A few years ago, luthier Hank Mauel persuaded us to again make available a few tops from the spectacular redwood trees found by Craig and Alicia Carter. We were skeptical; the dark color tones of a redwood top are not at all traditional. But the superior musical tone of these soundboards won out over their unconventional appearance, and these tops have become popular, proven performers for a wide range of high-end classical and steel string luthiers. So rather than continue to buy soundboards, we purchased all the Carter stock and will resaw the billets ourselves. This enables us to keep the price low.
Tonally, Redwood compares to Cedar but possesses more of the qualities associated with Spruce - so expect a bolder, crisper, punchier tone than Cedar, but with all the rich, strong overtones intact. These tops are much stiffer than you might expect for Redwood. In performing his soundboard testing, luthier Brian Burns found that some of the best strength-to weight numbers are found in these tops. Their color is rich and unique. Some tops show minor color inconstancies and streaks, but these disappear rapidly (a few weeks), if you expose the wood to sunlight (presumably through a window!).
All of this stock, by the way, comes from old growth cull logs already down for decades. LMI is located in northern California, surrounded by Redwood Forests, and we want to keep it that way.
