@deej

I’m always on my phone so sometimes it’s rather frustrating because the pics can’t be enlarged after clicking on them... I’ll be on my ipad more when in the shop so that’ll help. I should use my son’s computer, he has a nice big monitor. 🤔🤔🤔

It looks like birdseye to me...

some sort of Birdseye (maple?)

Yes, Birdseye maple. This is one big advantage of laminating with veneers. You can find absolutely amazingly stunning veneers far easier than you can the equivalent solid and there is so much less wastage of the raw material. Where’s my soap box?!

@darrenking

Aren’t laminated tops less prone to bowing then solid tops?

Being ‘posh plywood’ they are less affected by changes in temperature and humidity and this was the aim of Mario Maccaferri when he first designed the guitar. I believe that his later company in the US went on to manufacture something like 80% of all the cassette tape boxes on earth and developed a completely plastic guitar, so his design and business skills weren’t simply limited to gypsy jazz instruments!

 developed a completely plastic guitar,

@darrenking
I saw a review of his plastic guitar in (I think) Guitarist magazine years ago (a retro review, I'm not that old).

It was so so and apparently the guitar was a bit of a flop commercially, but then he made a plastic ukelele that sold in a 7 digit quantity.

I think you have to look at the product in context. Reviewing a 50’s or 60’s plastic guitar in the 80’s or 90’s is probably unfair. It was designed to be a low cost, reasonably ok guitar made from materials that were all the rage at the time and very much seen as being the future. Was it supposed to be able to stand up to serious scrutiny 30 or 40 years later? Probably not, and so this retrospective assessment shouldn’t detract from the initial design concept and the aim of the product ie to get a playable instrument into the hands of as many budding guitarists as possible. That ANY have survived is amazing. I mean, when did you last see an Austin Allegro on the road, and they were being built from metal until 1982!! 
Cheers

Darren

This is one big advantage of laminating with veneers. You can find absolutely amazingly stunning veneers far easier than you can the equivalent solid and there is so much less wastage of the raw material

Do you notice any difference in tone ...I’ve never been an advocate of tone wood Per se (oo Lancy lad with a ref to Latin!) and only made a couple of acoustics and not really played them that much, I’d be interested. I’ve never found much difference in wood in electrics which is more my passion.....

I look forward to the flaming I’m gonna get on that comment 🤪

Do you notice any difference in tone .

Without wanting to blow my own trumpet too much, the first two laminated, steel string acoustics that I made are still the best sounding, best intonated and loudest acoustics I’ve ever played (and I have owned a very nice Lowden for 25 years). I really think that this method of construction is going to see a massive resurgence (it’s far from new) and, combined with other innovations such as composite soundboards, it is going to give us guitar makers more options than we could ever fully explore within our lifetimes!

What is fantastic about our bunch of talented and open minded amateurs getting involved in guitar making is that we have a fairly ‘relaxed’ respect for ‘accepted wisdom’ and the ‘rule book’. I also love the fact that Mark encourages this. Very rarely will you hear him saying ‘don’t do it that way, do it this way’, he’ll say try ‘try it and let us know how it works out’. He’s always open to the possibility that there may other ways, other materials or other techniques that will still result in a fabulous guitar and I do get the feeling that he finds this a really exciting aspect of his work with GMUK. Long may it continue!

@darrenking 

It seems there are a few still hanging around

Isn’t it amazing? 60 years old and still actually quite a playable instrument. Quirky I’ll grant you, but who knows how it really sounded when it was new. They go for quite big money these days with collectors who see Maccaferri as a really important innovator in 20th century guitar design.

Without wanting to blow my own trumpet too much, the first two laminated, steel string acoustics that I made are still the best sounding, best intonated and loudest acoustics I’ve ever played

They look great and if they sound great you may need to start selling acoustic blanks?