Aren't all maple woodblocks basically the same? Nope. There's more to it than is obvious. The sound quality of a woodblock is dependent upon the quality of maple, the orientation of the grain, and the precise machining of the slot. The obsessive attention we pay to these details is why our woodblocks outperform other Maple woodblocks in sound quality and durability. 

It doesn't take much for us to toss out a piece of maple that doesn't meet our strict standards. We get our maple from the northern hinterlands, where the stock is clear, tight-grained, and perfect for woodblocks. We orient the grain perpendicular to the slot prior to machining the slot with our CNC, which makes the sounding board extremely strong and consistent in sound.