Digital publication | Page 8

LOGS FROM DOWN UNDER... As many people know, I build acoustic guitars from local woods. And the tops of my guitars are "Adirondack red spruce" from the bottom of Schroon Lake. For a guitar, the most important part that contributes to sound is its top, and Adirondack red spruce is considered to be the best material in the world for this. The spruce logs I use are 150-year-old logging logs meant to go downriver to the sawmills in Glens Falls during the logdrives of the 1800's. What a special sound this wood gives to my guitars! Questions I have about logs I find on the bottom of Schroon Lake: By Eric Bright The mysteries of the Adirondack Red Spruce found on the bottom of Schroon Lake • Why do logs end up where I find them? Let's see.... If I were a log, where would I want to get "lost" and soak up enough water to sink? Along the shore somewhere in the shallows? In a cove or bay? And how is all this related to the currents in the lake and the prevailing winds? • How long did it take for a log to soak up enough water to sink? They say some of the logs that made it to the sawmills took as long as 2 years to get there! The spruce logs that I pull up usually have tight growth rings (the pine logs usually have bigger growth rings). Perhaps that contributed to the log's density, with NOMAD I C less | 24 air pockets and buoyancy.