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I'm looking for recommendations for top wood that has good hardness. Mostly have used Lutz, and I love the look and sound. But it is soft. Maybe all spruces are soft?

Why do you want a hard top?

This.

As far as surface hardness goes, I'd say Honduran rosewood is the hardest that could likely function well as a top... but it will be super thin and brittle. Purpleheart would be a little thicker (probably .070" or so), and better stiffness to weight ratio too, but still pretty brittle. Black walnut is probably the toughest all around, plus it will work with traditional bracing styles. And of course koa is popular.

As far as softwoods go, perhaps Douglas-fir? Or just particularly hard samples of any spruce. Red is the hardest/heaviest on average, but they all vary a lot from piece to piece.

Adirondack spruce is the hardest spruce I've worked with or even seen.
I got some from the hampton bros couple of months ago, baked it (because it's been logged recently) and it's seriously hard.
Even an accidentally sprung go-bar hardly marked it.
Well cut and rings like a bell.

_________________
The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Sitka spruce. I don't care what anyone says, it has a beautiful sound if well utilized.

You can always go to a mahogany top, but the sound is different.

" Maybe all spruces are soft?"

Yes, more or less: do you suppose that has some bearing on why they're called 'softwoods'?

Actually, Doug fir can have surface hardness that's close to that of oak, which is why they use it for flooring. Much of the Doug that I've seen has very heavy latewood lines, which is where the hardness comes from. It's not difficult to find similar looking spruce or redwood. The down side there is that such wood tends to be dense, and have rather low long-grain stiffness relative to it's density, so it makes a heavy top. That's OK if you're looking for something that has lots of 'headroom' and don't need 'responsiveness'. Without knowing why you want a hard top it's difficult to know what to tell you.

[quote="Greg B"]Sitka spruce. I don't care what anyone says, it has a beautiful sound if well utilized.
thanks Greg for your confidence in Sitka. It is a dandy choice. Pretty soon it will be extremely rare to get any old growth of that specie.

I can fix you up with some Sitka that will blow your socks off. Order a 3a set from my online store at alaskawoods.com and put in the comments box you are looking for hardness. I was grading some of my light curly sets yesterday. Have some real dandies from 2 differant logs. Both blow downs. One purchased in 2006 ish from a sale I had at Labachure Bay, and the other from another salvage just down the road here in Port St Nick. And of coarse Stiff as glass too? Talk about ring like a bell! 3A light curly. There is also some 2a ff BearClaw that is harder than most too. By the way, this would not be hard because of "hard Grain" or Compression wood. Just good clean heartwood.

Brent, I know I've playing message tag with you. I am looking for some claw. Just that I've been so busy finishing up a few guitars. As for top wood hardness, I was just wondering if there was a notable grading amongst the various spruce species. Or does it matter more where the wood came from in the tree (heart wood?).

Every tree is different. The trees I dissect average 400 years old. Each has it's history recorded in its growth rings. Many factors contribute to color, texture and form. There is certainly a common density, and then there are those rare birds, like some of this very hard and the ultra-light that we have some of. Generally speaking though, the denser fiber will come from the butt of a tree. In these 150-220' trees, that would be the first 10' or so. Heartwood, is pretty much all wood fiber inside the cambium layer[sapwood],carrying the water, just under the bark.
I have some harder bearclaw in the 2AFF and the 3A-FF sorts.