What strings for Maple Guitar?

[Rosewood99]

Originally Posted by spock

Ervin Somogyi - On Tonewoods

MAPLE

Maples usually have a low "Q" and tend to make passive backs in that they don’t ring, sustain, or further the vibrational activity of the face very much. In fact, they help to absorb the vibrational energies of the face and kill them. As an extreme example, consider the sound you’d get in tapping a guitar back made of cardboard. This is not necessarily a bad thing, however. Besides being beautiful, maples help to create a sound which is damped and short-lived and which is perfect for jazz style playing. The jazz musician will play many notes, and the music is such that it is not desirable for any of the notes to linger in the air. Such music does not need the sustain of Brazilian rosewood. For jazz, one wants quick notes that come out and then disappear -- because there are many more notes coming. This quality is also desirable for certain parts of the modern classical guitar repertoire, which has at this point somewhat abandoned the lush, dark and expressive tonalities so much appreciated in the Romantic classical repertoire. Again, there are exceptions to all these statements; but, as rules of thumb, these descriptions are accurate.

From the Taylor Guitar Website:

A dense hardwood, maple’s tone is like a laser beam — very focused — and dominant on the fundamental. Often described as having a “bright” sound, maple has fewer overtones than other medium-density woods, resulting in quicker note decay. This makes it a preferred guitar wood for live performance settings with a band — especially with bass, drums and electric guitar — because it cuts through a mix well, allows the acoustic sound to be heard, and is less prone to feedback issues. It has some midrange, and a lot more treble sparkle than rosewood.


From Dana Bourgeois

Maple and walnut tend to be more acoustically transparent than other tonewoods, due to a low velocity of sound and a high degree of internal damping. That is to say that they allow tonal characteristics of the top to be heard without the addition of extraneous coloration and may even serve to attenuate some of the overtones emanating from the top.

From LMI (Luthiers Mercantile International)

Maple is the only wood used for backs and sides in the violin family so it is well known to instrument makers, even though just a modest percentage of guitars are made with it. The fact that it is a domestic wood augments its popularity and it is often used on electric guitars, most notably the Gibson Les Paul. Maple with figuring is preferred over plain maple, but the figure has no real bearing on the sound of the wood. The figure is, however, strikingly beautiful. Most common are curly maple (also known as flamed maple or tiger maple) or quilted maple (a bit rarer, this wood has a billowy, bubbly appearance). Plain maple (rock maple from the East Coast) is often used for electric guitar necks, but bigleaf maple (from the Northwest) and European Maple (from the former Yugoslavia) are the common choices for acoustic guitar back and sides.
Maple is well known for imparting bright tone to an instrument, with excellent separation (a guitar with good separation allows each note of a chord to ring independently as opposed to sounding thick or clustered). It has long been a popular choice on the Gibson Jumbo series because the bright tone helps balance out the boomyness of guitars that have a large body.

Can't speak for Taylor but my Breedlove Pacific has tons of sustain.

[Taylorplayer]

[QUOTE=Howard Emerson;2885605]

Originally Posted by bobdcat

Bob,
Guess what kind of guitar I use as my primary bottleneck guitar?

A 1927 Gibson L-5.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6GhoxlfU5U scroll ahead to 3:40 to hear it.

My 6 & 12 strings are both maple & red spruce made by David Flammang and they're strung with D'Addario EJ 16 wounds with medium plains.

I have no idea where observations like that come from.

HE

That is a beautiful tune.

[Ed422]

My Taylor 422 sounded best with J Pearse PB. I don't think you can make blanket decisions on what strings will sound best with what wood. Strings are pretty cheap. What I do when I get a new guitar is go through several sets, various weights and materials. Actually, I use Webstrings. They sound good, but not for long. When I decide on weight and material, I switch to J. Pearse. Every so often, I try strings from other makers but so far I always migrate back to Pearse.

Ed

[RussMason]

I was trying to figure out what to reply to those who asked about my views on maple. It is just something that I have known for a long time, and have had two maple guitars, in addition to others of mahogany, rosewood, koa and walnut.

But Spock stepped up and provided a lot of good information. Thanks for that!

By the way, maple 12-strings are very desirable, since the jangly quality of the octaves is presented a bit more crisply than, say, a rosewood model.

Re: titanium strings. I just love them. They cost a lot, but to me, they are worth it. Pete Rohrbacher is a fine man and a true scientist when it comes to strings and the sounds they produce. The strings are patented, by the way.

[jseth]

Well, all respect given to those "who know better", my experience with my maple Mark Angus #35 is quite the contrary... and I've been playing this guitar for over 30 years! I really don't think it's gonna change now...

My Angus is a Guild F-40 shape, close to what many luthiers call their Concert Jumbo size; hardrock maple with a German Black Forest spruce top, she's one of the sweetest sounding and loudest acoustic guitars I've played. Not overly bright, either, but with a pronounced mid-range (from low to high-mid) that sounds as though the guitar's tone is being processed in some way, even when it is unplugged! Very fat on the high E string, too, all the way up the neck...

When I used to use uncoated strings, I favored Phosphor Bronze, either D'Addario or DR Rare... since switching to coated strings, I like the Elixir 80-20 Nanowebs; with the coated variety, I don't like the PB ones at all, at least not the ones I've tried (Markley, D'Addario EXP, or Elixir)...

There are a lot of times when I've read some blanket generalization of maple's tone and wished I could put this Angus right in their face... and say, "NOW, what do you think?!"

To be fair, I have played many maple acoustic guitars that fit the stereotype exactly... I'm not sure why my Angus sounds so good, so full and rich - without any sort of exaggerated high end tone - but she does! It is curious that, after putting in the Anthem SL in this Angus, her tone is much closer to what people "expect" from a maple guitar... sigh... but I use her for gigs mostly, so I'm leaving the pick-up in... for now.

play on......................................>

John

[JannieA]

A friend of mine has been playing the same Taylor Maple for about 15 years and uses Elixir Light Polyweb and he's sold on them.

[Rosewood99]

Originally Posted by RussMason

I was trying to figure out what to reply to those who asked about my views on maple. It is just something that I have known for a long time, and have had two maple guitars, in addition to others of mahogany, rosewood, koa and walnut.

But Spock stepped up and provided a lot of good information. Thanks for that!

By the way, maple 12-strings are very desirable, since the jangly quality of the octaves is presented a bit more crisply than, say, a rosewood model.

Re: titanium strings. I just love them. They cost a lot, but to me, they are worth it. Pete Rohrbacher is a fine man and a true scientist when it comes to strings and the sounds they produce. The strings are patented, by the way.

I think I would like to try them. I know you recommended the Rohrbacher Bronze over the nickel but said they don't last as long. Did you see they now sell a ceramic wound Bronze that's supposed to last almost as long as the nickel. Have you used them?

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by paulzoom

I've had my new Breedlove Pacific with quilted Maple for a week now and loving it. The previous owner was not positive but thought the strings on it now are Elixir PBs which sound pretty good but I'm wondering what strings other Maple guitar owners use. I've always been partial to John Pearse PBs but not sure if they would be good for a Maple guitar.

Paul, I've used John Pearse phosphor bronze strings on maple instruments with great success. For me, they're the right choice. If you're already a fan, as you say you are, they well might be the right choice for you, as well.


Wade Hampton Miller

[RussB]

I tried some John Pearse silk 'n bronze (LM610) strings on my F-50...I've since bought two more sets as back-ups. I really like these on that particular guitar