Domestic Rosewood substitute?

[Skarsaune]

The last guitar I built featured all local woods, mostly from our county in NE TN.
The top was Eastern White Pine.
It made a surprisingly good top, braced appropriately.

I've also seen Hemlock used as a top, both Eastern and Western species, and have a Western Hemlock top on hand. Haven't used either yet, though.

[Stray Feathers]

Also consider Douglas-fir. The grain is more contrasty than spruce, with darker winter wood, and it darkens over time. I used it in door and window trims in my house and some of that is quite reddish-brown now. D-fir is stiffer than spruce, and heavier, but some users praise it highly. I bought two medium-grade sets to try recently; both tap well, but are still very tight, so I'm expecting to go thinner than spruce on the tops. There can be minor issues with tiny pitch droplets working their way out. Bruce W.

[carld05]

Redwood, I'm using some now that's tight VG. It came from the bottom of a hot tub and had been underwater for 30 years. I've also used western Red Cedar. Here's a Quilted Redwood top on a jumbo I built last year.

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[Tomcat]

John: Magnolia is an interesting idea - I live in Florida, so it could hardly be more "local". Finding a local seller that has appropriately sized pieces in stock would be the next step, but I should look into local wood sources anyway. Though I don't suppose you carry it, do you?

Strayfeathers: I really like it when the top has some visible grain rather than the nearly uniform pale yellow that so many guitars have. So the Doug fir sounds lovely to me. Do you have any pics? Not local to me, exactly, but still domestic, so that's good. I'd love to see how yours turns out, and hear what you think of the sound.

Scarsaune: Good to hear that you got a good result from the white pine! I'd love to hear how your hemlock works out.

Carl: That redwood is beautiful! I understand it's hard to get ahold of these days. Bottom of a hot tub? How lucky was that? Was it hard to find? Expensive?

[carld05]

Here's the hot tub bottom pieces, "land sinker" redwood and a parlor topped with it. The rosette is natural edged Yew burl.

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RWparlor1.jpg

The quilted top I bought several years ago I think on eBay. It might have been sold as a drop top for an electric, I don't remember.

[Tomcat]

"Land sinker" lol. That looks really great! The burl rosette with the irregular outline gives it a very natural look. Inlaying that looks difficult.

[carld05]

Not inlayed, top glued with soundhole binding to tie it all together.

[carld05]

Dup.

[phavriluk]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but...

There's some good discussion about alternative domestic woods for back and sides, but what about tops?

I've read some about various spruce species, and red cedar for a warmer tone than spruce. Sinker redwood is crazy expensive. What other good alternative soundboard woods has anyone here used successfully?

I've seen Douglas Fir used as a soundboard. Devil's in the details. I don't know whether the fir available through lumberyards Is dry enough and stable enough, but what I saw from wood stored for a great while seemed to work just fine.