23 Dec Years-Old Sitka spruce Tops
Walter Lipton Private Collection
When Walter Lipton called us the summer of 2020, we knew he must have some lovely woods for sale…again. If you remember, we had purchased some beautiful Brazilian Rosewood back and side sets from his ‘long-stored’ personal wood collection and now he was offering us years-old Sitka spruce tops.
Shortly thereafter, we received the tops. Upon first glance, they looked like they’d been torrified…beautiful creamy butterscotch color and many grain lines. LPI (lines per inch). Some of them have a tiny bear-claw to them. We quickly put one into production thinking we would debut it @ Winter NAMM 2022. When Winter NAMM 2022 was postponed, the guitar became available and was sold to one of our Authorized Dealers. It shipped on 11/17/2021 to Organic Sounds Select Guitars, Irvine, CA.
Walter sent a little note about the tops:
“probably (purchased) from one of the West coast guys. While it is very nice looking, the characteristic that caused me to save it out was its stiffness and tap tone. It’s so strong it can be thinned way down and still be strong enough, giving a very lightweight responsive top.”
Thank you, Walter, happy retirement!
