curious about spalted maple

[ravendouglas]

i have been gassing about spalted maple ever since i saw a spalted maple dean ml....this top wood looks awsome.......i have visions of a spalted maple guitar stained see through purple.is the tone the same as standard maple tops?

 

[jake_xms3_punk]

Re: curious about spalted maple

im guessing so, its still maple at the end of the day.

 

[MojoMonster]

Re: curious about spalted maple

i have been gassing about spalted maple ever since i saw a spalted maple dean ml....this top wood looks awsome.......i have visions of a spalted maple guitar stained see through purple.is the tone the same as standard maple tops?

Staining spalted maple would be difficult at best... not undoable, but pretty damn time consuming to make look good.
Pretty much for the same reason that it's difficult to work.
Typically, spalted woods are partly rotted with soft and hard sections of wood.
These sections react differently to both sanding and stains.

There are ways to work around this... the first would be to get maple that has minimal spalting.
The second, at least when sanding, is to use super glue to help "set" the softer bits.
I'm sure that if you were diligent, you could work out a system of applying stain that would compensate for the different absorption rates, but wow, that would take a lot of work.
And what I've found, at least with the spalted maples I find appealing, is that they tend to be much browner than the stained figured maples and this makes it difficult to get a good color to show up.

One of the things I've noticed about production guitars with spalted maple, is that they tend to have really heavy clear coats.

The tone will be similar if not as pronounced because of the differing densities of the spalting.

But, yea, it looks awesome.
I've got a handbuild guitar that I'm trying to finish that I put a heavily spalted top on and I'm absolutely digging it.

MM

 

[ravendouglas]

Re: curious about spalted maple

yea ,i was just curious as to why people use it and like it,is it just the way it looks,or is it the sound,or both?.. i love the way it looks.,i have no idea about the sound.

 

[Stratman]

Re: curious about spalted maple

Purchased a Spalted Maple - Tele from Musicians Friends a while back....

Wish i had a better photo to show you, but it's not my camera...

 

[speed2dirt]

Re: curious about spalted maple

One of the things I've noticed about production guitars with spalted maple, is that they tend to have really heavy clear coats.

My spalted maple Warrior bass has no clear coat. It's just anointed in oil, which gives it a very natural feel. As far as the top goes, it doesn't dent/scratch easily or feel extra soft.

 

[Chas]

Re: curious about spalted maple

Played a Dean acoustic which was spalted maple the other day. Looks real nice but the sound was not any different to my ears.

 

[ravendouglas]

Re: curious about spalted maple

that bass and tele are just sick...very cool

 

[ravendouglas]

Re: curious about spalted maple

well if see through purple wont work,there is always another stain i like...cherry.

 

[MojoMonster]

Re: curious about spalted maple

My spalted maple Warrior bass has no clear coat. It's just anointed in oil, which gives it a very natural feel. As far as the top goes, it doesn't dent/scratch easily or feel extra soft.

As I said, they *tend* to.
Obviously, there are exceptions to everything.
I also pointed out that one way around this is to find maple with minimal spalting.

I'm curious, did you do the oil coat yourself?

I saw someone talking about applying Truoil as a finish coat to a spalted maple top and thought I might give that a shot for mine.

MM

 

[MojoMonster]

Re: curious about spalted maple

well if see through purple wont work,there is always another stain i like...cherry.

Cherry might work, but again, you'd run into the differing stain absorption problem.

Edit: After looking around a little more I could only find a couple luthiers who did a dark brown/black sunburst and one who did a yellow center sunburst, but both looked like much whiter maple.
Agile claims to have some root beer and green tops with spalted maple but it's hard to tell.

MM

 

[speed2dirt]

Re: curious about spalted maple

I'm curious, did you do the oil coat yourself?

I saw someone talking about applying Truoil as a finish coat to a spalted maple top and thought I might give that a shot for mine.

No, I didn't do the oil. Warrior does that, which they have a technique they've perfected to make it work well. Check out the link below and click on "Anointed Finishes" toward the bottom. I have a guitar that has the same type of oil finish and it just feels/plays amazing. I definitely recommend giving it a try.

WarriorInstruments.com

 

[ravendouglas]

Re: curious about spalted maple

yea i did a little reading on spalted maple,its made from dead or dying trees.the spoginess of soft wood and hard wood mixed together as in a spalted top with both rotten and solid areas ,one would think it would sound a touch btrighter than standard solid maple.

 

[ravendouglas]

Re: curious about spalted maple

well i was thinking you want a stain that still allows the spalted darker areas to take on a darker tone of the stain and still be visible

 

[MojoMonster]

Re: curious about spalted maple

yea i did a little reading on spalted maple,its made from dead or dying trees.the spoginess of soft wood and hard wood mixed together as in a spalted top with both rotten and solid areas ,one would think it would sound a touch btrighter than standard solid maple.

My thought was that the soft bits would tend to dampen higher frequencies, making it slightly darker than say an equivalent unspalted piece of maple

well i was thinking you want a stain that still allows the spalted darker areas to take on a darker tone of the stain and still be visible

Oh, you could certainly dye the wood... and if you're happy with the effect, then it's all good.

What I suspect for the few guitars that I saw with color, was that the guitar was clear coated and then translucent colors added on top... kinda like how a burst is created.

Either way, I say go for it.

In retrospect, what I think I'd look for is as "white" an eastern curly or flame maple with spalting as I could find.

MM

 

[scottish]

Re: curious about spalted maple

spalted maple should in theory, be slightly less bright than regular maple. and honestly, if you have a good piece of spalt then putting any kind of color on there should be criminal. Its got so many colors of its own.

here is a spalted maple tele i made a while back, this isnt even clear clear coated, just doused in mineral spirits at this point.

 

[CTN]

Re: curious about spalted maple

yeah, IMO Spalted maple looks best with just a nice clear coat.

It's too pretty and intricate to ruin with a dye.

 

[ravendouglas]

Re: curious about spalted maple

thanks every one for all the information on this topic.