Ed,
I had originally thought about the maple sides to go with the redwood top. I looked around at plenty of other pictures of similar builds online and liked what I saw but when I had the chance to pick up the leopardwood and put it next to the redwood in person, i felt it was a much better match for what I wanted. Its all personal preference though.
Personally, my favourite guitars of the 'lighter' back and sides matched with redwood is the current Tom Sands build for Will McNicol with Black Limba back and sides and also a spalted tamarind guitar i unfortunately don't remember who built that I saw on instagram.
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David
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