Rock Maple substitute

Lloyd Walker makes his racks and amp stands in either rock maple or Brazilian Japota woods. He says the difference is aesthetic and that he hears no difference between them (originally he thought the Japota sounded a bit better). While Japota is a Brazilian species, it may be easier to find than the rock maple since the Japota is often used as a finished flooring wood.
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Bubinga is very dense. So is Jatoba or South American Cherry. Be carefull, like all dense woods they tend to burn easily.

Good luck,

You have some lovely woods in your country. We should be jealous. Jara is one very hard wood that comes to mind.

Having read Mapleshade Audio's article on their website lauding maple, I still wonder if other woods aren't equally capable of serving well for shelving. I'd tend to think all tonewoods have resonant frequencies that might be more or less useful depending on how they'd react with a particular piece of gear and one's preferences. Any native tonewood guitar builders in Australia are using would be worth investigating: Australian Black Acacia, Queensland Maple and Queensland Walnut are the three that come to mind.

So, would it be fair in saying any wood might be okay as long as it's very, very dense.

I hear maple has a density of around 740 kg/m3. While my cabinet maker suggested a wood called Merbau (Instia Bijunga), which is a New Guinea/North Queensland Hardwood.

Merbau apparantly has density of 830 kg/m3 and is reddish/brown in colour. He says it solid and dead accoustically (perfect for a Rack Frame ?).

Btw, I'm planning on using Soapstone for all the shelving.