Cedar?

[rapfohl09]

Does anyone know anything/ have any experience with cedar as a tonewood? I've checked my normal spots and can't find much about it.

 

[bagman67]

Cedar is generally used as a tonewood in acoustic guitar tops, and is considered to be "darker" in tone than spruce.  I personally like it a lot.  I've never seen it used in electrics, but there is a flavor of so-called cedar that's actually a member of some other family that is used as a mahogany substitute in sold-body electric guitars.

Hope this helps.

Bagman

 

[DangerousR6]

The Spanish use it for flamenco guitars, so there has to be something to it.... :dontknow:

 

[SkuttleFunk]

mmmm ... Spanish Cedar, one of my favorite electric bass body core woods! it works nicely, is relatively light weight - and the entire shop smells wonderful every time you cut/scrape/sand it

all the best,

R

 

[bagman67]

mmmm ... Spanish Cedar, one of my favorite electric bass body core woods! it works nicely, is relatively light weight - and the entire shop smells wonderful every time you cut/scrape/sand it

all the best,

R

Yep, that's the one I was thinking of:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedrela

Not a true cedar, but actually neither Spanish nor a cedar.  But it sure smells nice.

 

[m4rk0]

I wondered exactly the same a short while ago   :icon_biggrin:

http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=14090.0

 

[drewfx]

Some time back Modulus made guitars/basses where the necks had Graphite cores and a cedar (or other softwood) shell on the outside. The Graphite supported all the string tension so the strength of the tonewood used didn't matter.

 

[rapfohl09]

Yeah I knew of it's properties for acoustics, but was wondering about using it for solid-bodies. I guess we will just have to find out :icon_thumright:

 

[kboman]

It's used, but not everyone. Ruokangas use it as a direct mahogany substitute: http://www.ruokangas.com/?page_id=7&sub=13

 

[big bob]

Ive used cypress as a core wood, very much like cedar.

:headbang:

 

[erogenousjones17]

My cheapo Jackson is made of cedro, which is apparently some sort of cedar/mahogany substitute. It's heavy as all get out, I can tell you that much.

 

[HRC51]

PRS made a very small run of curly cedar topped guitars.  It sounded a bit like a Korina guitar because the body was mahogany and only the top was cedar.  I liked it a lot.

 

[nexrex]

Ive used cypress as a core wood, very much like cedar.

:headbang:

Did this frame then get used as base for a guitar made out of acrylic?

 

[big bob]

covered in fiberglass.

 

[bagman67]

That surfboard strat is cool as all get out, but I wouldn't have guessed twin humbuckers - the surboard vibe kinda screams single coils to me.  That said - I sure as hell couldn't have approached that level of creativity. Totally bad@ss.

Bagman

 

[OzziePete]

I tried a few cedar topped acoustic guitars when I was in the guitar shop ordering my Custom Acoustic last year.....My impression was that wood was probably structurally stronger than Spruce but it seem to soak up some tone, much more than the spruce tops did. The best, most responsive type of acoustic top was the Engelmann Spruce, but because I wanted a jumbo sized acoustic it was recommended I go for the Sitka Spruce, as that had more strength. In summarey, the cedar was OK as a spruce substitute, but you might have to have a more denser body wood to counteract the 'soak' I mentioned. In a solid body it probably would act a fair bit similar to mahogany........because it is not as trebly acoustically, it might promote a more 'darker' tone than say a maple top.

 

[Cagey]

Is that how they make surfboards? I must confess, being an inlander I know less about those than I do about astrophysics, which is a painfully small amount. I was thinking model airplanes, although fiberglass is rarely used on those because of weight issues. Of course, the coverings used on model airplanes wouldn't last 15 minutes on a guitar, if that long. Much too fragile.