Re: italian spruce
Like many here I have a few good mandolins and guitars. I hadn't thought of this before, but both my favorite mandolin and guitar have Italian spruce tops:
a Baird F5 that's very refined and elegant at low volume but really gutsy with tons of headroom. It has remarkable dynamic range with huge power and retains all the articulation and subtlety even at full volume. An awesome mandolin that's a little intimidating sometimes!
a custom shop Martin HD-35. Like most D-35s it's a powerhouse, but this one has more sparkle in the high end - so maybe a bit better balanced overall than the typical D-35? A great guitar for sure.
So if these two are good examples then really great instruments can be made from Italian spruce. As Graham noted before, Italian violin makers (and presumably European luthiers of all kinds) have been building world-class instruments with it for centuries. I seem to remember an article a few years back explaining that the highly uniform density of the spruce soundboards was a big factor.
Enjoy!
Last edited by Aaron Bohnen; Dec-31-2019 at 9:43pm.
Gavin Baird F4 & F5, Weber Octar, Gibson K-1, Guild D50, Martin D35, Yairi DY-84, etc...
Bookmarks