Guitar Woods

---mario---

Well I remember a thread a while back where part of the discussion included basswood and why some people just don't like it while its probably just as good a guitarwood as all the bigbucks woods, so....:

What are your thoughts on wood? Do you have a prefered guitar wood because of tonal properties, or perhaps for the builders a prefered wood to work with, or is there just that type of wood thats the most beautiful thing in the world to you? And why?
I've seen many a guitar that even if it's just ornamental I'd give something away to have it, just because of the grain and color of that specific piece of wood.

I also found this ontop of a google search that is quite informative regarding guitar woods
http://www.jemsite.com/jem/wood.htm

flatfourfan

I like my mahogany. All my guitars are different woods, (Alder, Basswood, Canadian Maple (damn heavy) and Mahogany) and I have to say that I like the Mahogany the most out of all of them. Nice weight, good tone and a nice all rounder, I'm currently building another guitar as a long term project and love the way you can work with it......the Canadian maple guitar with the hard tail by far has the longest sustain, but it's heavy........really heavy.

---mario---

and mahogany is purdy, I like the dark woods

Bob-Dubery

...mario... wrote: and mahogany is purdy, I like the dark woods

Mahogany is not so dark. Rosewood, cocobolo.... now you're talking dark. Mind you, are those woods that commonly used for the bodies of electric guitars?

Rosewood has certainly been used - though I don't know it's common or not. Here is a rosewood telecaster

flatfourfan

ooooooh rosewood looks good.

Mahogony has a nice colour, but honestly, 99% of the time I'm just gonna paint over it.......unless it's this guitar.

have a look on alan ratcliffs site, http://www.ratcliffe.co.za/articles/bodywoods.shtml he has some stunning images on there. His picture of the zebrawood is stunning.

VellaJ

In terms of aesthetics, I love the dark woods like Rosewood, and fairly dark, such as mahogany. However, you'll find the top-of-the-range guitars use very specific wood for what they wish to achieve in terms of sound.

For instance, and I'm open to correction here, USA Standard Strats are made from Alder (I believe...). This is part of what gives that genuine "Strat sound." You also get woods like American Swamp Ash used on some of the decent guitars.

Tonedef

My strat has a pine body. The link you posted doesnt say anything about pine. Now before the wood snobs start sniggering, what sort of tonewood is pine? Does its cheapness and wide availability reflect its tonal qualities?

RobK

Tonedef wrote: My strat has a pine body. The link you posted doesnt say anything about pine. Now before the wood snobs start sniggering, what sort of tonewood is pine? Does its cheapness and wide availability reflect its tonal qualities?

Well, I believe the Squire Vintage Vibe (I think that's the right name) series are made of pine and they seem to be getting quite good reviews.

---mario---

X-rated Bob wrote:
...mario... wrote: and mahogany is purdy, I like the dark woods
Mahogany is not so dark. Rosewood, cocobolo.... now you're talking dark. Mind you, are those woods that commonly used for the bodies of electric guitars?

Rosewood has certainly been used - though I don't know it's common or not. Here is a rosewood telecaster

Yes I think they are comonly used for solid bodies.
That rosewood tele is hot, but I think they use rosewood mainly for the fretbord and not the body 'coz its a very oily wood,
I've posted a pic before on the forum of a 8string B.C.Rich Bitch bass made from Koa, now that was an eyecatching wood for me, it's quite recent on the pron thread aswell

Bob-Dubery

...mario... wrote: Yes I think they are comonly used for solid bodies.
That rosewood tele is hot, but I think they use rosewood mainly for the fretbord and not the body 'coz its a very oily wood,
I've posted a pic before on the forum of a 8string B.C.Rich Bitch bass made from Koa, now that was an eyecatching wood for me, it's quite recent on the pron thread aswell

Rosewood is frequently used for the back and sides of acoustic guitars, so it can't be that difficult to work with. The main problem, I'd think, is the weight. If you have two acoustics that are the same in all respects other than that one has rosewood back and sides and the other mahogany then there will be tangible difference in the weight. So I'd imagine that a tele-sized slab of rosewood isn't going to be that light.

Koa is not that dark a wood actually. It's often stained to make it look darker than it is, or to accentuate the difference between the light and dark in the wood. See and even more recent posting in the pron thread (from me) - an all Koa acoustic.

---mario---

I've been having this picture in my head, does anyone know if Tamboti have ever been used in a guitar?
Surely it must be usable 'coz its rockhard and so purdy

X-rated Bob wrote:
...mario... wrote: Yes I think they are comonly used for solid bodies.
That rosewood tele is hot, but I think they use rosewood mainly for the fretbord and not the body 'coz its a very oily wood,
I've posted a pic before on the forum of a 8string B.C.Rich Bitch bass made from Koa, now that was an eyecatching wood for me, it's quite recent on the pron thread aswell
Rosewood is frequently used for the back and sides of acoustic guitars, so it can't be that difficult to work with. The main problem, I'd think, is the weight. If you have two acoustics that are the same in all respects other than that one has rosewood back and sides and the other mahogany then there will be tangible difference in the weight. So I'd imagine that a tele-sized slab of rosewood isn't going to be that light.

Koa is not that dark a wood actually. It's often stained to make it look darker than it is, or to accentuate the difference between the light and dark in the wood. See and even more recent posting in the pron thread (from me) - an all Koa acoustic.

Will sneak to that thread just now ?

Yeah I can imagine it would be a backbreaker, makes sense

---mario---

I see, that koa is actually very light, the one I saw must've had a tinted finish then

Malkav

BASSWOOD FTW! :woohoo:

My favourite, not pretty but it's got a really easy to sculpt tone. It doesn't seem to peak in terms of frequency in any particular part of the spectrum and it's got good throaty mids ?

Not everyone's choice but tonally my favourite, it's also really easy to work with and takes well to having a maple cap ?

Acoustic wise I seem to prefer Spruce tops ? and lyrachord back and sides, cause I love Ovations 8)

X-rated Bob wrote: Mahogany is not so dark. Rosewood, cocobolo.... now you're talking dark. Mind you, are those woods that commonly used for the bodies of electric guitars?

I have seen cocobolo used for fretboards before but never as an actual body wood. I know that it is "technically" a part of the same family as another tonewood, I believe this may be rosewood but I'm not 100% sure.

Bob-Dubery

Chad Adam Browne wrote: I have seen cocobolo used for fretboards before but never as an actual body wood. I know that it is "technically" a part of the same family as another tonewood, I believe this may be rosewood but I'm not 100% sure.

You're correct. Cocobolo is a dalbergia, the same family as rosewoods. It's a redder wood than Brazilian or Indian rosewood.

I think it darkens with time though. My Morgan has cocobolo bindings and now they're nearly as dark as the rosewood but the original owner tells me they used to be very red indeed.

---mario---

I've been having this picture in my head, does anyone know if Tamboti have ever been used in a guitar?
Surely it must be usable 'coz its rockhard and so purdy

I'm gona bump this just to keep it going as I'd really like to know if Tamboti and other uncomon woods could make good guitarwoods other than for esthetics, this and a wood called "red iron bark/pink seligna" (for those who don't know seligna is part of the eucaluptus group (gumtrees they plant everywhere for paper etc.) but this specific species is very expensive, heavy and rockhard, its a very saught after furniture wood and has to be carefully kilndried for a very long time to avoid cracking)

guidothepimmp

im partial to mahogany/ alder and pau ferro

brought some pau ferro for a build at home.. damn that thng weighs almost 6kgs

Tonedef

I can already hear you sing out that high C when that thing gives you a hernia ?

---mario---

Tonedef wrote: I can already hear you sing out that high C when that thing gives you a hernia ?

:roflmao: ?

Malkav

I'm also on another forum called Sevenstring.org and on that forum I saw the guitar with cocobolo.

For anyone who's interested in it's build thread here we go: http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/luthiery-modifications-customizations/123272-pretending-luthier.html

flatfourfan

Chad Adam Browne wrote: I'm also on another forum called Sevenstring.org and on that forum I saw the guitar with cocobolo.

For anyone who's interested in it's build thread here we go: http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/luthiery-modifications-customizations/123272-pretending-luthier.html

damn.................that's some sexy wood there.......