Maple

[fretless]

I love Maple bodies and I'm not alone , Warmoth , Rickenbacker , Spector , Dingwall , Warwick and many others offer Maple bodies . You see it more on bass guitars but with it's tight , quick & punchy tone That's clear & defined I would think it makes a killer electric too . The weight is all over the place but Warmoth goes so far as to offer lighter weight options if you prefer them light . I also really love the natural white color and as we all know from many acoustic instruments and electrics with figured tops it looks fantastic with a translucent finish . :love

oh and





:rock-on:

 

[AutoBat]

That body is telling me "Please paint me. I'm ready for solid poly!"

 

[fretless]

nah it says Thank you for not saturating me with poisons and using totally organic finishes that have been around for Centuries

 

[bagman67]

nah it says That you for not saturating me with poisons and using totally organic finishes that have been around for Centuries

Really?  Cause all I could hear was:


"Don't hate me because I'm beautiful."

 

[fretless]

:glasses9: and OP needs spell check

 

[JaySwear]

That body is telling me "Please paint me. I'm ready for solid poly!"

3 tone it! Actually looks great as is. I'd love a maple carved top Soloist.

 

[Re-Pete]

I did a Jazzmaster project with a maple body. Weighed as much as my P-Bass (MIJ, probably basswood body) when finished.

The problem I found - in electric guitar applications- was getting pickups that would sound OK to that body.

I tried EMG humbuckers by themselves (with no EQ circuitry) and it sounded very sterile. I then went to mini humbuckers, but again the sound wasn't quite right. It sounded kinda brittle. I passed on any single coils for my hearing's sake. But I imagine single coils would be icepick clear. I put in a L500 & a DiMarzio Super 2, and the Super 2 was too bright!

I eventually went back to EMGs but added EQ tone pots to colour the sound up a bit & it sounded much better.

I now realise that whoever makes guitar pickups, knows the type of body that they may end up in. Alder, Mahogany mostly, sometimes Basswood, and if you are doing a Tele set or a vintage Strat set - Swamp Ash, perhaps. And I'm guessing they would voice their pickups responses accordingly.

Shoving pickups that are designed to bring out treble responses from a mahogany body (Mini Humbucker & DiMarzio Super 2) are no good - IMHO - for a maple electric guitar body. The maple reflects the treble tone much more efficiently than, say, Mahogany, and the end result is you have too much treble.

I agree that Maple does lend a tight mid-range & bass response, but I would suggest that folks going down this path look at less treblier pickups to deal with the reflections off the body in the treble range or get pickups that are designed for this type of body. Rickenbacker have had a long history with Maple bodies - it is an essential ingredient to the 360 sound - so their pickups would be 'voiced' in that direction too.

Just my 2c worth from my own experiences, others' experiences may have been different.  :dontknow:

 

[fretless]

Very useful info Thanks . I can't stand too much high end either . Actually on this build I used 250k pot and a virtual tone pot to trim off highs . It was a good call and it's just right . I'd do the same on a guitar build and hunt down some known darker pickups perhaps .

 

[Re-Pete]

Very useful info Thanks . I can't stand too much high end either . Actually on this build I used 250k pot and a virtual tone pot to trim off highs . It was a good call and it's just right . I'd do the same on a guitar build and hunt down some known darker pickups perhaps .

Yes, what you have described above would help to get the tone more mellow and not so much treble attack.

I forgot to mention the idea of swapping out caps too, to alter the tone slightly. If you get close to your desired sound with a set of pickups, a different cap value will help.

BTW, the reason I went for the maple body in the first place, was to add density & provide an efficient background for the best sustain I could get, and give the active pickups - in my mind at that time, at least -  the most blank palate they could work from & let the tones circuits add the colour. But when I omitted to include a battery box route and lumped for the trad control cavity routing I boxed myself in. I then had to take out the EQ pots & use 1 standard tone pot & the result was a sterile EMG pickups set (no wonder....  :doh: ).....

 

[shoe]

Interesting that you guys find maple so bright. I have a hardtail all maple jazzmaster shaped body and it's one of the smoother/darker sounding guitars I own, actually. It's perfect for jazz. I do agree that you need to be careful what pickups go in it but more because it has so much low mid content. My rickenbacker 330 is also all maple more or less and that also has a lot of lower mid content and is not very bright sounding.

I actually had some custom wound by Travis Morris for the application (but they are very similar to pickups that I also use in regular strat bodies and they sound brighter there!) They have four coils each and are made with alnico pole pieces. If all four coils are in series, they sound similar to the original wide range humbuckers. If you turn off one pair, you get a resistance/magnet setup very similar to a strat or tele single coil (one pair is about 4.5k in series with A2 magnets, the other is about 6.5k in series with A5 magnets). The guitar is clear but not harsh sounding on either of those single coil sounds (even with my tone cap entirely bypassed). Weight isn't too bad, but definitely on the hefty side.

I think the treble sound on a maple JM with a traditional bridge comes more from the bridge style itself. I have a mahogany JM body with the traditional tremolo and a mastery bridge (formerly a tunomatic) and Novak JMHC pickups that guitar is far far brighter than the maple one. It also has a rosewood fretboard and vintage style frets/tuners.

 

[Creeping Death]

When Gibson consulted with Les paul on the creation of said guitar He suggested the guitar be made out of solid maple with a mahogany top which was rejected due to weight issues, which Gibson has always been conscious of, which is why almost every Les Paul since the 80's has been "weight relieved"  or "swiss cheesed" if you will and for the past few years almost all of them are chambered except a couple models, and that is the common thinking among most guitar manufacturers is that maple is too heavy.

Not often a bass player complains about guitar weight on their shoulders, but I know many of us guitar players who believe guitars should still be lighter(There are also alot more of us though).

 

[shoe]

So, I put in the next version of the pickups I described in the maple guitar (we were trying out different recipes). Oh man does it sound good. Closest thing i can think of is kind of like the clean guitar sounds on Radiohead's In Rainbows. Super warm and smooth but clear.

The new specs put the pickups at around 9.5k and 10k for the neck and bridge respectively with 42 ga wire and a mix of A5 and A2 poles (A2 are wound lower around 4k and A5 are wound a bit hotter around 5.5k and 6.3k). Split into just the A5 coils remains humbucking and sits somewhere near a strat or tele sound but still not harsh.

It's definitely not a light guitar but it's around a heavier LP weight since a JM has a lot of hollow area in it, actually, due to the pickup cavity. It's maybe 9-10ish lbs. Maybe a pound more than my main strat.