Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm interested in picking up a redwood top or two. LMI's fine grade is $77
and the master grade is $95. Do you know of other sources?

James are you looking for curly redwood or something with out figure (or little figure)

The zootman has some nice ones listed on his site right now.



this message paid for by the RC-Zootman for tonewood supplier of the year campaign

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Dave Maize is a good source for redwood.

http://www.maizeguitars.com/

Mark

I've bought redwood from Rick Micheletti  on  eBay -  straight grained,  curly  and  sinker  redwood.  I don't know if he sells from his  website

http://www.michelettiguitars.com/index.html

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GregH
Fot Wuth

I second the recommendation for Dave Maize.

Jim

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

I third the Dave Maize recommendation. Great wood.

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

I've gotten some great redwood at the lumber yard. In fact, I have some 'LY' redwood that tests out every bit as good as the fabled 'LS' that I got from Alicia Carter.

Many moons ago my wife and I went to a local emporium called 'Building 19-3/4'. They sell odd lots, insurance salvage, salesmans' samples, all sorts of weird stuff. They had gotten a whole load of redwood pieces about 9x24x5/8", iirc, from a planter manufacturer that had gone out of business. We spent more than an hour sorting through the pallet loads of wood, selecting the straightest grained and best quartered ones, and when we had a good stack we went through those, tapping and listening. If it were any other place but Building 19 they'd have thought we were nuts and run us off.

I made some nice guitars from that wood. However, some of it cracked before I could use it. Several years later I talked with Ken Parker about his experiences with redwood in the 'Fly' guitars, and he had much the same problem. When it's good, it's great, and when it's not, it's terrible. It wouldn't be so bad if you could tell by looking at it. Maybe the suppliers do the culling for you, and that might be worth the extra cost.   

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I have some good leads now.

I just received two tops from Hank Mauel. Hank supplies LMI and asked
about the type of guitar I plan to make with them (small body, built for
contempory music, strumming). He selected two for me from his tona
bossa selection and I took both. They're very stiff along and across the
grain and have a nice low tap tone that should be great for the size of
guitar. I have a few tops right now that I'd been planning to use, but I'm
building a guitar from one of these right away now. Thanks, Hank!

Not to mention the color and silking are gorgeous. I'll try to take pics to
add to the thread soon.