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estebanana -> RE: Stephen Faulk 2016 Cypress-Spruce blanca (Jul. 27 2017 1:38:30)
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quote:
About the blancas....you use Monterey cypress for this one, I was curious how you feel about the difference between spanish cypress, Monterey, Hinoki, and other blanca materials. For example the port orford (Lawson cypress) guitar looked like a blanca but that type of wood seemed more like maple guitars I have tried.
Interesting question and something I have thought about in the making process. First I'll preface the reply with I'm not one of the types of makers that go at length about the micro differences in sound between back and sides woods so a few words a lot.
Anecdotally in my work I'll say I sense very little if any difference between most Spanish Cypress and most Monterey. They are different species but very similar, indistinguishable in my mind except for color. The only difference is that Monterey can have regional or tree to tree differences and some MC will be softer and silkier, other MC can be hard, brittle and ropey, that stuff is unusable. Most MC is in the 'Goldilocks zone' and is neither too soft of too brittle and seems to be very much like SC, for any practical purpose only more brown or pinkish.
I like Monterey a lot, if it has the typical best Spanish Cypress qualities it is a superior wood for blancas.
Lawson Cypress and Hinoki Cypress are related, they are from the family of false cypresses, but distinct species. Oddly Hinoki is still considered a cypress, but Lawson is a conifer. Lawsoniana is native to the North Eastern Pacific Rim and Hinoki is native to Japan. They grow in different latitudes, but under similar conditions. Where Hinoki grows gives it its qualities.
Both woods have some similarities as guitar woods, different grain color, Hinoki is more variable and ranges from practically whitish-yellow to having brown grain lines occasionally Lawson is generally more plain looking, but old large Hinoki trees that grew out of the winds can be very straight an even grained. They could even make tops.
I'd say it's fair to assess them as being slightly more transparent than Spanish Cypress or Monterey and you could build with them to get a Maple like sound. I think of Maple as more neutral, slightly like I said 'transparent'. That said, the way you use it means everything. The top means a lot, and how you brace it. Spanish Cypress and Monterey are usually a bit more dense then either Hinoki of LC. With less stiff or dense plates you build thicker, but the differences between these for woods are not so great that the thicknesses must be radically divergent. Hinoki / LC backs I make are usually .50 mm thicker and ribs are about 1.8 to 2 mm for all woods depending on how they feel when scraping them. Hinoki and LC get a couple of stiffeners near the waist of the ribs because that area is fragile unless you splint it.
I think the Maple analogy is fair to an extent, only at this point I can do more with the range of sound by the way the guitar is built. That particular one you played was Maple like,but you might say others were more like the other kids of Cypress. One thing they have in common is that they are all 'Cypresses'. Lawson is really a Conifer, but hey close enough.
There are also variants of Monterey that grow in Central Mexico like the Cypress from Paracho area. Some of the very best blanca wood I have seen has been from Mexico. I'm working on a guitar right now with a Mexican back and a California side set. Maybe I'll call it 'El Californio' since CA was once part of Mexico.
From plant Wiki:
*Chamaecyparis lawsoniana, known as Port Orford cedar or Lawson cypress, is a species of conifer in the genus Chamaecyparis, family Cupressaceae.
*Chamaecyparis obtusa (Hinoki) is a species of cypress native to central Japan. It is a slow-growing tree which grows to 35 m tall with a trunk up to 1 m in diameter. The bark is dark red-brown.
*Cupressus macrocarpa, commonly known as Monterey cypress, is a species of cypress native to the Central Coast of California.
*Cupressus sempervirens, the Mediterranean cypress (Spanish Cypress) , is a species of cypress native to the eastern Mediterranean region, in northeast Libya, southern Albania, southern coastal Croatia, southern Montenegro.
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