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About 5 years ago I picked up some ridiculously straight quarter sawn 4x4s. They've been air drying ever since so i was curious if a tone had experience using it as a wood for back/sides or a top?

And if you have. How was it bending wise?

Hi dan , I have only used d fir for tops , in a small baritone uke sized classical guitar,it has a good tone, as well as a tenor uke. I made the fir tops thinner than spruce wrc etc . due to the d. fir I had was heavy and dense . I have also used silver mtn fir . but it is a much lighter. an less dense wood. and I made that top thicker than spruce pine wc etc.. I try to balance out the tops I use, by testing for ring tone, deflection weight, grain lines per inch etc. Good luck with it

I've used a lot of Doug fir for soundboards over the years on dulcimers and other of instruments, but never on a guitar. I prefer something less dense. Doug tends to have high surface hardness, but it is often splitty. I've never tried bending it.

Charts that I've seen showing Young's Modulus indicate that D. Fir is very stiff. I've never used it so I can't add more.

I have built guitars with DF tops. I am currently building a classical with a DF top.

I set thickness by deflection test and these tops come in at the thin side of the normal range.

If you bend it you will need to take care as heat + water will likely cause dark blotches.

_________________
Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

I tend to call the stuff North American Crackwood (especially when it's vertical grain)

I have made some fantastic guitars with DF tops and braces.

Makes great sounding instruments.

Dan, ironically I have just started a doug fir guitar. A few years ago I was given a bunch of lovely straight grained fir that came from the gymnasium of our local school. It hat been planed to 1/8. I'm bored and don't need another guitar but decided to make something out of this to see what happens.

I've decided on a classical - I built a '37 Hauser years ago and gave it to my son, I'll build the doug fir guitar and compare it. I'm throwing an additional challenge to myself - I'm going to do this without electricity - I want to do everything with hand tools. The classical has several advantages here - no truss rod slot, Spanish heel instead of M&T, bridge should be simpler, no inlay, shcllac...

So I faced the first obstacle today, I hand planed the sides to .080 and bent the first one. I figured if I couldn't bend a side I would stop right here. Darn thing bent over the pipe just fine and is cooling in the mold right now. Guess I'm committed.

Hello, I have resawn about 100 Tops of Douglas Fir, but not yet used one. Perhaps I need to resaw less and built more...
Anyhow I was realy positive surprised about the Tap Tone, very promising, clean, long, deep, wide range....everthing you are looking for
I did not have any problems with cracks or wrapping. Only sometimes a Gum pocket was ruining a top set.....

Unfortunately I do not yet have any pictures.

Cheers, Alex