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luke69

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May 9, 2005
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149
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france
I Want to know the difference between classic mapple and bird's eye necks
with or not rosewood fingerboard
i saw the difference when i see it birds'eyes is most beautifull and figured mapple

but for sound,longevity, i don't know....

if someone can explain to me

thank you :rolleyes:
 

spkirby

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Feb 3, 2004
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Location
UK
I dont think soundwise there'd be much of a sound difference between a birdseyed and a plain maple neck. There is some question between tone difference between a neck with a rosewood fretboard and one with maple fretboard...

On the maple question...how come you never see birdseye maple tops on guitars as opposed to flame / quilt???

SK
 

Jimi D

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Feb 27, 2003
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Ottawa ON
spkirby said:
On the maple question...how come you never see birdseye maple tops on guitars as opposed to flame / quilt???
I've owned a couple of guitars with birdseye Maple tops, so they do exist... you probably don't see that many of them because they are not, imho, all that attractive - it's a very busy and arbatrary figuring compared to quilt or flame...

Anyway, I agree that there's not going to be a tonal difference between a birdseye neck and a plain Maple neck...
 

jazzbo jim

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Feb 4, 2005
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634
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Great White North
Oh Man!...I was almost too scared to view this thread! :D
I think birdseye is kinda hard to come by so you
re not likely to see many tops.
 

fsmith

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Oct 30, 2003
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2,297
Location
Halethorpe, MD
There's an acoustic hanging in my local shop with a natural birdseye top and it looks like a damn ostrich skin wallet, it's really not a pretty top compared to a nice quilt or flame.

Save the birdseye for the necks, or in Tommy's case give him flames any day.

fred
 

deanmm

Active member
Joined
May 11, 2004
Messages
43
One thing to consider perhaps.
I was told that birdseye can be sometimes unstable because all the warts in it, prone to twisting and similar activities, it is even more likely on laquer-less necks.
To me it sounds like it makes sense. I guess that quality of wood piece and proper ageing and drying are a bit more important for birdseye to be stable.
Dean
 

Doug

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Sep 27, 2005
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Minnesota
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Personally I think birdseye tops can look nice. :)
 

jpmrulez

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Sep 29, 2005
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31
Location
Tampere, Finland
A bit off topic, but since English isn't my native language I've somehow managed to miss the difference between flame and quilt. I know they are both very nice :)

So could someone please fill me in with this one?

Thanks!
 

hbucker

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Oct 11, 2002
Messages
707
jpmrulez said:
A bit off topic, but since English isn't my native language I've somehow managed to miss the difference between flame and quilt. I know they are both very nice :)

So could someone please fill me in with this one?

Thanks!


Quilt resembles ripples on a lake or a swimming pool. Flame is more striped. Sometimes it's a fine line between quilt and flame.

Look at my avatar. It's a quilt top guitar but between the pickups on my EVH it appears to be more flame that transitions into quilt.
 

savannah_sean

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Mar 9, 2005
Messages
428
Location
Savannah, GA
Jimi D said:
I've owned a couple of guitars with birdseye Maple tops, so they do exist... you probably don't see that many of them because they are not, imho, all that attractive - it's a very busy and arbatrary figuring compared to quilt or flame...

Anyway, I agree that there's not going to be a tonal difference between a birdseye neck and a plain Maple neck...

Carvin used to make guitars with solid quilt or birdseye bodies. They quit doing it sometime in the early 80's I think. I seem to remember seeing a picture of a solid birdseye body, but this was all I could find, this is from their 1979 catalog:

http://www.carvinmuseum.com/decade/images/79-dc160stereo.html
 

jpmrulez

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Sep 29, 2005
Messages
31
Location
Tampere, Finland
hbucker said:
Quilt resembles ripples on a lake or a swimming pool. Flame is more striped. Sometimes it's a fine line between quilt and flame.

Look at my avatar. It's a quilt top guitar but between the pickups on my EVH it appears to be more flame that transitions into quilt.

Oh, I see. Thanks a bunch for clearing that up for me.
 
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