Flame maple

I am a SUCKER for flame maple on guitars. On high quality guitars, this maple face is glued onto the top of the guitar, and is usually at least 1/4" thick. On cheaper instruments, there is a really thin veneer glued onto the top.

The most beautiful piece of flame maple I own is on my Ibanez BTB 1005 bass. It's such a deep, rich flame that doesn't disappear whatever angle you view it at. And look at how thick that top is!!


I think the flame on my Dean Time Capsule V is tied with the Ibanez above. The flame is slightly more obscured because of the transparent black finish, but you can still see the ripply effect:



The flame on my Paul Reed Smith Custom 22, in contrast, is very obscured by the red dye, which is also super hard to photograph. I'm considering having this guitar refinished to have the grain pop more. IMO the dye is a waste of a really high quality PRS top, which (for you guitar nerds) would now be classified as an artist series top or maybe even a private stock:


My new Les Paul Axcess has a beautiful top, and I'm starting to appreciate the fact that it is very unique and nowhere as perfect looking as my other guitars.



My MTD Kingston Heir 5 string fretless has a really nice flamed maple top:


Here's the back of my Gibson J-100 acoustic guitar, with the thin flames that I think is usually referred to as fiddleback maple.


My dad even bought me a bookmatched flamed maple set, which I hope to someday have commissioned into a custom guitar.



What I like most is that flame maple is an anomaly found in nature and you will have little imperfections that make a figure unique. I hate coming upon a nice flame maple topped guitar - makes me want to buy it!!