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Hey Folks...

Has anyone ever seen adirondack like this... i thought adi has a more even grain colour...

FTL

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www.leddingtonguitars.com

Yep. I bought several sets of various grades and recently completed my first one of the low grade and looks just like that. Sounded great!

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Pat

Yep, nice looking top

It's just called red spruce, A or B grade. Chances of it coming from the Adirondacks is questionable. Just as good as AAAAAAAA, less cosmetically "high tone", but sounds great and looks old timey.



Also easy on the pocketboo...eh, credit card.

That is far more common than even coloured wood...

A lot of red spruce looks like "low grade" Engelmann. And it seems like low grade Engalmann is often stiffer than the "high grade" paper white Engelmann.

Cool... good to know!!

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www.leddingtonguitars.com

All three of these Style 42 guitars (two in Brazilian rosewood and one in curly mahogany) are topped with red spruce sourced from Mr. John Arnold...the body in the center shows the wider grain and greater variation in color of early wood and late wood seen in the OP's photograph. A week or two to go until these - along with the matching necks - are sanded out, buffed, and assembled...can't wait!

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For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

Magnificant... thanks for sharing...

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www.leddingtonguitars.com

The technical name for the 'hard lines' is compression wood, which occurs under large limbs and on the downward side of leaning trees. Compression grain is more common in younger trees, which is why it is seen in a lot of red spruce. The red spruce trees being cut today are younger, since many of the older trees were logged long ago.
All spruces can exhibit compression wood, but it is often discarded as being low value. It can make outstanding instruments....if it is handled correctly.
Compression wood is denser and stiffer than normal wood, and can be worked thinner without worrying about structural issues.
Steve Gilchrist only buys compression red spruce when he buys from me or the Hampton brothers. He contends that it is more consistent than the more expensive 'white wood'.

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John

Thanks for the knowledge John!

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www.leddingtonguitars.com

Lower grade red spruce has character while higher grade is almost impossible to find unless you are chopping down old trees. As John said, compression grain is stiff, while other wood (we used to call it white bread or Wonder bread) can be weaker. In my book, Engelmann is one of those...I used to refer to it as cheap German spruce. It can have a similar sound, but doesn't have the strength and pop of a good piece of German. I used to have a stash of German viola tops that I used for mandolins that was just outrageous.
I always liked the looks of multi-grain bread tops. Used to crack me up that all those "big bucks" guys demanded whitebread tops with stumpwood backs...

Still waiting for this one to come home from being assembled and set up for me...

"As John said, compression grain is stiff, while other wood (we used to call it white bread or Wonder bread) can be weaker. In my book, Engelmann is one of those...I used to refer to it as cheap German spruce. "

I use a fair amount of Engelmann and would say it is the most variable of the spruces I have worked with. Some is dense and stripey and some is perfectly white fine grained stuff. For parlor guitars the paper white less dense softer stuff allows me to leave the tops a bit thicker without adding too much weight. The denser, stiffer, and generally stripey stuff seems to work well for larger more heavily strung guitars. If you judge Engelmann only by the "premium" and "mastergrade" being touted as the most desirable and sold for the highest prices your appreciation of the wood might be incomplete.