What you're seeing is a combination of two factors: grain runout, and chatoyance.
http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/General/Glossary/Runout/runout.html
Chatoyance is the flame, in a sense. It differs depending on how you look at the guitar, and that is not abnormal at all. Gibson doesn't dye their tops, they spray yellow and then red on top of that. That gives a flatter look unless the top has a LOT of figure.
Here, these tops look boring, flat, virtually without figure.
But now I stained the top!
And even more color with the burst
Which makes it all POP like crazy with the first coat of finish.
This is not even figured maple but beech, mind you.
So what you're seeing is a combination of two factors in wood that are absolutely normal. It's not a plain top, by any means, but it's also not as fancy as one might wish.
For reference, this is what I feature as a 'standard' top:
Tight, even, narrow flame, that don't drop off side to side.
To quote PRS:
This top will likely be a 10Top for PRS.
And this is a slightly fancier, more premium top (hogged that for myself
). yes. LP, trem, F-Holes, singlecoils (Burns Trisonics, made by MJ).
The funny thing is, that previous LP with it's F-hole, custom Bareknuckles, premium hardware, etcetera, I charged just 200 bucks more than what Gibson asked for that top the Topicstarter posted, and I think my top is arguably nicer.
http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/General/Glossary/Runout/runout.html
Chatoyance is the flame, in a sense. It differs depending on how you look at the guitar, and that is not abnormal at all. Gibson doesn't dye their tops, they spray yellow and then red on top of that. That gives a flatter look unless the top has a LOT of figure.
Here, these tops look boring, flat, virtually without figure.
But now I stained the top!
And even more color with the burst
Which makes it all POP like crazy with the first coat of finish.
This is not even figured maple but beech, mind you.
So what you're seeing is a combination of two factors in wood that are absolutely normal. It's not a plain top, by any means, but it's also not as fancy as one might wish.
For reference, this is what I feature as a 'standard' top:
Tight, even, narrow flame, that don't drop off side to side.
To quote PRS:
This top will likely be a 10Top for PRS.
And this is a slightly fancier, more premium top (hogged that for myself
). yes. LP, trem, F-Holes, singlecoils (Burns Trisonics, made by MJ).The funny thing is, that previous LP with it's F-hole, custom Bareknuckles, premium hardware, etcetera, I charged just 200 bucks more than what Gibson asked for that top the Topicstarter posted, and I think my top is arguably nicer.
