Which MAPLE top?

[11top]

Assuming you can only pick one, which would you choose?

 

[Michael_DK]

Flamed - even though it's relatively common, I think it's still the classiest

 

[jfb]

Flame all day. Wide please.

 

[gush]

I love the flame top on my cu24, I could stare at it for days!

 

[veinbuster]

My experience is that you have to pick 'one' a bunch of times to get everything.
I really like burl though.
Have picked spalt.
Have picked quilt.

 

[crushpoint]

Quilt, quilt, and more quilt.

 

[bodia]

Wrap me up in a nice warm quilt

 

[Alan Manning]

Flame for me (just)!!.

 

[Whitecat]

I chose spalt because it is my all-time favourite. But, spalt can coexist with the other figures, so it's kind of a "figure on figure".

Birdseye on necks, exceptional quilt on tops otherwise!

 

[andy474x]

Quilt, 8 days a week!

 

[Huggy Love]

If I had a choice I'd go burl just on the uniqueness factor and the psychedelic vibe. I like birdseye for that reason too but never saw a PRS or any other electric made out of it that looked decent, maybe not enough custom pieces out there or produced. The spalted stuff is cool like that too but most of the ones I've seen only have natural finish, so I haven't seen enough in stained finishes to form an opinion.

To be honest, if I really had the choice I wouldn't even go maple, I've seen so many stunning pieces in woods like rosewood, ebony, zebra wood, and koa, that I'd go for something "one of a kind". Naturally that would open the door for a bit of research on tone woods because looks and uniqueness is fine, but tone is king.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

I'd probably go with an opaque painted spruce.

 

[László]

I like birdseye for that reason too but never saw a PRS or any other electric made out of it that looked decent.

I had a beautiful birdseye maple Tom Petty Rickenbacker when they came out with a run of them. Certainly the best looking Rick I ever owned, and the best sounding, but I'm sure the tone had nothing to do with the figure on the wood. I wish I had a picture of it!

My bass has a birdseye maple neck with a gloss finish.

Anyway, I voted flame maple, because for me it's got the most classic-looking vibe of any instrument wood, going back to the days of Stradivari, etc.

My PS CU24 30th has a quilt top, and it's pretty, but I wouldn't have special ordered it that way. Damn thing sounds amazing, though. So there's that.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Where's the 'checkerboard' option? Or that bizarre quilt/flame that you can't tell how they cut the tree to get it? Kind of looks like something Escher would come up with.

In lieu of that, a nice swirly quilty flamey quilt.

 

[django49]

I would tend to lean toward quilt. On the other hand, burl makes a real nice and unique look......

Having the wooden bobbins (maple and snakewood) really helps the "look".

 

[vchizzle]

Quilt all day long.

 

[Blues Trucker]

I only like quilt with blue. So I went Flame.

 

[mezzio]

I do like flame, love quilt, but I think Burl is where the uniqueness lives

 

[PRSAK]

Quilt makes me happy.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

I have three PRS with flame (and several other guitars) but quilt has always been my favorite.