posted 02-18-2004 01:47 AM               

i would investigate this thoroughly-it is a low density wood and i am not sure if it has the qualities needed for a neck.

There are many, many thousands of maple guitar necks in the world, it is one of the most reliable and stable neck woods there is. Gibson used it, Hauser used it. Likewise, though it’s very rarely used, American sycamore (Platanus sp.) works quite well too. You need to do some wood homework.

posted 02-18-2004 05:59 AM               

Mr. Hostetter: The issue at hand was NOT maple but sycamore (true sycamore). If the wood Mr. Freeborn has is indeed maple, then factors pertaining to maple would be relevant. If the wood at hand turns out to be true sycamore, then the points I raised are very relevant. My response concerned the use of sycamore and not maple.

posted 02-18-2004 08:26 PM               

Let’s hope so, that stuff makes good bowling alleys and furniture, but doesn’t make the best guitars. Among softer and hence much more common maples for tonewoods are Acer rubrum (eastern red maple, what Gibson used to use a lot) and Acer macrophylla (western bigleaf, which many makers, including Gibson now, use extensively). Both are relatively soft. Bigleaf is reddish, while red maple can be extremely creamy and white. I’ve used a bit of it this last year that was as glowing white as any "English Sycamore" I’ve seen. It came from West Virginia.

Acer pseudoplatanus (literally "fake sycamore maple," because of the leaf resemblance) is Europe’s main maple. Its original natural distribution extends around the continent from Belgium to the Caucasus mountains and from northern Germany to southern Italy. All those lovely Cremonese violins are made from it. It’s not the only maple in Europe, but it’s one of the nicer ones, and most adaptable as well. It’s been planted around the world. And introduced long ago into the British Isles of course.

Back to "true sycamore," London Plane, one of the most commonly planted street trees in America, is a species of Platanus thought to be a hybrid of the Oriental Plane (P. orientalis) with the American Sycamore (P. occidentalis), but may be only a cultivar of P. orientalis.

Peter: Platanus Pusinous?? Eww.

posted 02-19-2004 06:18 AM               

As for someone calling Platanus "lacewood" I certainly understand why someone might do that given it's large medullary when quartered, but if there is another group of woods that is almost as confused by usage of common names as maples and sycamores, it's lacewoods. So I'll just call my local "sycamore" Platanus wrightii, with its wood that looks like "lacewood" and its leaves that look something like those of a "maple".
http://www.naturesongs.com/vvplants/azsycamore.html

posted 02-19-2004 03:51 PM               

One interesting difference between the European plane and the American ones is that the European Platanus a montane forest tree (if they can hold out against beeches) while the American ones are generally river trees, which grow with their roots right in the creek. I think this is reflected in the working qualities of the two woods - the European forest tree is much denser and harder. Its wood is often used for cello and bass bridges. I know that Platanus racemosa, my California sycamore, would never work for that, and I would likewise suspect that P. wrightii (the Arizona one Bob Steidl referred to, above) wouldn’t either. But it has made an awful nice guitar: