Types of Maple

[Willis]

I'm planning out my next guitar, and I want to get a maple body. I can choose from hard maple, western maple, and sugar maple. Does anyone have any experience with any of these? I'm leaning towards hard maple, but I don't know enough about each to decide.

[casblah]

Whichever variety you choose, you can expect the tone to be bright.

[Blueline]

i'd avoid an all maple body
may i ask why you want one

[TwilightOdyssey]

As an owner of multiple maple guitars, I can tell you that 99% of people that slight maple have little to no experience in playing a good maple guitar.
It's an outstanding tone wood, with tons of sustain and presence. Ash has a much more tizzy top end than maple.

[pac112]

whats the main difference of a maple topped mahogany body vs a full maple body?

[Willis]

As an owner of multiple maple guitars, I can tell you that 99% of people that slight maple have little to no experience in playing a good maple guitar.
It's an outstanding tone wood, with tons of sustain and presence. Ash has a much more tizzy top end than maple.

What kind of maple are your guitars made from? Hard maple?

The guy who's making my guitar recommended western maple because it's easier to work with, and said it will be less bright. I'm not worried about too much brightness, I generally prefer a pretty bright sound, and can always turn down treble and presence on the amp. The main reason I wouldn't go with hard maple is for the weight, and the workability (which translates to price).

[TwilightOdyssey]

Both of my maple guitars are hard "rock" maple with rock maple necks. One has a birdseye maple fingerboard, and the other has the frets set right into the neck. Both are quite heavy.

[Willis]

I'm not sure which to go with... I don't know very much about each. The Warmoth site says that western maple sounds less brittle than hard rock maple, but they are trying to sell specific products, so that could be a part of it. Unless I see some great reason to go with hard rock maple, I guess I'll go with western maple. As far as I can tell there aren't many differences other than weight and brightness.

BTW I decided to get zebra finish, like this
http://sandimascharvel.com/guitars/zebra.jpg

[Willis]

One last bump...

[zionstrat]

I own a maple electric= Parker nitefly and
Maple acoustic= Fender dreadnaught

As you said, both are brigther than their cousins, but extremely good sounding- The Fender is well ballanced but with less bass than a rosewood Lowden- The Parker is brighter than my swampash strat, but not ridiculously brighter than my maple capped PRS-

Bottom line, maple can be a wonderful wood as long as you are aware of it's sound and make choices around it