Less than quart sawn spruce

[Dan Vines]

I was given some nice tight, less than quarter sawn spruce. The four 1/4" thick boards are cut with 45 degree grain and big enough for dreadnought tops. They came from a mill up the road a few miles that makes piano soundboards. These are throw-aways someone brought to me.
Question is, are they too far off quarter sawn to use for tops? What would be the issues? What about using them for back strips?

I also got some (5-6) great perfectly quart sawn 1/2" spruce boards 3" wide, 24" long that should be great for bracing. :-)

[ken cierp]

The thing I would consider most is that there is going to be 100 hours or more of work involved in making a guitar. So -- we know that off vertical sound board material could have less than desirable expansion and contraction rates, likely it is not as stiff as 90 degree material, its will likely not have a pleasing book match appearance when joined, since it was not cut with the intention to use as a sound board there could also be run-out issues. Stew mac and others sell lovely AA sound boards for about $20. SM boards are sourced from the best supplier in the world.

I suggest that you use the wood for bracing etc. not the heart and soul of the instrument $.02

[Dan Vines]

Thanks Kenneth. That's what I was thinking, but had to ask. I assume it will make for good back strip bracing and other thin bracing.

[Herman]

Dan,

Cumpiano wrote:
"As an approximate rule of thumb, a top should not be more than 20 degrees off the verticalfor at least 2/3 of its width......
and no part should be more than 40 dergees off".

I too got some boards with runout and flaws. Almost for free. But no one wants such a top, so they keep sitting in my pile for a long time.
Herman

[Dan Vines]

I will be making a visit to this mill to see what they do have. They are only 15 minutes away. Thanks for the info.info