The voice:

The top is the voice of a guitar. Its physical properties will determine the final sound far more than any particular bracing style, pattern, sizing, and material (although each of these things do influence the sound). The rule of thumb I use is simple.

For any given species (Sitka, Englemann, German, Cedar, etc.) the following is universally true:

The softer (less stiff) the top, the warmer, woody-er the sound. By contrast, a stiff top will be brighter and have a harder edge to the tone.

The soft top emphasizes the lower frequencies and the fundamental of the air chamber/back relationship.The ear hears that as a darker, warmer sound. A stiff top emphasizes the high partials, which the ear interprets as being a brighter sound.

Species differences:

The species of a top does make a difference in the sound produced. I will try to convey these specific tonal envelopes with words, bear with me.

Sitka (a long time industry standard): can be edgy or warm depending on stiffness, but overall the sound is quite complex, often powerful with a slight bite to it. Excellent for flat-picking, very good for fingerpicking.

Englemann: Most of this wood available today is quite stiff, though as a species it is soft in texture and less dense than Sitka. The sound is very warm and woody with a quick, open, responsiveness and excellent sustain. Best for fingerpicking. Not much headroom for pushing.

German: (Real German, not Canadian Englemann shipped back to the States as German): Tonally more like Englemann than Sitka, although typically more powerful than Englemann (greater headroom). German improves markedly over time as does Sitka. The jury is still out on the sound of the Englemann over time.

Adirondack (red spruce): Hard to find great looking material of this species as the trees are small and scarce. Fortunately, grain count and uniform coloration mean nothing to the sound it produces. This is one of the best woods available when you want a big, edgy, percussive, articulate sound and a guitar which can be "pushed" without limit. Best for flat-picking.

Cedar/Redwood: I use very little of these woods for two reasons. I am concerned about their propensity to fracture easily (and often catastrophically), and I'm not crazy about the sound they produce. These materials are usually stiff and light (low density) which produces a very bright, ringing tone with lots of sustain and high partials. They also have a very quick response. The sound is dry rather than woody/warm, clean/clear rather than complex and are easily overdriven by a hard attack.

Much has been said and written about the amazing tonal properties of red spruce or Adirondack. (Something about Holy Grail again.) While it is true that some of the very best guitars I have ever heard made in the mid-30's to early 40's were built with Adirondack, it is equally true that some of the best guitars I have ever heard had Sitka tops as well.

All of these "phenom" guitars were heavily played in, over 60 years old, and well built to start with (not overly braced etc.,etc.) They differed in small ways as to thickness of top and/or back, shape and size (and in some cases location) of the braces, but in all cases there was something exceptional about each of them. They sounded better than anything else out there in the guitar world at the time, whether new or old.

So was the Adirondack, or the Sitka that much better back then than what is available today? Nope. Don't think so. Certainly for these primo guitars, the long life of hard playing had a great deal more to do with their current tonal output than wood type. The more one plays any well made guitar, the better it sounds over time. The fact that they were old only meant that they were not built to modern specifications (read that as "over-built").

So, getting back to the original issue of why red spruce, if you are looking for a loud, acutely articulate, slightly percussive tone, go with a lightly build Adirondack top. Tons of headroom there and it will improve markedly with age and playing. Or...

Go with a nice piece of Sitka for a slightly warmer sound with a little less bite. Slightly less headroom (unless you can wait about 30 years), but excellent overall sound.

If you primarily fingerpick, go with German or Englemann. Both woods have superior silky, smooth sounds that are at once big, quick, and very warm. German has the greater headroom.

What I do is keep two guitars on hand, one with a Englemann top and one with an Sitka top. They give me the range of sound I am looking for in a fingerpicking guitar and a flat-picking guitar, although either guitar works well for both styles of play. It is more a matter of what kind of voice I am in the mood to listen to at that particular moment.

My third guitar (in the works) will have Adirondack on a Brazilian body for a more "screaming" sound when I want to drown out that pre-war flat-head Mastertone playing too close to my ears....never happened to you, you say?

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