{"id":3507,"date":"2013-03-19T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-19T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/?p=3507"},"modified":"2013-03-19T13:18:25","modified_gmt":"2013-03-19T18:18:25","slug":"spalted-maple-top-beautiful-or-ugly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/article\/spalted-maple-top-beautiful-or-ugly.html","title":{"rendered":"Spalted Maple Top – Beautiful Or Ugly?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Above is a newer bass axe from ESP’s brand LTD, the B-415. It has a 5-piece thru-body neck with “U” contour and 24 extra-jumbo frets, dual humbucker pickups, 3-band active EQ, and runs for a street price of around $830 USD. <\/p>\n

It also should be noted there are 4, 5 and 6 string versions, appropriately named the B-414, B-415 and B-416. The 6-string version, for those interested, costs about $60 more than the 5.<\/p>\n

But, of course, the first thing you see is that spalted maple top. And yes, the headstock also has the spalted top.<\/p>\n

Compared to other spalted tops, the ESP LTD B series has one that’s not overly garish. Some spalted tops are “very obvious” with very thick, jagged black lines all over the place, but LTD scaled that back a bit for something that’s decidedly more understated.<\/p>\n

With spalted tops, no two look exactly the same, so there is some exclusivity to owning one. However, it can make buying one online a nightmare, because unless you see the exact bass guitar<\/em> you’re buying in a photo before you buy it, what you get may not get the look you want. <\/p>\n

Then again, there is some excitement ordering one sight unseen in not knowing exactly what the spalted top will look like until you actually get it; it all depends on your point of view.<\/p>\n

Just what the heck does “spalted wood” mean anyway?<\/h3>\n

Defined<\/a>: “Wood which has been cut from a naturally cured, dead, or dying hardwood tree whose wood is normally light in color (such as pecan), and which exhibits patterns of dark stain (crazed) lines and splotches caused by microorganisms and\/or fungus.”<\/p>\n

“So… a spalted top is basically semi-dead wood that had a bunch of fungus in it?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

While that may not sound very attractive, um.. yeah. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Does a maple spalted top do a thing for tone at all?<\/h3>\n

Consider for the moment that a top of this type is usually really thin (even veneer thin in some instances,) and is naturally crumbly in its natural state because the wood is semi-dead or all dead. In fact, it’s usually true the builder has to fill in<\/em> all the places during the build process where the wood would otherwise fall apart just to keep the thing together.<\/p>\n

That being said, no, a spalted top does very little for tone (if anything,) and is more a style consideration than anything else.<\/p>\n

In other words, if you really want the brightness a maple top can give you, it has to be a solid top piece.<\/p>\n

Is the only color for spalted “natural?”<\/h3>\n

For most mass-produced bass guitars, yes, “natural” is usually all you’ll find.<\/p>\n

In the guitar<\/strong> world however, there is such as thing as a “root beer spalt,” which is is a spalted top that’s been darkened significantly:<\/p>\n

\"AL-3000<\/p>\n

…to which I’m sure many bass players would like to get if more manufacturers and luthiers actually made them.<\/p>\n

(Would you buy a bass if it came in a “root beer” spalted top finish option?)<\/p>\n

Just “furniture?”<\/h3>\n

Some believe spalted tops “look too much like the top of a coffee table,” while others believe it’s absolute total luxury.<\/p>\n

The spalted top has a decidedly woody appearance to it which you’re going to either love or hate. There is no bass player that “sort of” likes a spalted top; it’s a total love or hate thing, no question about it.<\/p>\n

Many bass players do in fact like the woody look, but some draw the line when it comes to spalted tops. <\/p>\n

What do you think of the spalted maple top? Cool or “furniture?”<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Above is a newer bass axe from ESP’s brand LTD, the B-415. It has a 5-piece thru-body neck with “U” contour and 24 extra-jumbo frets, dual humbucker pickups, 3-band active EQ, and runs for a street price of around $830 USD. It also should be noted there are 4, 5 and 6 string versions, appropriately … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":3509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3507"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}