We are a custom shop and supply our own material. This gives us the ability to produce unusual dimensions that other producers cannot because of either material supply and/or lack of appropriate machinery. Our ability to produce these unusual products has familiarized us to an array of acoustic instruments, many of which are unknown to much of the world. Gleaning many thousands of board feet each year from millions of board feet of prospect, we have acquired an eye for tonewood. Our comprehensive understanding of what makes superior tonewood extends beyond the everyday dreadnought or classical guitar into the realms of double bass, nyckelharpa, harpsichord, piano, wiessenborn, and countless others.

As a superior soundboard manufacturer, Alaska Specialty Woods knows quality tonewood. We ensure superior quality through our “hands-on process” (hyperlink to Our Process) from start to finish. This process allows maximum yield in quality, grade, and volume by dissecting individual logs and blocks according to the size, grade, and defect of each. In doing so, every board is cut with the highest standards in mind. This process allows us to stand firmly behind the quality of our product. Quality however, must not be misconstrued for “Grade,” as grade may only be determined by the aesthetic properties inherent in each specific tree and is limited to the supply provided by nature.

Our expertise and intimate knowledge of the products we offer has allowed us to restructure our grading platform to include even the most unique qualities such as one of our specialties — the bearclaw. ASW’s objective is to bring you, the customer, the highest quality tonewood in harmony with what nature provides.

Old-growth Sitka Spruce is a diminishing resource; that coupled with its unique qualities that other spruce and similar softwoods do not have, has led us to re-examine our grading methods. As it is inherently very dynamic in its physical properties, Sitka Spruce can exhibit vastly different characteristics, like grain texture, figure and especially color; therefor grading parameters are very subjective. Color can vary from a consistent red hue to a creamy white and everything in between. While we do follow current general grading criteria, we go beyond the visual aspects of the sound board to the physical properties of each tree, taking into account stiffness and grain slope, as well as resonance. We have found that although a soundboard may be beautiful, the physical properties of the tree may reduce tonal quality of the top and the quality of a finished guitar — regardless of the ‘grade’.

Due in part to our world-wide customer base, we must stay in tune with the most recent developments in the tonewood market, particularly in regard to the changing parameters of grading. Since the 1990s Sitka Spruce has been slowly but steadily acquiring its own system of grading because it expresses entirely different attributes (i.e. color and texture) than other species. Because of the vibrant ecology of the temperate Tongass rainforest, (e.g. Heavy rain and wind, varied winters and summers) Sitka Spruce has the tendency to grow subjective to its very local environment. This means that two trees only a few hundred feet from each other can produce entirely different qualities. Those dynamics further limit the already diminished amount of viable Sitka Spruce for soundboard production in the Tongass National Forest. (Primary and Secondary Breakdown of Double Bass)