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Bill Groner


From:
QUAKERTOWN, PA
Post  Posted 8 Oct 2018 1:54 am    
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I have a question for some of you experienced builders. I picked up a piece of Maple today. The piece has nice figure at the outer edges, but pretty plain down the center. The nice figure will be lost when I cut it for the neck and head. The piece looks pretty much the same from end to end, so I am having difficulty deciding which end I should use for the body. I did discover one end has a brighter tone when I tap on it with my knuckles. Any ideas which end I should use for the head and which for the body or doesn't it matter? All comments appreciated. Thanks!
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C. E. Jackson


Post  Posted 8 Oct 2018 4:55 pm    
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Bill, I am not an experienced builder, but my preference would certainly be to have
as much of the nice figure in the body as possible. I have some steels where the
nicest figure is in the body. I love maple. Can you post a photo?

C. E. Jackson Smile
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Joe Elk


From:
Ohio, USA
Post  Posted 8 Oct 2018 6:39 pm    
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Bill. You might want to consider cutting the good pieces lengthwise and glue them so they are on the outside. That way the best pieces will be to outside and visible the middle piece sandwiched "but will be partially covered by the fret board, the machine heads, etc"
Joe Elk Central Ohio
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Scott Duckworth


From:
Etowah, TN Western Foothills of the Smokies
Post  Posted 9 Oct 2018 3:02 am    
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Joe Elk wrote:
Bill. You might want to consider cutting the good pieces lengthwise and glue them so they are on the outside. That way the best pieces will be to outside and visible the middle piece sandwiched "but will be partially covered by the fret board, the machine heads, etc"
Joe Elk Central Ohio


In the woodworking world, that's called "book matching".
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Joe Elk


From:
Ohio, USA
Post  Posted 9 Oct 2018 3:40 am    
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Scott: I was an electronics Technician I had heard the two words. Bu Not part of regular vocabulary Thanks for the info.
Joe
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Bill Groner


From:
QUAKERTOWN, PA
Post  Posted 9 Oct 2018 3:51 am    
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Joe Elk wrote:
Bill. You might want to consider cutting the good pieces lengthwise and glue them so they are on the outside. That way the best pieces will be to outside and visible the middle piece sandwiched "but will be partially covered by the fret board, the machine heads, etc"
Joe Elk Central Ohio


Thanks for the tip Joe. This piece of wood seems very dense and pretty heavy. I think I will leave well enough alone. I have another lap steel I made from maple and it has great tone and sustain. That piece was quite a bit lighter and not as dense, so my hopes are pretty high I will get a very nice sound from the new build. I'm going to use an Alumitone Rifian Pup on this one. CE......I could post a picture, but at this point it is just a piece 1 5/8" x 8" x 30" with the shape of the guitar drawn on it with pencil. (not much to look at) As it progresses I will post pictures if you guys would like to see how it's going. Let me know if you want to see pics, I don't want to bore you guys.

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Andy Henriksen

 

From:
Michigan, USA
Post  Posted 9 Oct 2018 6:53 am    
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Bill Groner wrote:
I have another lap steel I made from maple and it has great tone and sustain. That piece was quite a bit lighter and not as dense...

Sounds to me like you have two different species of maple. The density wouldn't vary noticeably in a given species. (I'm assuming these are both kiln dried? If not, there could be noticeable weight differences if the newer specimen isn't properly dried. And that could result in problems down the road, as the board will shrink and move as it dries further.)

I'd hazard a guess that you maybe have red maple for the older build, and sugar maple for the new slab? They are appropriately referred to in the forestry world as soft and hard maple, respectively. Not that one is inherently better than the other, but there will be tonal differences.
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Bill Groner


From:
QUAKERTOWN, PA
Post  Posted 9 Oct 2018 7:06 am    
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Andy Henriksen wrote:
Bill Groner wrote:
I have another lap steel I made from maple and it has great tone and sustain. That piece was quite a bit lighter and not as dense...

Sounds to me like you have two different species of maple. The density wouldn't vary noticeably in a given species. (I'm assuming these are both kiln dried? If not, there could be noticeable weight differences if the newer specimen isn't properly dried. And that could result in problems down the road, as the board will shrink and move as it dries further.)

I'd hazard a guess that you maybe have red maple for the older build, and sugar maple for the new slab? They are appropriately referred to in the forestry world as soft and hard maple, respectively. Not that one is inherently better than the other, but there will be tonal differences.


They are kiln dried. Would red maple be a different color than sugar maple? It looks to me like the two were the same color when I received them.
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Bill Groner


From:
QUAKERTOWN, PA
Post  Posted 9 Oct 2018 10:57 am    
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C. E. Jackson wrote:
Bill, I am not an experienced builder, but my preference would certainly be to have
as much of the nice figure in the body as possible. I have some steels where the
nicest figure is in the body. I love maple. Can you post a photo?

C. E. Jackson Smile


C.E. here is what it looks like so far.......probably won't get to it till the snow flies.

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C. E. Jackson


Post  Posted 9 Oct 2018 11:13 am    
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Should make a beautiful instrument, Bill.
Thanks for posting the photo.

C. E. Jackson Smile
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Andy Henriksen

 

From:
Michigan, USA
Post  Posted 9 Oct 2018 2:16 pm    
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Bill Groner wrote:
Andy Henriksen wrote:
Bill Groner wrote:
I have another lap steel I made from maple and it has great tone and sustain. That piece was quite a bit lighter and not as dense...

Sounds to me like you have two different species of maple. The density wouldn't vary noticeably in a given species. (I'm assuming these are both kiln dried? If not, there could be noticeable weight differences if the newer specimen isn't properly dried. And that could result in problems down the road, as the board will shrink and move as it dries further.)

I'd hazard a guess that you maybe have red maple for the older build, and sugar maple for the new slab? They are appropriately referred to in the forestry world as soft and hard maple, respectively. Not that one is inherently better than the other, but there will be tonal differences.


They are kiln dried. Would red maple be a different color than sugar maple? It looks to me like the two were the same color when I received them.


They can look pretty similar. This is a pretty good site for wood ID. The best way to ID wood involved looking at the grain in cross section. If you look st the close up pics here and compare to a freshly sliced or scraped end, you may be able to discern what you have. https://woodidentification.net/wood-images-2/

That pic of the new guitar board definitely looks like hard maple to me, but I very well could be wrong.
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Jim Sliff


From:
Lawndale California, USA
Post  Posted 9 Oct 2018 6:02 pm    
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With the flame on the left side (and assuming it goes through to the back side, if it was thick enough I would have slit it lengthwise and also along the thin dimension. bookmatched the grain top and back. With a thickness planer and a jointer it's pretty easy once the cuts are done.

With sanding sealer. dye and tinted paste wood filler a good lacquer system would really get the grain to "pop" with anice, balanced look.
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