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I am living in Ireland and i am having serious trouble sourcing curly or flamed maple...or any quality wood suitable for guitar tops. i am visiting Chicago in a number of weeks to visit a friend but i also intend to pick up a number of guitar supplies as there are no parts suppliers in Ireland. if anybody can help me i wish to find out if there are any suppliers of maple in Illinois or the surrounding area? all help and advive is much appreciated. thank you.

I live in the Chicago area. There are a good number of lumber suppliers in the area. I could help you source material here if I know more exactly what you are looking for. If you need a place to have something shipped to, you could have it shipped to my facility and pick it up here.

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John Ressler

Woodfinder.com - type in the ZIP code and the wood species you're looking for, and it will spit out all the places within whatever radius you define (up to 200 miles away).

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The member formerly known as erikbojerik....

Barry, John's offer is a very generous one and I can personally attest to the high level of craftsmanship that John's instruments show, so you can't go wrong by talking with John R.

Alternately, I can recommend Owl Hardwood - in Des Plaines, not far from O'Hare airport, as one good source of wood. I have purchased lots of excellent domestic, as well as exotic wood there. Talk to Mark, the assistant manager. He is wise in the ways of Lutherie. Now, see, I have given up my best secret.

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Guys.....this is fantastic, thanks for the help!! it is very much appreciated. all excellent advice which is proving very, very helpfull!

John, i am looking for curly,figured or flamed maple for an electric guitar top. it does not need to be master quality, just standard good quality maple of maybe 1/2" thickness or whatever is readilly available.I have an address in Chicago where i could have it shipped to. i will be travelling in four weeks time.

Barry
The best source of flamed / curly maple that I have seen is www.adirondackspruce.com

I recently purchased some from them - the curl in the maple was unbelievable. It was the best I have ever seen. It is reasonably priced as well. They don't list maple on their website, but shoot them an e-mail and see what they have. They are great to talk to and very helpful.

They are located around St. Louis, MO and can ship to Chicago in a few days

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John Ressler