What is your favorite wood for a soundboard/guitar top?

[rokdog49]

Sitka Spruce suits my playing style, but I like the others as well.

[buddyhu]

I like German/Euro spruce, and I like the Sitka tops that I have played (but I have read that Sitka is of greater variability in terms of stiffness, so it is a bit less predictable in terms of sound).

As others have noted, I may be thinking that what I like is the sound of the top, when actually I like the sound of particular guitars , and mistakenly assign the tone to the top, rather than the handiwork of the builder, or some other aspect of the guitars that I like.

I believe that I don’t like Adirondack tops...but most of that belief is rooted in playing Adirondack tops that are less than 10 years old, which may be missing the sweet spot of Adirondack in terms of age.

[Steel and wood]

Any of the spruce varieties. (Can't tell them apart).

[Herb Hunter]

Which soundboard wood is my favorite depends on the type of wood used for the back and sides.

For example, if the back and sides are mahogany, I prefer cedar. For Brazilian rosewood, I’d specify Engelmann spruce.

[jseth]

I REALLY love the sound of Port Orford cedar! I haven't had enough experience with it to know how it would "stand up" to vigorous strumming or attack strength, however...

At this point in time, I have the two acoustic guitars I plan on playing "for the duration", and each of them has German spruce for the top, with a variety of rosewood for the back and sides... my Mark Angus #58 12 string has Black Forest German spruce for the top, while my Goodall CJC has German spruce...

Seems interesting that after well over 50 years of playing and performing with acoustic guitars, that I've come "full circle" to having two rosewood/German spruce guitars...

[BoneDigger]

I own guitars with cedar, sitka spruce, adi, redwood, and mahogany tops. I voted mahogany but honestly they all have their place and I really have a hard time saying one is definitely better than another.

[hermithollow]

As a builder, if I could only build with one, it would be Engelmann. The reason is Engelmann is all over the map - some of it is light weight and paper white like the best German (Euro) spruce and some is dense and stiff and stripey and can give red a run for it's money.
I build a number of different types of instruments and select accordingly. I've used a number of different woods for soundboards but spruce is hard to beat.

[KevWind]

Butcher block,,,, very durable

[BigOrangeBox]

I've had the good fortune of owning some different tops but usually by different makers or models. I would say that sitka in general has been the safest bet for me. It's open, has transparency, and neither too bright or too dark. Just the right amount of sensitivity for fingerstyle or strumming. That being said, I appreciate the euro spruces and the cedars on various guitars. My biggest question mark has been Adirondack. I keep on trying it but have found so far that it does not lend itself as well to fingerstyle.

[colins]

Originally Posted by Bill R

….I own or have owned guitars with sitka, European "moon", and Lutz spruces and one with redwood over the years. It's a challenge to compare the various species in terms of tone, etc., because they were all on different instruments built by different builders (i.e. Martin, Taylor, R Taylor, and Greven) with different back and side woods (mahogany, maple, cocobolo, Indian and Brazilian rosewood. Each of those guitars had its own personality so-to-speak due in part to the combination of woods and in large part to the skill of the builders and how they used those materials….

Bill

Agree 100%. I own or have owned guitars with tops of spruce (Italian, German, European, Engelmann, sitka, Colorado blue), cedar, redwood and kauri. All have been fantastic guitars and all met my needs for a responsive top when used for light fingerstyle, picking or strumming. My favourite at any time depended on the sound I wanted at that time, with the sound due in the most part to the style of the builder.

To add to the Engelmann versus European debate, I have a custom-built guitar where I described the sound and playing style that I wanted to the builder and she said she could achieve it with Italian (what I suggested initially) or Engelmann. I let her choose, as she knows her woods way better than me, as well as what she had available and how she could sand, brace and otherwise voice it. I now have an Engelmann-topped guitar that sounds incredible.

Col

[ross748]

Alpine spruce.

[H. Mac]

Adirondack. Martin used Adi tops until about 1945, when it became unavailable, and the pre-WWII era Martins are the most coveted.

[varmonter]

I've owned a few unknown guitars
And I'm not versed enough to tell
A sitka from a red or lutz top from sight.
I do know my current guitar is
Adi over madi and I love red spruce.
I played a taylor 712ce 12 fret that
I should have bought. It was lutz and
I liked it alot. I guess I like stiffer
Tops for their volume and headroom.

[Mbroady]

There was a time when I would not give any thought to what type of wood a guitar was made with. If it sounded good and I had the funds I would buy it. After 40 plus years of buying and selling guitars, and over a decade of browsing the AGF, I have realized that an Adi top guitar is what I prefer. From my experience there is a snap and clarity to it that is perfect for me.

[Wade Hampton]

Spruce tops are my favorite top wood, followed by western red cedar.

Quite honestly, I haven’t found the supposed characteristics of the different species of spruce to be even remotely as cut and dried as some believe them to be. There’s an enormous amount of overlap between them. What’s more, all of the spruces can and often do mimic all of the other spruces, in both appearance and musical qualities.

So while some folks put a lot of emphasis on those differences, in my experience it’s just easiest to take each instrument as an individual.

Most of my spruce-topped guitars, mandolins and mountain dulcimers have Sitka spruce tops. But I also have a couple of guitars with red “Adirondack” spruce tops, a couple with European spruce tops, and one with an Engelmann spruce top.

All of them sound good, which is all that I care about.

The fact is that I can hear more significant differences between the woods used for backs and sides than I can in the different species of spruce. I’m not denying that some differences exist, but in my experience they’re much less of a factor in terms of tone, balance and response than what the tonewoods used for backs and sides bring to the table.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller