I do know maple, its middy, so its LOUD, clear and has moderate resonance/harmonic properties. If padauk is lighter the resonance would be somewhat better, but still have the edgy maple sound IMO.
I LOVE alot of maple in my guitars, but i like it best in the LP customs with maple neck i have.
I personally think its crytical to have enough highs in this kind of guitar, so ideally i would pick an alnico V bar pickups. Then you could choose to put a rather dark sounding pickup in to negate the maple a bit, personally i think this just gives a very bland/generic 'cheapo' guitarsound which is very undesireable. Keep in mind most cheapo guitars do the same by compensating very rich sounding pickups on a DEAD sounding plank.
I think one should get the most out of the acoustic guitar sound, with a maple like sound i would say a very clear sounding pickup with plenty of highs and preferably tight and rich bottom end. The mules in my maple neck LP custom are perfect in the mids but a bit skinny in the lows and highs, even with the big mahagony/maple body. Probably a riffraff, or maybe a VHII would be better suited. Maybe even stormy mondays depending on the actual tone of the guitar.
Probably if you would describe the sound of the guitar better more people would respond, i hope this comment is in any way usefull to you though.
