Spanish cedar for LP body and neck?

P

PeteHalo

New member
Do you guys know of any bigger guitar manufacturer that would use spanish cedar for a Les Paul type of guitar's body and neck?

I had a chance to try out such a guitar, a Ruokangas Duke Millennium (check www.ruokangas.com for details, there's plenty of them on this particular model), at the local music shop and the beast was very light and resonant compared to my LP copy made of the usual mahogany and maple. It was so light that when I had it strapped on it felt like I was holding a strat. The luthier Juha Ruokangas was there also to tell us about his guitars and he explained that he had spent years in research of a substitute for the Honduran mahogany used in the very first Gibson Les Pauls and that in spanish cedar he's found it.

Because I don't have the $3000+ for a hand made Ruokangas (BTW the one off Millennium had a hefty price tag of 9450 euros, about $9000) I was wondering if there were any major guitar factory to use spanish cedar for a factory made electric guitar.

BTW the VSOP strats were also fine looking and playing instruments. Don't know how much the ThermoTimber artificial aging process affected the tone but it sure did make the grain of the wood look kind of 3-D underneath clear laqeur.
 
If this guitar felt like a strat then it had to be chambered. Gibson doesn't chamber their guitars so the difference in weight and resonance would be blatently obvious. I prefer Korina but hey whatever floats yer boat.
 
The guitar was solid but the cedar is so much lighter than the mahogany used today so the weight was in the range of typical strat instead of typical LP. They do make a chambered version too.

Ordering a custom made ax from US is not an option here. Adding the shipping costs, import tax, and VAT on top of all effectively doubles the US price. I was looking for something in the 1000+ range.
 
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