Cedar or Spruce; or does it matter?

[Ted]

It appears that cedar tops are preffered over spruce nowadays; why is that? Weren't pieces that are in our time only played on say cedar played on spruce in days gone by? If not, then what pieces lend themseleves to one top vs the other-e.g. Bach on spruce? Torroba on cedar? Or is all this merely subjective :? :? :?

[sseow]

ted,
the reason is obvious.
i spoke with few guitarists. most of them don't have time patience to open up the sound of a spruce top guitar. so cedar, as the wood is faster to dry than spruce, takes shorter time to open up the sound.
i will prefer to have cedar and spruce top guitars for the different choice and tone quality of music in different era.
seow
singapore

[C. Vega]

Don't get too hung up on the idea that one wood is better suited to a specific style of music than another or that "cedar sounds like....." or "spruce sounds like....". As the old Gershwin song says, It Ain't Necessarily So.
The sound of a guitar is far more dependent on it's design and construction, as well as playing technique, than on the woods used. While there may well be noticeable differences in a particular maker's instruments built to basically the same design with the difference being only the soundboard wood, this does not hold necesarily true for another maker's guitars of the same materials.
These generalities that are so freely kicked around usually don't hold much water in the real world. And you'll often find that two seemingly identical instruments from the same maker can be very different animals.

In a blind listening evaluation of, say, a dozen guitars, six with cedar tops and six with spruce by different makers and with backs and sides of the same material, say Indian rosewood, to keep the playing field even, I seriously doubt that anyone could consistently pick which is which more than 50% of the time. And on hearing the same guitars played by a different player they would more than likely change their mind regarding some of their choices.

There are numerous great sounding recordings of Bach, Dowland, etc. performed on cedar topped guitars as well as recordings of more contemporary works like those of Torroba performed on spruce topped instruments.

Go for the sound of the guitar that suits your playing style(s) and don't worry about what kind of wood it's made from or what your guitar hero happens to play.

Contrary to what you may read or hear, there is no magic wood.

[GSI Fan]

...Contrary to what you may read or hear, there is no magic wood.

I think my wife might argue that point with you! :shock: :twisted:

[Faya]

...Contrary to what you may read or hear, there is no magic wood.

I think my wife might argue that point with you! :shock: :twisted:

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :lol:

Good point to you to C. Vega!!! sounds like good advice!!! :wink:

[Ted]

Thanks all, especially Sr. Vega for a lucid explanation. Your replies confirm what I was thinking.

[Miguel Angel]

C Vega makes an excellent explanation on one of the myths between cedar & spruce, and as he stated that the real difference has to do more with guitar construction than the wood used taking for granted the the wood is of a premium quality. Another myth that I keep hearing is that a spruce top will last longer than cedar, there is no scientific proof of this. The people that say that spruce will last longer than cedar do not take in account that spruce has been used for guitar & other string instruments tops for hundreds of years, and than cedar is a newcomer from the 1960's when José Ramírez III discovered that cedar (Thuja Plicata) was an excellent altenative for guitar tops.