Author Topic: English Sycamore vs. American Maple (Read 4160 times)

Bainzy · « **on:** September 06, 2006, 11:12:00 PM »

For those of you who've had experience with the 2 woods, is there a significant sound difference between them? If so, what are the differences?

FELINEGUITARS · « **Reply #1 on:** September 07, 2006, 12:24:04 AM »

I would say that the sound is not very different
I believe that the maple is supposed to be a bit harder but we have used the sycamore option often and the tone has been great

All the great violin makers have always used sycamore anyway as it is the european version whilst the North American version (maple) has found favour with USA/Canadian makers

Bainzy · « **Reply #2 on:** September 08, 2006, 09:23:41 PM »

Groovy - I love the fact that I'll be able to use English grown wood in my guitars. In fact, I think the trees outside this house are sycamore, so theoretically I could build a guitar from part of my garden! :D

Brow · « **Reply #3 on:** September 10, 2006, 12:22:48 PM »

I believe my Gordon Smith Graduate60 (LP Clone) has a Sycamore top on it, as it's the UK 'version' of Maple, and to be honest, I can't hear any tonal differences between that and the Maple cap on my Gibby LP :)

Bainzy · « **Reply #4 on:** September 10, 2006, 06:02:51 PM »

Good to hear - I'll be using it for LP flame tops if I can, since figured maple is obviously more expensive to get than figured sycamore since it's not local. Plus, all the figured maple on LP's you see nowadays tends to be flatsawn, as opposed to quartersawn like the original late 50's bursts. Sycamore seems pretty easy to get in quartersawn with figuring.