New Body

It's might not be a double-quadruple-AAA piece, but  it looks alright to me... Have you tried wetting it with a solvent? The grain will probably pop more with a finish or stain.
 
I'd call that sweetly figured maple, I think you also didn't shell out between $195-250 for specific selection.
 
Again, wet that with naphtha.  You may find more is going on than revealed dry and unfinished
 
Looks pretty good to me. If you want the really pillowy clouds you have to pay for the fancy veneers. This would work well though with certain finishes for sure.
 
I took the gamble thinking that since the middle would be mostly routed out and a pick guard on it maybe they had a piece of wood sitting around with hardly any flame in the middle with really good flame on the outside they could use.
Just have to rethink the way I am going to finish it now maybe the stain will make it POP better.
I might wet it to see what it will look like.

 
hmmmm, seems like ur expectations were perhips a li'l hi. that flame still looks hot enuff to burn a finger on, even if it isn't hot enough to melt yo shoes.

Look i've learned two things since i was a baby babbis (aka bibby-chibblis, aka "child") ::

- nobody out-pizzas the Hut
- the phrase "ymmv" (your milkshake will vary. Wait no, it's milage. Your brain mileage will vary compared to anyone elses brain milage.)

now to you that might be precisely jack, or, approximately stuff. i don't know. But I think u should rub that weasel down with some naphtha to release the #spice

once u do i bet it'll be 200% excellence packed in a 100%-sized bag

Oh gotta go. A goth got in the house so i gotta go kill it. i really hate goths, always showing up in the dark and freakin' out my lady. The other night 1 got in my room and i woke up to her screaming so much that I had to kill it.

Oh snap, I meant moths but I don't have to the time to edit this post, bbl later
 
greenmeanie said:
This is what you get when you pick a Flame Top without the Unique Choice option.
Not much flame in it at all.

Hmmmm.  That looks like killer flame to me.  As others have pointed out, wet it down with some mineral spirits to really see it.
 
I had a very similar experience last year. My non-Unique-Choice maple Lam Top was also only slightly figured. It didn't look bad, nonetheless I was very disappointed due to false expectations.
I've got used to it now and learned my lesson.

At that time I would have liked to have a hint that Unique Choice is a condition for the beautiful, fully figured tops.
Every maple Lam Top that I have seen up to then has been very beautiful
In the meantime you can also find maple Tops in the showcase, where at least I first have to look in the description to see whether it should be flamed or quilted.
In no way do I want to step on someone's feet, but that's the way it is.  :eek:ccasion14:
Therefore, I think it is important to also address this here so that you know what is coming.

Incidentally, I like the Top that greenmeanie received, but I can understand that the expectations were a little different.
I am absolutely convinced that it will be a wonderful guitar and that it will make you happy too.  :rock-on:
 
There is so much variation in quilted maple it's hard for me to imagine spending the money to build a guitar but not shell out the extra dough to make sure the top you get is as figured as you want it. Even among highly quilted veneers the differences can be huge. I had to wait months for them to even have any veneers in stock large enough for a mooncaster lol.
 
Here it is in Blue Dye.
My plan is to sand it back and add Red like the guy did on youtube but I think it is going to be tough with the two big bare spots. Maybe I should add some kind of burst?

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgdMKQV1oYc&ab_channel=CustomGuitars%26PartsGASStation[/youtube]
 

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So I took a Q-Tip and some more dye and followed the natural flame on the lighter side towards the back making it look better to me.
Now I hope it will sand out right.
 

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I think you did just fine. Obviously most of the choicest hand-picked AAAA pieces are the ones with the extra $200 premium on them but you have a nice mix of straight grain against the flames. And whoever was working veneers that day did a perfect job putting the least interesting grain areas where they'll be covered by pickguard or parts. Plus there a million guitars out there with near-perfect flame veneers and tops (real and fake) already, and no matter what you buy there will always be someone out there with more flames or whatever.

It's yours now, learn to love it. It's not like the guitar is going to care about how you look. 
 
Something didn't look right to me so I worked the CAP edges more and think it looks better.
 

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