Torrefied B Grade European Spruce Acoustic Guitar Soundboard

Description of Torrefied B Grade European Spruce Acoustic Guitar Soundboard

European Spruce (Picea abies) is an evergreen tree and is considered one of the best tonewoods. By definition, a tonewood is any wood that is used for its properties to make a musical instrument. Spruce is highly prized as a tonewood for many and varied reasons. It has a very good stiffness to weight ratio, which means that although it is light and needs to be calibrated to the right thickness to make a soundboard, it is still very strong.

How are B Grade European Spruce tops graded?

B-grade European spruce (Picea abies) tops for classical, flamenco, or western (dreadnought) guitars are very hard, with annual rings ranging from very close together to more widely spaced. The tops with rings close together usually have some resin stains or small defects that are not accepted in the higher grades. We can also find flawless tops with more widely spaced rings and with some of them in reddish or brownish tones. They are by no means inferior to the harmonics, since in many cases their aesthetics have little or no influence on their tonality.

Quality grading of our woods

What is the torrefaction process?

Torrefaction is a thermochemical treatment of the wood carried out in vacuum. During the torrefaction process, the water contained in the wood and other volatiles are eliminated, while the cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin maintain their structure. The result is a solid, dry wood with an attractive toasted color.

During the process, the wood loses approximately 20% of its mass without an appreciable change in volume, so that more stable and suitable pieces are obtained for the construction of guitars than that offered by traditional kiln-drying or air-drying, giving a result similar to the oldest wood, much appreciated in the construction of instruments with vintage aesthetics.

Features

• Size: 550x215x4.5 mm x2
• Botanical Name: Picea abies
• Origin: Europe
• Density: 440-470 Kg/m3