Engelman Spruce

Family: Pinaceae - Order: Pinales - Class: Pinopsida

Scientific name: Picea engelmannii

Trade name: Engelmann Spruce

Also known as White Spruce and Silver Spruce

Origin: Western North America

Instrumental uses:
Soundboards, sound bars, bracing and bindings.

Tonal properties:

A very refined and pleasant tonal balance, it reproduces all frequencies but has a prominent richer midrange which makes a guitar sound more present with a more mature sound sending a big projection. Played with nails it can be a perfect match to guitars with these tops. When used for sound bars and bracing, it can give with less wood a very good sound optimization and good strength, thanks to the straight grains usually running for outer side part of the tree with unparalleled figured grains, especially if very tight.

Very old woods can produce tops sounding like old matured guitars. Engelmann can match with several types of back and sides, including Rosewoods, Mahoganies or Maples. Vintage wood quarter-sawn  blocks are rare and expensive, also the tonal properties are much better.

It is a soft wood but very uniform in consistency, with an average dried weight nearly of 24 lbs/ft3 or 385 kg/m3. 

Picea engelmannii is a straight tree with a spire-like crown that can reach 50 metres tall and 1 metre in diameter. Is native of Western North America (USA and Canada), occurs mainly at high elevations, in areas with long, cold winters and short, cool summers. It grows best on deep, rich soils with adequate moisture. The color of bark is reddish-brown to grey. The sapwood is usually cream whitish sometimes with red stripes and the heartwood is more cream darker.

CITES status is unrestricted. Is reported on the IUCN Red List as least concern.