Official Luthiers Forum!

I have read that the coloration of Western Red Cedar is some indication of
the quality of sound it produces as a guitar top. The lighter yellow to red
colors produce more robust trebles while the darker to chocolate colored
cedar produces thin trebles. Is any of this true or is it an "old wife's tale".
I am interested because I have a couple sets of the chocolate variety that I
want to use for my next guitar projects. Both classical guitars. I like the
darkness of the wood. Both sets of tops are well quartered and seem to
be as stiff as lighter cedar that I have in stock. Please advise.

Thanks
Ken

In the past I built alot of classicals with WRC and used tops that ranged from very light blonde tops to dark chocolate tops and there was not a large difference in tone. The density of the tops contributes more to the tone than the color.

The person that handles more WRC than anyone is Ed Dick of Acoustic Woods (an OLF sponsor). I would shoot him an email to ask his opinion.