On Solid Maple Soundboards

I recently saw a photograph of a very beautiful Taylor 6-string. Instead of a spruce top, this guitar had a book-end top made of quilted maple. I have always been under the impression that straight grain wood like spruce or cedar was not only structurally a necessity, but also that it gave a superior tone above other choices. Taylor, being the quality brand that it is, would certainly not make such a basic mistake to overlook the importance of these considerations. Does it mean that my understanding has been wrong altogether? And what type of tone can one expect of an instrument with such type of top? (Could it be that Taylor is merely breaking the mold and becoming innovative - like Ovation has done?)

I personally like a crisp and clear tone in a guitar - almost twangy. I have thought of cutting a saddle and a nut out of aluminum. My logic just tells me that it might give me the type of tone and clarity that I am looking for. What would your view be on this?

Many thanks for all the hours of pleasure you have given me through your book - and also your willingness to respond to my questions.

Cape Town
South Africa

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The guitar is above all other things a cultural artifact: its form is derived in great measure as a result of historic and cultural processes, from a legacy of dedicated woodworking craftsmen emulating the aesthetic preferences of their day--rather than a legacy of acoustical engineers and scientists pondering over the years how to increase its acoustical efficiency. But in modern times, another process has stepped in to dictate its development: corporate marketing.

In the guitar's cultural continuum, the guitar emerged with certain materials being prized over others. These decisions, again, were based not on acoustical or engineering principles, but on far more mundane considerations: what materials were available to builders, what materials bent the best, or were less reactive, or carved the easiest, or finished easiest, and so forth.

Now every element in the guitars form and structure has an impact, be it trivial or be it significant, on its perceived tone when played. Thus a guitar made with a perfectly straight-grained spruce top will indeed sound differently than a guitar made with a solid slab of jumbled-up-grain curly maple. So, I'm willing to bet, placed side by side and played, there will be a perceived difference. My contention is that a guitar with a quilted maple top falls outside the guitar's traditional continuum. Indeed, I'll be willing to bet that the actual decision of putting a quilted maple top on an acoustical guitar was based on a marketing rule called "product differentiation in the marketplace," and not, "how can we make the sound of this guitar louder, richer, more complex?"

Regardless, you might actually like, even prefer, the sound of the Taylor with its solid maple top. So, if you don't mind corporate marketing's impact on the guitar's historic form, then buy it. But if you think the guitar's historic form has special value, then pass it by. When is a rose a rose?

I haven't heard that quilted maple top guitar, but I would be surprised if the sound quality was not inferior in certain regards. During the 1940s, when Martin made solid mahogany tops on their acoustic guitars--during the period that Spruce was at a premium for the war effort--those guitars which I've played sounded sweet but weak. Yet some other folks--mostly inexpert players--valued them highly. So I would think the same dynamic is in force here: the stiffness to weight ratio of split spruce (it's "efficiency") is greater than any other wood, bar none. That translates to a smaller inertial load being placed on the string signal at the bridge, i.e., less damping. The consequence of less "efficient," wood like maple is that only the stronger, more energetic frequency components of the string signal will succeed in driving the denser, higher-damping top, and that many of the lower-energy signals coming from the vibrating strings will stop there and remain bound up in the string--never to be heard. But just dropping out a fraction of the string signal doesn't only change it's timbre, it changes its loudness. When you drop the sliders in an audio EQ unit, the sound source changes in character (maybe even creates an unusual new sound) and so consequently, the loudness is also reduced as you do so. Ergo, the effect is an unusual--perhaps distinctive--softer sound.