Luthier Ron Sharp talks about Red Spruce

[morgan]

Thought you might enjoy this mini-documentary:


youtu.be/

[Kim]

Thanks Morgan

I moved this topic into the main forum as it is a good vid and worthy of discussion.

Would be nice to have the luxury of walking among the red spruce trees to source your own Must admit I do like red spruce, not just for the stiffness but also for the look. A lot of it these days has uneven grain and prominent winter growth...it really looks like wood.

Cheers

Kim

[Dave Anderson]

Interesting video, Thanks!!

[Nick]

Southern accent is hard to catch at times but the doco is an interesting one, must be quite rewarding to build the tops on your guitars from log stage to producing music. Thanks Morgan.

[Dave White]

Thanks Morgan - that was fascinating.


That's the most plausible theory I've heard yet for the pre-war Martin sound - that they were built by German craftsmen that knew all about wood and what to do with it.

[Kim]

That's the most plausible theory I've heard yet for the pre-war Martin sound - that they were built by German craftsmen that knew all about wood and what to do with it.

I think that may have been part of it but the fact that the world had come out of WW1 and run head on into a depression meant that there was little disposable income around at that time. The last thing people were spending their money on in the 30's was guitars. I have read that old CF had put off a lot of his work force and only kept the best of the best and even these guys had so few orders to fill that they made each one last just to stay on the payroll...lots of attention to detail when you have every one in the workshop fighting each other to look busy. Of course with the extra attention to detail one could imagine that the wood used in those scares orders would probably have been the best of the best as well, and this would not have hurt the tone any either.

But all BS aside, the simple fact is that economics demanded that fewer orders were taken in this period. This meant that 'any' Martin guitars from the 30's were quite rare even back then. It is this single fact which explains why today they are "the most expensive guitars in the world" and we all know what more dollars paid can do for the perceived tone of an instrument, so there is probably a good bit of that going on as well I reckon.

Cheers

Kim

[Puff]

Yep -the dude with the green red spruce is certainly a name dropper But this is the you ess of a folks - it's how we do things here

[Clancy]

I enjoyed that. I always enjoy anything to do with my favourite past-time.
But I wonder what he'd say if he lived on a mountain of Sitka or Englemann he could harvest at will?

[kiwigeo]

I enjoyed that. I always enjoy anything to do with my favourite past-time.
But I wonder what he'd say if he lived on a mountain of Sitka or Englemann he could harvest at will?

He'd probably say "you little &&$$$$ng beauty!!!!!