To order items from this page, please CONTACT US with the item number(s) that you’re interested in.

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• Spalted Curly Maple Guitar Top set with excellent color contrast and inklines (pictured above)
• ITEM 201 SOLD
  
• 23″ x 7 1/4″ x 3/8″ each side
• $49.99 USD

• Spalted Curly Maple  Guitar Top set with excellent color contrast and inklines (pictured above)
• ITEM 202 SOLD
  
• 23″ x 7 1/4″ x 3/8″ each side
• $49.99 USD

• Spalted Curly Maple Guitar Top set with excellent color contrast and inklines (pictured above)
• ITEM 203 SOLD
  
• 24″ x 7 1/2″ x 3/8″ each side
• $49.99 USD

• Spalted Curly Maple Guitar Top set with excellent color contrast and inklines (pictured above)
• ITEM 204 SOLD
  
• 24″ x 7 1/2″ x 3/8″ each side (there’s a 2″ crack in the spalt at one end of the set)
• $49.99 USD

• Spalted Curly Maple Guitar Top set with excellent color contrast and inklines (pictured above)
• ITEM 205
• 24″ x 7 5/8″ x 3/8″ each side (there’s a 2″ crack in the spalt at one end of the set)
• $49.99 USD

• Spalted Curly Maple Guitar Top set with excellent color contrast and inklines (pictured above)
• ITEM 206 SOLD
  
• 24″ x 7 1/2″ x 3/8″ each side
• $49.99 USD

• Spalted Curly Maple Guitar Top set with excellent color contrast and inklines (pictured above)
• ITEM 207 SOLD
  
• 21″ x 7″ to 6 7/8″ x 3/8″ each side
• $49.99 USD

• Spalted Curly Maple Guitar Top set with gorgeous color, inklines and figure (pictured above)
• ITEM 208 SOLD
  
• 21″ x 7″ to 6 7/8″ x 3/8″ each side
• $49.99 USD

We offer a selection of bookmatched sets for flat tops, drop tops and carved tops in curly maple, spalted maple, quilted maple and maple burl. Beautiful wood for building that one of a kind guitar.

Our wood is dried in a dehumidification kiln to 12%mc and then professionally resawn on a Grizzly Horizontal Resaw.

We’re constantly adding new items to our wood store inventory… please bookmark this page and check back often…we’ll be posting some spectacular electric guitar tops!

VIEW OUR SPALTED MAPLE ELECTRIC GUITAR TOPS FOR SALE

VIEW OUR CURLY MAPLE ELECTRIC GUITAR TOPS FOR SALE

VIEW OUR QUILTED MAPLE ELECTRIC GUITAR TOPS FOR SALE

VIEW OUR SPALTED QUILTED MAPLE DROP FOR SALE

VIEW OUR BIRDSEYE MAPLE BURL GUITAR TOPS FOR SALE

VIEW OUR DISCOUNT GUITAR TOPS FOR SALE

What is Tonewood?

Tonewood is the luthier’s term generally used in the industry to describe music wood…wood with recognized and consistent acoustic qualities.   This wood is mainly used  for building guitars, violins, and stringed instruments, where each species of wood used contributes a different sound, or tonal quality.  An accoustic guitar, just for example, could have a maple back and sides, with a spruce or cedar top.     

Some of the most common types of tonewood for guitars are:

 

SOUNDBOARDS

Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis) from North West Canada and Alaska - Its high stiffness combined with the lightweight characteristics of most softwoods, makes it a natural for high velocity of sound.

Engelmann Spruce (Picea engelmannii) from North America. Engelmann spruce is prized for its similarity in color to European (German) White spruce as well as its extreme lightness in weight which seems to produce a slightly louder and more projective or “open” sound than Sitka spruce.

Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata) from Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Western Red Cedar has long been used as a soundboard material by classical guitar makers for its vibrance and clarity of sound. It’s extremely light weight compared to spruce, and the tonal result is a slightly louder, more open response. An interesting characteristic of Red Cedar is that it sounds broken in, even when it’s new.

When looking to purchase a soundboard for your acoustic guitar, here are a few terms you should be familiar with.  

The first is RUNOUT.  Runout refers to the fact that the orientation of the wood fiber over the length of the guitar top is not running parallel to the edge of the guitar top.  It is often caused by a twist to the growth pattern of the tree.  When severe, runout causes the wood fibers to be shorter over the length of the guitar top, and over time can weaken the structural integrity of the top. It’s best to avoid purchasing guitar tops with runout.

The second term to be familiar with is Grain Orientation. Your acoustic guitar tops should be quarter sawn to no more than 12 to 15 degrees off perfect quarter.  The grain should be straight and run parallel to the edges of the guitar top.  

There are many reasons to select a perfectly quarter sawn acoustic guitar top. Here’s a few of them…

1. Perfectly quarter sawn wood is generally stiffer, stronger and more resilient which helps maintain the structural integrity of the guitar.  It’s the stiffness of the wood that makes the instrument less likely to deform under the pressure exerted from the strings.
2. It’s said that because of its stiffness, perfectly quarter sawn wood tends to have a crisper more responsive tone.  
3. The appearance of quarter sawn wood is also very important. When a top is perfectly quartered it will reveal the medullar rays that run at right angles to the grain (which is often called silking) and have a luminous, reflective quality to their appearance.   

 

BACK AND SIDES

Brazilian Rosewood (Dalbergia nigra) This wood is sometimes called jacaranda. Brazilian Rosewood is an endangered species of wood and is more difficult and costly to obtain than other tonewoods.  Tonally, it produces full deep basses and brilliant trebles. 

East Indian Rosewood (Dalbergia latifolia) This rosewood is rich in apprearance with dark purple, red and brown grain. It produces a deep warm projective bass response.

Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) Mahogany is from South America. It’s yellowish brown to reddish brown in color and is very stable wood. It resonates a strong loud sound with a quick response and a warm midrange.

Curly or Quilted Maple (Acer macrophyllum) This maple is also know as Western Big Leaf Maple. Maple is harder and has a brighter sound than mahogany. 

Cherry (Prunus spp.). Cherry produces a rich, projective midrange and balance without favoring the bass or treble frequencies. 

Koa (Acacia koa) from Hawaii. Koa is a golden brown color with dark streaks and a beautiful sheen. Koa seems to have a bass response that is slightly less than that of rosewood and treble response that is slightly less than that of mahogany which results in a very equally balanced instrument.

 

SOLID BODY GUITAR WOOD

Alder - Alder is popular as a material for electric guitar bodies. It’s a medium weight wood used by many guitar makers. Alder provides a brighter tone than other woods (such as mahogany), and as alder is not a particularly dense wood it provides a resonant, full bodied sound with decent sustain.

Ash - Also know as swamp ash. It offers firm lows, pleasant highs, a slightly scooped midrange, and good sustain. 

Basswood - This is a very light and fairly soft wood. It’s light in color with minimal grain. Solid basswood bodies have a fat, but well-balanced tonality. 

 

GUITAR NECK WOOD

Maple - Maple is easily the most common type of neck wood used in solid body guitars. A one-piece, solid maple neck contributes an edge of sizzle in the highs, and firm lows. It has a bright sound and excellent clarity with light to medium picking.

 

Check out our Wood Store for Alder solid body wood, Curly Maple neck blanks, Western Red Cedar soundboards (guitar tops) and Figured or Spalted Maple drop tops.   We’re adding new items daily, so check back often and if you don’t see what you’re looking for, please contact us we’ll be happy to help you find it.

All of the items on this page are sold - We have a new selection of Curly Maple and Spalted Maple DROP TOP - BOOKMATCHED SETS in our WOOD STORE

Spalted Curly Maple Bookmatched Set

Item #0478 SOLD

Price $29.99 USD

Measurements 25″ x 15.5″ x 3/8″

(Each side measures 7.75″ wide for a total width of 15.5″)

Beautiful solid spalted maple with excellent color and figure. This will make an incredible one of a kind guitar top.

Spalted Curly Maple Bookmatched Set

Item #5713 SOLD

Price $29.99 USD

Measurements 24.5″ x 15″ x 3/8″

(Each side measures 7.5″ wide for a total width of 15″)

Beautiful solid spalted maple with striking color and figure. This will make a stunning one of a kind guitar top.

Spalted Curly Maple Bookmatched Set

Item #4375 SOLD

Price $29.99 USD

Measurements 22″ x 13″ x 3/8″

(Each side measures 6.5″ wide for a total width of 13″)

Beautiful solid spalted maple with striking color and figure. This will make a stunning one of a kind guitar top.

Spalted Curly Maple Bookmatched Set

Item #0369 SOLD

Price $24.99 USD

Measurements 25″ x 14.5″ x 3/8″

(Each side measures 7.25″ wide for a total width of 14.5″)

Beautiful solid spalted maple with nice color and figure.

Spalted Curly Maple Bookmatched Set

Item #9439 SOLD

Price $29.99 USD

Measurements 25.75″ x 13″ x 3/8″

(Each side measures 6.5″ wide for a total width of 13″)

Beautiful solid spalted maple with striking color and figure. This will make a stunning one of a kind guitar top.

White Curly Maple Bookmatched Set

SOLD

Price $29.99 USD

Measurements 24″ x 13″ x 3/8″

(Each side measures 6.5″ wide for a total width of 13″)

Beautiful creamy white flatsawn curly maple. Free matching piece included for headstock or whatever you like.

Curly Maple Bookmatched Set

SOLD

Price $24.99 USD

Measurements 23.5″ x 14″ x 3/8″

(Each side measures 7″ wide for a total width of 14″)

Nicely figured curly maple with a slight color contrast.

Curly Maple Bookmatched Set

SOLD

Price $24.99 USD

Measurements 23.5″ x 14″ x 3/8″

(Each side measures 7″ wide for a total width of 14″)

Nicely figured curly maple with some color contrast.

Spalted Curly Maple Bookmatched Set

Item #6226 SOLD

Price $39.99 USD

Measurements 24″ x 15″ x 3/8″

(Each side measures 7.5″ wide for a total width of 15″)

Beautiful solid spalted maple with striking color and figure. This will make a stunning one of a kind guitar top.

Spalted Curly Maple Bookmatched Set

Item #5704 SOLD

Price $29.99 USD

Measurements 24″ x 15″ x 3/8″

(Each side measures 7.5″ wide for a total width of 15″)

Beautiful solid spalted maple with striking color and figure. This will make a stunning one of a kind guitar top.

Spalted Curly Maple Bookmatched Set

Item #7893 SOLD

Price $39.99 USD

Measurements 24″ x 13″ x 3/8″

(Each side measures 6.5″ wide for a total width of 13″)

Beautiful solid spalted maple with striking color contrast and inklines. This will make a stunning one of a kind guitar top.