Roasted Maple

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Published on Tuesday, 22 October 2013 00:00

Written by Frank J. Pasquale

“The New Black”

The world of high fashion is certainly a tumultuous and controversial one to say the least.   Every year some unknown “entity” declares some fashion design as “in” and thereby ruling other fashions as “out” and thus ending the usefulness of otherwise perfectly good pieces of clothing, thus relegating them to the deepest recesses of closets worldwide.  Of course this is only  temporarily until the ”powers that be” declare these clothes “in” again and then they resurface from the dark depths of the closet to  re-appear as “vintage.”

 I must admit that I don’t understand this concept. But you are talking about a guy who sports the same “jeans and t-shirt” concept that he made popular in 10th grade.  Now that is not to say that I lack class or style, If there is an exceptionally important event I will accent this look with a Levis jacket and complete the ensemble with a pair of well-worn Wolverine boots. In fact I have had the same Wolverine boots for over 15 years and I’m sure they have faded from ”in fashion” to “out of fashion” several times but I have yet to be notified of these changes.
Nonetheless, fashion trends come and go and we all must deal with the consequences of these “decisions”. I remember when my daughter was born that we received a large amount of baby clothes as gifts that were brown with pink polka dots. I also remember thinking that these were the worst  colors I had ever seen. They looked horrible together. It reminded me of the tragic and unavoidable end of a long night of drinking, binge eating  and vomiting on the carpet all rolled into one little baby outfit. After the third or fourth outfit arrived I made a comment about the horrible color combination and my wife casually looked at me and said “Oh the color?”…”It’s the new Black”.

I sat there stunned for a minute thinking about all of my black guitars somehow being painted this gross color and I was unable to process her statement. Then she explained to me that pink and brown was the new fashion trend color and it was going to be part of our fashion culture for at least the next year. (You can imagine the joy I found in that). She said that when a new color becomes the fashion trend they refer to it as “The New Black” because it goes with everything.  (For those of you who don’t understand about fashion or better yet just don’t care about fashion just image black hardware on a guitar and you will know what she means).  When something becomes so popular that it starts to appear everywhere they say “It’s the New Black”.

Now that we got all of that out of the way I will give you a moment to sit back and say ”Who cares? I came here to learn about guitars”! I don’t blame you for thinking that …I would think the same thing!

But there is a point to all of this madness. There is a new trend in custom guitar building community that is quickly becoming “The New Black” because it is starting to appear more and more and soon it will be everywhere. Of course I am talking about Roasted Maple Guitar Necks.  (If you haven’t figured that out by now from the title of the blog and the first few paragraphs please get a grown up to help you with the rest of the article).

You may not yet be familiar with the term “roasted maple” because it has not penetrated the “off the shelf” production market yet but it has taken a strong hold in the custom market. There are several good reasons for that which we will discuss here. I for one am glad that the production market has been ignoring this wood because it is relatively expensive and as soon as the “big boys” decide they want to start buying it by the semi load it will become even more expensive.

My first exposure to the term “Roasted Maple” was in a Guitar Center in Algonquin Illinois, a suburb northwest of Chicago several years ago. I had been on the hunt for a great 2x12 combo amp and was in the middle of a 6 month “shootout” test between every 2x12 amp on the market. I had created a test sheet that featured every possible sound that I wanted in an amp. I had categorized them by the artists that created the tones I wanted.  For example when it came to pure metal crunch I simply labeled the category “ The Hetfield Factor”.  I also had categories for Warren DeMartini, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Shooter Jennings, David Gilmour, etc. You get the idea. I was taking careful notes with my journal and trying to find the most versatile amp combo on the market.  So of course I took one of my Pasquale Custom Guitars with me for the test because all of my guitars are designed to cover that full spectrum of tones.
When I arrived at Guitar Center I had to check my guitar and case in at the front desk for inspection.  (They do that so that someone can’t bring in an empty case and swipe one of their fine $400 Indonesian Import Stratocasters.)

The guitar I brought was a flame top Pasquale Custom Classic Series Guitar. It had a one piece alder back and  was outfitted with a Floyd Rose. It also had a 1 piece Rosewood neck and a Kingwood fingerboard.  This was my “Showdog” guitar. It literally is the cream of the crop. I checked it in at the front desk and proceeded to make my way to an Egnater Renegade 65 2x12 combo and proceeded to shake the pillars of heaven.  The amp and guitar combo sounded incredible and gave me such a variety of tones that I actually bought the amp because I had declared it the winner of the 2x12 shootout.

As I sat there and played I gathered a small crowd of and one of the Guitar Center techs came up to me and asked me about the guitar. I told him I was a custom builder and that I made the guitar. He looked at me perplexed for a second and then he asked me in his eloquent Midwest dialect “Zat one a dem der Cooked Maple Necks”?  Then it was my turn to sit there perplexed. “What”? I said.  Then he proceeded to tell my about this new “Cooked Maple” wood that he read about and how it was more stable and had a great tone.   I told him that I never heard of this “cooked maple” and that this neck was solid Rosewood. I then explained the guitar wood balance and how it let me get the variety of tones. He eventually went on his way and I sat there and played some more. (By the way I found that this is a great way to generate interest my guitars because I had a lot of onlookers asking about my guitar, much to the chagrin of the Guitar Center management).

Nonetheless, I bought the amp and took it home but I kept thinking about this “cooked maple” that I just heard about.

I began to do my research and learned that the wood that was being referred to was called “Roasted Maple”. It was not a new breed of maple but it was standard maple wood that was treated to a different curing/drying  process. I also learned that Custom Builders like Mike Lipe and John Suhr were already using this wood in their signature guitars.  So I set out to get some of this wood and began to do my own research as to the advantages of this new resource.

Roasted Maple is standard garden variety maple wood that is available in, flame, birdseye or quilted maple. It is dried or “roasted’ to the point where it contains almost no moisture content. Obviously it still has some moisture or it would crumble to dust but the wood is kept in the kiln much longer than it is when it is dried to the standard 6% moisture content that is standard for most hardwoods.

This drying process removes most of the moisture and causes the wood to turn a dark caramel brown color. This is why my friend at Guitar Center confused it with the dark Rosewood on my guitar. The roasting process also gives the wood a slightly warmer more rounded tone than you would get from a standard maple neck. Standard hard maple tends to be on the brighter side while Roasted Maple tends to have a little more low end resonance while still maintaining the treble side of the equation.  It almost has a slight Mahogany tone to it with the added warmth but still maintains the mids and highs.  So pound for pound there are some sonic advantages that come from using a Roasted Maple neck versus a Standard Maple neck.

However the true advantages to Roasted Maple come from the tuning side of the equation. Since the wood is dried to a very low moisture content it is much less resistant to changes in temperature and humidity. That means that when you pull it out of the case after it has been in a van in the middle of winter and start playing under hot stage lights the guitar will stay in tune much better than a guitar with a Standard Maple Neck.  Roasted Maple also has a tendency to be very stable and consistent so the neck will keep its straightness throughout humidity changes as seasons change from fall to winter or if your world tour takes you from Canada to South America.

The final advantage/disadvantage to this wood is its cosmetic features. This can often be a deal beaker for some. While it has value as far as tone and stability it also comes with this dark brown caramel color. Some people find this unattractive but I for one find it appealing and unique. I prefer natural hand rubbed oil finishes on my guitars and the Roasted Maple makes for a very cool and unique finish when treated this way.  I also realize that there are certain players who want bright pink Flying V guitars with Sparkle Lightning Bolts painted on them and this color of neck will definitely clash with that color scheme.

All in all I think Roasted Maple will soon become “The New Black” for guitar neck woods.  At least this will be the case among the custom builder market because this wood has so much to offer. It may be too much for the production market to understand because the “Average Joe”  player probably won’t see enough value in it.  But let’s face it, the custom build market exists because there is a level of player that is beyond the “average player ” and these players are usually looking for something that is unique and individual that will enhance their tone and improve their craft and I think this level of player will find this wood extremely valuable.