I played a maple '73 F-40 for a few (maybe 15) minutes in a local shop, about a year ago. It was the shop owner's (Tom also does my setups and repairs), and he had it up for sale (gone now). It had a very pleasant, maple tone. Very smooth and mellow, nicely balanced. Most similar in tone to my maple G-37, or the maple F-50 I played in a different shop sometime later... but I don't think the F-40 had the volume of my dread or the larger F-50... Still, it was a sweet sounding guitar. He had $1K on the tag, but I don't know what he ended up selling it for.
BTW... if anyone's interested, Tom has a ('73?) F-212 (don't know it it's the XL... think not) hangin' in his shop. I'll be going down to pick up my D-44 (in for a little more work) this weekend or next, and I'd be happy to check it out for anyone.
Dave
I would love to own a F-50R has for the compairson and I hav played both I perfer the F-50R