How does an Engelmann spruce top differ from a Sitka spruce top? Why is Engelmann more expensive?
Sitka spruce, which grows in a coastal pocket from Northern California to Alaska, is a dense, straight-grained wood that has the highest strength and elasticity-to-weight ratio among available tonewoods. Its strength and toughness, in fact, make it ideal soundboard material for steel-string acoustic guitars. Engelmann spruce is found in the Rocky Mountain range (a lot of the best Engelmann comes from New Mexico, Idaho, and Montana). It has many of the desirable traits of German spruce – including workability and a lustrous “ivory” hue. Because its stiffness and weight differ from that of Sitka spruce, Engelmann soundboards produce a different, slightly mellower tone, one that many players describe as “more mature.” These factors, and Engelmann’s scarcity, explain its use in our higher-end guitars.
