultimate option for most players - IMHO -

[patchmcg]

Most of the more positive reviews posted so far reflect my experience with redwood. Tone is very much a matter of personal preference of course, but over the last decade or more, redwood has become my favorite topwood, although not to the exclusion of others of course.

One big difference between me and several previous posts is that mine come from a large scale production company as opposed to the more boutique/custom level instruments that cause my regular bouts of envy whenever I peruse AGF. I started with an Ovation Collector's from 2001 that had to be replaced after being badly damaged. And just fell in love with the tone and the striking figure of its top.

I will add one notion I did not so far in this thread, like all tops, the rest of the guitar design does play a role. All of mine are still Ovations, but each one has a significant difference, so each has its own tone and each lends itself to different playing styles. In general, they are warmer than an equivalent spruce top, are more balanced across all strings (no excessive bass or trebles, with one exception below), and have absolute LOADS of sustain. So here is how mine compare:

1. Deep Bowl, non-cutaway, 14-fret: Good strummer and finger-picker, good volume, good response across all strings. The redwood I would use if I was going to be playing a variety of styles.
   
2. Mid-Bowl, cutaway, 14-fret: Can be driven hard and is very comfortable to hold and play. Has an Adamas suspension ring to join the top; giving it ridiculous responsiveness and sustain! Not as loud acoustically, but still plenty of punch to play around with. Great for plugging in and letting rip.
   
3. Deep Bowl, non-cutaway, 12-fret: Sinker RW with a wider neck. The most harmonically sensitive guitar I own. It will actually resonate under a ceiling fan and fill the room with nice, tonal sound. This one is a true finger-style wonder, but gets muddy of strummed too vigorously.
   
4. Deep Bowl, non-cutaway nylon crossover: Just wonderful tone, but needs custom strings as it can get quite bass-heavy due to non-tradtional bracing for nylon strings. (I string lights on the basses and higher tension on the trebles.) Has the added bonus of being drop-dead gorgeous to look at!
   
5. And finally, a parlor bowl, 14-fret with a sinker top: Also a nylon stringer, and possibly one of the easiest playing guitars ever. The size is perfect for just grabbing and sitting on the sofa. The tone is warm and friendly without taking over the whole house. And if I ever need to be louder with it, that's what the pre-amp is for.

I love all of these, and like all my others, will grab one based on what I need to play and how I feel at the time. Regardless of that though, I will always have some redwood available to play.

[Rosewood99]

Originally Posted by warfrat73

Have been curious... lots of mentions of responsiveness. What about headroom?

More than cedar but less than spruce.

[varmonter]

I guess i lump redwood a cedar
in the same softness catagory.
that may or may not be an accurate
generalization. I owned a cedar over
mahog taylor 514 for 20 yrs. It wasnt
a canon but it had a nice mellow tone.
You couldnt dig in to hard without it
folding. But if your a fingerstyle quiet
player than that need for volume isnt
as important.

[Kerbie]

Those are beautiful, Patch!

[RP]

How about "No and no real interest in doing so" as a possible response???

[TomB'sox]

I love redwood as a top and currently own two and have one being built by Ben Wilborn. He loves the stuff and finds it laying in a nice spot between cedar and spruce. On the ones I own and have played, I find the trebles to be what stand out to me, much more sparkle and shimmer than any other top I have played. Although sustain is thought of more from the back woods and the build, the redwood seems to impart a long sustain as well.

In terms of headroom, I think you would have to be beating the guitar to max out the headroom available.

Here is a video of Ben playing one of my redwood tops, this is a small bodied guitar, about an OO size just so you know, played into a simple apogee mic to his cell phone....

Here is one more with the same guitar in a duo so you can see how it performs against another guitar (a dred).