German Maple Violin/Viola Sides

Quality - Our range of Flamed European Maple is of the highest quality stock available. All pieces are air-dried and ready to use.

Look - This timber is very light in colour, almost a light yellow to off-white. The flames make this timber stiff across the grain and are very beautiful giving an almost 3-dimensional look that changes as the surface is viewed from different angles.

Sound - European Flamed Maple has a very fundamental, musical clarity. Due to its inherent lateral stiffness this timber can be thinned out slightly more than rosewood to give a very clear, bright and loud instrument.

Price - The price is determined by the aesthetic qualities of each individual set. Sets with more figuring attract premium prices. Small defects such as closed knots can also effect the price. The price is no reflection of the sound quality and lower grade sets can produce equally great sounding instruments to higher grades.

Availability/Renewability - This timber grows in the mountains ranges of Europe. Due to constant demand, high quality instrument-size pieces are becoming more rare every year as the large trees are logged out, this is reflected in the pricing.