[lwoirhaye]

Hi everybody. I've been working on and off on learning flamenco
guitar skills for about 10 years. I build guitars when I have the time
and motivation too... but I'm presently a lot more interested in
creating music than creating instruments.

I took a few years off playing guitar almost and I'm just getting back
into it. It had been awhile since I had even checked out what was
going on online with flamenco... in the interim a lot of great resources
have sprung up. It makes learning so much easier for people
who don't live in Spain or in a major city where other flamenco
players live.

I'm totally interested in meeting anybody here who lives near
where I do. I'm in Easthampton, MA.

[Payul]

Hi Iwoirhaye,

Welcome to the foro, Nice you made your own guitar!
Do you have foto's from it? And maybe even a soundsample?
I never heared the sound from ceder side and backs. Would you discibe the sound as a blanca or a negra?

Payul

[lwoirhaye]

It's a blanca. Here in the USA Alaskan yellow cedar is considered
a premier wood for blancas and some builders prefer it both in sound
and appearance to the traditional Spanish cypress in in flamenco
guitars.

The Alaskan cedar has a very tight, fine grain and a creamy appearance.
Some builders even use it for soundboards with good results but I
haven't tried. It's a very fine wood for flamenco guitars and not too
expensive in North America.

The guitar has a spruce soundboard. I have built some red-cedar top
flamencos. You get instant "open-ness" with them, but with it
tends to come some sloppiness too. So I prefer spruce, it takes
much longer to break-in but when it is broken in you can really
push it and the sound does not break up.

I think the red cedar tops are a little prone to over-driving when
played hard and the sound gets messy. Spruce is, to my ear,
a more controlled soundboard which rewards a player who
learns how to work with it.

The guitar has a rapid attack and not a big sustain so even with
very fast playing the sound does not get muddy.

[Payul]

Sounds like a very nice blanca!
And for the weight, I suppose it is a bit heavyer than cypresse, but lighter than rosewood?

[lwoirhaye]

Wood has a specific gravity - basically how much a set amount
of wood dried to a specific moisture content weighs by volume.

Most people would consider this wood density. Rosewood's
resonant characteristics have a great deal to do with it's heavy
density. Other similarly dense woods will have a similar resonant
sound. Rosewood's choice position as a tonewood does have
something to do with it's nice sound, but probably more to do with
its stability and the relative ease of obtaining appropriate pieces
for building guitars.

Most highly-dense woods are unstable in drying and crack badly
if they are not carefully dried and even then they still crack. The
rosewoods do not have this problem so much - hence they are
great for building guitars.

Other stable woods include the mahoganies, maples, cedars,
cypresses. Most common cabinet woods, if cut from the
log properly, work very well for guitar backs and sides. The
decision of what to use has more to do with aesthetics than
it does to do with sound. The soundboard bracing, bridge
and body cavity volume affect the sound more specifically
than the woods used in for the back and sides in my opinion.

In blind tests even very experiences luthiers and players have
a hard time telling from the sound what back and sides material
a guitar is made from.

The density of Alaskan yellow cedar is about the same as
Spanish Cypress. I laminate the sides with veneer on the
inside which ads weight, and stiffness. I usually use Spanish
Cedar instead of mahogany for the neck so the weight is
reduced there about 20%.

[Payul]

Thanks for the "inside" information, very informative!

[falseta]

Hi lwoirhaye,

Welcome to the forum! +Rep points on your intro posts... great information, glad you found us.