John, lots of choices, all depends on the look you want. If you want an amber look, could use an oil (tung, walnut,etc) or oil based poly in your choice of sheen.
If you want a water clear finish with no amber tones, could use a spray can lacquer or use a water based acrylic. You could also use shellac. Shellac will give a very, very slight amber look, but would only be noticeable if you had a shellac finished piece sitting next to an unfinished piece. I use shellc on all my maple snowmen, and don't think it gives much color at all.
If it were my piece, I'd probably use some spray lacquer as that will be water clear, but will also impart some chatoyance to the piece that is lacking in water based acrylic sprays.