soundboard sources

[JurgenV]

actually the question is not where I can buy bookmatched soundboards. To be more specific: if I want to saw my own soundboards from a block of spruce where can I buy quartersawn spruce blanks. I don´t have a clue where I would be able to get quartersawn spruce with a decent quality. All suppliers in europe (at least those I know) just sell complete sets. And the prices are going up. Since I started building which was around 10 years ago the price for spruce more than doubled. So I was thinking maybe I can save some money if I start with a blank. With my all mahogany guitar it worked quite well.

So where do you guys get your soundboards? You just buy bookmatched sets or ...?

[kiwigeo]

Can't say I've ever seen billets of spruce on sale except for use on archtops and other carved top instruments.

Without thinking too hard about this I cant see much advantage to buying spruce in billet form and sawing out tops yourself..unless you want a run of matching tops from the same billet.

[Andos]

It's a long shot
Any antique airplane builders / restorers near you? The old planes were all spruce frame work.