Did they discontinue True Vintage models?

[Xylophile]

Virtually all large red spruce trees were felled, many of which early in the twentieth century. By the end of WW II, the source had completely dried up. The trees that were too small were left standing, though. Those are now big enough for (two-piece) guitar tops. Barely and not all, mind. And some can have pretty wide grain or have a sudden part with wide grain, showing when the canopy was opened. The larger trees in their proximity were felled so they suddenly received much more sunlight.

 

Oh, and yes, tonewood grade sitka is quickly disappearing. No joke.

 

 

 

 

 

X

[onewilyfool]

My friend has a Bourgeois guitar, made in Maine, and Virtually ALL of their guitars have Adirondack or Red spruce. So they didn't take down all the trees. Sitka from Canada is dissappearing because the Japanese use it for construction. It is a real shame, there are so many other woods they could use.....sigh

[Guth]

One thing I've wondered about is why Adirondack Spruce is now offered as an option' date=' by Gibson, Martin and others, when it didn't seem to be readily available for so long.[/quote']

 

I more or less agree with the comments others have shared regarding this question.

 

Another factor in the re-appearance of adirondack has to do with how much people are willing to compromise to get it (financially speaking). The amount of extra money that it turns out people are willing to pay is hard ignore. On top of that, many adirondack soundboards that would have been rejected years ago by the guitar buying public (massive amounts of streaking, etc.) are now commonly appearing on guitars as there is currently enough demand to justify the use of such pieces. If people weren't willing to pay more for it, or if they weren't willing to accept a "lower grade" example (or some combination of the two), you probably wouldn't see as much adirondack used for soundboards. The same thing could eventually happen with other species of spruce depending on the supply/demand ratio.

 

All the best,

Guth

[Guth]

Jack6849,

 

My TV is topped with Sitka.

 

Guth

[KL]

KL' date='

 

I have a 1997 Collings OM1 and it has a Sitka Spruce top. It's very a wide-grained example, and it does sound fantastic. In addition to smaller-bodied acoustics, I know some people prefer Sitka also for Mahogany guitars, and this OM1 is a classic example of that combination.

 

Jack6849 [/quote']

 

Thanks. My C10 SB has mahogany back and sides too, I don't think I said that in the original post. It has a 1 3/4" nut width and Nickel Waverlies . . . the best tuners I have on any of guitars. I'll have a look at the grain on the top tomorrow, but it's a sunburst guitar, so it won't be so easy to see it!!!!

[zeebee]

I acquired my first Adi topped slope early in the new year....a Santa Cruz slope VJ. At first the stiff top indeed seemed to lack the warmth of my previous dreads which had all been sitka. After a couple of months of hard playing and a switch to med guage strings the top began to open up dramatically. The bass growl really matured but so did the brightness of the trebles. In other words, the dynamic range expanded. The bass growl readily exceeds that of any dread I have encountered/owned so that to me sitka is not a warmer topwood. Its the brightness of the trebles where adi seems to readily surpass the capability of most sitka and I think this is what leads some to incorrectly describe sitka as warmer. A well braced/built adi will exceed its sitka counterpart's tone in both low end and trebles and, together with superior overtones and sustain is what makes it special. My longwinded point is that I hope Gibby has not abandoned the adi option as it really is that good IMHO.

[Xylophile]

My friend has a Bourgeois guitar, made in Maine, and Virtually ALL of their guitars have Adirondack or Red spruce. So they didn't take down all the trees.

 

What I meant is they used up the old growth trees (and more) and it didn't happen yesterday. Red spruce soundboards were basically unavailable for almost half a century, starting halfway the forties. But fairly recently, red spruce in useable sizes has been slowly returning.

There are some old growth trees left in national parks and such.

 

 

 

X

[Jack6849]

A few years ago there was a story out which reported that very bad weather on the East Coast had knocked down some Adirondack Spruce trees and had opened up a limited supply of guitar-quality wood that was anticipated to be temporary. Anybody have any info on that? With the availability that seems to be out there currently with several different manufacturers, I now wonder if that was ever really much of a factor?

 

I think the "enough time has passed" argument seems to be very plausible, and with any limited supply, there will always be gradations in available quality and price. I've noticed that on some really expensive Martin models out there today, which utilize an Adirondack top, the wood is often described as "Select" or "Premium" grade. I have a recent Goodall "TCOM" model acoustic with Cocobolo Rosewood sides and back and what the maker refers to as "Master"-grade Adirondack Spruce topwood. Its grain pattern is very straight and very regular in size without a lot of "mineral streaking". I suppose, as in most things, you can get what you're willing to pay for.

 

Jack6849