I was reading a few of the comments here and I read that spruce was used for necks. I don't know if you've ever seen the tables of MOE's of various woods but spruce is way more elastic than the open grained hardwoods usually used...Sitka is down a few steps from the strongest...Douglas fir and yellow larch...which I use periodically for soundboards and especially braces...it taps well and is of a medium weight...old growth quartered wood is best...it splinters like a demon but it could be used...way more elastic than mahogany, Spanish cedar, maple. Several species of Larch are the stiffest and most elastic...Larch is a kind of pine and various pines work well too. I use good pine for soundboards on period instruments. I used an oak or hickory brace very early in my career to experimentally induce an arch in the top of an archtop jazz guitar. My bouzoukis are induced but bending in all directions is difficult so I shaped a heavy brace with a re-curve built in. Over the space of several months it flattened out and when I removed the brace, it retained the shape that it had assumed! Maple has given me similar result. that is when I really delved into the elastic properties of wood...not just the "strength" but the "memory" of the wood. modulas of elasticity is the standard by which we should judge all woods that are going to be under tension.

Dave

Dear Scot, thank you so much for the comment. Yes, those guys are fantastic musicians and apparently very good teachers. I learn a lot of period technique and so. I will come to visit the forum as much as I can. We keep in touch! Yutthasak