Anybody know about Bear Claw Spruce?

[The Bard]

my 2 cents: "unclawed" spruce is much more beautiful than spruce with bearclaw.

[Huddog1]

As for tonal quwality, I have no idea whether or not its better. I did get a look at my local dealers Martin d-50 (the fifty thousand dollar guitar for anyone unfamiliar with Martins) and its top was...Bearclaw...I'd assume that means its purty good stuff-

[jcalhoun]

Here's an example of a Taylor with some bear claw.

http://www.taylorguitarforum.com/for...threadid=14676

Jeff

[Solo]

Here's a better example of bearclaw.
Bearclaw Spruce

I am not particularly fond of bearclaws, but believe it or not every guitar i fell in love with and owened had some. ex. Larrivee C-70 [very lush and wavy bearclaws], Taylor 814LTD [one ugly swipe on the lower bout], Goodall CJ with German Top [with perfectly bookmatched flying V shape]. One day I hope to own a guitar without any... but for now, I am very happy with the tone I get from the clawed tops.

[lili]

Originally posted by taylorman
Not the best photo, but here's a pic...

Bear Claw Spruce

It looks good, but it didn't sound all that hot. Of course, that's not necessarily because of the bearclaw...

[Imapickn]

As a woodworker I learned a long time ago to, "Not fear the Knot"
The "bearclaw" is just a part of a special piece of wood.... Made special by the one who views it.. Some people like it,,, some don't.
It has been my experience that people who work with wood, (furniture makers, guitar makers, etc.) seem to enjoy the uniqueness of a single piece of wood.. It's just a personal like or dislike... I like...

[BkrdTrippr]

Originally posted by bob taylor
Well, we use bearclaw when it comes through. We make too many guitars to offer a model with bearclaw. I don't consider it a thing unto itself and it wouldn't be feasable either on the marketing or the material procurement side to box myself in to a strickly bearclaw topped model. To me, it's just spruce and I don't put it in the same category as, say, flame or quilt in maple.

As for the other spieces I got Englemann in my own back yard, so to speak. Engelmann and German are too close to each other to offer German. Plus German is too expensive and I won't compete with the violin market for the spruce they use. Adirondak, as well, is too limited and too expensive. It's just hard business cutting/selling/buying the stuff. There are no trees. Way too many disappointed people in the chain. Either the cutter or the broker or the guitar maker is upset by the time the business is done. When you talk Adirondak you're talking in terms of 10 ot 20 tops....that's a purchase; a whole deal. I can use that many tops on my way to lunch, and if I made more than 100 guitars I'd have used all the good stuff there is.

BTW, I'll have to let the tour guides know that flame doesn't happen by a tree being heavy and squoosing itself. Sheesh. A tree is flamey or quiled, or it's not. It's a genetic thing. It doesn't have anything to do with weight.

OMG, the man writes in himself! Now I know I'm in heaven! Bob, if you're out there, IMHO, your guitars put new Martins to shame. I spent some time in a GC acoustic room lately ( door closed, no salesperson) A/Bing your guitars to the Martins. I have played some great OLD Martins, but their new stuff can't hold a candle to yours tonally, even to your entry level stuff. I'm afraid I'm on my way to TAS and proud of it! How's old Kent Perkins doing? Anyway, regarding Bearclaw, I played a 410CE w/1 bearclaw the other day and I have to say, it sounded real sharp. But as to whether the bearclaw adds anything tonally, there are great sounding old Martins with no bearclaw that sound immense, humbling even. Can't wait to see what the Taylors sound like 20 yrs later.

[lili]

Originally posted by BkrdTrippr
Bob, if you're out there, IMHO, your guitars put new Martins to shame. I spent some time in a GC acoustic room lately ( door closed, no salesperson) A/Bing your guitars to the Martins. I have played some great OLD Martins, but their new stuff can't hold a candle to yours tonally, even to your entry level stuff.

I agree. Guitar Den in Orlando has an old Martin, a '53 D-28, with awesome tone. It has good base, but much more sparkle in the mid and high range than modern Martins. My brother's 15 year old Martin has a very similar sound. Guitar Den had a newer D-28 that didn't sound nearly as good, nor do the brand new Martins in stores like Guitar Center, etc. Taylors, while some are better than others, still seem to have retained the same characteristic sound through the years.

[DMBartender]

I currently own a "BearPoop" Spruce guitar.

[Imapickn]

Originally posted by DMBartender
I currently own a "BearPoop" Spruce guitar.

Oh, that's good, really good... I am gona have to use that one.. ROTFL..

[DMBartender]

Whats so funny? I really do!

[scub73]

Originally Posted by taylorman

(Another reprint from another forum)

The technical term for "bear claws" is hazelficte. It refers to a pattern in the grain occasionally showing up in all species of spruce. Basically it is a ripple in the fibers of the wood and is similar to the patterns you get in some maples (the curly stuff or "quilt"). But in spruce, bear claws are not uniform but random and asymmetrical. Some say they look like the curved claws of a bear, others say they look like the marks left by a bear who was sharpening his claws on the tree before it was felled and turned into furniture or guitar tops.

It is almost always a sign that the spruce is from an old tree with a very dense molecular structure. This translates into stiff tops and a greater velocity to the soundwaves they produce. Many luthiers feel that bear claws are a reliable sign of higher quality tone wood within a given species of spruce.

This is why you see highly bear clawed tops on the special Martin D-50s on up that have been produced primarily as museum-quality examples of the appointment work of their Custom Shop artisans.

So some people feel they are ugly, or at least when there is only one or two marring otherwise straight grain in a top. Others like it because it makes their guitar singular and noticably unique from all others. But when there is significant bear clawing, as in some of Bourgeois top line stuff or those D-50s I mentioned, it can be quite stunning.

I don't think people originally liked bear claws because of how they looked, and therefore coveted that particular piece of wood. But rather the other way around: it is something people have come to find aesthetically pleasing because it is a sign of a very good piece of wood, tone-wise.

But it is not a matter of myth, it is a matter of molecular chemistry. Bear claws only appear in the stiffest Spruce.

This is my exact understanding as well after speaking to a Luthier yesterday.. He just loves the bearclaw and feels it can make a difference in tone..

[swiftz07]

Takamine does list their guitar specs as 'bear claw' spruce. I've played the japan made models (Nashville) and i actually do think it sounds good.

the ones i've seen have small 'swirls' in the wood top. nice touch in addition to the straight-running grain lines.

do they age faster than stika? cus the ones i've seen are usually more 'yellow / orange' than stika/engelman even when new

[cowinds]

on my Larrivee OM-03.

[Jeff M]

From Dana Bourgeois, luthier;
"Before leaving the spruces, I should mention bearclaw figure, or hazelficte-a delightful pattern in the grain occasionally occurring in all species of spruce. Bearclaw, like the curl in curly maple, is a rippling of the longitudinal fibers, which divides the surface of the wood into shimmering patterns. Unlike the even waves that usually occur in maple, bearclaw usually appears on asymmetrical or randomly broken patterns. This phenomenon almost always occurs in older trees that have dense, stiff grain structure and high sound velocity. Thus bearclaw is usually a reliable indicator of the better examples of tonewoods within any given species of spruce."

My own opinion....meh.
"Bear claw" tops were not used back in the "vintage" days. Felt to look "blemished".
Nowadays, with less quality wood to go around and the discovery that with a little advertising, you can convince people that what once considered a "flaw" is actually an "indicator of a good piece of wood" that you charge more for , builiders are using it more.
I've owned a couple of guitars with "bear claw". Nice guitars. Not nicer than "non-bear claw" topped guitars, at leat not that I could tell.
There is just so much variability between even "identical" guitas built with slabs of wood from the same stash that to say it's the bear claw that makes one sound better/worse than the other, well....that's reaching to me.