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Just picked up some free (very old - probably 40 years) back and sides and I have absolutely NO idea what it is. It almost looks like some slab sawn birds eye maple, but I just can't be sure.

Any thoughts?







Other than using for some experimenting, not sure it would be useful for anything except a "budget" build. What would YOU use it for? Who knows, maybe it would be pretty.

Steve

the bottom pic looks like definite maple.

Yup. Maple on the bottom one.

I'll say catalpa on the top.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Or ash for the top picture.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

all maple, probably Acer saccharum or Acer saccharinum, perhaps even Acer rubrum...difficult to tell. For sure not Acer pseudoplanatus or Acer platanoides. With Acer macrophyllum I am not sure, but I think it is one of the first two.

Backs are slab / flat sawn in angle...might be quite floppy ...but ok....40 years old is also nice to have

cheers, alex

They are actually very stiff both directions. As stiff as some of the EIR I've used. Very bassy tap tone with decent sustain. That's why I wasn't sure it was maple. The curly maple I've used with some very striking figure tapped with much less resonance.

Not thrilled with the figure, but who knows. It might be fun to play around with; and you can't beat FREE. I picked it up (along with some interesting Mahogany) from an old timer (just passed away in his 80's) who thought about doing some guitar building back in the 70's. So it's very possible the wood is even older than that.

Steve