What kind of maple top is on my guitar?

[truetone6]

On my 2004 standard,what kind of maple did Gibson use for the top? what do they call it?

 

[White94RX]

the kind with stripes in it

 

[mantra]

Maple

 

[Oranjeaap]

Maple

Maple maple

 

[Pinkie]

I think it's called flamed maple?
Don't know how the get the stripes in it maybe paint it on I dunno.

 

[GammyBird]

I think it's called flamed maple?

Yes....

 

[VDeuce]

Eastern hard rock.

 

[Pinkie]

Well there you go a definitive answer.Hard on maple.

 

[BillB1960]

Eastern Hard Rock Figured Maple.

There's no definitive answer as to what causes the figuring whether it's flame, quilt, birdseye, etc. Some think it's environmental others say it's actually a disease.

 

[Lester]

Eastern Hard Rock Figured Maple.

There's no definitive answer as to what causes the figuring whether it's flame, quilt, birdseye, etc. Some think it's environmental others say it's actually a disease.

Part of it is the direction that it's cut out of the log... but the reason that it's there is definitely still a mystery.

 

[Sven]

Eastern Hard Rock Figured Maple.

There's no definitive answer as to what causes the figuring whether it's flame, quilt, birdseye, etc. Some think it's environmental others say it's actually a disease.

IIRC -- the various "textures" in the maple ar natural, and only birdseye is from a disease.

 

[PsychoCid]

It's the most beautiful disease. My first Wolfgang had an EXTREMELY diseased neck...boy, I miss that one. My current Wolfgang has only a touch of disease.

 

[zontar]

That's-"Give the guitar to zontar" maple.

 

[White94RX]

I think it's called flamed maple?
Don't know how the get the stripes in it maybe paint it on I dunno.

Sarcasm maybe? The stripes are in the wood, not painted.

 

[ctkarslake]

Now, this begs the question, how does one differentiate between Eastern and Western maple?

 

[Axis39]

Now, this begs the question, how does one differentiate between Eastern and Western maple?

Which side of the Mississippi....

Honestly I can't recall anyone referring to their maple as Western before.

The concept of Hard Maple vs Soft Maple, yes. Also Northern Maple. The idea is the colder climate makes it grow slower and harder.

I've heard of Western Red Cedar and Eastern Red Cedar... one's good for fenceposts and the other's good for lining your closet to keep the moths away.

 

[dspelman]

Eastern hard rock.

Often not, actually. Most of the best figured maple I've seen is western or Bigleaf maple (mostly from California up the coast into Canada). Gibson originally specified Eastern (sugar?) maple for the tops because it had the best sustain, according to Ted McCarty. Over the years they've had supply problems and have waffled on that and have provided Western maple tops as well and a lot of the best figured tops are western maple. Quilt tops are almost always western maple. Maple that has birds-eyes and mineral streaks is often eastern maple.

Other names for flamed maple include curly maple, ripple maple, fiddleback and tiger stripe.

 

[27sauce]

It looks Western to me too

 

[dspelman]

Now, this begs the question, how does one differentiate between Eastern and Western maple?

There are a bunch (over 100, if I'm recalling correctly) of different species of maple, so simply saying eastern or western probably won't get you far.

One thing worth noting; one of the best figured maple sources in the world turns out to be China. It doesn't hit the US very often, but it might soon. It is, however, showing up in some really amazing asian-made guitars, both as veneers and as full-thickness figured maple caps.

Some manufacturers are beginning to put eastern hard rock full-thickness caps on their guitars with a veneer of western figured maple over top of that. This gives you whatever sustain benefits there are to the eastern maple while allowing you to have some really amazing figure on your top as well. The other cosmetic benefit of this is that the thinner veneer allows you to maintain a closer book match across the face of the guitar, where carving a piece of figured maple will often lose some of the book matching, especially as you begin to carve more off it to create the low areas out toward the edges of the guitar. That's the good news. The bad news is that if you get ambitious and want to refinish the guitar, you may find yourself sanding through the veneer into the plainer hard rock maple beneath.

 

[harrie 0492]

I say, beautifullll maple.