I bought these and many other pieces of curly maple from an old woodworker in TN a couple of years ago. The story he told me was that the original owner of the wood sold it to Gibson, as the markings would suggest, but then the Gibson rep tried to "sweeten" the deal under the table, and the guy reneged. He then sold the lot to my old woodworker, where it sat in his barn for 17 years. It was a barn full! My friend and I spent a whole day pulling it all out of his barn and high-grading it, and removing any that had obvious borer beetle damage, which was a majority of it, sadly. What's worse, some of what I bought turned out to have bug damage as well, only visible once I started milling it down. Some is nice and clean, and makes for excellent drop tops, though.
I'd love to know more about this story -- if its legitimate, who Clark is, what Tiobac refers to, etc. I should've asked John Arnold when he was here a couple of days ago, doh!
Anyone have any insights on this buggy stash?
Ken Jones
Mountain Song Guitars