Maple B+S what are you thoughts

Started by unclrob, October 21, 2009, 09:13:28 AM

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This is my main guitar when playing with others who are using Rosewood or Mahogany backed guitars   - or any time that I need to be really present in the mix.







Hi dermot,
This is what I was playing the other night with my buddy who plays a Gibson J45, and then later with the fellow who has that drop-dead gorgeous C10.

I know that was some time ago now, but if you have some impressions of the contrast in the sounds, that would probably be useful here.

Quote from: ST on October 22, 2009, 03:41:59 PM
Hi dermot,
This is what I was playing the other night with my buddy who plays a Gibson J45, and then later with the fellow who has that drop-dead gorgeous C10.

I know that was some time ago now, but if you have some impressions of the contrast in the sounds, that would probably be useful here.

I just revisited this thread, sure I'd love to be an armchair critic!

Before ST was on, there was duo who obviously gigged regularly.. the only way they could be so tight is constant playing / rehearsing... a great player with a Guild OM, and the other guy had a Taylor.. they sounded good, but the Guild sounded like an electric more than an ampflied acoustic guitar, could have been playing a strat and he would not lost any of the musicality flowing from his hands... the Taylor did sound like there was an acoustic in there somewhere ;-) 

A tough act to follow, glad i wasn't up after them...

So now  ST & his regular gigging partner come on, they have Been playing out for more than a decade together, and it shows in spades, this is the second time i have seen them, and they are lose, fun & spontaneous.. really meaning they don't waste much of a wonderful life on rehearsals, fly without a net, and seeing them pull out of a looming disasters is so much fun... they have fun and it translates to all around

The thing is - when Lawrence started playing his J45 it sounded really gooood, as in Woody Guthrieish jingle-jangle, and then ST's maple Morgan joined the mix, and it was more than "cut through", there was a depth and richness to everything, that it can float above all, dive down low, sting like a bee.. all crystal clear, without seeming to be pushing in the mix at all, you can hear everything played and it's very "musical", very "acoustic"...  sweet!

Then a friend of ST gets on stage he has an older L10, the case looked like it's been dragged behind a car down the Alaska highway twice, the L10 tho is near perfect... when he starts playing i can see why it's in such good shape... he has a strong attack, probably a fairly thick pick on fairly thick strings, but he has control, he's very precise while looking total casual about it..  i think he has done this before, and more than once... that L10 sounded really good on it's own.

He then asked ST to join him, later i was told they used to gig together, but that was more than a decade ago... once again the Morgan floated above without seeming to need to push it's self into the mix, it was just there, clear, and with a depth and sweetness that worked with the L10's  sustain, they never got in each other's way, and that's saying some as this is the first time in years these guys have played together!

I am a maple fan, as noted above i have played two that were memorable... and have heard two more that were stunning, ST's Morgan, and at El Mcmeen's house he played his Italian/maple OM42 a few years ago... now to get back to the point of this thread - I think Bob has a point about hearing nuances of the player more than the instrument with maple....

I'm not in gassing mood these days, my focus is more on playing and i am pretty happy with what i already have, but that maple C19 that went on Ebay for 1K was making my head turn a little bit ;-)

d

Thanks Dermot!

Much appreciated.

I was just trying to describe the differences in Maple versus Mahogany and Rosewood to another friend far away. I'll refer him to this. I think you have nailed it.

Thank you!

Maple is very unforgiving, not a good characteristic for a player like myself.  :bgrin:
bluesman67
HOGTOP CHARLOTTE

www.reverbnation.com/hogtopcharlotte

Yes maple is unforgiving its like Telecasters you have to play it right or it will let everone know, but maple in drop tunings the overtones are orgazmic.I LOVE MAPLE........




And Telecasters


Jezz I just realized that my Guild bass I'm gigging with is a maple also......
A REPAIRPERSON,Barefoot Rob gone to a better place
OM03PA.98 L10 Koa
Favorite saying
 OB LA DE OB LA DA,LIFE GOES ON---BRA,It is what it is,You just gotta deal it,
One By One The Penguins Steal My Sanity, Keith and Barefoot Rob on youtube
Still unclrob
#19
12 people ignoring me,so cool
rpjguitarworks
Call PM me I may be able to help

Quote from: unclrob on October 24, 2009, 08:23:34 PM
Yes maple is unforgiving its like Telecasters you have to play it right or it will let everone know but in drop tunings the overtones are orgazmic.I LOVE MAPLE........




And Telecasters


Jezz I just realized that my Guild bass I'm gigging with is a maple also......

LOL.  Now I can understand why I never really warmed up to a Tele but I love a Strat.
bluesman67
HOGTOP CHARLOTTE

www.reverbnation.com/hogtopcharlotte

I really want to say something about  strat's but I just can't and all I can think is they really very forgiving.
A REPAIRPERSON,Barefoot Rob gone to a better place
OM03PA.98 L10 Koa
Favorite saying
 OB LA DE OB LA DA,LIFE GOES ON---BRA,It is what it is,You just gotta deal it,
One By One The Penguins Steal My Sanity, Keith and Barefoot Rob on youtube
Still unclrob
#19
12 people ignoring me,so cool
rpjguitarworks
Call PM me I may be able to help

Well I've got to admit I have severe prejudice at work here. I decided when I was a teen that I didn't like like maple guitars at all, and I swear, I can't even remember picking one up since?!
After 30+ plus years I suppose I could give them another chance. ya think?
10-1614 more than a number, it's body and soul.

Don't do it,stop right there boy....if you sit down and play a maple guitar you'll want one and after 30 years I'm not sure you can deal with the results.
A REPAIRPERSON,Barefoot Rob gone to a better place
OM03PA.98 L10 Koa
Favorite saying
 OB LA DE OB LA DA,LIFE GOES ON---BRA,It is what it is,You just gotta deal it,
One By One The Penguins Steal My Sanity, Keith and Barefoot Rob on youtube
Still unclrob
#19
12 people ignoring me,so cool
rpjguitarworks
Call PM me I may be able to help

Quote from: unclrob on October 25, 2009, 08:55:16 AM
Don't do it,stop right there boy....if you sit down and play a maple guitar you'll want one and after 30 years I'm not sure you can deal with the results.
Clever Rob. Ok I give in. Ship me one.
10-1614 more than a number, it's body and soul.

Quote from: flatlander on October 25, 2009, 05:36:05 AM
Well I've got to admit I have severe prejudice at work here. I decided when I was a teen that I didn't like like maple guitars at all, and I swear, I can't even remember picking one up since?!
After 30+ plus years I suppose I could give them another chance. ya think?


Me as well. The worst Taylor I ever played was maple. A real dog. So in my head was "ug, so this is maple then." Not fair, obviously.
L-03 Italian Spruce

I've only played two maple guitars in over 30 years of playing and hated one and loved the other.Go figure.
The one I hated was a Taylor 614-CE that I bought soley for the purpose of playing it in a worship group and plugged in. Acoustically, it was the pits and I couldn't wait to unload that guitar.

The one I loved was some sort of non-dread Martin I played at FQMS in Louisville. That guitar had tone that shocked me,especially when I had already made my mind up tha maple was not for me. Just goes to show you that you can't judge a book by it's cover,or in this case it's back and sides. :tongue:
Happily married to the woman of my dreams and looking forward to growing old together.<br />Truly,God has smiled upon this simple man.

Unclrob's description of a maple guitar in drop tunings is a perfect definition.

I love to tune my parlor down to open C and that's a great sound. In the last 6 months I have played three Quilted Maple Larrivees including (L-09, L-09 12 string and another parlor). I have a quote for an L-09 in maple but I haven't pulled the trigger yet but I will have no reservations once I do.

I haven't checked Taylor pricing lately but my guess is for like kind and quality, it will come in considerably higher than an Larrivee.

First Flatlander  :roll



Second and just an added thing,a long time ago I had the chance to play a Guild D30 that was maple with a pressed arched back the my JF30's that thing had a bass responce that rivaled most rosewoods I played.
A REPAIRPERSON,Barefoot Rob gone to a better place
OM03PA.98 L10 Koa
Favorite saying
 OB LA DE OB LA DA,LIFE GOES ON---BRA,It is what it is,You just gotta deal it,
One By One The Penguins Steal My Sanity, Keith and Barefoot Rob on youtube
Still unclrob
#19
12 people ignoring me,so cool
rpjguitarworks
Call PM me I may be able to help

I own quite a few old Yamahas from the early `50s to the mid `60s, all made of solid maple...and I love my maple.
These two are first run Yamaha classical types but not yet classicals...they have the thicker rounder necks, the flatter wider necks came a bit later...this is a No. 45 and a No. 85...which has the wider flame on it.

 

a 1950s Yamaha Dynamic #1...these are very loud and deeply voiced for solid, small body maple guitars...love em to bits...I have a bunch more and they`re pretty much the same just diffenert colors.


Sneaky, that pair of Yammies look beautiful. Are the tops spruce or cedar?  They look like they have classical tuners. Was the "not quite classical" referring to the nut width? How do they play? How do they sound? You are fortunate to have found those.  :thumbsup  Lee.

tops are not cedar, they look like this...



like I said, the necks on these first run classicals are closer to the Dynamic necks, thicker and rounder than necks seen on classicals today, and even slightly later Yamahas have the wider, flatter necks we know classicals to have nowadays. From what I`ve seen, Yamaha didn`t have their own acoustic factory until 1966, a Mr. Ueda was moved from the motor division to start it up and thats when the first light green lable FG-150 and 180s came out. In the 2008Yamaha acoustic catalog theres a sort of family tree with Mr. E Ferrer named as the gentleman responsible for the first true Yamaha made classicals...the GC-5,7 and 10 models... which they date to 1967 so prior to that evidently Yamaha had it`s acoustics made for them by somebody else...and both Suzuki and/or Tenryu have been named...so on the models pictured above they used the same necks as the Dynamics had. I also have some models that came between those here and the Ferrer made models, and they have classical necks...the Dynamics and first runs classicals don`t have the same shape at all, though all have slot heads. I see lots of various brands over here that share many characteristics of the Yamaha Dynamics so it seems Suzuki was very bust building guitars with lots of brand names as early as the `50s , possibly earlier, hard to say for sure `cause record keeping was shabby at best. 

this apparently is a label from a Yamaha that predates even the Dynamics, which it seems were born in the early 1950s...`52 is the year thats been sited...so how far back does this one go?...nobody knows for sure and who made it...is unknown.



as for how the Dynamics...and the maples I posted above...sound, you can hear some models played here by somebody other than myself...don`t know who`s playing them actually...

http://www.geocities.jp/mmasmcb/kyoku/original.html

and heres a link to the museum of Dynamics posted by members of a web site dedicated to them here in Japan, they are listed according to model number and the labels help in determining a ballpark timeframe for when various models were made....

http://www.geocities.jp/mmasmcb/catalog.html

The one I hated was a Taylor 614-CE that I bought soley for the purpose of playing it in a worship group and plugged in. Acoustically, it was the pits and I couldn't wait to unload that guitar.

That's hard to believe . . . I think if you would play one with the tone of mine, you'd certainly have a different oppionion.

I guess there's a bad apple in a bunch every now and then.
Johnson L Body
A&L AMI
Cort Earth 900
Taylor Big Baby
Gold Tone PBR
Regal RC-51
Fender R48
Ariana Classical
Seagull Artist Grand
Gibson SJ
Gibson J-55
Taylor 355
Taylor 414
Larrivée L-05
Guild D-55
Taylor 614ce
Taylor 714ce
Taylor 814c
Kent archtop
Silvertone archtop
Les Paul Custom

Quote from: dependan on October 22, 2009, 08:49:03 AM
   This is a custom ordered Taylor 615ce with and Engleman top. (owned and ordered by my friend Don10 years ago)






Danny, that is an outstanding guitar!
I know it was up for sale back in the days... is it still up for sale?
Jeffrey


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