Maple body

I

Iced Dragon

New member
Hi,

I was wondering why one would choose an all-maple body for his or her guitar?
I have a flamed maple Jackson Dinky and it's so hard to find a good pick-up combination because of the high amount of treble due to the maple. (I didn't have a clue on this at the time of buying this guitar)

So, who is and whay are you in favor of a maple body.

Thank you
 
Re: Maple body

Maple works well for a bass.

I built a Strat guitar out of maple many years ago...it was because the maple was beautiful and because I didn't know any better. I hated the way it sounded!

Lew
 
Re: Maple body

I hate maple for guitar bodies, I will say this...Prince uses those Honer Teles and they have maple bodies, all his custom guitars(the cloud, and symbal, etc...are maple bodies, he is even using some CS Fender strats that are all maple and he gets a good sound with them...even live! But as I was typing this, I was unable to think of anybody else that uses a maple body guitar that sounds good!
 
Re: Maple body

How about George Lynch? He sounds awesome in my opinion

Tried to offer you a price for that Dinky Icey, too bad you rejected. Oh well perhaps next year, need an amp now :smack:
 
Re: Maple body

Oh, I'm really not planning on selling it. Too unique. It's just searching for some pups that are great in it...

+ I think it's worth more than that... :duh:
 
Re: Maple body

I guess that's where we differ, I'm a player with collectible guitars, you're a collector :laugh2: . They're not too hard to find, the hard part is getting US-people to ship 'em :rolleyes: . My Gibson is worth plenty (when restored with the Dirty Fingers) but I don't threat it any different than my other guitars, collector or not, it was meant to be played :headbang:

Maple is an amazing wood, you just need to find a good rig to match the guitar or tweak everything until you find your tone. I had the same thing with darker sounding guitars.
 
Re: Maple body

Hmm maple bodies sounds nice with a lowoutput humbucker.
George Lynch got some nice sounds out of it, I know a guy who has Kramer with a maple body and an EVH humbucker...that guitar sounds great, it is on the special side of sounds...but great nevertheless.
 
Re: Maple body

I own two solid maple Lynch guitars, and I can tell you from experience: THEY ROCK!!
Now then, your first question: What is the pickup configuration in your Jackson? For the bridge, I would recommend either a Screamin' Demon or an Alnico II Pro.
For your second question: Why do I like maple? I like it because it has tons of bite, great low end taughtness, and is harmonically rich. You can hear the harmonics leaping out of every note you fret!!

As for Lew's comment, I may agree: A maple Strat may very well sound awful do to other factors tho, such as the size/location of the pickups when mounted in that wood, using a pickguard (?), etc.
 
Re: Maple body

Neeradj: I do play it, it's my main guitar.

Well, it came with a 'fake' Bill Lawrence which was way too bright. Then I replaced it with a DD, but still had too many highs. Finally I've put in a TB4, which, unless my expectations, sounds much warmer in this guitar then it did in my ESP Horizon (alder/ash). But it's still not exactly what I am looking for. Might be a little heavier, more agressive growl...I play metal/shred with this guitar. It also has a cool rails in the neck but I'm planning of moving it to the middle position and put a Hot Rails in the neck instead.
Yeah, yesterday I went through the FAQ here and Alnico II magnets are adviced for maple bodies. But those might not sound 'agressive' enough?
What about an Invader? Or will this be too muddy? Maybe I should give a SH-12 a try
 
Last edited:
Re: Maple body

The thing with "aggressive" is that people try to find a pickup that delivers that when really it's so much more. All you need is a medium output or lower output pickup... they'll handle a high gain amplifier no sweat. Get your aggressive tones that way. There's no pickup that's automatically going to turn you into a Dave Mustaine or Kerry King etc.

If you're looking for a specific growl, then maybe looking into a different amp might be in order.
 
Re: Maple body

Iced Dragon said:
Neeradj: I do play it, it's my main guitar.

Well, it came with a 'fake' Bill Lawrence which was way too bright. Then I replaced it with a DD, but still had too many highs. Finally I've put in a TB4, which, unless my expectations, sounds much warmer in this guitar then it did in my ESP Horizon (alder/ash). But it's still not exactly what I am looking for. Might be a little heavier, more agressive growl...I play metal/shred with this guitar. It also has a cool rails in the neck but I'm planning of moving it to the middle position and put a Hot Rails in the neck instead.
Yeah, yesterday I went through the FAQ here and Alnico II magnets are adviced for maple bodies. But those might not sound 'agressive' enough?
What about an Invader? Or will this be too muddy? Maybe I should give a SH-12 a try
Click to expand...


An Invader in maple will not be muddy-- lots of mids and treble, very tight, very clean, and very aggressive. But it may be too much of everything for a lot of players, and that's subjective.
 
Re: Maple body

Iced Dragon said:
Neeradj: I do play it, it's my main guitar.
Click to expand...

I'd go with the Demon as well (like Twilight said), if I were able to get such an axe either the JB or Demon would go in the bridge position. I'm selling mine because I want a "real" neckhumbucker for my V. Perhaps we could arrange a trade or buy? I find it having just the right amount of everything, that includes output, but for the neck it's just very unbalanced without slight mods.

What other guitars have you got? If it were your main axe it's likely to be your best axe right?
 
Re: Maple body

TwilightOdyssey said:
I own two solid maple Lynch guitars, and I can tell you from experience: THEY ROCK!!
Now then, your first question: What is the pickup configuration in your Jackson? For the bridge, I would recommend either a Screamin' Demon or an Alnico II Pro.
For your second question: Why do I like maple? I like it because it has tons of bite, great low end taughtness, and is harmonically rich. You can hear the harmonics leaping out of every note you fret!!

As for Lew's comment, I may agree: A maple Strat may very well sound awful do to other factors tho, such as the size/location of the pickups when mounted in that wood, using a pickguard (?), etc.
Click to expand...


Ditto. I play an all maple neck thru Carvin with an ebony fingerboard and a floating Wilkinson and it rocks. :dance:

I have an APH in the neck and a CC in the bridge and it does pretty much any sound I want/need. :burnout:
 
Re: Maple body

Get a custom custom and an alnico II pro and be done with it. It will sound great that way.
 
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