HARD MAPLE Carved Top, non-bookmatched, no.53

THE REAL DEAL: for getting as close as possible to vintage correctness you can get EASTERN HARD MAPLE from us!

This airdried carved top of highly flamed HARD MAPLE comes NOT bookmatched but as a thick block, stocked for many years (at least 6), ready to work with after acclimatisation in your workshop.

Species: acer saccharum (Hard Maple), origins from Michigan area, shows typical mineral streaks

We have drawn an oversized LP template on the wood, top is sized for usage on any regular carved top guitar like a Les Paul or a PRS style guitar.

Oversized in all dimensions, thickness of the piece is in the 50+mm range (approx. 1.95 inch), plenty of room for cutting a bookmatched set in your workshop.

We may have more flamed sets in stock, feel free to ask.

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Due to flash on the pic some of the figure has been "erased", wood is in real even "better" flamed that it may appear from the pic.

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Info on US Maples ("Eastern vs. Western maple")

There is some confusion reg. the various maples and especially reg. what was used on vintage Les Pauls - the following words are intended for helping to clear up some things (if necessary).

There is Big Leaf (Western) Maple which occurs out west Oregon, Washington and Western Canada. It is a lot softer and more affordable and a lot of manufacturers use it because of this.

Then there is Silver Maple which is distributed widely in the US. It is brittle and an inferior maple wood. Not really good for instruments.

Next is Red Maple most commonly called Soft Maple up North however it is actually very hard. Especially if it is from cold northern climates where it has a chance to grow slowly. They make some syrup out of it but it does not have the same sugar content in the sap as Eastern Hard Maple.

Now we come to Hard Maple which is typically a more northern species, also being called "Sugar Maple". In Europe a lot of times they use the term Hard Rock Maple. That term is not used in the US, it´s wood is harder and more dense than Red Maple. The reason they call these Eastern Maple is because they are found East of the Mississippi River. The best Hard Maple is found in Michigan because of it's cold climate and it is a major tree found in that state but only the Northern part of the state. This is the main tree for maple syrup as well as flooring and other uses. Birdseye Maple only occurs in Hard Maple and it is a freak of nature, usually in cold climates and rocky soil where the tree is distressed. It is the most expensive tree in the Western hemisphere to buy excluding BRW (for wich you need CITES documents, otherwise it is illegal). This Hard Maple is what was (mainly) used for the vintage Bursts.

Concerning figure in the wood Big Leaf Maple from the west curly is the most common in this tree.
Red Maple - curly is not as common and curly is most rare in Hard Maple. A good example: if you have 1000 Hard Maple trees you might only have 10 logs that show curly figure in Hard Maple where Red Maple you might have 50 that show figure. In the same 1000 trees you might only have one Birdseye. So what we are dealing with Curly Hard maple and Birdseye maple are the most rare and expensive. One last thing to say about these maples is that curly Hard Maple and Birdseye Maple also have a tendency to have more defects than other maples. Mineral stains, worm track and heart which also make it more expensive and rare to find clean clear wood.

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