Source for a Strat-body sized block of flame/quilt maple?

goldtop

I see a few sellers of figured hardwood on Ebay US with this sort of stuff, but - as usual - shipping and import costs roughly doubles the price.

Anyone know of UK suppliers for it?

Andyjr1515

There is a huge choice of figured maple guitar tops at www.exotichardwoodsukltd.co.uk

goldtop

Thanks - will check them out.

GSPBASSES

David Dyke recently had a container of quilt maple and flame maple delivered from America, well worth a phone call or a visit if you live close enough. He has always got huge stocks of Les Paul type caps from 5A to the cheapest 1A, also 5 to 6mm thick caps for Strat type guitars, drop tops in every conceivable fancy wood you can think of.

goldtop

Thanks. Found the website, but it appears most are just tops (thickness), rather than full body thickness. Will give him a call, maybe he has or can get something?

WezV

so you want a full thickness body of figured maple - that is going to be costly.   I would ask David Dyke, but you may want to consider alternatives like rippled sycamore as it may be a bit cheaper and sound a bit less bright too

I would decide if you want:

• one piece or two piece
• Consistent figure, or "interesting" figure
• blonde/white or red

A one piece consistently quilted pale bit of maple in this size will cost at least ten times as much as a 2-piece interesting bit of wood with some colour

GSPBASSES

You sure you really want a quilt or flame maple body, normally you buy these blocks either pre-cup book matched 25mm thick, or as a block 55 to 60mm and cut them in half yourself. But these are only eight or nine inches wide. It is very rare you get this type of wood as a full-size body blank. The costs would be horrendous. Good quality Les Paul cap will cost anything from £75 up to £200 or more. So you would have to double that price. Then the main point being is I'm not sure if it would sound too good, especially if the flame maple is rock maple or European maple. It would also be exceedingly heavy. You might be able to find B grade soft maple the sort that Rickenbacker use for their guitars. It's only classed as B grade as it's not good enough for a fancy Les Paul, not because the wood as got a problem.

This type of B grade soft maple is almost impossible to buy in the UK, it is a very low value wood so most importers see no point in bringing it over.

goldtop

Thanks guys. Something to consider there.

This is to build a version of the ESP Lynch 'Kamikaze' guitar (which I already have). That has an all-maple body. You are right that it is VERY heavy, but it was a revelation as to how articulate it was even when used with a lot of gain. The ESP's body is maple, probably unfigured (I'm guessing, because the Kamikaze has a weird graphic paint job and no wood's visible).

But I was planning to do an oiled finish on this, and that's why I thought a bit of figure would be nice to exploit.

> "interesting" figure

Definitely! I'd like something that wasn't "PRS swimming pool quilt" but a bit 'organic/velvety' - something like this one:

If good figuring pushes up the cost to super-crazy levels, then I will go for plain maple.

Roland

You could always go plain maple with a figured maple top