Maple body basses - why there's not that many?

[winston]

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Weight relief on my g&l

Ah yes, the Forstner weight-loss plan!
To my ears the early maple split-coil SB-1 is the best sounding P-bass Leo Fender ever made, period. It just has more of everything!

The maple-bodied basses I’ve had are some of my favorites. To me it combines the best of alder and ash into one - deep and clear with bright highs and a toothy, detailed midrange. I’ve had an ‘87 fretless Alembic Spoiler (maple through neck & wings + ebony FB, heavy as all hell); three 90s Pedullas: Rapture RB4 (8.2#), Rapture J-2000-5 (9.25#), and ThunderBolt 6 (9.5#-ish); and a Godin SD-4 (not too heavy but weird ergonomics from the single cutaway body).

 

[PraiseTheLard]

Backing up the general sentiment as I have one of those old bargain epiphone rock basses that had a full maple construction and big brass saddles on it. Has an ridiculous punch on the highs and will sustain notes for practically forever. It will, however, teach you to bow pretty handily. My first bass was a peavey, and that was pretty heavy. The epiphone was my second, and was heavier, though I never though it was odd. My weirdo polymath like friend who can learn languages and instruments in a week has a half dozen basses and had me play his Paul McCartney replica bass and I was shocked at the weight difference. I finally understand how some bassist can jump around on stage. They just can't have an anvil strapped around their neck. I'd guess it's not for everyone, especially my Kmart special, but I'd encourage anyone who gets a chance to hit up a full maple bass, especially with big brass hardware to at least give it a shot.

 

[Schlyder]

Love my flamed maple. I built the fretted one during the covid lockdowns. It is paired with a maple neck and a katalox fretboard. Nordstrand humbucking Jbass bridge p.u. Passive volume/tone Pbass circuit.

 

[r_bnks]

Spectors have a Maple neck through design with alder wings, not entirely maple but it's in there.. And they're not the lightest of basses.

The 'standard' is and older US Spectors are full maple. Only the current Euros has alder sandwich wings as standard, even the early Euros and all CR and CRFM has solid maple wings.

All of my three US Spectors are solid maple and my two older Euros are solid maple as well.