This Stuff Grows on Trees (part 2) Sitka Spruce

I’m going to take a couple post and talk about write, wood selection, and properties in the wood that make it good for guitar building. I spent many years grading, sorting, and selecting wood for guitars.

Today’s Featured Wood: Sitka Spruce. If you own a guitar, chances are that it has a Sitka Spruce top. This tree grows along the pacific coast in elevations up to 3000 feet, and never more than 50 miles from the Pacific coast from northern California to Alaska. Some larger trees can measure 150’ in height, and have a 7’ diameter. The color ranges from pale yellow to pink and a phenomenon called Bearclaw can also be peasant. This is a variation in the linear pattern of the grain lines that make the top look a little distorted. For the purest, Bearclaw is probably unsuitable, but from what I know, it has no effect on the performance of the guitar, and gives it an interesting look.

Applications: Sitka Spruce is ideal for musical instruments due to its low weight, high strength, and flexibility. This also makes it ideal for applications like airplanes…check out the Spruce Goose. This wood also goes to make things like high quality paper, diaper fluff, and other sanitary products.

Perspective: It takes between 120 and 150 Spruce logs to supply the entire guitar manufacturing in the US for one year. A saw mill can turn 120 logs into 2 x 4’s in a single shift.

Personal: I used to make an annual trip to northern Washington to visit Pacific Rim Tonewoods. These guys produce most all the guitar tops for the entire industry. They are a small outfit with about 10-15 employees that turn big pieces of wood into little ones. I would usually spend a week at a time, and I learn about the process of taking apart a tree to make tops. I also had the chance to operate some of the saws and splitters that make the process work. It is interesting work, and a valuable resource.