Official Luthiers Forum!

May be of interest on the subject if you haven't seen it, uploaded to YouTube by the man himself, and mentions Katz as a hybrid of one(?) of "Spruce pine fir cedar hemlock larch aspen birch."
"Published on Aug 28, 2014
We Discovered Lutz Spruce as a tonerwood
A lot of misplaced anger because i wont say what Species it is
Sorry No I will not.I can tell you its by Canadian export codes SPFCHLAB
Which Stands for the marking on export wood the the USA
of Spruce pine fir cedar hemlock larch aspen birch.
This is all we need to tell any one as thats what it is.
Except of Course this too is a hybrid of one of these.
Also not a local wood from Terrace.
And Mr Cumpiano Agrees with me to keep the name as katz.
He will begin test building in a few weeks with a Sister set being built buy World Famous Canadian classic builder Mick Lazar. You are welcome to follow the build on luthierforum.com So signup now to the forum.
So please relax we have great stiffness numbers done by a famous university.
I would not have said it if i could not prove it, But i don't need to prove anything to anybody.
If that both's you DON'T BUY IT, it going to be for master builder only at this point.
And Luthierforum members and Sprucetonewood facebook friends
And since i am a for profit company this wood is a propriety product that are developing and Field testing and selling.
Wait and see what Mr Cumpiano and Mr Lazar find when they finish
Or Buy Some and build your own. I told you Lutz was the stiffest spruce in the worrld and I have been proven right. Nothing even comes close to lutz from sprucetonewood as a top wood. So we don't lie. What I am not doing is allowing myself to be ripped off again by would be tonewood dealers that go out of business and take your money and never deliverer. . . And now a company of fence post cutter who never cut tonewood selling Sitka as Lutz DON'T BUY THEIR CRAPPY ONION LAKE SITKA. its not lutz. So make sure you get kermodie Lutz Signed by me
And real katz topwood only from Sprucetonewood.com.
And Now Sprucetonewood the worlds most reputable top wood company brings you Katz Tonewood.
Its Stiffer than Sitka and cedar never mind Engelman or White or red Spruce.
Katz transmits sound better than any of the above natural softwood wood,
Except for of course Lutz as lutz was not tested against it.
WE ARE the only true Lutz and Katz tonewood Dealer in the World
Join The Pride
Build with the best only use kermodie tonewood products. "

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I built a classical guitar on spec from "Katz" last winter. It turned out very well and sold very quickly. After 35 years, 120 guitars (classical only) and at least 5 different6 species of spruce I've taken the position that I will like any spruce that is reasonably closed grained, free from pitch pockets and, most importantly well quartered and free from runout. They are all good IMHO, albeit different and I tend to choose species for client commissioned guitars based upon their tonality preferences. That being said I found the Katz to be very different from other spruces. It was very light and handling it almost seemed like handling styrofoam. Yet it was a little more dent resistant than Engelmann but certainly softer that Sitka or Italian Alpine. I'm almost sure that this is a hybrid that includes White spruce also known as cat spruce or skunk spruce. This species is known for its distinctive odor. The Katz spruce I used has a much stronger and sharper odor than any other spruce I've used and, in fact, even stronger than cedar. But I'm just guessing here.

As to our friend Mario, I have to say that I find him an absolute delight to deal with as well as honest to a fault. His extroversion is common among marketing types but the deeper I dig the more knowledgeable I find him to be. As they say, to each his own but I like him and he has been most helpful to me over the past dozen years.

From the descriptions and especially the photo in the last post, My bets would be that this not any kind of hybrid, but simply White Spruce, Picea glauca. I told that guy about the qualities of White Spruce well over a decade ago, and perhaps he finally found a decent tree. Might explain why he is so reluctant to say what it really is. He kicked me off his forum in 2008 (I never used his spruce and was frequently talking up White Spruce). I have supplied this spruce to limited numbers (because I never had much to spare) of builders for almost 15 years, and they all have liked it. So, if that is what he really has, yes it is very good wood.....if you can ignore the hype But last I looked, Bob Cef had White Spruce, and for a decent price.

If I had a sample, I could tell for sure, but he would never sell me any now. Anybody have an offcut that would fit in an envelope?

Grant

Thanks Michael. I wasn't sure you wanted to be included in this discussion, so I didn't want to reference you. I find the odour pleasant, so wish it would retain it. And yes, the first thing that struck me was the weightlessness. My one guitar built from it turned out great. More on the way

Thanks for posting this as an answer to the original question about whether anyone has built a guitar using this wood.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Completed 2 days ago. OM, Osage back, Katz top.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/Atwnfu3vvwY[/youtube]

[youtube]http://youtu.be/3uiAHIkqHoM[/youtube]

[youtube]http://youtu.be/d_0tERDfRHM[/youtube]

For some reason those links don't work for me. Here they are again in case anyone else is having the same problem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atwnfu3vvwY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uiAHIkqHoM&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_0tERDfRHM&feature=youtu.be

Sounds good. What did you use to record with?

How does it compare in your opinion with Sitka, etc.?

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Recorded with iPhone and uploaded to YouTube (which molests the files into lesser quality). Much lower density than Sitka and is notably more resonant when tapped. A beautyful wood to build with. Only downside is its softness.

Everyone who's tried the guitar had their eyebrow raise with the first strum.

The guys who guess this is Hemlock, Balsum, or White Spruce, I invite you to send me some sets of those so I can compare.

PM me an address and I will send you a sample of white spruce.

Grant

About a month or so back, I was looking up the properties of various woods just to see how they compared to Sitka and the properties between redwood an western red cedar.. Anyway in the process, saw the various names particular species were called. It study listed engleman and white spruce as the same tree. I have never lived in an area with either specie to know. I have had engleman come through my shop twice, sent or brought here by others.

Regarding a species properties, there sure can be a big spread in the numbers. In our Sitka, there is a common norm. But then I see very heavy and dense like hardwood Sitka on occasion, and right now I just compared the lightest weight Sitka I have ever had. I call Ultra Light Sitka, from an old Brige stringer log that I purchased with. Deck of logs of that bridge in 1998. Th log had been cut around 1984. It is about 15% lighter than normal Sitka..about the same weight as our western red cedar.

Brent, actual white spruce is Picea glauca. It is pretty much like a lower density red spruce and it is lower density than any Sitka I have seen.

Grant