I'm a swamp ash body man myself - love the mid scoop which compliments both mid heavy humbuckers and gives a great rhythm tone Strat that can be boosted with a mid heavy drive like a Tube Screamer. Also like maple necks and fingerboards, but like them two piece, rather than skunk striped, for the extra stiffness. Love the tone of a maple fingerboard, but prefer the feel of an unfinished board like ebony, rosewood or most recently, pao ferro (best of all worlds IMO).
I love the look of walnut - flame walnut is one of the best looking woods around, but it takes careful pickup selection to compliment it - get it wrong and it can be harsh. Also a bit heavy. Nice for caps on basswood or mahogany in place of maple though.
African Mahogany is my other favourite & stands up to any other Mahogany!!!
Have you ever played a guitar with a good one-piece Honduran body and Honduran neck? Magical and complex. African is IMO bland by comparison. Korina is another "mahogany-like" I like, but difficult to get one-piece blanks.
Speaking one-piece bodies - by far my preference, but hard to get good quality one-piece blanks of most species these days.
I even hold a piece of wood up before buying and moer it with something to get
an idea of the natural resonance.....sounds stupid but it works for me.
Using "tap tones" is an accepted part of good luthierie - Bob Benedetto, John Suhr, Scott Lentz and Tommy Rosamond are all well known for their ability to choose a blank based on tap tones.
