This is one of the most open spruce guitars I have ever played. The Engelmann spruce is of rare high quality and has a beautiful voice which is focused, colorful, and loud. This guitar has great sustain. I bought a batch of twenty spruce tops from Canada about two years ago. This is the second guitar I have built with it and they have both exhibited the same qualities. The Brazilian is old growth, with a beautiful brick red color and spectacular black staining.