Topic: Adirondack spruce tops

[Roscoe]

hi. just wondered how you guys feel about paying a bunch of extra $ for adi spruce. i trade around guitars a lot and im on my 3rd adi top guitar and dont know if i even like the tone. ive been playing a 000-18 ge and it seems everytime i pick it up it sounds defferent. maybe im just used to the sound of sitka.
thanks
roscoe

[Cambio]

From a builder's standpoint I like Adirondack because it is stiffer and harder than Sitka or Englemann.  It doesn't have as warm of a sound as Sitka, but some folks aren't after warm tone.  I think Adirondack gives a little more of a kick, that's why I like it tonally.
It's definitely been a hot ticket item lately and because of that the bigger companies are buying up lots of it.  It's getting harder to get good stuff.  Some of the folks who used to supply it are no longer doing so because it's too hard to find good logs and Martin or Gibson bought up the stock that they had. 
I've been switching over to German Spruce because I can get very nice stuff for the same price as a mediocre Adirondack set and, while it has similar tonal characteristics, I don't have to deal with some of the issues that some of the Adirondack has.  I've talked to a few other builders who are switching to other species as well.
I would understand if makers were charging a premium for Master Grade Adirondack tops because they are quite expensive (and pretty rare), but the fact of the matter is, not too many of them are using master grade tops.  Personally I prefer the tops with a little more character because they are usually stiffer and give more of the tone that I prefer.  The second and even third grade tops are very comparable in price to Sitka.

[rjtwangs]

I like Adirondack AND I like Sitka, for different guitars. All of my guitars have mahogany s/b So the tonal differences are quite clear. The Sitka topped guitars are definitley warmer and somewhat sweeter. They have a thicker(lush??) midrange, than the adi guitars. The adi topped guitars are louder, have a definite cutting bark, more articulate, clear and ringing. However, given time the adi tops are starting to open up and sound a lot sweeter and warmer, still retaing their bite and clarity. I have a guitar coming with a Lutz spruce top. builders like Tim McNight, John Arnold and John Greven are big fans of Lutx. John Greven is building me a 12 fret 00-18 with a Lutx top. Todd have you had any experience with Lutz spruce??

          RJ

[Rivers]

Ask yourself, what would Willie do? Johnson, that is...