ADIRONDACK  "RED" SPRUCE 

Because we are in Maine, we have a chance to get a first hand look at some of the finest spruce woods from the United States and Canada.   One of our suppliers stopped by to show us the biggest Red  Spruce logs we had ever seen.

We get a lot of our Adirondack Spruce from one of the biggest wood dealers  in the business.  They paid us a fine compliment the last time they visited our shop saying that our structural standards for Adirondack Spruce were higher  than any of their other customers.  Structural standards refers to our requirements for cut, stiffness, grain orientation and structural integrity.  When it comes to Adirondack we do favor tone and structure over appearance (but of course, our tops aren't bad to look at either!!).  We thought you might appreciate the following information about Adirondack spruce.  

ABOUT ADIRONDACK - quoted from the article on "Tonewoods" by Dana Bourgeois Adirondack Red Spruce was plentiful in our country before the war and was used on many of the great pre-war guitars.  Eastern red spruce, also known as Adirondack or Appalachian spruce, was the primary topwood used by American manufacturers before World War II. Its use was all but discontinued due to over-harvesting of the resource but has recently been reintroduced thanks to 50 years of regeneration and to the legendary status that this traditional tonewood has attained. The small size of most logs and a shortage of wood conforming to market preference for even color and regularity of grain conspire to keep the price of red spruce extremely high.   Red spruce is relatively heavy, has a high velocity of sound, and has the highest stiffness across and along the grain of all the topwoods. Like Sitka, it has strong fundamentals, but it also exhibits a more complex overtone content. Tops made out of red spruce have the highest volume ceiling of any species, yet they also have a rich fullness of tone that retains clarity at all dynamic levels.  If players and builders were able to overcome phobias about unevenness of color, grain irregularity, minor knots, and four-piece tops, many more great-sounding guitars could be produced while the supply of potentially usable red spruce is still available. Old-growth woods are disappearing so fast that such an attitude change will need to be scheduled sometime in the near future, unless the majority of new guitars are to be made of synthetic materials. At Pantheon Guitars, we spend a lot of time searching for the best tonewoods we can bring you. When a batch of wood comes in to our shop, Dana Bourgeois sorts through each and every piece to see if it meets our standards. We have to confess that Dana picks first and foremost for TONE.  It is really hard to send back a piece of wood that we KNOW will add a significant contribution to the sound of a great guitar.

          Dated: April 13, 2005