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Today I had the pleasure of attending my first meeting of Luthier's Interactive of North Texas, which is a Dallas based club that meets bi-monthly to showcase work and tips, and has a once a year symposium. I've been looking forward to my first meeting since I first heard about it, and growing my beard out so I'd look respectable to a bunch of old luthiers. Two people there did not have beards. One was a girl, to my shock! Anyway, a stock of wood had been donated from the estate of a recently passed luthier, free to members for the taking. As the new guy, I waited for the best stuff to be taken before grabbing a bit from what was left. Here's what I got!

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Behold, the world's ugliest soundboard! It's Western Red Cedar, and I'm told it's about forty years old. It's not even close to bookmatched, but it has an amazing tap tone with between 2-3 seconds of sustain - deep, rich, and very warm, as you'd expect from WRC. There's also a piece of what will become brace wood there. Somebody said the stack it came from was more cedar, but c'mon. That looks like spruce to me. Anybody else?

I have no idea what these patterns are on the soundboard, but here's a close-up:

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I'm thinking this will be perfect for my next hybrid project if I put a veneer over the top. I'm aware that will effect the sound, but I can't imagine that with a cheap piezo pickup I'll be able to tell. And if I can tell the difference, EQ to the rescue.

Excited. :D

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