The heart and soul of any guitar is the wood.  Now, players, answer this question and be truthful now, hear?  When you tell somebody what your favorite guitar is, you describe the back and side wood predominantly, doncha?  As in, "Yeah, I have a great flamed Maple Larivee as my go-to axe."  Am I right or am I right?  Now, Torres' Paper Mache experiment not withstanding, back and side wood does matter, but the fact is, the sound board is the true heart of the guitar.  What that is made of will have a much greater bearing on the sound of any given axe than the back and side wood will, guaranteed. 

My tops come from friends in Canada, Minnesota, and Europe, and more times than not, my supplier is also the harvester. I keep the following in stock on a regular basis:   Lutz spruce, (A highbrid of Sitka, White, and occasionally Engelmann Spruce), from British Columbia's Coastal Range, White Spruce from Minnesota, Carpathian Spruce from the mountains surrounding the Black Sea, and Alaskan Yellow Cedar from lower mainland British Columbia. And once again, the folks I get these from are friends whom I know personally and trust.  The wood is always very good, regardless of the grade of the top.  I choose and buy tops first and foremost for how they sound, and secondarily for how they look:  To you players, that means that if you are coveting a "Blindingly white Spruce top," I can get ya that, but FYI; my first priority is still gonna be how it sounds and not how it looks.  I like variety personally and the subtle color spectrums found in great Spruce and Cedar are beautiful things to me and hopefully to you too - If you choose your tops by a certain sound quality and presence you want to hear in your next axe, you and I will get along real well indeed!  Seriously though, I keep a bunch of different qualities, colors and sizes in, from deeply colored Canadian Cedar to holy smokes Fiemmi Spruce from the same valley that Stradivarius got his, and pretty much everything in between:  Trust that I have decades of builds in great tops stashed in my shop.

Now don't get me wrong, back and side woods are important and definitely do have a bearing on what a guitar becomes tonally; that said, it's equally or more important for one reason and one reason only: Because guitars made of really nice wood are stunning; right?  As you probably know, in days of yore, the lion's share of steel string guitars were made of either Dalbergia Nigra, (Brazilian Rosewood), or Swietenia Macrophylla, (Honduran Mahogany).  Unfortunately, over-harvesting has lead to Brazilian Rosewood being CITES listed, Honduran Mahogany is not far behind, and there are a number of other traditional high-end guitar woods that are following the trend, (Koa as a for instance...).  That means that the only way you can get it any more involves buying wood that's been long stockpiled by savvy builders and suppliers:  Trust me when I say that you can be absolutely sure of the fact that this stuff is now fabulously expensive!    Hence, common sense dictates that us common folk must look elsewhere for alternatives; I choose to not build with endangered wood, so with that said, how does one make 21st Century guitars that will rival the great older ones? 

Well, I'll tell ya.  I buy back and side wood from some of those same friends who supply tops to me.  It's all carefully chosen, cut, dried, and aged.  I get Walnut, Madrone, and Yew from the Pacific Northwest, and Maple, Cherry, Walnut, Ash, and Sycamore from the Midwest.  Mango comes from the big island of Hawaii.  Canary Wood and Brazilian Cherry come from Mexico and Central America.  

Now I am entering into a partnership with a great friend from Shanghai, who also happens to be a very talented builder in his own right.  We will be adding a wide variety of amazing Asian and African species to the mix, not only as backs and sides on my guitars, but for sale to other builders as well, (And very fairly priced I might add!); very soon you'll see African Blackwood, Ebony Mun, three species of Makassar Ebony, four species of Madagascar Rosewood, African Mahogany, Yellow Sandalwood, Pommele Bubinga, Waterfall Bubinga, Flamed Soft Maple, Figured Makore, Shedua or Ovankol, Flamed Cambodian Cherry, Flamed Cambodian Teak, Merbau, Madagascar Black Ebony, Pommele Sapeli, Ribbon Sapeli, Black Walnut and Chinese Grapefruit available, so keep an eye peeled for that!

How wood destined to become a guitar is handled is every bit as important, maybe more so, than what it is and where it came from.  I buy and sell guitar wood all the time, and I am very, very picky about all of it!  I believe strongly in having a very short chain between me and the wood's origins; I also believe strongly that the people who I get it from share my care and concern for the stuff, and believe me, they do.  I buy wood from folks who know a heck of a lot more about it than I, as well as how to prepare, cut, ship, and store the wood before it gets to me:  Is all that really important?  Yes, it most certainly is!  In my experience, wood has amazing memory; it recalls and records everything that happened to it when it lived, as well as how it was handled and treated after being harvested.  You might think I'm nuts for saying this, but wood has a definite Karma; what goes around comes around, so well treated wood makes happy and harmonious guitars.  If you doubt that, ask a few other builders and see what they say; their vernacular might be different, but I'd bet dimes to dollars the message will be the same... 

I do not buy kiln dried wood, nor do I artificially dry it once I get it.  Call me old school, but I believe the way you prepare wood to become a fine guitar is by starting with great stuff and then naturally and slowly air drying and curing it for as long as it takes to be ready.  Ya don't push mother nature, you honor her and her creations...  Besides, when it's time to choose wood for a new build, it is an absolute ball to pull a bunch out and and see what's ready and just right - It's kinda like pickin' out a kitten at the feed store, ya know?