Paneveggio Red Spruce - whats the fuss?

[musicadivine]

Hello,

I am always fascinated to read the stories about wood. Even more so about wood for musical instruments. When the name of Stradivari is in the story it becomes even better!

As I plan to buy some quality European spruce, I wanted to ask what do you think about the famous "Paneveggio forest" red spruce from Fiemme valley? I think Rivolta and Ciresa are selling it besides smaller supliers and there are many stories and myths about how extra special this wood is...

Being woodworker all my life I found this a bit unusual. Am I right or not? Is it realy better than the wood from other places in Italian dolomites or better than German/Swiss/Austrian spruce sold by other well known suppliers under the name German spruce?

Anyone who can share their experiences about the acoustic advantages, stiffness, weight ect. of this wood in comparison to German spruce sold by others?

Thanks

[Rodger Knox]

When evaluating any type of spruce, it all depends on the individual piece in question. While all the different species have characteristics based on averages, an individual example may or may not exhibit the characteristics of the species.

[printer2]

Looking up the area and red spruce it seems like it is Norway spruce. How much better it is than other Norway spruce?

[Shuksan]

Red spruce (Adirondack) Picea rubens doesn't grow as a native species in Europe. European (German, Italian, Carpathian, etc.) spruces are all the same species, Picea abies.

[redir]

Paneveggio forest.... With hints of chocolate, fruity notes and a wood smoke finish.

Sounds great doesn't it? Sounds... Great....

[John Arnold]

I have handled many of the tops from Rivolta, and it seems no different than Euro spruce from other locations.

[Bruce Sexauer]

The soil, the climate, and the altitude, as well as location in the forest, make so much difference that the species is only the beginning of the story for a tree’s qualities. I have been using the Rivolta family’s (riwood.com) spruce as my “standard” top material for about 20 years. Within that narrow band of spruce, all of which presumably came from the same forest, there is considerable variation is stiffness, density, and even color, despite the supplier being quite sensitive to the parameters I laid out for them to chose the wood they sent me.

[irvine]

Spruce from Val di Fiemme can be superior tone wood, no question about that. I have a Santa Cruz guitar with spruce top from Ciresa, and it sounds just wonderful. Spruce from other parts of the alps can be just as good.

Anyway — its not what Americans call "red spruce". Thats a bad translation error. We call that tree Rot-fichte, sometimes Rot-tanne, because of the red bark. Somebody translated this directly to "red spruce", and you can find this error even in fancy color brochures, e.g. look up Fazioli pianos. But its never red spruce, its European spruce, picea abies, which is almost the one and only spruce species in Europe (in Serbia there are some forests with picea omorika)

Hope that helps

[musicadivine]

Thanks to everyone who replied! After reading all of your comments, I confirmed to myself what my original thoughts were; Good european spruce of same potential like the one from famous "Paneveggio forest" can be bought from other known suppliers who gets it in other places in alps ect. I agree every tree and piece of wood can be different. I called it red spruce in original post due to how the Italians call it (L'Abete Rosso). I knew it is not from Picea Rubens family! It is Picea Abies or usualy called German spruce. Italian web sites usualy call it with many names: L'Abete Rosso, Abete Fiemme, Legno di Risonanza, Picea abies Karst, Picea Excelsa, Norvegian spruce ect. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge