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I'm going to attempt my first classical. It's for a good friend and I'm using quilted maple that he gave me for the back and sides.

So, what are your recommendations for the "best" top wood to mate with maple?

Thanks!

Maple classicals are a little rare but certainly not outside the Spanish tradition - Torres built a number of them. In this context, the normal top choice would be European Spruce. A number of people here have said that
the Lutz Spruce from our sponsor Shane at High Mountain Tonewood is a very good alternate. I'm working on classicals but haven't done anything in maple, so I can't give you any qualified opinions myself. Sounds like a fun project.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

I agree that European Spruce is the first choice OR Lutz Spruce as the second. For a first classical I would not match western red cedar with quilted maple as cedar is much softer and very easy to dent or scratch so any mistakes will be harder to hide than with a spruce top.

I agree than a darker binding will be a good contrast for the lighter maple. Another alternative if you want to stick with a lighter color would be to use curly maple binding. It will compliment the color of the quilted maple and will look good with the spruce as well.

I'd be inclined to say cedar to offset the brightness (both in looks and sound) of the maple. That's my $.02

If your friend is a classical player I'm suprised he doesn't have a preferance... most do.

I too have a nice set of quilted maple set aside for a classical for myself. I have pretty much decided I'll use cedar for my top. For me it was a question of asthetics more than sonority. As stated above cedar takes a bit of extra care during the build process. It is easy to dent or scratch. Keep you work area clean and it's not a problem.

I have played a couple of maple classicals, in my case it was European Maple one flamed the other Birds eye. Both had P.abies (Euro)tops, and both had standard Torres style top bracing. They were top end guitars ($7k+)and sounded superb. But what sound are you after, for what music will it be used, Northern European or Southern European/Latin? You could get away with a cedar top (not for me though) for the more Germanic music but a Euro, or lutz would be better for the more Spanish sound. The guitar is a musical instrument so the first consideration by far is what sound you're after, aesthetics come way down the list compared to the sound. The sound is all.

Colin

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Thanks for the help, guys. To add a little more info, my friend doesn't care a bit for tradition and doesn't really play any style of classical music. He is self taught and just plunks around, makes his own folk tunes, etc. He's using a cheap plywood classical now and any form of a "real" classical will be a big step up.

Also, I've built with redwood and cedar before and know about the ding issue.

I do like the idea of muting the maple with a toner. I wonder if a darker shellac would provide the same effect?

Dark shellac works great, but you have to make sure you don't sand through... ever! It's REALLY hard to even up the colour if you do. With heavily figured wood a sand-through is almost inevitable.

Hi Bruce.

I guess its all a matter of personal preference.
I like the sound of spruce.
And it also depends on how one braces a guitar.
IE lattice or torres.
I tend to agree with colin regarding chosing the soundboard timbers depending on what character of sound you like.
I've discovered cedar top guitars tend to lose their sparkle on humid days, and i find them more prone to developing wolf notes than spruce top guitars.
Then again i loose my sparkle on humid days also... [LOL]
I like some warmth to a guitar so my preference would be german spruce with traditional bracing.

Just on a side note if you want to break up the colour of the guitar:
Manuel Ramirez, Conde, and Esteso all used deep red hunduras mahogany on their maple and cypress backed guitars as a contrast.
Quite attractive.

Cheers,
Claire

woops.
Honduras mahogany as a neck timber.


Cheers,
Claire

Daniel - Thanks for the heads-up on the dark shellac. I don't think that is something I'll tackle. Maybe the z-poxy will darken it enough.

Claire - I did some looking around and I agree; a dark neck looks good. I happened to get a dark cedro neck blank in my last order of neck stock so maybe I'll use that.

Thanks.

Bruce,

If it were me, I'd stick with a spruce top -- either Euro or Lutz. Nothing wrong at all with a blonde-looking nylon string. Almost all flamencos are. I'd probably go with a contrasting binding color, though. Either EIR or bloodwood, probably the former.

Daniel is right enough with the problem using dark shellac. I've been there. But for me the problem came about because of a small dent (in a cedar top, of course), I had to steam out, which led to the color problem, once I had sanded down the spot that I'd steamed. But as long as you don't get any dings, sanding through a darker shellac shouldn't really be a problem. Once I begin french polishing a guitar, unless I manage to put a ding in it during the finishing process, the coursest sanding material I use is 1500 grit Micromesh, which is fine enough where sanding through the finish is generally not an issue.

Blonde shellac -- even superblonde -- will add a bit of warmth to the color of blonde wood. And over time (years, in this case), the finish will slowly darken anyway.

Best,

Michael

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