what wood would youre dream guitar be made of?

guitar1234

hi guys i was thinkin bout buildin my own guitar and was wonderin what would sound best for rock and metal music, cheers!

AlanRatcliffe

There is no "best", just different. More important is wood quality than species. Lots of different factors that would affect my wood choices too - hardtail or trem? Bolt-on, set- or through-neck? Fret height/width? Humbuckers, single coils, combination? Scale length? Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera...

Personally for a rock/metal guitar I'd go for a mahogany/maple/mahogany through neck with a pao ferro board and mahogany body flanks. Or a one-piece all-mahogany body with mahogany set-neck and an ebony board. Both 25.5"scale

Could just as easily be an alder body with a maple/rosewood bolt-on, a basswood/maple body with a maple/rosewood neck or a mahogany maple body with a mahogany/rosewood neck... or any of another dozen combos.

Gearhead

If you don't like Alan's large amount of choices and/or have limited availability of exotic or large size wood, stick with the Sapele (Mahogany) 2-piece body, glued Sapele neck with Ebony fretboard (the latter is not easy to source in all of SA either). Rout for humbuckers and go for a short (24.65") scale to be able to play thicker strings.

There's a nice list Alan has made in the "sites" section, containing amongst others lotsa links to info about guitar building.

warrenpridgeon

Is African Rosewood bad for fingerboards? I know it's usually "Indian" Rosewood?
Also, could you use tamboti or something like that in place of maple if you went with a "maple cap" style guitar?

peterleroux

I was perfectly happy playing a bass with a bakelite fretboard and a resin and polyester body for 13 years. I think the aesthetic is nearly as important as the sound for an electric when it comes to choosing wood.

There was an experiment on talkbass where a guy took scrap timber and A/Bed it against an Alder body (same electronics), and most people could not tell the difference

warrenpridgeon

peterleroux wrote: I was perfectly happy playing a bass with a bakelite fretboard and a resin and polyester body for 13 years. I think the aesthetic is nearly as important as the sound for an electric when it comes to choosing wood.

There was an experiment on talkbass where a guy took scrap timber and A/Bed it against an Alder body (same electronics), and most people could not tell the difference

Did a quick google and found that some people like it on their guitars...

Chocklit_Thunda

Even though this thread is older than my musical career ?
African rosewood makes a nice fretboard.... From what I can remember, the John Mayer Strat has an African rosewood board and those are pretty epic.

warrenpridgeon

Chocklit_Thunda wrote: Even though this thread is older than my musical career ?
African rosewood makes a nice fretboard.... From what I can remember, the John Mayer Strat has an African rosewood board and those are pretty epic.

And topwood? Thinking maybe a Tamboti

or afromosia (of which they have light and dark)

or maybe

peterleroux

Wenge, panga panga, kiaat, boekenhout are all really pretty African timbers. Tambotie too, but it is poisonous so you'd want to make sure it's properly sealed

warrenpridgeon

peterleroux wrote: Wenge, panga panga, kiaat, boekenhout are all really pretty African timbers. Tambotie too, but it is poisonous so you'd want to make sure it's properly sealed

Yeah... you don't want to be eating your fish and chips off it... lol
And precautions should be taken when cutting etc.

Thinking if I can find a nice figured afromosia that is lighter I might try that.

I probably should add that I brought this thread back to life and hijacked it ?
This is talking about lumber available at the local lumber yard....

Chocklit_Thunda

Put it this way, you can use any wood you want for a solidbody guitar ? I've got a SA pine Tele on the build made from roof trusses... And I'm planning on clambering some saligna for another build ?

You should be fine with any of those woods as a top for a solid body electric. Your main concern comes when you have a hollow carved top or an acoustic top. Then you'll need stronger woods to withstand the forces on the top... ?
Tambotie will make a very nice bookmatched top but Peter is right, it would have to be sealed properly and you'll have to be careful when working with it ?

singemonkey

My dream guitar will be made from the powdered and then reconstituted bones of Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and Mick Taylor.

Chocklit_Thunda

singemonkey wrote: My dream guitar will be made from the powdered and then reconstituted bones of Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and Mick Taylor.

Would you like a bone nut with that or are you sorted? ?

Shibbibilybob

Yeah I agree. Your first question should be "which pickups for metal/rock?" , then "what scale length?" and possibly "what type of bridge mechanism and strings?".

At the end of the day, many many many great woods could be used to make an outstanding guitar.
Mahogany body with a maple cap is a solid choice, although such a guitar with a pick up combination that is poorly suited to metal, would still be a bad guitar for metal.
Where, given pickups and hardware that are well suited to metal, many many many woods would make a phenomenal guitar...with the differences being subtle and almost entirely subjective.

RobbieZ

Any one ever used Swiss Pear. It is pear that has been steamed. It has a beautiful pinkish color. Only two issues with it. It is extremely hard and extrremely heavy.

What about using good old pine?
=

peterleroux

RobbieZ wrote: What about using good old pine?

Fender make a couple of Pine Teles, and a Strat or two. Nothing wrong with it, as long as the resin is dry and there are no loose knots. My pine squier Tele has a really resonant,loud unplugged sound

Chocklit_Thunda

There's a difference between sugar pine and Oregon pine and just the usual SA Pine we use in our roof trusses. That being said I used SA pine for my Tele and it seems stable enough. It just dents easily...