Favorite recipe for flamed/figured maple?

[Daniel P]

I have a nice set of figured maple for back and sides, and am just starting to think about what i should build with it.

I have molds for 00-12 and Ditson 12 fret. Ken's Irish Jumbo /Lowden style mold is calling to me as well.

I've never played a maple bodied guitar. There seem to be a number of sites suggesting its bright, with great projection and note separation. Others talk about it being one of the more transparent tonewoods, which I would read as not favoring the highs or lows.

It could be cool to do a 00-12 to compare directly with the walnut/sitka.

For tops I have on hand a really stiff Sitka, a little softer sitka, and a reasonably stiff Bear claw sitka.

Do any of you have a favorite recipe for flamed/figured maple?
How about a poll...

[ken cierp]

Alex DeGrassi plays a Maple Lowden at his concerts -- Outstanding! As a matter of fact The "O" size I am constructing is Quilted Maple with a (5) piece Walnut neck.

[Daniel P]

Ken - you're bringing me one step closer to get that "O" size mold. Do you offer neck/block/bracing components to complement that mold?

Maple seems to be most commonly used on larger bodies guitars, I'm assuming to help compensate for the brighter tone - larger Gibson, Guild and Taylors. I've seen a few figured maple small bodies from Rasmussen and a custom or two that people have done through the Martin custom shop.

[Tim Benware]

To me Sitka is a good choice some of the others have "things" going on that would clash (IMO) with the figure in the maple. A nice straight grained cedar may work as well and help offset some of the brightness of the maple should one want to go in that direction.

[ken cierp]

The DeGrassi Lowden is an "F" model about the same size as an OM, Quilted Maple, Sitka soundboard.

[Herman]

Hey Daniel,
I made only one maple/sitka largebody guitar, but it does not sound bright at all. In fact really warm deep basstones. FWIW, 'cause I'm not expert on the matter.

Here is a simple soundbite (mike into the computer):
http://hermanarendsenguitars.nl/mp3/frank.mp3

[Daniel P]

Herman - that sounds really nice.

I'm liking the idea of the Ditson or Lowden O style figured maple with some straight grained sitka.

Need to start figuring out what type of side bender to build...