Acoustic guitarist read below?

Question

What is the difference between laminated top, and a spruce top. How can i tell the difference if i played one??

Answer 1

A laminated top would have a shiny surface over the wood. A spruce top would be bare spruce, without any kind of finish (other than maybe a light stain for color). In my experience, most guitars are laminated, and I believe this is for durability. My Seagull SG 6 has a cedar top, for instance, and is unlaminated. Now, it's beautiful, but there are a couple drawbacks (which I think might apply to your spruce top guitar as well): 1) it dings *very* easily - breathe on this guitar wrong, and you'll get a ding. Not a horrible thing - in fact, I look at dings on my axes as proof that I actually play them. But still, an issue. 2) Without the lamination, the wood tends to wear more easily. The sound hole on my acoustic is showing some wear at the bottom where my pick sometimes hits.

However, a bare wood top guitar is beautiful, and, although I can't speak for the instrument you're referring to, my cedar-topped Seagull sounds almost as good as a Martin that would cost three times as much or more (I spent about $500 on my Seagull).

Hope this helps. Lamination protects, but clean wood (in my experience) means better sound. In fact, the paperwork that came with my 'gull said I should never use any kind of polish on the top, as it would end up dulling the sound.