GUITAR

GURU
YOUR GUITAR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
BY MASTER LUTHIER DANA BOURGEOIS

Can a Soft Top Wood Last?

 GUITAR
GURU
YOUR GUITAR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
BY MASTER LUTHIER DANA BOURGEOIS

Q: I am interested in Dana’s take

on soft top woods, such as
Western red cedar or redwood, both
in terms of longevity and ‘opening
up’ over time. Can he address this?”
CHRISTIAN MESSERSCHMIDT

A: While cedar and redwood can be as

stiff or stiffer across the grain as
spruces, they are almost always less stiff along
the grain. Cross-grain stiffness plays a signifi-
cant role in determining treble response; long-
grain stiffness greatly affects bass response. It’s
no surprise, then, that cedar and redwood
guitars have a reputation for sparkly treble
voices and boomy, less-defined bottoms.
X-braced steel-string guitars are entirely
reinforced with bracing that runs diagonal to
the grain, offering relatively little long-grain
support. When used in conjunction with tradi-
tional X-bracing, cedar and redwood tops must
be made thicker than spruce to achieve equiva-
lent long-grain stiffness. At heavier dimensions,
cedar and redwood become much too stiff
across the grain, resulting in a thinner, less
complex high-end response. Fortunately, cross-
grain stiffness can easily be reduced by thinning
at the edges of the lower bouts and/or by light-
In addition to tonal issues, insufficient long- somewhat heavier and stiffer along the grain
ening the outermost “finger” braces.
grain stiffness can lead to top-bellying, which, than cedar, is the better match for my building
So, what does this have to do with your
if significant, can cause the bridge to lift. Softer style, often exhibiting headroom approaching
question?
fibers, especially cedar, can easily get lost in the that of spruce. But that’s just me. Other build-
Perhaps because of their lighter weight,
bridge-regluing process—after several reglu- ers, such as Lowden and Olson, make cedar
cedar and redwood tops tend to “open up,” or
ings, a viable glue joint may become impossible guitars that put smiles on many players’ faces,
break in, relatively quickly. However, unless the
to maintain. and will also last as long as their spruce
builder pays adequate attention to longitudinal
Well-constructed cedar and redwood guitars cousins.
stability, cedar and redwood tops sometimes
can have exceptionally full tonal signatures as
open up beyond a point that many players con-
well as the balance, responsiveness, and punch Dana Bourgeois is a master luthier and the
sider optimal, losing low-end definition as the
of spruce guitars. I have found that redwood, founder of Bourgeois Guitars in Lewiston, Maine.
guitar continues to be played.

© 2016 Stringletter 2