[WTouch]

this must of been discusssed for ages. im trying to find the difference if i should get a solid cedar top with rosewood sides or a solid spruce with rosewood or mohogany. i know that spruce will get better as it ages. and cedar sounds great dont need to age to have a awsome sweet tone. but my question i guess is if in the long run solid spruce will sound better than the cedar. for example spruce's peak will it out beat a cedar?

[Keidon]

In my experience I have found that Solid Spruce is the better. Cedar is a nice sound, quite warm, but it seems to lack the brightness of Spruce even over years of ageing.
It is a personal thing though. I would like to think that because the greater majority of acoustic Guitars (& other things) come standard in Spruce by all sorts of Luthiers that this is also a major preference of the buying Public. (I know some of them wouldn't know)

Worth a look around this site - and you can ask Questions of Luthiers.

Cheers, KB .........

[coldethyl]

My Ibanez Artcore acoustic is cedar, and I'm quite happy with the lovely warm response that I get from it.

[scotty_b]

It is a very subjective thing, and therefore hard to quantify.
One person will love cedar, and the other spruce.

[coldethyl]

Originally Posted by scotty_b

It is a very subjective thing, and therefore hard to quantify.
One person will love cedar, and the other spruce.

Very true!
It all comes down to personal taste.

[WTouch]

i see thanks alot. but this raises another question. when the spruce is properly aged and played hard by strumming will it have a nice warm sound like cedar?

[allthumbs]

The down side of cedar is that it is very soft and dings easily.

[coldethyl]

Just been having a chat about this very topic with a local luthier, and this is roughly what he had to say about it.......

A cedar soundboard gives a mellower, less clear tone than spruce. A spruce soundboard is said to sound quite harsh when new, mellowing with age, whilst a cedar soundboard sounds good as soon as the instrument is made. However, whilst a spruce soundboard may continue to improve for decades, a cedar one will tend to deteriorate sooner.

But many guitarists use cedar top guitars and are quite impressed with their warm tone. You just have to be more gentle with them than the Spruce tops.

[lorispencer]

i've found that they both do well. The oldest spruce top that i have is 40 years old and the oldest cedar is 28 years old. they both are classical guitars and both still sound great. The oldest acoustic that I have is 30 years old and it is solid spruce. my cedar top acoustic is only 2 years old so hard to tell but classical guitars seem to both hold tone. Some may find the cedar top too mellow depending on the type of music

[WTouch]

is it too mellow if i tend to like more of the romantic theme music?

[lorispencer]

No, i play many old standards jazz standards on a cedar top and have for years. the last acoustic i purchased i got for that specific reason and i got a cedar top

[WTouch]

lol i should rephrase my question, what type is better for romantic themes, cedar or spruce?

[coldethyl]

Originally Posted by WTouch

lol i should rephrase my question, what type is better for romantic themes, cedar or spruce?

Either can be used for romantic themes!

[Keidon]

Originally Posted by Keidon

Worth a look around this site - and you can ask Questions of Luthiers.

Cheers, KB .........

Worth a look around this site
Oopps, I forgot to put in the site: http://www.santacruzguitar.com/woods...ds.html#indian
or this one: http://www.guitarnotes.com/links/guitars/

And this is what he said;
sitka spruce
Sitka accentuates the warm round aspects of the guitar's tone. It is the most frequent choice in acoustic steel string guitars.

german spruce
This increasingly rare wood has a higher weight to strength ratio than Sitka and correspondingly complements the brightness and clarity of the guitars.

cedar
We use Cedar specifically for our fingerstyle instruments as it responds quickly and with good volume to a light attack. It is also very well suited to open or lowered tension tunings as they require the same qualities for good separation and definition. Cedar does lose tonal integrity when over driven, making it a poor choice for versatility but an excellent top wood for showcasing finger styles.

[Bill E]

I have two guitars both about mid to late '70s one is a Martin D28 other is an Ovation mid bowl Balladeer both without electrics both Spruce top, Both lovely guitars despite what the so called "Purists" say about Ovation - Most wouldn't know difference if you smacked them around the ears with one or the other, other than what they read in pamphlets and bulletin boards.

Different guitars, different strings, different style of playing = different sound.

Go to a store play a few, go with your heart and your ear, don't listen to others because they may not know as much as you/they think they do.

I play both of mine (Not That well because I'm self taught) and they are both beautiful in their own right.

My son who is a proffessional loves them both, he has a handfull of Strats from various builders both top end Japanese and american and only desciminates on how he feels on the night.

Good luck.