What Is A Flame Maple Top?

It actually

runs perpendicular to the grain direction

, which is why some maple tops appear to have patterns running front-to-back and side-to-side. … The rippled, 3-D look to flame maple is caused by a phenomenon known as chatoyancy.

What is a flamed maple top guitar?

Flamed maple was

the first top wood ever used on an electric guitar

. It can all be traced back to the iconic Gibson Les Paul. Thereafter, almost every major guitar brand has offered a flamed maple top on their guitars. The effect is created by cutting maple to shape, forming it if required through mold-warping.

What is a flamed top?

The flame part has been fully answered, but the top part is just that. It’s

a thin slab of figured wood that’s laminated or glued onto the top of the main wood of the body

as opposed to the whole body being made of one particular type of wood.

What is a maple top?

Many models of guitars (Most gibsons), have a maple top/cap on

the top of the body of the guitar

. This is often made of two matched pieces of wood which meet down the middle of the guitar. … This layer of maple is often said to improve the resonance and “tone” of the guitar, and also giving a slightly snappier sound.

What does a flame maple look like?

Autumn Flame Maple trees are a patented variety of tree with the scientific name Acer rubrum. Its leaves are the classic lobed maple shape and are

bright green with a hint of scarlet in the spring and summer

, turning to a brilliant red early in the fall. Some trees produce yellow leaves as well.

Is flamed maple rare?

Flame maple is found only in a small percentage of maple trees and the really eye-popping examples come from

less than one percent

. Most people do not realize that the flame is not the actual grain pattern of the wood.

What causes birdseye maple?

It has a distinctive pattern that resembles tiny, swirling eyes disrupting the smooth lines of grain. … Research into the cultivation of bird’s eye maple has so far discounted the theories that it is caused by

pecking birds deforming the wood grain

or that an infecting fungus makes it twist.

What causes figured maple?

While there’s some debate about what causes wood to become figured, we know what causes spalting- specifically,

a fungus

. Spalting can happen in almost any wood species, but it’s mostly found in maple. When the ends of a freshly-cut log are exposed to moisture, a fungus can find its way inside the log and begin to eat.

What makes maple curly?

Dave Hurwitz describes curly maple: “

If the tree grew tall and straight, the resulting grain will be straight and consistent

, which makes it easier to plane flat and easier to cut. But, some tress grow in places or in conditions that cause the resulting grain to not be straight. An extreme example is curly maple.

Is curly maple expensive?

Prices can range from

just slightly more expensive than regular maple

for lower grades of curly maple, to many, many times higher for prices of the highest grades. However, curly maple tends to be one of the most economical hardwoods when compared to other figured woods.

Is Tiger maple the same as curly maple?

The term Tiger Maple is most often given to

Curly Soft Maple

because the curly stripe in it resembles the stripe of a tiger. The term Tiger Maple is also given to a Curly Maple with exceptional or heavier than the normal figure.

What is Spalted maple?

Spalted maple is

a work of nature’s art that happens when fungus invades maple creating a vein pattern

. There is no other pattern like it in nature. Spalted maple can be found in either hard maple or soft maple – the spalt will occur in either species.

What is tiger maple?

Flame maple

(tiger maple), also known as flamed maple, curly maple, ripple maple, fiddleback or tiger stripe, is a feature of maple in which the growth of the wood fibers is distorted in an undulating chatoyant pattern, producing wavy lines known as “flames”.

How tall does a flame maple get?

Autumn Flame Red Maple will grow to be

about 50 feet tall

at maturity, with a spread of 40 feet. It has a high canopy with a typical clearance of 7 feet from the ground, and should not be planted underneath power lines.

How fast does a flame maple tree grow?

The Autumn Flame Red Maple grows to around 50 feet tall and as much across, in time, and especially during its early years it can

grow 3 feet in a year

, so it will soon be a great specimen in your garden.

How fast does a flame amur maple grow?