G&L Maple bodied guitars?

[Craig]

[from a post on the G&LDP Lots of maple guitars from that era... by
GPD on February 05, 2009 in response to this post:
Re: That be... posted by Bbluz on February 04, 2009]

: yeah,I dig it immensely.
: So,I'm assuming there were lots of them made out of maple ?

Yep, when G&L started out from the remnants of the failed CLF-Music Man venture, the wood laying
around in inventory was ash and poplar which is what all Music Man instruments were built from.
At this point in time a steady supply of lightweight swamp ash was a problem and for transparent
finishes poplar wasn't a good choice aesthetically as can be witnessed by the many sunburst Music
Man basses and guitars that have sunburst over poplar and it ain't so pretty. Dale didn't have a
problem with poplar as long as a solid finish was applied over it but he didn't want to go to market
with a transparent finish over the poplar so alternative species were considered.
This all started in the beginning (spring/summer of 1980) and a couple of good alternatives came up.
They were able to procure a large inventory of Honduran mahogany for a great price as well as some
soft maple out of Oregon and Washington again, for a great price. The mahogany was used early on
but was abandoned not so much for cost reasons as it was that inconsistency in the species and the
reality that they were shooting a lot more finishing materials on it than they would have liked and that
the guitars and basses would sometimes sound great and other times they'd sound not so great.
Dale also informed me that they seemed to suffer a lot more "tear-out" when routing the mahogany
bodies and the scrap rate was higher compared to the other species...again, not as cost effective.

OTOH, the soft maple proved to be superb on all levels except not all boards were really light enough
to make bodies out of. There was a deliberate effort to try and weed out the really dense boards which
they could afford to do because at that time the price per board/foot was low enough to get away with
that.

Anyway, the soft maple first was used in 1980 and ramped up substantially. Every Broadcaster ever
built (legitimate production that is) has a maple body and a huge percentage of the 86'-87' ASAT's
likewise have soft maple bodies. Most of the SC & SB basses sport maple bodies as do the vast
majority of Rampages, Superhawks and Invaders. All but perhaps one of the X-Body Interceptors were
maple bodies as well. Of the other models like the Cavalier, the S-500, Skyhawk, Nighthawk, etc., you'll
find a sprinkling of instruments with maple bodies.

As you move out of the mid 80's into the late 80's you see less and less maple and this was because
the price had risen dramatically over this window of time and a supply of lighter boards had dwindled
to the point that economically, the ash wasn't anymore an expensive alternative. The supply of good
low mass clear swamp ash has always been cyclical. That said, G&L made maple bodied guitars and
basses clear into late 1991.

After the BBE acquisition in the 1992 timeframe, maple and poplar bodies were discontinued and body
woods were ash or alder. Of course, later on in the 90's body capping became available as well as plenty
of short-run or one-off type speciality species were used. There are some really cool one-off G&L's out
there for sure from all era's but BBE has cranked out some really gorgeous instruments with high end
woods from time to time.

The Buffalo Bro's limited edition "Trinity" model is one of the few BBE era G&L I know of that sports an
all soft-maple body. I've got one...and I love it...fantastic guitar. Some of the early "Climax" series BBE
built guitars had maple bodies too.

Hope this helps,


Gabe

Addendum: In 2010, G&L released the Jerry Cantrell Signature Model Rampage and the
G&L Tribute Rampage Jerry Cantrell Signature. They both have a soft Maple body.

Addendum #2: In 2013, G&L released the Superhawk™ Jerry Cantrell, Superhawk™ Deluxe Jerry Cantrell,
Tribute Series Superhawk™ Jerry Cantrell and Tribute Superhawk™ Deluxe Jerry Cantrell Signature models.
They all have a soft Maple body. The Deluxe models have a Maple cap on the soft Maple body.

Last edited by Craig on Sun May 03, 2015 8:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Added Addendum #2

does anyone know what type of wood qualifies as soft maple? warmoth defines it as acer macrophyllum or western maple, but there's also big leaf and sugar maple?! which is which?

I was wondering if anyone would be willing to post pictures of their maple bodied ASAT neck pocket. There were some nice examples for the mahogany neck pocket. I have an 87 ASAT III which I want to verify if its maple body. Thanks!!!

In my Gallery, there are pictures of neck pockets from I think every G&L I've got. The SC-2 has Maple, the F-100 and ASAT Deluxe have Mahogany bodies and the others should be from Alder, exept the L-2000, which is from Swamp-Ash.

http://i.wuell.net/gallery/view_album.p ... me=Guitars

In my Gallery, there are pictures of neck pockets from I think every G&L I've got. The SC-2 has Maple, the F-100 and ASAT Deluxe have Mahogany bodies and the others should be from Alder, exept the L-2000, which is from Swamp-Ash.

http://i.wuell.net/gallery/view_album.p ... me=Guitars

Great looking Gallery!!

I was wondering if anyone would be willing to post pictures of their maple bodied ASAT neck pocket. There were some nice examples for the mahogany neck pocket. I have an 87 ASAT III which I want to verify if its maple body. Thanks!!!

Here is the pocket of my maple bodied SC-1 I received today:


Hope this helps,

- Jos

Thank you all so much!!! This is a great start and will compare them with mine! I really appreciate this!!!

I was wondering if anyone would be willing to post pictures of their maple bodied ASAT neck pocket.

Tundra,

I will try to remember to upload some of mine later tonight. FWIW, the best comparison would probably be the heel of your guitar's neck. It is maple, and should resemble a maple neck pocket very closely.

Ken

Okay! Another silly question! I've been trying to distinguish maple bodies versus ash bodies looking at pictures in the internet. Have found some photos that say maple body, but usually its see through color. Most Ash are natural and are easy to see. Anyway I am having a hard time. What I can figure in looking at the picture between these two woods is.. the ash has more pronouced growth markings than the maple. Thanks for all the help!!

What I can figure in looking at the picture between these two woods is.. the ash has more pronouced growth markings than the maple.

If you look at the raw unfinished wood, ash will have more porosity in the grain. If you put a piece of paper on a smooth piece of ash and rubbed it with the side of a pencil's point, you would probably be able to see the grain pattern on the paper. If you did that with a smooth piece of maple, the paper would be evenly dark from the rubbing. I hope that makes sense. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there will generally be indentations along the grain lines in the ash, but not in the maple. Ash will almost always need to be treated with a grain filler before finishing, which may lead to a darker grain.

Maple may be tricky to pin down from pictures. All kinds of grain can be found, even within a single piece. Maple tends to have curly ("tiger stripe") or quilted figure in the nicer boards; ash can also show these kinds of figure, but not as prominently or as often.

Here are some photos of neck pockets and bodies, since I never got around to posting them before:

1986 ASAT, maple body:


1986 Superhawk, maple body:


Another 1986 ASAT, maple body:


1986 ASAT neck, maple:


1983 Nighthawk, maple body:


Lousy cell phone photo of 1982 SC-2, maple body:


2000 L-2000, swamp ash body:


More L-2000, in swamp ash:


Another of the L-2000, showing swamp ash end grain:


1982 L-1000 project bass, in swamp ash (the grain is highlighted by traces of the original paint):


Very early SB-1, in ultra-straight grained maple:


1980 F-100, in very straight/tight-grained swamp ash:


One more of the swamp ash L-2000, showing the difference between quartersawn grain (in the center) and flatsawn on the edges:


I hope this helps!

Ken

Thanks Ken!!!
Man I really appreciate the pictures. I like seeing the ash to compare with the maple. Thank you!!!

Anytime, Tundra! I try not to miss an opportunity to share some G&L porn.

Ken