How differently are basswood and mahogany?

Re: How differently are basswood and mahogany?

different enough for the JB to be awesome in one of them and total **** in the other.
 
Re: How differently are basswood and mahogany?

''You can never go wrong with this wood if it is done the way it should be done—and believe me, we do it the way it should be done. The sound of an 80's-vibe humbucker is defined by this body wood—soft (not hard), full flowing focused mids make everything this wood touches bloom with rich, lush, even-balanced midrange tonality.'' Anderson
 
Re: How differently are basswood and mahogany?

In some cases I find myself EQ ing out mids with basswood to avoid the 70's hard rock farty midrange syndrome.
 
Re: How differently are basswood and mahogany?

VASTLY

Basswood - shredsticks & general purpose. light weight, pretty even eq. think "good prestige ibanez" for its capabilities
Mahogany - daaaaark, weighs a ton. Useless outside extreme metal if without maple cap and/or maple fb
 
Re: How differently are basswood and mahogany?

Adieu said:
Mahogany - daaaaark, weighs a ton. Useless outside extreme metal if without maple cap and/or maple fb
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i disagree. i've seen vastly different characteristics from different cuts of the same species. and it's definitely not dark in most cases.
 
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Re: How differently are basswood and mahogany?

Basswood seems good for instrumental lead type playing, it really shines there (Satch, Vai, earlier Petrucci), but I could never get a satisfying rhythm sound out of it and have therefore given up on basswood guitars altogether (I'm not a great lead player!), Mahogany I've always been able to get the sounds I seek, especially with maple on top, although I do love a good alder body and much prefer that to basswood as well. There are some great sounds to be had from basswood though also best imo with a maple cap ala Axis, Wolfgang (Peavey and EVH)
 
Re: How differently are basswood and mahogany?

I guess the softness of basswood body can be reduced if the finish is of a harder material. A satin finish basswood body tends to dent & well depress easily. My godin session is basswood body with satin finish. I had the bridge decked a little too hard, so next time i checked the wood area under the bridge had gone down/deeper. My PRS SE24 has mahogany with maple cap body, with gloss finish. That one doesn't dent so much or show similar signs to pressure like the other.

Tonewise, I think the scale length, neck material & pickups play a more important role than the wood, but I don't have experience owning two guitars with same pickups & specs but with different body wood, so I can't really say for sure. I like them both enough to not care anymore about wood type.
 
Re: How differently are basswood and mahogany?

rumblebox said:
i disagree. i've seen vastly different characteristics from different cuts of the same species. and it's definitely not dark in most cases.
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Correction: TONALLY darker. Colour would be pretty medium pale, yes.

Hank, lol'd at the very idea of squishing a maple cap... Yeah, you can "ding" it, but only with impacts that would outright split shatter or cut through soft stuff like basswood. Good maple = pretty much wooden armor.
 
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Re: How differently are basswood and mahogany?

Adieu said:
Correction: TONALLY darker. Colour would be pretty medium pale, yes.

Hank, lol'd at the very idea of squishing a maple cap... Yeah, you can "ding" it, but only with impacts that would outright split shatter or cut through soft stuff like basswood. Good maple = pretty much wooden armor.
Click to expand...

Color is a given..... I was referring to tone.
 
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