Classical guitar – spruce or cedar top? Which one to choose

Half of the users think that cedar top guitars are the best. The other half think spruce guitars are the best

So a cedar or spruce guitar?

From the very beginning, users of classical guitars have been dominated by the age-old dispute related to the optimal selection of the instrument – what top plate should my guitar have to make it sound as best as possible. When it comes to numerical statistics, the matter of user preferences is as follows. Exactly 50% of respondents believe that the only right option is a classic guitar with a cedar disc. However, the other half of the respondents swear that they can not imagine an instrument that would have a different motherboard than that made of spruce. This situation can be compared to eggs and hens or preferences as to the brand of the car – many people value what they already have.

Guitars with a spruce top

You have to start with the fact that spruce was the first building material in classical guitars. It was only after some time that cedar and even other various coniferous species began to be used. The reason for this was the constantly decreasing supply of material – this is the main reason for the introduction of other types of wood.

The sound of spruce guitars is very clear, clean and even, strongly saturated with a whole range of sounds, with an emphasis on high tones. Such characteristics make a very positive impression, but in the case of the player’s shortcomings, we can expect that in an instrument with such a disc it will be slightly more audible – precisely because of the possibility of greater selectivity of extracted sounds.

Spruce top boards mature longer – mainly due to certain chemical processes in the cellulose contained in the wood. This process is quite slow – it can take several years. During this time, we can observe how the guitar acquires an even more interesting sound and depth. It also changes from the visual side – the wood takes on a slightly darker shade.

Guitars with a cedar plate

The sound of guitars with a cedar disc is saturated mainly with medium and low tones. Cedar instruments have a nice, strong sound with many supporters. However, the price of this state of affairs is a certain loss of selectivity of individual sounds – especially in the case of higher parts of the aliquots. A cedar guitar also forgives slightly more bugs when playing.

By definition, the cedar board has much more stable parameters and is not as susceptible to changes as spruce, but in practice every instrument changes and is susceptible to a whole range of factors – especially the conditions of storage and daily treatment of the guitar.

Choose each music yourself

So the question about choosing the type of wood is not so simple. First of all, it should be clearly emphasized that the differences in the sound nature of individual discs can be very subtle – so much that a beginner will often not notice the difference. It should also be mentioned that a good technique and the use of masterful construction solutions are much more important for professional sound, not the type of wood itself. As a good example, I can mention here the old German We have with a dubious carpentry album that sound much better than many currently produced guitars with solid cedar or spruce.