"Fungal Rot" doesn't sound very nice. . . until you carve a sweet electric guitar out of it, that is! Carvin knows this better than anyone (save maybe Ibanez) (oh, and G&L) and they're now offering, as they do from time to time, the option to top your custom-order-axe off with a veneer of the sweet, spalted stuff. Spalted Maple that is. Rot gold. Texas Tea.

Maple gets spalted when wood fungus creates internal rot in a maple tree's trunk, resulting in dark striations that follow the natural grain of the wood. Fungal rot may be bad news for maples, but it's great news for musician aesthetes, especially when it happens in a flamed wood sample (like in the above-left picture*).

Carvin's custom shop charges an extra fee for this limited-availability wood, but they offer some options that you can't easily find with other manufactures who deal in spalt, like translucent or color-stains over spalted maple. Pretty sweet.

Like I said, these Olympic Spaulting Champ finishes won't be around forever, so head on over to Carvin's website to start designing your own fungus-infested dream-guitar.

*pictures courtesy of CarvinMuseum.com.