Official Luthiers Forum!

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Mistakes are mandatory-learning from them is optional. http://www.opensourceluthiersupply.com

I bought a bunch of red maple from a fellow that had it sitting in barn for 30+ years. The haul was mostly flat sawn boards that I have been making banjo necks out of.   It has worked great and much of it has some nice curl. It's a lot easier to carve that rock or hard sugar maple, but still pretty dense compared to mahogany.

A good score I would say.

Louis

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- Louis Freilicher

Oh No! Not another learning experience!

I have some red maple mandolin wood that I got from Old Standard, with the the most spectacular curly figure. As I understand it, red maple can vary quite a bit in density, color and of course figure so each piece has to be judged on its own merits. I have not made an instrument with it yet, but it has a long track record at least for mandolin family instruments. What did you plan to make out of it?

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Swamp maple and red maple are two different maples. Red maples have red leaves, whereas a swamp maple has green leaves which are more spikey. A silver maple is generally referred o as a swamp maple, at least around here.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Actually Acer Rubrum (not to be confused with the ornamental "red" Maples) has green leaves. They start out red in the spring when they're small and change to green. The flowers are red too.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Maple

I've been collecting it for a few years now, and plan on building a guitar out of it. The guitar I'm building now has a red maple neck block. I've heard it makes a great neck wood. Not as heavy as hard maple. It usually has some nice cross grain figure if it's perfectly quartered.

Kirt

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Horton, MI

I've got several gorgeous curly red maple sets - some of the most beautiful sets in my stash. Great curl and great colors.

Steve Kinnaird made a great guitar out of ambrosia maple which I think he got from Bob C (an OLF sponsor - RC Tonewoods). Fantastic sounding guitar.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

USE That wood!!!!!!!
Soft maple is great for necks & back & sides!!!


Check out my site for some ambrosia roses!!!!!!
I'll buy some from ya if you are sharing!!
Mike


www.collinsguitars.com

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Mike Collins

 I got this wood at Lakeshorehardwoods.com in Pulaski New York. Alot of beautiful domestic woods. Tons of Cherry. Besides the Red Maple I bought Curly white Oak, Curly Cherry, and Curly Ash. So I'm a happy guy. I have alot of resawing to do. They were good to deal with so I have problem recommending them.

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Mistakes are mandatory-learning from them is optional. http://www.opensourceluthiersupply.com

[QUOTE=Greenman] I got this wood at Lakeshorehardwoods.com in Pulaski New York. Alot of beautiful domestic woods. Tons of Cherry. Besides the Red Maple I bought Curly white Oak, Curly Cherry, and Curly Ash. So I'm a happy guy. I have alot of resawing to do. They were good to deal with so I have problem recommending them.[/QUOTE]

I assume you meant "NO problem recommending them"?? Thanks for the word on them. I'm always looking for high quality cherry, in particular. When you were there, did they have a lot of quartersawn cherry (curly or not)? Nice wide boards with straight grain?

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

The American Red and Swamp maples are more or less comparable to the European wood that violins have traditionally been made out of. The American wood can have what are called 'sap marks'; little eye-shaped red marks, and this is frowned on in violin circles for cosmetic reasons (they aren't there in Strads, and so must be bad). Red maple also has a tendancy to develop 'red heart': a streaky dark color in the heartwood. Otherwise it can be beautifully white if it's handled properly, and I've seen some great figure. I've used it a lot for necks and trim, and made some fiddles of it, but so far not for B&S on guitars, although I see no reason not to.    

 Sorry for the missing word. I was very impressed with the place. Cherry is there main wood. Alot of curly and they sell alot of short boards. I bought a q/sawn curly 6"x36" for about $10. They discount short pieces which is fine for use we don't need 8' or 10' lenghts. Had alot of curly maple as well. It is just a few miles of Rt. 81 and they will ship if you can't make the trip.

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Mistakes are mandatory-learning from them is optional. http://www.opensourceluthiersupply.com

[QUOTE=Alan Carruth] Red maple also has a tendancy to develop 'red heart': a streaky dark color in the heartwood.   [/QUOTE]

It's the streaky dark reds, contrasting with the white, along with beautiful curl, that make the sets I have so stunning.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

[QUOTE=Greenman] Sorry for the missing word. I was very impressed with the place. Cherry is there main wood. Alot of curly and they sell alot of short boards. I bought a q/sawn curly 6"x36" for about $10. They discount short pieces which is fine for use we don't need 8' or 10' lenghts. Had alot of curly maple as well. It is just a few miles of Rt. 81 and they will ship if you can't make the trip.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the info, Greenman. I'll check them out further. They're not too far from me - maybe 2 1/2 hrs drive.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Here's a second (or third, or fourth, or whatever vote we're up to) for using red maple for neck wood.
If you have concerns about strengh/stability of your piece, you could always laminate it inbetween something:




This is some curly red maple sandwiched between two rosewood strips w/ outer lams of hond. mahogany.

Oh, and Todd, thanks for the nice comment!

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com