Fortunato, What's really scary is buying a cittern. I'm taking a leap of faith and ordering one, the problem is you can't get your hands on a variety of them to compare. At the same time this discussion is going on, there has been one on the cittern list entitled Spruce or Cedar. My head is really spinning, and while there may be people on that list as knowledgeable, there are none as idiosnycratically eloquent as our Spaw. John