Official Luthiers Forum!

Has anyone ever used Lutz spruce from Mario at sprucetonewood.com?
He apparently names all his trees so each set or billet corresponds
to the tree name:curly bear, kermodie, white claw, as just a few examples.

I'm wondering about the quality of his Lutz. The descriptions are quite hyperbolic.

I really like Lutz Spruce as I have used it for acoustic flat top guitars and carved violins( fiddles). I have an order with Shane at High Mountain Tonewood. I have never tried the dealer that you mentioned. Pals, Vic.

I have dealth with Mario once. Contrary to Chris, I have had a good experience with him. I explained him what I wanted, he sent me pictures of two sets corresponding to my description and I bought both. He was quite proactive in making sure I was happy with the sets once I got them.

Here is what I did with one of the sets: viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=39524

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

Anyone that sources out a supply of Lutz to sell is OK in my books. I have only purchased from Shane(great wood) but I know Mario has some great wood also. I have seem some that has staining due to various anomilies that look really cool. Bridge logs etc. And, if you're feeling flush, he has wood to sell you for 5- $600 a set. Just imagine the guitar that could make. . Mario does his own thing and he's a good guy. If you want the best deal he does some weekend auctions.

Cheers,
Danny

Too much hype for me.........................!!!
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

+1 on Chris' comment about grading. Below is a photo of what Mario calls a "master" top.

Lutz Botanically is a hybrid of Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis), Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) and White spruce (Picea glauca).

Both Mario at [url]sprucetonewood.com[/url] and Shane at [url]highmountaintonewood.com[/url]
sell the same Lutz harvested from the same forests in the Terrace area of British Columbia, which is known for its high quality and the only area on the planet that Lutz is found.

Both dealers are honest and reputable. The wood is the same Lutz. Only their marketing practices and their grading systems are different ~ just like all of the other tone wood dealers.

Personally I like the fact that Mario names his trees, as it permits me to reorder the same product because trees are just like people...no two are the same.

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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I've purchased from, both guys. My opinion, take your pick.

What I do is I call them up and describe what I want. Level of color, (IE stripey, blotchey, snow white, yada ) and how tight/straight the grain is, and the amount of medullary rays.

They send me pictures, if I like it I buy it, I don't really discuss specific "grades", with either of them actually, since it doesn't matter to me what they call it, since I've described what I want already.

If I see a picture that I think is mis-labeled and over priced, I ignore it. BFD.

I've had no problem getting wood that I've like from either Shane or Mario.

The nicest top I've recieved is from Shane, and he gets extra points for consistency and ability to cut his tops to a high degree of quality making them easy to work with. His bracewood is always nice and straight, too. I've always demanded his top quality tops and have never been disappointed, I'm sure his inexpensive tops are equally high quality for the money. I personally like his more colorful tops. Here's a nice Shane top, specially selected and pre-approved. Even with no finish you can see how straight the grain is and how beautiful the medullary rays are across the entire face:



I have a TON of tops that I purchased from Mario's auctions, some of them pretty cheap, and they mostly all have the qualities that I'm looking for, although since I got a lot of them pretty cheaply, I have to work a little extra to sand them evenly as they're not all cut consistently (what do you expect for a $25 top that has medullary rays across the face and no runout, something that Martin would call a 1-in-100 top?) but have ended up with a fantastic top for the effort. The special order higher dollar tops are nicer ($80 and up) and require less work to utilize. Mario gets extra points for being available 24/7 to buy wood from, easy to get a hold of. Here's a nice special order top I got from Mario, it has finish on it so all the details are prominently visible. Very high quality as well:

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Old growth, shmold growth!

BTW here's that guitar in the picture with the Mario top being played by the owner:


Just a microphone off to the side picking them both up.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I've bought over 100 tops from Mario. I only had 2 that I remember that were not that great, and he sent me a free replacement. He also sends brace wood for free sometimes too. One great thing from both Mario and Shane, is that the wood is hand split so there is no run-out. I like the fact that Mario numbers and names the trees, so you can get another set of wood if you like it very similar to the one you used before. The tree "Furry Bear" is used on my photo below.

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Jason Moe
LaCrosse WI 54601

Thanks everybody.

Consistent rays on that one too, Jason!

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I just sanded down a Wolverine top. Full of bearclaw. He called it Wolverine because it looks like a Wolvy tore it up. I got it at his auction for $30.00.

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Jason Moe
LaCrosse WI 54601

My hurricane Sandy guitar has Mario wood on it. I forget the tree though. Massive amounts of silking. It's gorgeous wood and stiff as a really stiff thing.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

I love the top on that hurricane guitar

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Precisely.

Thanks GW. It's a beautiful top fo sho!

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC