Bearclaw Sitka Spruce Soundboard for Dreadnought Guitar
Premium bearclaw grain is a visual treat. This rare bookmatched soundboard spruce features subtle natural "bearclaw" striations that appear randomly across the grain. This gives the soundboard an especially distinctive appearance.
Bookmatched sets of two quartersawn halves. When joined they're large enough for a Dreadnought guitar.
- Each half is approximately 8-1/2" x 21" (216mm x 533mm)
- Thickness-sanded to 0.125" - 0.130" (3.18mm - 3.30mm)
- Unsanded tops are approx. 5/32" (4mm) thick, ready for thickness-sanding to your own specs.
Use our grading system to choose your soundboard:
Color: Higher grade soundboards have more consistent color (color affects the instrument's appearance only, not its tone).
Grain straightness: Higher soundboard grades have straighter, tighter, and more uniform grain. While closely spaced grain has been traditionally favored, luthiers have found that wider grain can produce very good tone.
Quartersawn grain: The higher the grade, the more closely quartersawn the wood. Perfectly quartered wood is more dimensionally stable and moves proportionally with changing temperature and humidity environments. This helps to ensure structural integrity and resists cracking better than other types of cuts.
Grain run-out: Our soundboards are sawn from split billets to reduce the amount of grain "run-out," caused by a twist in the tree. By splitting the log, the twist is followed when sawing. Higher grade soundboards have less run-out.
Origin and drying: Our soundboards (unless otherwise noted) are from western North America, and have been kiln-dried and stored in a climate controlled environment.