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Yes Cedar is a very soft, warm wood, you could perceive it as being quieter, whereas Spruce is brash, bold very loud. Redwood to me is a healthy balance of both, its sits between cedar and spruce tonally and for that reason is popular on the higher end models as it only available in the 35 and 50 series.
You can see why an instrumental soloist would prefer spruce as it gives them lots of projection and separation but like a said this might be abit too much when accompanying a singer.
Cedar rosewood in the middle ground?
as I say lutz spruce and bog oak is great sound
https://youtu.be/PJDiXsBR9_I
Best tone.
Although it’s breaking up
https://youtu.be/ykVXuLSubQQ
best of all worlds ?
cedar/rosewood
That brazillian is a stunning looking guitar. Not often you see ripple figure in either rosewoods or mahogany - but that has both. Subtle, and classy.
Adam
As soon as we get to a stage where we think we have categorised such things, a guitar will come along to prove that there are no rules just guidelines. The only Lowden I have now is a 20 year old O32, which has been toured and played on and off throughout that time. I got the itch for both cedar and redwood Lowden since that time, and ended up buying a selling some lovely guitars, simply because I found that a played in run of the mill sitka top guitar that had been well played has more dynamics, harmonic content and smoothness. Maybe that's getting into a whole different area, but if it's a guitar you intend to grow with, keep how it will develop as part of the equation.
I think as @ToneControl says it's critical get get hands on with as many guitars as possible, ideally in a place where you can feel comfortable even to make notes of your reactions as you pick up each one, it gives you something to objectively refer back to.
btw, I've heard that redwood is more variable in acoustic responses, so needs more checking before using a piece in a guitar.
When the candidate pieces were tap-tested in front of me, there were huge differences amongst the sinker redwood pieces
btw All of this will also be affected by whether you play with plectrums, picks, skin or nails
I'd advise avoiding adirondack if you play with nails, it needs hitting hard to move the wood
but I would recommend cedar rosewood (unless the player was mostly a heavy-plectrum player)
Reading around, it's a stiffer wood, and harder to make work for fingerstyle, especially on larger-bodied guitars
In George's case,, his bracing designs and, like Stefan and all top builders a respect for the wood they are using. Interestingly, the fact that George designed Bensusan's newer Adi sig model as an F sized guitar, rather than Pierre's cedar topped O size "old lady", would suggest that he goes along with smaller works better for Adi within his design parameters. If you get a chance try the PB sig, would be interesting to know what you think.
I think in this video he said it took a lot of playing and 2 years to open up
im deciding that lowden is my best bet as there are so many around and I have always loved them. Eric Roche taught me at ACM and to hear his lowden for the first time was a very memorable moment.
lowden S or F shape, bevel or FM.
need to go and try
spruce/mahogany - best to hear percussive sounds, pickups well, sensitive to dynamics
cedar/walnut - most clarity for fingerstyle
redwood/Blackwood - best all rounder for warmth and clarity
spruce/rosewood - most versatile, has bold sound than can work well with vocals and solo guitar, good headroom for flat picking, Deeper bass and metallic Highs compared to spruce/mahogany