This wood tends to have a honeyed color and is known for its sonically analogous dark and lush tone, and also for being generally less bass-y and projective than spruce. Luna Henna Oasis Spruce Acoustic Electric Guitar New. It is generally said that Spruce top guitars are somewhat louder & versatile in nature and is ideal for a variety of music to be played on it. Cedar is less dense than spruce, and that softness typically translates into a sense of sonic warmth. It's for his son who graduates Dec. 20th. Cedar Tops have a soft attack, and are sensitive. Flamenco guitars are built lighter with thinner tops than classical guitars, which produces a "brighter" and more percussive sound quality. The spruce allows the mid-range human voice to fit in the mix, while the cedar top provides a wider, more balanced range of of audible … Spruce always has a brighter tone than cedar, they are used mostly on steel string guitars as they can hold the tension of the strings better than cedar. Library. Both feature ebony fingerboards too. It is a less dense wood than spruce and produces a warmer, more complex sound with a higher ratio of overtone to fundamental. Koa: Koa is a pricier wood as it’s less common. If Sitka has a full dynamic range, cedar makes quieter tones louder, but it also imposes more of a ceiling on high volume levels driven by an aggressive attack. Cedar: Cedar is a distinctly red-brown material that offers warm tonality and warms up quickly. The individual notes when played contrapuntally sound more separated in case of spruce tops. 5 years ago | 114 views. Brazilian rosewood, with its haunting, swirling purple hues and its sweet thunderstorm of overtones, may well be the most vaunted guitar tonewood of all. Redwood has become more popular in recent years as a tonewood. Spruce guitars typically have a quite direct sound with a bell-like tone. Spruce Top Yulong Guo Chamber Concert Guitar. A new cedar guitar will have rich harmonics and a crispness that is sometimes lacking in a brand new spruce-topped guitar. The following video is interesting for those wanting to compare the sound of a spruce top guitar to that of a cedar top guitar. They seem to be more clear, balanced and sometimes have more sustain. Video Comparing A Spruce Top Guitar And A Cedar Top Guitar Made By The Same Luthier. They have a wider tone palette with more tonal complexity. I'm looking to buy an acoustic guitar and am interested in input on cedar vs. spruce tops. The sound of a well-aged fine spruce top has an unmatched openness, clarity, directness, and edge like an arrow. I am not familiar with cedar tops, having only ever owned spruce-topped guitars. One alternative to cedar is redwood. Sitka Spruce is the most prevalent guitar top wood of the modern era. I remember the wood seemed somewhat limp and “spongy” to me. Both Cedar and Spruce share the same virtues in terms of better sound and the ability to age. One of the raps directed at guitars with cedar tops is that unlike those of spruce they do not improve with age. Builders also use less internal bracing to keep the top more percussively resonant. 7:10. Because l can’t read music l rely on Tone and Rhythm. Re: Spruce Vs Cedar Guitars. European Spruce AAA $110.00. Spruce Vs Cedar Guitars. Cedar: Cedar is a bright sounding wood option, though produces a warmer tone than spruce (the most common top wood – see below), when used as a top. Great deals on Taylor Rosewood Body 6 String Acoustic Guitars. Cedar however, makes the guitar sound darker, warmer and generally fuller. 5.0 of 5 stars. ... Martin Custom 00-28VS Cocobolo Adirondack Spruce Top Acoustic Guitar. It can be easily recognized due to its pale color. Despite its name, Port Orford Cedar is a member of the Cypress family and not a true Cedar. 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