Archtop Tops

Good wood ! Thanks !

I'm tempted to give these tops a really bad review so I can hoard them all for myself, but I have to be honest about it. The wood I received was better than most of the wood I've found in other places. A couple of the pieces had minor issues that many makers would probably not find problematic. I called to ask for a replacement and the folks at Stew Mac immediately emailed me a return label and sent out a new top which met my rather rigorous standards. Here's the big secret that I'm reluctant to share. I re-sawed these tops into lute tops, getting four tops from each set. Now I've got four lute tops of beautiful German Spruce for the cost of one classical guitar top anywhere else. I also had enough left over for braces, and two tops for a couple of small Renaissance guitars. All from one set of archtop boards. See why I want to keep it a big secret? As a former board member of the Guild of American Luthiers, I am automatically predisposed to share information, not hide it. Here's a baroque guitar I built from this wood.
Thanks Stew-Mac for saving me a bundle!

The back set I use on this guitar was perfect, I must say it took 5 year to finish but sound is great it took finish very well very nice fig. for AA and I will be ordering 2 more sets this month, hope the photo works. Danville CA

I had chosen to spend the money on a AAA top. The top-wood arrived with a blue stain on one half. I suppose I could have packaged it up with all the hassle of packing, mailing,waiting for another to arrive or chance it that the mold stain would be carved out when done. My mistake.

Gonna be hard to sell with the asymmetrical pattern on the book-matched front. I must say however that stew mac did rectify another mistake when I got a non compound radiused fret board in the post. They sent me the right one right away and allowed me to keep the other one as well.