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Post subject: Silly Question - Figured Necks
Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 8:13 pm
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Ok, silly question but what is a 'figured' neck? Is that the irregular coloration and/or 'pattern' that you see in maple necks at times?

Moreover, what is AAA Flame neck and how does that compare to figured necks? Is the figured a 'poor mans' AAA?

Are these desirable neck characteristics for you? why?

thanks!


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Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 8:19 pm
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Tiger maple, flamed maple, figured, all refer to a type of grain pattern in the maple. A,AA,AAA,AAAA is a type of grading system on the beauty or appearence of the grain pattern.


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Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 8:21 pm
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Figured and Flame are not the same in my opinion. Figured means some irregularities in the wood and some deviation to a normal plain top. A flame top or neck is a consistent pattern throughout. Getting a flame neck is desirable to some, I would not say that a figured neck is a poor mans flame. Flame is caused by drastic weather conditions that affect the tree's growth over a period of time. Hope that helps!


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Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 8:21 pm
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Figured and Flame are not the same in my opinion. Figured means some irregularities in the wood and some deviation to a normal plain top. A flame top or neck is a consistent pattern throughout. Getting a flame neck is desirable to some, I would not say that a figured neck is a poor mans flame. Flame is caused by drastic weather conditions that affect the tree's growth over a period of time. Hope that helps!


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Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 8:21 pm
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Figured and Flame are not the same in my opinion. Figured means some irregularities in the wood and some deviation to a normal plain top. A flame top or neck is a consistent pattern throughout. Getting a flame neck is desirable to some, I would not say that a figured neck is a poor mans flame. Flame is caused by drastic weather conditions that affect the tree's growth over a period of time. Hope that helps!


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Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 8:23 pm
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paisley strat wrote:
Tiger maple, flamed maple, figured, all refer to a type of grain pattern in the maple. A,AA,AAA,AAAA is a type of grading system on the beauty or appearence of the grain pattern.



thanks for the quick reply!

I actually had not seen AAAA referenced before - that must be a unique looking neck!

I have seen some necks advertised as simply 'figured' and on the same site AAA - is it safe to assume that the 'figured' would be the lowest quality (i.e. A) or could it easily be another grade?

Also, does even the lowest quality figured neck typically carry an upcharge, all things being equal, than the neck not being figured?

And one other question:)

Is a 'birdseye' neck referring to a specific and distinct pattern relative to more general figured necks, irrespective of quality grade?

thanks again!


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Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 8:24 pm
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paisley strat wrote:
Tiger maple, flamed maple, figured, all refer to a type of grain pattern in the maple. A,AA,AAA,AAAA is a type of grading system on the beauty or appearence of the grain pattern.


thanks for the quick reply!

I actually had not seen AAAA referenced before - that must be a unique looking neck!

I have seen some necks advertised as simply 'figured' and on the same site AAA - is it safe to assume that the 'figured' would be the lowest quality (i.e. A) or could it easily be another grade?

Also, does even the lowest quality figured neck typically carry an upcharge, all things being equal, than the neck not being figured?

And one other question:)

Is a 'birdseye' neck referring to a specific and distinct pattern relative to more general figured necks, irrespective of quality grade?

thanks again!


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Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 8:43 pm
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no quality differences between birdseye, flame, quilted...just a preference in looks. No difference in tone with regards to wood pattern in my opinion.


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Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 8:50 pm
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homerunjack wrote:
Figured and Flame are not the same in my opinion. Figured means some irregularities in the wood and some deviation to a normal plain top. A flame top or neck is a consistent pattern throughout. Getting a flame neck is desirable to some, I would not say that a figured neck is a poor mans flame. Flame is caused by drastic weather conditions that affect the tree's growth over a period of time. Hope that helps!


interesting you note the distinction. I was coming to the conclusion that I dont care for figured too much - too irregular looking to me. But the flame I liked quite a bit - I suppose because it still had some regularity or recurrence to it as you noted.

You mention getting flame is desirable to some - is just irregularly figured not as desirable to most?

Not a 'poor mans' flamed because its just a totally different type of neck?


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Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 9:27 pm
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Exactly...usually a flame neck (AA) grade is about a $300-$500 option. Given that, it's no wonder why plain necks are all of a sudden the necks of choice.


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Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 6:38 am
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ufboy73 wrote:
Is it safe to assume that the 'figured' would be the lowest quality (i.e. A) or could it easily be another grade?


"Negative, Captain!"

No, that's not right. The word "figured" simply refers to any patterns visible in the wood other than basic regular grain. You will hear phrases such as "moderate figuring" or "high figuring" which give a broad indication of how pronounced the visual effect might be.

And strictly speaking, the A to AAAA system originally refered to spruce and cedar sound boards for acoustic guitars. The more As the better the timber was felt to be regarding evenness and straightness of the grain, as well as more subjective features such as cross-silking. I have seen wood described as AAAAA as well: I guess you can go on adding As to denote ever higher levels of fantabulousness.

The A-AAA system has been taken over to refer to figuring on wood generally, so nowadays you will sometimes see the maple caps on PRSs and Gibsons described as AAA, or whatever. I don't recall whether those companies use that denomination officially, though. Using As to describe maple fronts on electrics is tricky, because one player's beautiful high figured wood is another's ugly garish "furniture" guitar.

Within the world of figured timber there are some distinctions. Maple that is not plain is often generally called "curly maple". A familiar type of curly maple is "flame maple", sometimes also called "fiddleback"(because it is used on the backs of violins):

Image

You can find that commonly on guitar fronts and sometimes also necks. Forum member 01GT Eibach has a Les Paul with a particularly highly figured flame front that some people would refer to as "zebra flame": if he looks in he may care to post a picture of it.

Another one, most often used for caps on electrics, is "quilt maple":

Image

That one has been "bookmatched", that is, cut in half and opened out like the pages of a book so that both sides match. The normal way to do guitar tops.

Here is "birdseye maple":

Image

That one sometimes gets used on necks, perhaps less often on bodies.

And just to be completist about it, here's a bookmatched "spalt" or "spalted maple". This arises from fungal activity in the wood, before or after felling. For some reason you see this one on basses much more often than guitars:

Image

Myths circulate amongst guitarists that figured woods are not as stable (resistant to warping) as plain grained pieces. However, the gentleman who set up and runs Warmoth guitars (can't recall his name at this moment) says that he probably has more experience working with figured timbers than anyone else in the business and he has never discovered the slightest difference between the behavior of figured and non-figured timber. Which is good enough for me.

More information on neck timbers here:

http://www.warmoth.com/showcase/sc_guit ... ype=guitar

And so ends the chapter on figured wood.

Cheers - C


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 8:00 am
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That was a good description Ceri. Here is my LP with a Flame Maple cap. I walked by a climate control case a Bill's Music and saw this and stoped in my tracks. Had them get it out so I could play and there was no way I was going to leave the store without it. For 800. it looked and playeed better then my Gibson Studio I had at the time. :mrgreen:
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Last edited by cvilleira on Wed Nov 19, 2008 8:03 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 8:00 am
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So lets SEE some nice examples of flamed, tiger striped, quilted, figured or whatever guitars you may have. Fender is not known for it's use of those types of woods. Usually a flame maple finish is only a cap or veneer, and as we know Fender does not usually do that. There are exceptions tho( QMT,Foto tec.)Image
Image
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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 8:13 am
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guys - fantastic pictures, thanks a lot!

ceri, the pics of the different types of neck and patterns was really, really helpful.

When i was shopping for my les paul, gibson was using the A-AAA system to denote their tops. the references about flamed and figured that originally caused me to post was looking at EC signature guitars on an internet site. They had both 'figured necks' and AAA flamed maple necks but I could not tell from the pics what the difference was. Certainly, i could infer there must be a big difference, given the differences in pricing between the two!

I did not even know that the EC came in a figured and flamed neck. I guess they must have been special ordered, since they are CS guitars? They also have Signature Thin Skins - which, again, I did not expect someone to have stock.


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 8:45 am
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Figured is just fancy wood (it has highly visible grain pattern). Most times you have to pay more for it. sometimes you get lucky and there is some figuring in the "regular" wood used for your neck. Woo Hoo! Figured is Fancy! Lots of times it looks very nice but sometimes it's just ugly.

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