Is it a Cedar? Is it a Spruce? - #4A-F Summary

[petermc61]

Yes that is the clip. Please don't tell me it is cedar or my score will fall from 2/6 to 2/7!!

[rojarosguitar]

I don't think it is cedar, and what I found about that model it clearly says it's spruce... What surprized me ist that it sounds more like a double top.

Now, this is really art! Until now I always thought, it would be real art to build a guitar that is double top and sounds like a traditional (Torrez derived) kind, only stronger in projection. Here comes a guitar that is traditionally built (whatever that means here) and sounds like a piano ...

[Mistamor]

Spruce, I'm certain. I also only scored two out of six from the Lagrima experiment, but even if the sound was not enough the very look of the thing gives it away. Plenty of reverb in evidence, and no doubt some fancy sound engineering went into this to disguise the raw sound, but I still say spruce.

[tuk]

HaHa! another 2/6 here, it must be some kind of phenomenon

[Vlad Kosulin]

3 out of 6 can not be considered brilliant result, but looking at others it looks not bad at all...

[tuk]

3 out of 6

Wierdo..

[Vlad Kosulin]

3 out of 6

Wierdo..

[chelson]

If treating this as some experiment, from the data collected so far, it seems to suggest that actually the difference between Cedar and Spruce is not very distinctive. Perhaps this could serve as a very good statistics proof that not many can actually tell the difference based on the characteristics of Cedar and Spruce that we used to describe.

Well, let's see how it goes.

Cheers!
chelson

[rojarosguitar]

As I wrote, the purpose of my little study was not to prove anything in terms of a fixed proposition or to enhance or dimnish anybodys' ego because of his or her ability to guess properly. I think if things would be that clear cut, more experienced people would have had almost 100% correct guess.

To me all the discussions about what is what and what is better have similar taste as the big-endian/little-endian issue in Gullivers Travels. After all what counts is that everybody gets as close as possible to the tone quality she/he is envisioning, with whatever kind of instrument. I wouldn't care if it was plastic or rubber, if that was the best for my tone idea.

That said every builder will have a characteristic way of dealing with different wood combinations and so it can be expected that among their instruments there will be characteristic differences between their spruce and cedar guitars. But of course, all of that has been said by many people in many places

best wishes
Robert

[Vlad Kosulin]

I have a feeling that it is easier to make guitar with spruce top sound cedarish than vice versa.
But I do not understand the reasoning of trying.
If you build a guitar which is supposed to sound like cedar, just use cedar top!
If you build a guitar which is expected to sound like spruce, just use spruce top!
Most guitars sound as in between, and here luthier intent and abilities matters, of course. But spruce (cedar) guitar which sounds like cedar (spruce) is not some great achievement for me, it is nonsense instead.