Maple vs Mahogany neck

ACH91332

ACH91332

New member
So I'm making a custom guitar soon. In a nutshell I want it to sound a lot like a Les Paul but with more note definition. My original idea was just to get a mahogany body with a maple neck and ebony board. No matter what I want to use an ebony board for this guitar I just love the feel of it and the look. Another idea was to go mahogany body, maple top, mahogany neck, and ebony board. I'm just afraid maybe having a mahogany neck and body would be a bit boomy or muddy. My Les Paul isn't with me any longer and hasnt been for awhile so I can't run it through my rig to test it out. Right now I use a mahogany body and maple top Mockingbird with a neck through maple neck with an ebony board and a Floyd. It doesn't sound bad at all but isn't as full sounding as I remember my Paul being.

The reason I'm suck is because my Mock is not bad sounding but not as full sounding and it has the same woods as my first idea except for the fact that its neck through and has a maple top. Would a set maple neck sound that much warmer? and would the lack of a maple top be that warmer too? Will the maple neck have the added clarity I want? or would I need a maple top for that?

Now here's some tone factors to consider. The scale length of the guitar is going to be 24-3/4 scale and the neck will be a set neck. It's going to have an original Floyd and also will have stainless steel frets.

I play everything but I mostly play hard rock and my tone is very reflective of that. I'm a LP into a Marshall guy. I love the tone of a Les Paul. It's very full and powerful but it also can lack definition with my rig.

What woods would you use? No matter what it's mahogany going into the body and ebony for the fretboard.
 
Re: Maple vs Mahogany neck

After posting I guess I noticed I guess I'm afraid of not having a maple top. Would the use of a maple top and ebony board have the same tonal sound as having a maple top?
 
Re: Maple vs Mahogany neck

i'd say a maple neck with ebony board would do it. i don't know how much a top wood really affects the tone. depends on what the custom is. who's making it? if you are then you could make the top as thick as you want, which would obviously brighten it up a little bit. i'd say pickups will always make the biggest difference though. everybody has a different opinion on that though
 
Re: Maple vs Mahogany neck

Going the maple neck and ebony board route is cheaper too. I was just afraid since its unconventional to the LP build.
 
Re: Maple vs Mahogany neck

Ebony is so much brighter and focused compared to Rosewood. I'd suggest Mahogany + Ebony or Maple + Rosewood, but Maple+Ebony is going to bright and thin. Don't forget that the maple top is going to add plenty of brightness and clarity.
 
Re: Maple vs Mahogany neck

I recently tried out a Carvin CT6 that had a maple top, mahogany neck and body, and an ebony board. The tone was rich and full but also very tight and focused, which i liked. The guitar was 25" scale, as well. I really liked that wood combo. Personally I'd go with that.
 
Re: Maple vs Mahogany neck

B2D said:
I recently tried out a Carvin CT6 that had a maple top, mahogany neck and body, and an ebony board. The tone was rich and full but also very tight and focused, which i liked. The guitar was 25" scale, as well. I really liked that wood combo. Personally I'd go with that.
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+1

Also, I would be reluctant to mix body and neck woods on a set neck guitar.
 
Re: Maple vs Mahogany neck

I would also go mahogany body/maple cap and mahogany/ebony neck.

if you're going totally custom, then you could make the maple cap as thin as possible to minimize its effect on your tone, and have most of the brightness and attack come from the ebony fretboard.

a maple/ebony neck would sound unnecessarily bright, and would probably lose a lot of the thickness and warmth that a mahogany neck (incidentally a necessity for a les paul imo) would have.
 
Re: Maple vs Mahogany neck

I have a PRS CE24 Maple top (the PRS guitars with maple neck, mahogany bodies with maple caps), and it is ALL about note definition. I can play full deconstructed chords, in finger picking style, with my mesa's gain on all the way, and it still comes through clear, and this is using ceramic pickups.

So yeah, the maple neck does wonders.
 
Re: Maple vs Mahogany neck

I can't really specify the maple cap size and what not.

I guess ideally with it being mahogany body/neck with a maple cap right there is Les Paul land and having the fretboard be ebony it would give me the added definition I desire.

I have another question though, just for the sake of knowing. The only mahogany guitars I've owned have maple tops, how much does that compare tonally to one without a maple top? Basically comparing a Les Paul Standard and an SG. I mean Angus young has such a tight and punchy tone but I guess he doesn't use really any gain either. I know that the maple tightens it up and give it some more highs but side to side is it a huge difference?
 
Re: Maple vs Mahogany neck

ACH91332 said:
I have another question though, just for the sake of knowing. The only mahogany guitars I've owned have maple tops, how much does that compare tonally to one without a maple top? Basically comparing a Les Paul Standard and an SG. I mean Angus young has such a tight and punchy tone but I guess he doesn't use really any gain either. I know that the maple tightens it up and give it some more highs but side to side is it a huge difference?
Click to expand...

You really can't compare a Les Paul and an SG. The thin body of the SG more than makes up for not having a maple top, as does the bridge pickup being mounted closer to the bridge.

I wouldn't get too hung up on the top wood. I've played a Gibson Les Paul without a maple cap (the faded studio mahogany whatnot) that was brighter than the LP Std I demoed it beside that had the full maple top. I'm not saying the top doesn't make a difference, just that it doesn't make a huge one when mounted on such a thick body. If you want a maple top to brighten it up a bit then go for it, it's not going to ruin the sound by making it too bright. The neck woods you're considering will have more of an effect.

Also, which builder are you using?
 
Re: Maple vs Mahogany neck

If you're building from scratch, chambering the guitar makes a huge difference. I used to have a maple/ebony 25" neck on a solid mahogany body and it was extremely tight, focused, a bit compressed, and was lacking in bass. I build a new mahogany body, chambered it significantly, and added a Canary top (think Maple). Now, it really opened up the sound, cut back the mids, added some bass, and it has a loud acoustic tone.
 
Re: Maple vs Mahogany neck

SoundAt11 said:
I build a new mahogany body, chambered it significantly, and added a Canary top (think Maple). Now, it really opened up the sound, cut back the mids, added some bass, and it has a loud acoustic tone.
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Sounds like you could've just picked up a nice piece of Alder and slapped some buckers in and been done with it...
 
Re: Maple vs Mahogany neck

some thoughts -

The neck actually imparts more tone than the body
Ebony adds "snap" and speed to the attack - but not so much brightness
Maple necks are awesome on 24 3/4 scale - and make things brighter
 
Re: Maple vs Mahogany neck

B2D said:
I recently tried out a Carvin CT6 that had a maple top, mahogany neck and body, and an ebony board. The tone was rich and full but also very tight and focused, which i liked. The guitar was 25" scale, as well. I really liked that wood combo. Personally I'd go with that.
Click to expand...

Bingo.

Aceman said:
The neck actually imparts more tone than the body. Ebony adds "snap" and speed to the attack - but not so much brightness
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Double bingo. The neck wood and size imparts alot more to the tone than most think. One reason I have never been able to stand the tone of maple neck through guitars-whether they had mahogany wings, alder, Koa, or anything else- the pickups and bridge are attached to the maple "tone block" as it were and thats the defining factor, the wings impart very little tonally to the guitar.

Ebony adds that snap/faster attack and a certain amount of clarity- but its not "brightness" as I hear some people describe it... it's more like "definition"
 
Re: Maple vs Mahogany neck

JeffB said:
Ebony adds that snap/faster attack and a certain amount of clarity- but its not "brightness" as I hear some people describe it... it's more like "definition"
Click to expand...

Yep.. it's not bright the same way maple is. It's bright without being strident. It's got a lot of definition and almost adds a hi-fi quality to the sound.
 
Re: Maple vs Mahogany neck

Is your new axe set neck, bolt on, or neck through?

I ask because your Rich is a maple neck through. If you're using that as a baseline, keep in mind that in a neck through, you're mostly hearing the neck. The wings are mostly there for show.
 
Re: Maple vs Mahogany neck

Based on my experiences -- and keep in mind that I've had no pure examples, and the neck wood is confounded with scale length, body wood, and construction -- is that a maple neck has a sharper attack and a mahogany neck is smoother.
 
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