The Prize Guitar for the 2023 Twisted Spruce Music Foundation Guitar Competition, Part One

The guitar before being an instrument was a tree and in it the birds sang. The wood knew music long before it was a guitar. Atahulpha Yupanqui, guitarist and folk singer This year's prize guitar is a double top classical guitar! I finished assembling the body to the neck early in April and the guitar is waiting for bindings, fretboard, bridge, frets and a French polish finish. The top of this guitar is reclaimed old growth Redwood, sequoia sempervirens , is considered to be the tallest tree in the world, there are redwood trees at Humboldt State Park in California that are over four hundred feet tall! Master luthier José Oribe began using redwood tops for some of his guitars 1967, and at one point over 80% of his orders were for redwood. Redwood lumber is strong, very stable dimensionally, it's voice has the warmth of cedar with the clarity of spruce. The back and sides are California Laurel/Oregon Myrtle, an evergreen hardwood tree that ranges from Southwestern Oregon southwa