Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello,

I just received one of SM's torrefied tops. The tap tone is incredible compared to the other Sitka tops I have. Low and loud and rings forever. I have a stack of about 50 bearclaw tops. Do any of the forum sponsors offer a service to torrefy tops that a customer sends them? I'd like to send in a dozen or so of these to see how they turn out.

Thanks!
Brad

_________________
Insta - https://www.instagram.com/cbcguitars/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/cbcguitars

I don't have a lot of experience with this, but last year I did speak with a company in Canada that does this process. They mainly treat wood for decking and other outdoor uses. Their oven is the size of a transport trailer and doing small volumes of wood was not feasible. Also from talking with them it seems like they vary the drying process based on what the wood will be used for. So putting your thin guitar tops in with a bunch of deck planks doesn't work. As far as I know it is not the tonewood suppliers themselves that are putting the wood through this process, but they are having outside companies who specialize in this process do it for them. I just don't know what the minimum volume required is or what companies in the US offer this service.

That is the limited information I have, but I honestly haven't spent much time looking into it. I'll be interested to hear what others have to say.

Josh

_________________
Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
http://www.canadianluthiersupply.com
https://www.facebook.com/canadianluthiersupply?ref=hl
House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
http://www.houseguitars.com

Grant Goltz gets his wood done in Minnesota if memory has not failed me.

Interesting thing to do. Report back on your results if you don't mind. I too purchased one of the SM tops on one of my last orders on a whim. It's neat looking stuff and does have a good tap tone. My problem is that some of the best guitars I have ever built was with tops that didn't have much of a tap tone to speak of. I have yet to build with torrified but it's on my list of things to do.

I can give you connections to the place here in Minnesota that does wood for many of the larger guitar factories and several smaller suppliers. Again, most of the wood he treats is for flooring, decking, and the like, but almost every kiln load has some guitar wood in it. I won't name names, but his clients cover much of the alphabet, including F, G, MM, and others, and he has also done wood for a luthier who is known to build totally "torrified" guitars, and for smaller instrument brokers on both the east and west coasts..

I have had him do about 300 tops and a big stack of bracewood, along with dozens of back and side billets in about 20 species. Also neck blanks, fingerboards and bridge blanks. I especially like the ebony bridge blanks...drops the weight by 15% and seems to eliminate the damping effect of ebony.

He will do small batches. Obviously bigger batches are cheaper per piece, but batches of 8 to10 are reasonable. He obviously has a minimum charge, so don't send 1 or 2 tops.

Since he is not a sponsor here (and at his prices, he probably could not afford to be), I probably should not post his contact info here, but he does do a service to luthiers that is not readily available elsewhere. And I will vouch for the quality of what he does.

I have been to his kiln several times and have helped load and unload pallets of instrument wood. He is just an hour from my shop, and stops by now and then for a beer

Grant