Interesting things are always happening around the shop, from high drama to eyebrow-raising instruments. Here's our attempt at keeping you posted.

Setting Up Violins Violins periodically need to have some of their fittings (bridge, soundpost, pegs, etc.) adjusted or replaced in order to perform optimally. Here's a more detailed run-down of what's involved in the process of violin set-up. Yes, we do a lot of set-up work on violins here, along with more extensive repair work.

Very Cool New Amp from L. R. Baggs L. R. Baggs has a great new amp specifically designed for use with acoustic guitars. The Acoustic Reference Amplifier's most impressive feature is how great it sounds not just out in front, but off to the sides as well, dispersing 200 watts of high quality sound to the corners of a performance venue. A couple of very nice retro features: Separate VU meters for each channel (when's the last time you saw a VU meter?), and spring reverb, which sounds so much better than electronic reverb. This amp is housed in a cabinet that looks more like furniture than a techno box, but is still built to be taken on the road. The first of these amps (like ours) is the ³signature version, featuring quilted maple panels on the sides; future production will have mahogany sides. List price is $1599 and it's here, in stock.

Bourgeois is sending us a short scale slope D model with square headstock, red "Adirondack" spruce top, mahogany back and sides. The scale length is 25", 1-23/32" nut width. Other details include sunburst finish, ivoroid body binding, nickel Waverly tuning machines with ivoroid buttons, tiny mother-of-pearl dot fingerboard inlays and firestripe pickguard. We're going to wait until it's here before trying to describe the tone--but we think it's going to be a lot of fun to play....

Larrivee's 4-string Acoustic Bass guitar is back, featuring a Larrivee's "jumbo" body, Sitka spruce top, rosewood back and sides, L. R. Baggs electronics and a 34" scale length. List price is $1998.

Larrivee is building a limited run of Silver Oak guitars in both dreadnought and Larrivee "L" body styles. These guitars will have satin finishes and style "03" detailing. List price $1599.

Dusty Strings is now offering sapele mahogany as a wood choice on it's FH Series harps. Sapele is an attractive golden mid-brown color, often showing a ribbon-like striping in the grain. Tonally, these harps are described as sounding somewhere between walnut and maple. We're looking forward to hearing them ourselves.

We've just received a Larrivee D-03 in Ovangkol, which is a rosewood-like wood in looks and sound. While ovangkol isn't a regular part of Larrivee's wood offerings, they do occasionally add various woods into their guitar lineup when they come across some they like. We've seen this happen with koa, walnut, bubinga and blackwood, for example.

Thanks to Zak for the following:

Hi all at Spruce Tree --

Just thought I'd drop a note: Looks like David Grisman had one of your shirts on at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco. There's a photo up on the Mandolin Cafe right now: Photo

Pretty nice advertising!

Personally, we wonder if it isn't just as newsworthy that someone's wearing a t-shirt in December.... For the record, you can read more about our t-shirts.

We've just received a couple of new mandolins from Weber, a Yellowstone F and a Yellowstone A. The Yellowstone F has been a classic in Weber's catalog, however, they've recently redesigned this model to include a radiused fingerboard, tone bar bracing and a soundboard graduated for a full, responsive sound right from the start. The Yellowstone A is the equivalent in an A-style body. See the full list of Weber mandolins we have in stock.

We're also pleased to offer mandolins from Summit, Lebeda, National Resophonic, Eastman and others (listed on our New Instruments page).

CodaBow instroduced their new Diamond line just a bit over a year ago, available in two different versions, the GX and the SX. These bows have met with enthusiastic acclaim, and we're happy to report that they're working on introducing the new NX model, a more intermediate-priced bow ($395 list). We don't think these are in regular production yet, however, they've made them available to our shop and we've happily sold several of them already. We've gotten them in the warmer brown finish shown on the GX models. They're pretty easy for us to recommend, especially for their quick articulation and tonal complexity.

Summit Mandolins Tennessee-based Paul Schneider has been building fine bluegrass mandolins since the 1970's, first starting with Ome Banjos, then building mandolins with Flatiron and later, Gibson. We're pleased to add his own Summit Mandolins to our offerings here. Read more....

Dusty Strings is now building their 36-string staveback FH36S model in koa, a Hawaiian wood revered for both it's beauty and tone. Koa is a deep golden color, often with dark streaks. Dusty Strings has occasionally used it for the face of some harp soundboards as well as for decorative trim. (We currently have a wenge FH36S with a koa soundboard face veneer--as well as a wenge harp with the standard figured maple face veneer). Koa has a sweet, clear sound with a fair amount of sustain. We'll have photos soon.

Diamond Bottlenecks We've just gotten another shipment of handblown leaded glass slides from Diamond Bottlenecks in England, featuring new colors and some with gold flakes. And now we have photos and complete measurements for all Ultimate series bottlenecks in stock.

Years ago, a fellow walked into our shop and proclaimed that we were "way deep in good guitars." Well, it's only gotten better since then. Which means that we periodically have to figure out how it's all going to fit in our shop. One solution is to offer some specials on perfectly great instruments that need to be nudged out the door. Our Specials page lists our current offerings.

Spruce Tree started out as a repair shop that grew into a store offering quality vintage instruments, gradually adding new instruments, more staff, on and on. We're still primarily a repair shop. We've finally put together a page highlighting this fact. It's rare that we stop to photograph instruments in the process of being repaired. Mostly, the owners of these instruments are eager to have their instruments back in their hands, so we barely stop for photo ops. On the other hand, inquiring minds want to know. Here's the start of our page on repairs done in our shop

We've just received our second example of the newly revised OMC model from premier builder Dana Bourgeois. (The first one we had didn't stay here long....) This guitar features an OM body with cutaway, select Engelmann spruce top, rosewood back & sides, 14 fret neck, 1-3/4 nut width, pyramid bridge, and gold Waverly tuners, resulting in a very versatile and responsive instrument. We'll try to get photos up soon. Meanwhile, read more about Bourgeois guitars.

Bubinga Guitar from Larrivee Every once in a while Larrivee builds a batch of instruments using spectacularly nice wood. This time it's bubinga, a west African wood we often see being used in harps. While it's difficult to describe tone, we tend to think of this wood as producing warmth combined with clarity. The model we have in stock has a Larrivee 'L' body with stunningly quilted bubinga and style 10 detailing: abalone bound top, abalone bound soundhole, abalone fingerboard and bridge inlays, maple binding and silver headstock border. This instrument is number 7 of only 30 built. Here are full photos of the front and back and close-up views. Read more about our extensive selection of Larrivee guitars.

ID Teaser Well, here's one you don't see every day. Figured out what it is? Even when we tell people, not everyone is ready to believe.... Read more about this guitar (Hint: look under model GT-70) and view larger photos on our Gallery page (devoted to instruments that are interesting,but no longer available for sale).

Quilted Sapele Guitars from Larrivee Larrivee has just built a special run of only ten L-03 models featuring quilted sapele (African mahogany), with abalone soundhole rosettes and pearl headstock logos. We're happy to have a number of these distinctive guitars available. Here are additional photos: Front and back views / Side views

Weber Guitars Weber has distinguished itself as a premier builder of mandolins. They've recently begun to apply their skills to building carved arch top guitars. They've sent us a Yellowstone model, which is 15 inches across at the lower bout, has a spruce top, maple back & sides, Brekke bridge, Waverly tuning machines, gloss lacquer finish and custom pickguard. This particular instrument has a custom Scarlet Fire finish. Here are some photos: Weber Yellowstone Guitar / Close-up views / Side views / Adam trying out the guitar in our shop Read more about Weber guitars and mandolins.

New Guitar Models from National Reso-phonic It's here: The new Style O-14 featuring a 14-fret neck, etched palm trees and newly designed "chicken-foot" coverplate! We've also recently received one of the first produced National Cutaway Tricones, this one with a vintage steel finish. This model is a new take on a traditional theme, giving players the sweet sound of a tricone but with plenty of room to play up the neck. National introduced their new mandolins last summer. Now models are also available with an aged brass finish in addition to the original vintage steel finish. These mandolins also feature a radiused, extended fingerboard, biscuit bridge with intonated saddle, figured maple tops, walnut back and sides, and wildly deco tailpieces seen nowhere else. We currently have mandolins with the aged brass finish in stock.

We do a lot of repair work here; it's how our shop began. A good set-up is obviously important to how a guitar sounds and how comfortably it plays. What surprises some is that a thorough set-up is very important with new guitars as well. Therefore, every instrument we sell spends a fair amount of time on the workbench before we make it available. We've put together a page outlining the steps we take when setting up a new guitar. Here's our new Guitar Set-Ups page.

Custom Mandolins from Weber Weber has just sent us two custom mandolins. The first is an Absaroka, a carved A style mandolin upgraded to include a cedar soundboard, vintage pumpkin finish on the top, translucent wine on the back, sides & neck, antiqued binding, traditional oval soundhole with custom binding, a tapered headstock and a radiused fingerboard. It's an elegantly vintage-styled instrument with a warm, deep, round sound. Here are close up views. The second is a Hyalite, which is a "Celtic style" carved A-style mandolin, this one upgraded from the standard Hyalite model to include highly figured maple back & sides, gloss black finished spruce soundboard, gloss translucent walnut finish on the back, sides and neck, traditional oval soudhole and radiused fingerboard. Obviously a very striking instrument. Here are close-up views .

Here are a couple of recent arrivals, great guitars built by individual makers Fraulini Copy of Stahl Style 6 Guitar This guitar is modeled after the auditorium size guitars of the Larson Bros., and was built specifically at our request by Fraulini Guitars, known for their replicas of great guitars from the 1920s and '30s. This instrument was patterned after a 1929 William Stahl Style 6 and a similar but plainer Stahl from 1933. It features a 15" lower bout, Indian rosewood back and sides, Adirondack spruce top, mahogany 12 fret neck with thick ebony fretboard and slotted peghead, wood marquetry around top and soundhole and down center of back, and hand applied french polish finish. Here are more photos: Fraulini Stahl copy / Close-ups / More close-ups / Original Stahl Style 6

Bridger F Custom from Weber Mandolins We offer a large selection of mandolins from Weber. This recent arrival is one of our favorites. This Weber Bridger F has an F-style body, carved spruce top, solid curly maple back & sides, maple neck, D soundhole. Custom upgrades on this instrument include a radiused fingerboard, Weber flower pot headstock inlay with gold mother of pearl, "The Weber" script logo, flower bud gold mother of pearl fret inlays, antiqued walnut gloss finish and gold hardware. Here's a larger photo. Check here for a listing of other Weber Mandolins in stock.

Two New Guitars from Charles Hoffman Minneapolis builder Charlie Hoffman has just sent us a couple of spectacular guitars. One is a slope shoulder dreadnought similar to one we received last May. Based on a 1934 Gibson Jumbo, it features striped African sapele mahogany back and sides, a Sitka spruce top and cocobolo bindings. The other guitar we've just received has a grand concert size body with a deep cutaway and neck joined at the 12th fret. The top is engelmann spruce. The back and sides are dramatically striped macassar ebony, set off by koa bindings and Brazilian rosewood trim. The slotted peghead has Waverly tuners. Here are more photos of the Hoffman Ebony Guitar

There once was a time when you could receive a shipment of newborn chicks in the mail. This may still be true in rural areas, places where your postal carrier knows you by your first name, asks how your mother is doing, etc. In most places, however, I don't think that this is the norm any longer. So if you can't trust the post office or shipping companies with baby chicks, how can you trust them with your guitar? See a few examples of how NOT to ship your guitar on our "Frequently Asked Questions" page.

Hand-Printed Spruce Tree Poster Spruce Tree Music posters designed and printed by Hatch Show Print, a Nashville company that's been designing and hand-printing posters since 1879. We thought it would be fun experiment to have them put together a poster for us since they're stylistically quite in line with our shop. The posters are 3-color, measure approximately 13 x 22, and are a fun $3.95.