ANY ONE BUILT A MAPLE BODY GUITAR?

J

jackson111

New member
I was just curious if anyone had built a maple body guitar or played one? I have a maple body blank all one piece that is about 2.5" x 18" x 24". I also have a maple blank to make a neck from its about 1.5" x 5" x 30". I had friend that does wood work dry the blanks and he just gave them to me. I started building a maple explorer but I messed up the frets (bent them at to small a radius to seat properly) I also messed up the scarf joint and it broke. but I still got the body. I had a friend tell me I was nuts for trying to build a solid maple guitar with an ebony fret board. he told me it would be unbearable to listen to and that it would be way to bright. I did understand it was going to weigh a ton so I had planned to cut geometrical shapes all the way through the body to reduce weight similar to Gibson holy explorers. anyone have any idea how it would sound?
 
Re: ANY ONE BUILT A MAPLE BODY GUITAR?

A lot of people swear by the maple-bodied guitars Leo Fender made while at G&L. And Gibson had the L-6S, which was typically a maple body and ebony fingerboard.

Bill
 
Re: ANY ONE BUILT A MAPLE BODY GUITAR?

My guitar (also my avatar) is an all maple strat. Here's some pictures of it.









The thing with all maple guitars is that they are bright. I mean extremely bright. For years I had trouble finding pickups that would make it sound normal. The best pickups that you might find for a maple strat are some of Dimarzio's heavily mid focused and compressed pickups. (Mudbuckers.) I hate the Tone Zone, but it would actually sound pretty decent in an all maple guitar. Really, something with an EQ of low treble, medium to high mids, and high bass balances out nicely in a maple guitar.

On a side note, Gibson came out with the "Raw Power" series of Les Pauls and Sg's. Those were all maple. I hated that they only made them for a year or two. A Raw Power SG is still on my "bucket list" of guitars to own.

I hope this helped you out.
 
Re: ANY ONE BUILT A MAPLE BODY GUITAR?

yes that does help out. I had given up on building it after a lot of my musician friends told me I was nuts. can you recommend any Seymour Duncan pickups that would balance it out? I have tried dimarzio pickups in some charvels and I didn't like them. I thought they were overly aggressive, but to be fair I had only been playing for about a year and I thought all amps only sounded good with the gain dimed. I have matured as a guitar player and realized when you dime the gain you don't have tone anymore you have noise. so maybe it was me making them so aggressive.
I may get back to building one again.it takes me a really long time to build one cause I use very little power tools, and everything is hand built wilth rasp, hand saws, and planes. I do use a router of course.
 
Re: ANY ONE BUILT A MAPLE BODY GUITAR?

I tried a JB in a maple superstrat and loved it. Lends a lot of punch to the bass. I heard the Custom Custom and Invader are popular choices too for maple bodies.
 
Re: ANY ONE BUILT A MAPLE BODY GUITAR?

I had an all maple Kramer '85 RI. Maple body, maple neck, ebony board and a floyd rose and a JB. It was super heavy, but she sang like no other. Not overly bright, but definitely on the bright side.

George Lynch's ESP guitars were all maples ones back in the day
 
Re: ANY ONE BUILT A MAPLE BODY GUITAR?

My number one Charvel is solid maple, and kills. I also have a maple G&L that I love.

Both guitars have a JB in the bridge.
 
Re: ANY ONE BUILT A MAPLE BODY GUITAR?

Fall off the bone tone had some great suggestions. The JB or Custom Custom would be great first bridge choices. The Invader would also surprise you with how it would balance out. For PAF flavored pickups, I actually have a Pearly Gates in mine, but an Alnico Pro 2 would probably be even better.

If you are running a humbucker in the neck position, I would start with an Alnico Pro 2 or Pearly Gates.

If you are running two single coils then I would suggest the Hot Rails and/or the Hot Stack. A Quarter Pounder for Strat might be good too.
 
Re: ANY ONE BUILT A MAPLE BODY GUITAR?

Interestingly enough, I've come across treble-focused pickups, I've come across midrange-focused pickups, I've come across scooped pickups, but I've never come across low-end focused pickups. Not any that have a low-end projecting the way the midrange and high-end of those pickups project, anyway.
 
Re: ANY ONE BUILT A MAPLE BODY GUITAR?

Letus said:
Interestingly enough, I've come across treble-focused pickups, I've come across midrange-focused pickups, I've come across scooped pickups, but I've never come across low-end focused pickups. Not any that have a low-end projecting the way the midrange and high-end of those pickups project, anyway.
Click to expand...

Invader and some Dimarzio and BKP stuff like the Warpig can be very bass heavy. However, bassy guitar pickups they tend to not be desired very much because the electric guitar's natural sonic real estate is in the midrange and highs. Bass focused pickups with not much else will mush and likely get drowned out by the bass guitar, kick drum and toms. Plus if a pickup is going to be really low end focused chances are the output is going to be pretty high to support the lower frequencies so they remain clear and audible.
 
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Re: ANY ONE BUILT A MAPLE BODY GUITAR?

Falloffthebonetone said:
Invader and some Dimarzio and BKP stuff like the Warpig can be very bass heavy. However, bassy guitar pickups they tend to not be desired very much because the electric guitar's natural sonic real estate is in the midrange and highs. Bass focused pickups with not much else will mush and likely get drowned out by the bass guitar, kick drum and toms. Plus if a pickup is going to be really low end focused chances are the output is going to be pretty high to support the lower frequencies so they remain clear and audible.
Click to expand...

Exactly. But the bassy DiMarzios can be mushy, and are mostly scooped. I meant pickups which boom out are rare. They would have been appropriate in this situation.
 
Re: ANY ONE BUILT A MAPLE BODY GUITAR?

Letus said:
Breed, Steve's Special, Air Classic.
But pickups like the PAF Pro, and D-Activator necks create a natural scoop in certain guitars.
Click to expand...

I was referring to mainly the Tone Zone and Super Distortion. Never found the Air classic bassy. What did you play the Breed in that you found it scooped?
 
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