For lovers of wood

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virtual.ray

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I just saw something really interesting on The Learning Channel.A guy by the name of Scott Mitchen,who is a treasure hunter/diver,found thousands of maple logs in the bottom of a lake in Wisconson.These logs are the remains of lumber cut 50-75 years ago when lumber was a flourishing industry in Wisconson.They sank into the water while waiting to be taken to the mill,and at the time it was cheaper to just go cut down more trees than to try to salvage them.Most of the trees in question were already hundreds of years old at the time they were cut down!The upshot is that these logs have been sitting under the water for all these years,and the water has slowly replaced the sap which means that once kiln dried these logs possess almost identical acoustical properties to the woods used by Stradivarius to make his legendary instruments! What's more,they explained in the broadcast that the trees from this find are all from a shaded forest and many grew as little as 1/100th of an inch per year!This means that the wood is very figured,some logs have hundreds of "bird's eyes" per sq.foot! They showed the opening of one log,and it was incredible,I've never seen such a quantity of bird's eye and the figure has to be seen.They're still bringing logs to the surface,some are going for as much as $50,000 each.The company's name is Superior Lumber.Cheers!
 
Oh baby... just thinking about it gives me a woody :D

But how many guitar manufacturers are buying these up? My guess would be they would be wasted on furniture or other non-musical items... that sucks!
 
There was a guy in the show who works with Mitchen,his name was Finton(Donald I think),and he's making guitars from some of the logs,they showed this during the program.Apparently,they already have a system in place to decide which logs are best suited for instruments and which would be better off becoming tables etc.They also showed violin making during the broadcast,but did not specifically state whether Mitchen's logs were being used for this.Cheers!
 
I seen that show too he's gonna be a rich man
Did you see that one piece they held up -- half inch by 24 inch by 12 inch -- 600 bucks worth -- unfuck'in real........
 
It's pretty controversial in the luthier world, because nobody knows enough about the wood to hazard a guess about whether it is good or poor for instruments, and the notoriety has placed the price of this stuff into the stratosphere. We have a lot of extreme claims, accompanied by zero for a track record. The comparison to Stradevari is typical, particularly as nobody really knows anything about his sources, other than that the practice of the time was to use waterways as a means of transport, so it is plausable that he did so. But if that is true, and, as some have suggested, he stored logs in water, it simply means that he handled wood for another generation. We are reasonably certain that he did not build with unseasoned wood. Seasoning of wood takes a long, long time to attain.

When you're a small luthier, you have your eyes (somewhat) on the next two or three generations. This wood is simply an unknown. It has the potential to be good instrument wood, perhaps, but also has an equal potential to sound like papier mache.
 
Thanks for your input.If you get the Learning Channel maybe you'll get a chance to see the rebroadcast.THere was some footage of a guy playing an acoustic guitar,but again,they didn't state whether it was an instrument made from this wood.But whatever it was,it sounded very good.
 
I'm in the tonewood biz, and the above activities you describe are a real sham. I'm skeptical of anyone who surrounds themselves with that much PR, and yet is not able to deliver the product at a reasonable price. But that's a long long story...(especially the Stradivarious part).

Check out: www.aquaticcellulose.com
for a company who has set up operations in Brazil to bring up exotic timbers and market them at a reasonable price here in the US. (This might also be a good investment for you folks who are so inclined). I like the idea of bringing up sunken wood (I'm doing it myself), but the notion of plastering yourself all over every newspaper in the land (it ain't that hard to do) and charging outrageous prices for wood that doesn't really exist in the stated quanities is disingenuous at best...
 
The plot thickens...once again,thanks for your input.BTW,the program was called "In Search Of".Cheers!
 
Hey,Tonewood,was that spelling of Stradivarius intentional?
 
uh-hhhh, take out the o-oooo.
Didn't he make Strats?
Various styles?
 
Don't you find it interesting that the most popular instrument in the world 200 years ago was a Strad and nowadays its a Strat? Two hundred years from now, there'll be an instrument called a Strath (short for Strathcona), a stringed instrument with a bagpipe resonator attached. Take the world by storm, I expect.
 
I've seen and read about that lumber and am really interested to hear what the wood really has to offer...I've heard that the solid body electrics have a sustain that goes on and on. I've even thought about getting a big enough chunk for the center of a body to see the difference. Of course the price has scared me off!
 
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