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[QUOTE=MichaelP] The tools had 3 1/2" dia handles that were over 10'long. After cleaning them up I discovered they were turned from perfectly quartered Red Cedar. [/QUOTE]

Michael, I think those round handles were flatsawn, and you were just looking at them wrong.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Steve, I love sitka as a top wood. Yes, some will shoot me for that, but I happen to like it.
I do use red spruce for bracing though. Not sure it really matters. As some has pointed out, it's partly all about stiffness/weight ratio.
Another thing which I think probably factors in somehow is damping factor. Bracing is two-fold - structure, and tonal, right? Don't forget that a certain amount of sound energy is transmitted through the braces into the top, or at least they will vibrate with the top. Sound waves travel through different materials at different rates of speed, and I suspect, although I cannot prove, that this can make a difference in the sound. How audible it is I have no clue.Don Williams38995.5091319444

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

could be All kind of depends on which way you lean

Don, thanks for the backup. (But hey, aren't you retired? ) You do bring up a valid point. How much internal damping is there in the brace?
As far a generalizations go, has anyone done research into Red vs. Sitka re. internal damping?

I'll admit to this: as far as being a Sitka fan-- I'm still trying to figure the species out. It seemed to me that one could spread themselves quite thin trying every new material on the market. (And I understand that temptation.) Or, by concentrating one one primary species, one could eventually figure out just how to handle it for whatever sound they wanted. Learning your material, in other words. Of course, if a customer walks in--as I have alluded to--and demands a certain top, I'm there. But otherwise, I'm happy to keep using Sitka, and learn from each guitar built. It is giving me the sound I want, and I've got a growing data base of collected info on each guitar. Who knows? Maybe I'll get comfortable enough with this stuff to branch out to P. Abies some day.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

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