What's Your Favorite Wood/Grain/ Species For a Top

Rockmark

Rockmark

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san diego
So many choices. I like when deep 3d flame has much movement and threatens to go quilt in areas. Also have had my eye on those outrageous ps spalted related pieces. Some Koa is beautiful and I've see a couple Braz tops that caught my eye. Then there are all those exotics I can't even remember.

Of course photos corresponding w any responses are great!!!!:)
 
Are we talking looks, tonality, both? I don't have much experience with different tops in terms of tonal differences, but maple is still one of my favorites. I also like the look of ebony tops and swamp ash always has a very unique and beautiful looking grain.
 
Any wood that a luthier would consider guitar worthy but with the looks you like. So these I guess, tonality, species, looks. I Iove the look of the Buckeye maple and others say it sounds great too.
 
4,000 year old cedar of Lebanon, taken from a royal Egyptian canopic chest, with the remaining gesso and paint left on.

What a sound! Haunting. ;)

A little hard to find, though...

“Where’d you get that, Les?”

“Oh, I had a tomb made, back in the day. A wood merchant named Phoneyephtys shipped it to me on a fast galley. Turns out I didn’t need it, so I just hung onto it.
 
Last edited:
LSchefman said:
4,000 year old cedar of Lebanon, taken from a royal Egyptian canopic chest, with the remaining gesso and paint left on.

What a sound! Haunting. ;)

A little hard to find, though...
Click to expand...

The canopic chest wood did not become available to Gibson until 1500BC. However I believe I did see a recent ad for a relic'd Gibby they did find w Lebanese gesso still visible.
Available to serious collector for just under 30K. I think a Japanese dealer has it. It only comes with a gig bag however, no hardshell case, sorry.
 
If I had to pick one wood to put on tops of electric guitars, it would be maple. There is so much variation in the character a piece of maple can have that you could build something different for ages.
Flame with a fingerprint
CK_04ViolaTopDetail.JPG

Big bubbly quilt
CK_142KillerQuiltBodyAAA.JPG

Burl
CK_073MochaBurlBodyAAA.JPG

Spalted
CK_193SpaltBodyDarkAAA.JPG

And so on...
 
Rockmark said:
I Iove the look of the Buckeye maple and others say it sounds great too.
Click to expand...

I assume you are referring to buckeye burl which is a bulbous growth on a buckeye tree and is not a maple. Buckeye is an extremely light hardwood so you think the tones would be more muted than a denser hardwood like maple. Some luthiers like soft woods; John Suhr used to love basswood bodies.

I have a couple of buckeye burl top guitars (and one in the works), and I like the tone, but I still think it’s the sum of things (especially pickups and amps).
 
My ideal perfect top:
collection_electric_2014a.jpg

So it’s curly maple for me first and foremost. I also think the historic les Pauls have something there with the way the curly maple is cut, making the flame curl up and down literally. Been seeing that cut more and more on PRS lately. ‘Feather’ flame is very interesting too, the latest example being Ladkor Guitar’s singlecut PS.

Quilted maple can be very artistic and beautiful. But the variance is more compared with curly maple, and it really boils down to each individual piece.
 
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