Carved maple top on mahogny.

Like on a Les Paul.

I always wondered: why?

Is it to brighten up the warmth of the mahogany? Or something?

What exactly does it accomplish? I've yet to mess with a Les, though I wish to, and I am curious.

maple ...bright, mahogany ......dark------they bring balance to the FORCE :cool:

A guitar made of maple will sound brighter than a guitar made of mahogany. A Les Paul is a mahogany guitar - even the ones with the carved maple tops. The layer of maple is nowhere near thick enough to make any significant difference in the sound of the guitar. A maple neck, or an all-maple body would sound different, but even a 1/2" layer of maple is not going to make any difference at all.

Not to the sound anyway.

They do look pretty. :cool:

Indeed......

Originally Posted by: LordathestringsA guitar made of maple will sound brighter than a guitar made of mahogany. A Les Paul is a mahogany guitar - even the ones with the carved maple tops. The layer of maple is nowhere near thick enough to make any significant difference in the sound of the guitar. A maple neck, or an all-maple body would sound different, but even a 1/2" layer of maple is not going to make any difference at all.

Not to the sound anyway.

They do look pretty. :cool:

of courese l.a.t.s. would say the dark side is more powerful............... he is a SITH LORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :eek:

Originally Posted by: z0s0_jpof courese l.a.t.s. would say the dark side is more powerful............... he is a SITH LORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :eek:

It works both ways. A layer of mahogany on a maple guitar would not make it sound darker.

A maple neck would balance the tone of a mahogany body.

A mahogany neck would balance the tone of a maple body.

All things in balance and harmony with the Force.

I'm Celtic. ;)

lol........ ;)

Originally Posted by: Lordathestrings
I'm Celtic. ;)

OHH! thrown right back atcha! in your face.

haha :p

So the maple top is ornamental, basically? :confused:

Yes. On an old-school carved top, it has it's greatest thickness in the area between the pickups, under the strings, and gets thinner out towards the edges of the body. Depending on how deeply carved the top is, the layer of maple may be no more than 1/2" thick at it's deepest point. There's very little mass to it, and its contribution to the tone of the instrument is negligible. On some guitars, the maple is actually a paper-thin layer of veneer.

So what happens if... you got a mahogany body but a maple neck and an ebony fretboard?

Too much brightness counterbalancing the warmth? :confused:

Depends on what sounds good to you. Some might like it, while others might hate it. What is too bright to one, might have the shimmering sparkle that another loves. Nobody can tell you what you like, but yourself, and the only way to find that out it to try things out for yourself.

I mean, would an ebony fingerboard defeat the purpose of mahogany? As in, to the point that there would be no real difference from having an ash or alder body? :confused: I like some warmth but I don't like the bottom-scraping chunka-chunka of most nu-metal/hardcore these days.

I've always been into swamp ash... which is almost universally the best material for bass bodies (unless you want to do the ultra-low chunka chunka thing)... but I want to get a baritone guitar and I'm wondering if they have to be constructed of mahogany with a similarly warm fingerboard (i.e. rosewood) in order to be sufficiently baritone (within the universe of six-string guitars that aren't called bass guitars).

I've been looking at the Les Paul studio baritone, which is why I started this thread.

A maple top, or most of the time, flamed maple (what you see on gibson) is used for looks. The flamed maple top gives you that kinda stripe lookin' thing on the top of the guitar.

I really like the look of quilted maple... followed by birdseye.

As an aside, I also dig zebrawood but I also like cool colors and I don't know if it would take to a transparent dye job like figured maple does. Or if it's kind of an aesthetic no-no among custom guitar-builders or something. Basically, I've never seen it done.

Originally Posted by: Vegas WierdoI really like the look of quilted maple... followed by birdseye.

As an aside, I also dig zebrawood but I also like cool colors and I don't know if it would take to a transparent dye job like figured maple does. Or if it's kind of an aesthetic no-no among custom guitar-builders or something. Basically, I've never seen it done.

What is zebrawood? Never heard of it. And I know my tone woods.

Bodywoods descriptions by Warmoth

Scroll to the bottom, as it's in alphabetical order.

According to the link, if used to make a body, it has a similar tone and weight to hard maple. But I'm guessing it's much more frequently used for looks... i.e. tops, veneers, etc. I've seen guitars/basses that have zebrawood added... and have seen a few with zebrawood bodies all the way through... but I've never seen any that had transparent dye jobs. I wonder if it's even possible... it looks like a very difficult wood to finish, judging by the crazy grain.