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An update:

I woke up this morning and figured I should just get on with buying something. StewMac were having a sale, so I bought one of their 'woodstax' cherry back and sides dreadnoughts. Seemed like a good deal, and Koolimy has been saying nice things about his Blues Creek J model made with similar materials, so I thought whatever, I should go for it. Not a very adventurous choice I know, but at least there shouldn't be any CITES issues shipping it across borders.

And I'm psyched! I have no idea what this will end up sounding like, but I have an early '90's Norman (Canadian) guitar made with laminated cherry back/sides that sounds really nice. If it turns out anything like that I'll be very happy. The laminated Norman is a bit on the quiet side, so maybe the solid back and sides will help with that? I dunno.... but I guess I'll find out.

A general question: They say the top in the kit is 'Lutz spruce'. I googled and got a range of thoughts on that...anyone here have any direct experience? Again, it's just curiosity causing me to ask, it's too late to change now. Lol.

Andy Mitchell wrote: ↑Thu Nov 11, 2021 9:51 am An update:

I woke up this morning and figured I should just get on with buying something. StewMac were having a sale, so I bought one of their 'woodstax' cherry back and sides dreadnoughts. Seemed like a good deal, and Koolimy has been saying nice things about his Blues Creek J model made with similar materials, so I thought whatever, I should go for it. Not a very adventurous choice I know, but at least there shouldn't be any CITES issues shipping it across borders.

And I'm psyched! I have no idea what this will end up sounding like, but I have an early '90's Norman (Canadian) guitar made with laminated cherry back/sides that sounds really nice. If it turns out anything like that I'll be very happy. The laminated Norman is a bit on the quiet side, so maybe the solid back and sides will help with that? I dunno.... but I guess I'll find out.

A general question: They say the top in the kit is 'Lutz spruce'. I googled and got a range of thoughts on that...anyone here have any direct experience? Again, it's just curiosity causing me to ask, it's too late to change now. Lol.

Congratulations on choosing your kit! Sometimes you just have to throw caution to the wind and take a plunge, LOL. I thought something from Stewmac would be a good idea since they were having a huge sale and since you had some experience with them.

I am biased but I think cherry is a GREAT tonewood! It is beautiful, works well, is stable, and to me sounds great. I think it is on the mahogany side of things but you can get quite a few overtones by shaving the back braces. My guitar is not lacking in bass nor volume, so I don't think you'll necessarily get a quiet guitar. Note that the color might change significantly as you build your guitar. My cherry set started out very pinkish white, and now it has turned into a red only slightly lighter than mahogany.

I don't have experience with Lutz spruce but it seems like some people think it is the best type of spruce! I think Taylor guitars at one point thought that Lutz is the best type of spruce, so there is probably reason to get excited.

Sounds like a good choice. I'm enjoying the way my first guitar is developing. It's Bitter Cherry, a western species, which I got from Bow River Woods. And it does darken beautifully. If I make another I may try Koolimy's suggestion with back braces. I had a Martin mahogany guitar for a while, and in my view the cherry is brighter, less woody, and very balanced. I think Norman guitars was started by the uncle of Robin Boucher of Boucher guitars. Norman was absorbed by Godin/Simon & Patrick I think. I had a laminated cherry S&P for a short time and it was surprisingly good for an inexpensive guitar. Sustainable, too.

As for Lutz Spruce, according to my BC plant guides, it is a hybrid between White Spruce, Picea glauca, and Sitka Spruce, P. sitkensis. It's found in BC (the experts say) in the "middle Skeena-Nass transitional area". Some hybrids in this area may also involve Engelmann Spruce, P. engelmannii. Some authorities apparently have referred to Lutz as P. lutzii, and also Roche Spruce. In the BC interior, apparently most of the spruce is a hybrid between White and Engelmann, but the reference does not refer to those hybrids as Lutz.

Good luck with your build! Bruce W., Ladysmith, BC.

Cherry is a nice wood to work with. My 2nd guitar is cherry, and I think it sounds nice. I suspect how you build it will have more of an effect on the sound than what it's made of.

Replying to Stray Feathers: Norman was actually the forerunner of all things Godin - Normand Boucher supposedly bought a Martin dreadnought, disassembled it, took measurements and then re-assembled it and tried to return it to the store he bought it from. They didn't take it back (surprise!), but he used the info gathered to go into the guitar business for himself. He sold really high quality stuff at first, up until a fire burned his shop to the ground. Godin was the guy who distributed his guitars to music stores at first. After the fire Godin basically took over the whole operation and built it into what it is today - a really big deal, with multiple lines of almost everything and multiple factories. Way more successful than Normand ever was on his own. My Norman is from not long after the fire, has a distinctive maple leaf on the label and is marked 'demo'. I don't know if that means it's so bad that no one would buy or if it was selected for having a particularly good tone, but I sorta lean toward the latter. And It's been played to death, and is now in desperate need of a refret. But it still sounds good. :-)

And to Koolimy and MainGeezer, thanks for the encouragement! I am realistic enough to realize that I am building this for my own enjoyment, nothing else... but my goodness, what am I ever going to do with the increasing number of guitars just sitting around in my parlor? I love all the ones I built like children, but it would hurt to send even my old (commercially produced) friends to value village... what do you more advanced sufferers of 'too many guitars syndrome' do to ease the pressure? And yes, I'm laughing as I post this, LOL. I don't think any of my guitars are going anywhere in the near future.

"Too many?"



Q: How many guitars should a normal person have?

A: About five.

Q: Umm, that sounds more like a guitar enthausiast to me.

A: No, a guitar enthausiast has about fifteen.

Q: That sounds more like someone who is obsessed with guitars.

A: Nope. People obsessed with guitars can have hundreds.

Q: Hundreds? Yike! That sounds like a psycho!

A: No. Psychos seldom own guitars, or at most tend to have just one or two.

Q: Ah, now that sounds like a normal person.

A: No no. A normal person has about five. We already covered that.
(from AGF)

there is no such thing as too many guitars

Pic of my latest kit. Cherry back and sides wth Lutz Spruce top. This is one of the StewMacs ' WoodStax' kits, which let the purchaser select the actual parts to be received from a range of alternatives. The top I picked is really excellent, verified upon receipt (although you might not be able to see that from the pics, my fault due to the bad photography). Very much looking forward to building this.

And not throwing shade at all on the other kits out there. Blues Creek was my first choice, but export restrictions sort of killed off that option. I also considered LMI, but the 'kit wizard' required more insider knowledge to complete the form than I could provide.

At the end of the day, I opted for StewMac because of their customer service and a known quality product. This thing arrived at my door in three business days after placing the order. Wow! And I know that the other suppliers have other kits that would be exportable, but i just got frustrated picking through the various options and jumped at the first one that I thought was viable for export. Sorry if I missed something that would have been a better option.

For what it's worth, I started out looking for a 12 fret, OM body guitar with a short scale (and slightly wider than normal neck). Which is a pretty common choice these days, LOL. But ended up buying a pretty average Dreadnought due to shipping restrictions. Not complaining though (it'll still be loads of fun!), just sort of pointing out the issues faced by someone trying to buy from another country.

They didn't skimp on the tuners, anyway. Waverlies are excellent.