Thank you, bboy. As it turns out, we did visit a local nursery with a Master Gardener on the premises and he was able to identify the problem. Turns out what everyone else (including several people in nurseries) thought was the dried up remains of a pest, was effluence. The MG speculated that the tips dying back was due to bacterial blight, and the tree's response was to weep sap out just at the spot where deadwood met live wood. He said all maples have such high sugar content in the sap that when it oozes out and subsequently dries it looks white and hardened, like that on my branches.

I'd cut the branch if it was my tree, not sure what time of year is best but I'd only cut the one branch and wouldn't hesitate to do it now but perhaps others with more knowledge can advise best time of year to do so.

how do you plan to get up there ... hire someone with a bucket truck NEVER leave dead stuff hanging .. IF you can get to it ... ken

If you are are looking for a particular fall color go with a cultivator, but if you want a maple that is one of a kind and not a clone, go with a seed grown red maple. I have both and bought my seed grown red maple before i knew the difference and it took a few years before i realized it was not defective because of its yellow fall leaves :) As you may know, many/most red maples will not have red leaves in the fall. They are red maples because of their red flowers in the Spring. Both are good options in my opinion depending on what you want in a tree.