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I'm looking for some help matching a quilted maple B&S set with a top wood for a small jumbo body guitar.
I've got a lutz spruce, several carpathian, bear claw and curly sitka, and plain sitka spruce tops, as well as WR and yellow cedar tops to choose from. The lutz and carp tops are the lightest and stiffest, with the others very stiff, as well. I have sitka and carp brace stock to choose from.
I have other B&S sets to choose from, but thought the maple might be a good wood to get my feet wet with. If there are any reasons not to use the maple, I'd be happy to know.
I'm sure any of the tops would be fine, but the input from eperienced builders would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks...

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Here's my .02...

Maple tends to have a bright, flat, percussive and IMO, somewhat nasal bland sound. So, choosing a wood like lutz, which adds warmth and overtones to the overall spectrum might be a good choice. I've only made one maple guitar, and went with lutz, and it was nice enough for the customer to order more guitars.

OTOH, I'm not really sure that I think there is such a thing as a "bad" wood combo, provided you have some preconception of what the woods will do, and whether or not that will be what you're looking for...

Agree with Ed but would say Lutz or Carpathian.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Hold it, are those fighting words? This is our national tree we're talking about here.

Go Alex!! Good to hear buddy. Depends somewhat on the player style you are building for. Light and stiff is always good. If the Curly Sitka is anything like the sets I've held I would avoid it unless you were using it on a full on flat pick dread. It was very heavy. FWIW. I like Maple a lot and have built a number of fine sounding guitars. Although it's not on your list, I've done 2 with Redwood and the owners are very happy campers.

Build Away! Are you making it for yourself?

This a little tangential, but there is an interview with Bob Taylor in the current Guitar Player on his efforts to ensure sustainable sources of wood. Towards the end, Taylor's efforts to increase the use of maple for backs and sides comes up. He talks about how that they are redesigning the bracing to deal with the perceived brightness of maple and mentions that the back bracing "doesn't even touch the sides now". Something to think about.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

The player is mildly tone deaf, and plays like it. So yes, I'm building it for myself, Danny!
The curly sets that I have are from Mr. Roy, and don't seem to be much heavier than some of the carp. sets. If I ever figure out what I'm doing, I'll use a curly set for a dread. ( Oops, I forgot there's no swearing ). I have some extra side sets, so I'll have to decide which one to wreck first, as well!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

I could see redwood as a good top too. If you're after that sound..

I'm just trying to make something that sounds better than a broom handle strung across a banana box. I understand that redwood can be a little touchy to work with, unless it is sinker, but I'll let you upper mainland/lower mainland B.C. guys dook it out!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

No experience with redwood yet...

What kind of maple is it? Has anybody noticed any type of differences between say Big Leaf maple and Eastern hard maple?

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Pat

Bigleaf tends to be very dull and thunky, IME. Love the look of spalted or quilted, but the tone is too dry for me.

I have a set of straight grained sugar maple that's more lively, so I'm hoping for better things from it.

And I'll vote redwood for the top. Not as nice looking as an all blond guitar, but should help to liven up the sound. Dave Maize has really good stuff. I haven't tried his curly redwood, but it would look great with quilted maple, especially with some dye or burst on the maple to darken it some.

I've got a quilted maple/alpine spruce guitar that I'm finishing at the moment. I'll let you know how it sounds in a month!

Sent from my GT-S5830 using Tapatalk 2

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"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

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Not sure what you mean by "touchy". I went with redwood on my first (Still in progress) but have not had issues with it so far.

Issues with bridges pulling up on occasion, but no firsthand experience.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

This quilted set rings like cardboard. I've got other maple sets - birds eye, curly with some spalt, and a few with mild figure that tap better, but I'm not married to using a maple either. I have a nice padauk set and a birds eye black limba, among others that I am open to using for my first. I'm not afraid of using any of my B.S. sets for fear of wrecking them, so if using maple isn't the best choice, let me know!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

ugh. I have heard that. Since i haven't gotten there yet it's still festering in the recesses of my own paranoia (along with "When will my Ziricote crack?"). I have to have faith that enough guitars have been made with it that it's not much more of an issue than pulling up from other woods.

Just a thought... if it "Rings like cardboard" why use it?

Robert,

Because a bad tap tone does not indicate that it will make a bad guitar. Plenty of the mahogany and walnut I've made nice guitars from have tapped like cardboard. Really, it's only an indicator of how much shimmer and chime it will lend to the instrument. Less 'ting' in the tap tone translates fairly well to less overtones in the final guitar, same as top wood IMO.

Alex, since this is your first, the answer is 'yes' to all of it. Since you have no real frame of reference as to how or why you would choose certain woods over others, and how they would change the spectrum tonally with how you build, and don't have a specific objective in mind, all of the woods you mentioned, padauk,,black limba, curly spalted maple Carpathian et al, will all work just fine.

At the end of the day, you won't be able to make rational choices about that until you've got a few under your belt and can hear for yourself the differences different woods make, and even then, you have to sort out whether the differences perceived came from the back and sides, or something you've done with the top and bracing, or the geometry or what have you. You need to start out with a point of reference, so don't overthink it, and get cracking!

Here's why I suggested lutz. To me, maple is a bright/neutral wood, so warming it up with lutz would add some shimmer and overtone content. Using a brighter top wood such as sitka might make it too bright.

Anyway, the larger point is that it's easy to get lost in the minutiae when you're just getting started. Maple is a beautiful, easy to work with wood, and will make a nice guitar.

Or to make it even more on point...no, there is no reason at all not to use maple!

Cheers!

Sorry Alex... tried to delay your project so you could kick back and have a couple more beers, mull over the greater controversies of life and guitars before you had to get to work. Sounds like the ruse is up. The whip has been cracked. First pics are due in a week.

You're a harsh task master, Mr. Lak!

[quote="meddlingfool"]Robert,

Because a bad tap tone does not indicate that it will make a bad guitar. Plenty of the mahogany and walnut I've made nice guitars from have tapped like cardboard. Really, it's only an indicator of how much shimmer and chime it will lend to the instrument. Less 'ting' in the tap tone translates fairly well to less overtones in the final guitar, same as top wood IMO.

Alex, since this is your first, the answer is 'yes' to all of it. Since you have no real frame of reference as to how or why you would choose certain woods over others, and how they would change the spectrum
tonally with how you build, and don't have a specific objective in mind, all of the woods you mentioned, padauk,,black limba, curly spalted maple Carpathian et al, will all work just fine.

At the end of the day, you won't be able to make rational choices about that until you've got a few under your belt and can hear for yourself the differences different woods make, and even then, you have to sort out whether the differences perceived came from the back and sides, or something you've done with the top and bracing, or the geometry or what have you. You need to start out with a point of reference, so don't overthink it, and get cracking!

Here's why I suggested lutz. To me, maple is a bright/neutral wood, so warming it up with lutz would add some shimmer and overtone content. Using a brighter top wood such as sitka might make it too bright.

Anyway, the larger point is that it's easy to get lost in the minutiae when you're just getting started. Maple is a beautiful, easy to work with wood, and will make a nice guitar.

Or to make it even more on point...no, there is no reason at all not to use maple!

Thanks, Ed. That was pretty much my thinking going into this. I won't have a body of knowledge to reference until I have a body of work to draw it from. Keeping good notes and deflection testing should help to that end.
There have been so many 1st guitars on this forum that have been just incredible, with wonderful esthetics and craftsmanship. Would I like to do that? Yup. Am I do or die to do it? Nope. Just want something to build on. And if doesn't look like refried beans? Hooray!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

And some look like this. Shall we go with rustic charm? Fortunately, you get better real fast...

I built a Bird's Eye Maple/Lutz OM earlier this year and it was a great guitar. Sold quick.

http://www.guitarrodeo.com/guitars/kenn ... le-om.html

I did use double sides with low grade quilted Maple for the inner side. It was the first Maple OM I'd built and sounded much better than I expected.

Based on my vast experience of one Maple/Lutz OM I'd say use Lutz.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Thats beautiful, Terence! How did you colour the back and sides - dye? blonde shellac? I can see why it went fast!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

It was tinted lacquer Alex, Tony Ferguson did it. He nailed the color.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.