Engelmann Spruce

[SpruceTop]

And now, let's throw "Moon Spruce" or Alpine Picea Abies, into the Spruce comparison. Is it the "new kid on the block" that's out to knock Adirondack out of the ring or just another temporary bois du jour? Jean Larrivee seems to hold it in high regard and my new Larrivee D-50 Moon Spruce JCL Special certainly supports Jean's assessment of this spruce. NGD: Larrivee D-50 Moon Spruce JCL Special

[DM3MD]

I own one Martin, one Taylor, and one Gibson that each have an Engelmann spruce top.

All three are over EIR, but Gibson did it the best.

The stereotype that Engelmann doesn’t have power and projection is just rubbish.

[mawmow]

My 2006 Taylor 510 dreadnough is Englemann/Mahogany : Terrific guitar !

The drawback is Englemann is more prone to dings.

[Alan Carruth]

'Headroom' seems largely to be a function of the density of the top wood, all else equal. Engelmann, on average, is less dense than Sitka or Red, so it tends to have less headroom, BUT, there is lots of overlap. It's not hard to find dense Engelmann spruce, it makes a guitar with plenty of headroom.

[M19]

My Octave Mandolin and Martin 00-18 are Engelmann. Love 'em both. The strings get in the way before the top does.

[Jwills57]

My opinion--Engelmann Spruce gets a bad rap. I have several guitars with Engelmann tops; these guitars all have a lot of clarity and crystalline quality to the tone. I much prefer good Engelmann over good sitka. I don't know about this often-repeated axiom that Engelmann is easy to overdrive with a pick. I've never found that to be a problem. Adirondack has become all the rage in the flatpicking world, but I'll take a guitar with a high quality Engelmann or German spruce top any day.

[bajawatt]

My Yamaha LJ16 has a beautiful Engelmann top. It is a good strummer, but rings and sings when I play slack key on it. Man, I love that guitar.

[FormerFoodie]

Originally Posted by jaymarsch

It depends on the luthier and the individual piece of wood being evaluated.

This. I would have no problem owning an Englemann topped axe if one of my fave luthiers built the guitar and told me it was an outstanding piece of Englemann. In fact, I would LOVE an Englemann topped guitar one of these days, but haven't had the builder recommend a piece of Englemann that they feel would be appropriate for the build.

[Shishigashira]

Eastman uses Engelmann spruce for their AC630 jumbo which is a J200 style guitar. I happen to own one, it's engelmann top and lovely maple back and sides and the guitar sounds fantastic! In fact it is my favorite by quite a ways.

I also have Sitka, Adirondack and European spruce top guitars, but prefer that jumbo to all of them. It is the one guitar I have that does everything well. It is a fantastic and loud strummer, but I also Travis pick and it sounds excellent. I always thought it was an interesting choice for a jumbo as I don't think I've seen another engelmann top one. Anyways, it is a great choice for tops.