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Thread: What is a "Selected Spruce Top"?

  1. #26
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    Default Re: What is a "Selected Spruce Top"?

    Since select has no meaning in this case, I would assume nothing based on it. If an ad doesn't,t say it is a solid top, back or sides I would assume they are laminate.

  2. #27
    harvester of clams Bill McCall's Avatar
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    Default Re: What is a "Selected Spruce Top"?

    Pretty hard to have an ‘unselected spruce top’. Reminds me of the guy who specified ‘hand selected’ lumber for an order one time in our shop. We all laughed since our automatic lumber selector was broken anyway
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  3. #28
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    Exclamation Re: What is a "Selected Spruce Top"?

    AKA, what's left after Saw Mill 'green chain' guys discard the Glaring defects ?


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  4. #29
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    Default Re: What is a "Selected Spruce Top"?

    Quote Originally Posted by HoGo View Post
    My first mandolin has both top and back from rejected wood. And several later ones as well. Mostly rejected by snobbish violin makers as "not good eough". I took the bad wood from them and all of them made excellent succesful mandolins.
    It takes a luthier to choose good tone woods. I doubt there is much correlation between 'eye candy' woods and tonal quality of the mandolin, although there seems to be a strong correlation between eye candy and price.
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  5. #30
    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: What is a "Selected Spruce Top"?

    Rules of thumb: any descriptive adjective other than "solid" implies "laminated." "Carved" means "machine carved" unless it says "hand carved." If neither, it's heat-pressed into shape. "Engineered wood" means God-knows-what.
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  6. #31
    Worlds ok-ist mando playr Zach Wilson's Avatar
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    Default Re: What is a "Selected Spruce Top"?

    My fave is "HPL".... :/

  7. #32
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    Default Re: What is a "Selected Spruce Top"?

    The decoding key:

    "Spruce," "mahogany," "rosewood," "maple," etc. means laminated.
    "Solid spruce," "solid mahogany," etc. means solid wood.
    "Arched" means pressed and formed.
    "Carved" means machine carved, often roughly.
    "Hand carved" means at least the final stage of carving was done by hand.
    "Ebonized" means stained wood that is not ebony.
    "HPL" means Formica.
    "Micarta" means plastic.
    "Richlite" means an engineered material that is somewhere in between fiber board and plastic.
    "Lacquer" and "varnish" can mean almost anything these days.
    "Gloss finish" with no additional info usually means polyurethane.
    "Nitrocellulose lacquer" means that at least the top coat is really nitrocellulose lacquer.

    Isn't this fun?
    Anyone else care to contribute?

    If anyone thinks this is only a modern phenomenon, let it be known that Gibson and Washburn were dressing up their catalog descriptions, sometimes inaccurately, over 100 years ago. The most notorious example of this was Gibson's early habit of specifying the backs and sides of all of their instruments as being maple, when in reality 98% were made of birch except for F-4's, H-4's, and the K-4's. And S.S. Stewart was using "sales speak" as far back as the 1880's.

    My favorite term for this sort of practice comes from Mark Twain, who called it "stretching the truth."
    Last edited by rcc56; Dec-04-2020 at 4:37pm.

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  9. #33

    Default Re: What is a "Selected Spruce Top"?

    And then there’s the continuing change of the names of woods. If I read Constantine’s wood book, or the older more scientific ones, the names keep shifting, and also seem to vary from country to country. Even the botanical names are fluid, especially now that classifications are subject to genetic analysis. Plus lots of species having ‘pseudo-‘ in their names. Meanwhile, the trees themselves are screwing around with us by hybridizing and evolving with climate change. Might even say that torrified species X isn’t X, but chemically-altered from X.
    So let’s not blame ignorant copywriters of sales literature: some of the time even the shop guys don’t know what’s in their hands.

  10. #34
    Moderator MikeEdgerton's Avatar
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    Default Re: What is a "Selected Spruce Top"?

    Quote Originally Posted by rcc56 View Post
    ...If anyone thinks this is only a modern phenomenon, let it be known that Gibson and Washburn were dressing up their catalog descriptions, sometimes inaccurately, over 100 years ago...
    Kay as well as others were selling laminate backs and sides as a "feature" as early as the 30's. They weren't prone to cracking.
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  12. #35
    coprolite mandroid's Avatar
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    Question Re: What is a "Selected Spruce Top"?

    They selected, didn't use the parts of the wood from the spruce tree, with knotholes ?

    My Gibson A 40 used a 3 ply Mahogany back , I assume, sides & mahogany neck.

    (CNC of the Era) , top was 3D pantograph Router-carved from solid spruce,

    It played nicely ..
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  13. #36
    '`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`' Jacob's Avatar
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    Default Re: What is a "Selected Spruce Top"?

    I would suggest it is simply obfuscation.

    Does naming the components transform composites from laminated into layered?

    "Layered Sapele - Taylor’s layered backs and sides incorporate three layers of wood, featuring a middle core of poplar with a veneer on each side. While layered woods won’t produce quite as complex a sound as solid woods, they allow us to blend exotic looks with climate-resilient construction."

  14. #37
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    Default Re: What is a "Selected Spruce Top"?

    What is a Select spruce top? Marketing , creating a buzz word and getting a larger market share. Solid , that is the word to look for. R/
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  15. #38
    coprolite mandroid's Avatar
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    Default Re: What is a "Selected Spruce Top"?

    I have a laminated back & sides Hodson D'jangolin .
    He put a veneer of Rosewood on the outside and one of mahogany on the inside.
    Because he was making Selmer Replica Guitars and that is what the Original French company Did..
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  17. #39
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    Default Re: What is a "Selected Spruce Top"?

    Don't forget "revebond", a very composite material that replaces rosewood on cheaper The Loar fretboards. https://www.theloar.com/p/lm-310f/#b...%3A%09Revebond

  18. #40
    Bill Healy mrbook's Avatar
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    Default Re: What is a "Selected Spruce Top"?

    Every guitar I have seen with a select spruce top has laminated wood. I assume it is no different in a mandolin. Taylor, I think, uses the term "layered wood" which almost sounds elegant until you realize what it is.

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