Official Luthiers Forum!

Greetings,

I have come across some old Heart Pine that has extremely close grain. Came from a factory built in the 1860's. Some boards are quartersawn and wide enough for guitar tops. Anyone ever use any of this material. I am only familiar with the stuff you get at Home Depot that has annual rings about a quarter inch apart. This stuff I am talking about might have 15 to 20 annual rings per inch.

Please advise if you have any experience with heart pine for a top material.

Thanks
Ken

How about backs and sides? That stuff is harder than Oak.

After hearing guitars made with Walnut, Koa, and Monkeypod tops, I would think any wood could be used as soundboard material - they just will have a different attack/sustain/decay and timbre than what most other guitars will have. A while ago here, someone wanted to try a Cocobolo soundboard, but received enough preemptive thumbs down that I suspect he/she won't ever try. Pity. We need experimenters. Even if they "fail."

Dennis

_________________
Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

From Woodweb

"Heartpine is generally considered to be recycled timber from first generation trees (trees that were standing when the first settlers landed in the 1600s). I believe most of the trees were long leaf pines, many as old as 300+ years. There were probably some other pine species mixed in, but the predominate tree was the long leaf. There were approximately 80,000,000 acres of these trees and almost all were gone by 1900. This wood was the primary building material for homes and factories. It is now being recycled as heart pine. Most structures built after 1900 were from second generation trees and do not exhibit the very tight rings associated with the first generation timber. So here in North Carolina heart pine being recycled is usually first generation timber with tight growth rings (I have seen as many as 30-35 per inch) and a large heartwood (usually red to yellow to orange).

To answer your other question, southern yellow pine could be any number of southern pine species, such as loblolly, long leaf, pond pine, shortleaf pine, Virginia pine and probably others. Many of the pines have local names. I really think that many wood recyclers use the pine name that they feel will sell their product."

_________________
Aoibeann

Thanks for the information on the Heart Pine. I live in North Carolina and am very familiar with the spieces you mentioned. The long leaf pine does not grow well even in the southern part of North Carolina. Have to go to SC and further to find that. I live in the middle of a 700 arce Loblolly tree farm.

I am going to buy the board from a restoration supplier. This stuff is from the mid 1800's. It is from an old distillary. I am sure a lot of instruments made in the southern US from the 1700's on had tops of Heart Pine. Was plentiful and cheap. I will have to check out some history on the subject.

Thanks
Ken

Heart Pine is heavy, dense and resinous. Probably not good top wood.

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars