Official Luthiers Forum!

You could always bake them.

The last guitar I built had a top that came from a pine board on a barn in my back yard. After resawing it sat for a few weeks before it became a guitar. The guitar sounds great. Granted the board was 90 years old but it was under mother nature till the three weeks it sat in my shop. Not saying I would ever do it again (that was for one of the OLF contests last year) but I don't think you need to wait ten years. Having said that I do have old stashes of tops to use and generally do follow that paradigm.

The molecular structure of the sound-board may very well change of a long period of time -- but I am not sure how we could assert that will guaranty a given guitar will sound better older vs newer stock (that subjective element is a killer in these kinds of discussion)

However, I understand that there is some work being done by a few using material that is processed through an autoclave type system heating and drying the in an oxygen free environment --said to speed crystallization etc. (torrified or something like that ) Also, I believe Bob Taylor cooks his tops getting them down to "0" moisture content then reintroducing a bit of moisture to stabilize --- seems to me these may be processes thought to make newer wood more like older material.

It would also seem to me that if a guitar constructed with newer material, if the theory of old wood being superior is correct, it will simply get better with time. -- Maybe not?

_________________
Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Ha ha,

I got no science either...

But I have handled a great deal of tops in my time, and I know these are good to go. They were dried before being packed and sent. Of course, any top being prepped for actual use will sit in the climate controlled area for at least two weeks before any cross grain gluing, but even that is overkill as my whole shop sits at 40% these days except the side bending area which tends to go a few points up from the steam, but the tops and backs are never there anyways...

Ed, how many gluing jigs do you have? 4? No need to join them all if you are not gluing them all at once. I join mine with a shooting board and a no 4. 3-5 swipes and no light. Like others say probably 15-30 seconds. No pile of shavings necessasary. Not as effortless as a great jointer. But a lot less space, noise, and dust. You can join them faster than you can free up your gluing jigs. Plus pocket the $$$ for the jointer or buy more tops so you can have a 10 year stash of lutz. : )

A jointer will be useful for other things as well.