Why agathis wood is so hated??

Re: Why agathis wood is so hated??

I'm still wondering why so many people hate agathis so much, I own a guitar with agathis body, maple neck with rosewood fretboard, equipped with EMG 81/85 pups, and so far I don't have problem with the tone whatsoever. Is it just me or do you guys have other opinions??

Tell me what you guys think

Nothing wrong with Agathis wood, they just different wood. I have guitar with Agathis wood and it's just great like any other guitars with different woods. Some people said it's soft? How about pine then? Pine also soft wood. The sound? Never been proofed Agathis has a bad sound. Some people said Agathis like Mahogany wood, there you go!!.
 
Re: Why agathis wood is so hated??

Construction wise, as long as it's not soft or heavy, I'd go with any wood for body.
 
Re: Why agathis wood is so hated??

I do find agathis to be heavy as balls, only reason I don't like it

But then my favorite wood is swamp ash because it's the lightest of the bunch, so... yup, I just don't like having 20 lbs on my shoulder
 
Re: Why agathis wood is so hated??

I do find agathis to be heavy as balls, only reason I don't like it

But then my favorite wood is swamp ash because it's the lightest of the bunch, so... yup, I just don't like having 20 lbs on my shoulder

I have a Yamaha RBX170 Bass made from agathis and its pretty much the lightest bass ive ever played
 
Re: Why agathis wood is so hated??

I have a Yamaha RBX170 Bass made from agathis and its pretty much the lightest bass ive ever played

Oh lucky! I had the same bass years ago and that thing weighed a ton X___X But it was a really nice sounding and playing bass for the price!

Wood does tend to be inconsistent, so... heh
 
Re: Why agathis wood is so hated??

Aware of being on necro-posting territory, I'd like to tell my story anyway: I've owned only one agathis-made guitar, a Squier Std strat. Good looking, decent hardware.

That guitar hated every single one of the four p'up sets I tried on, which were previously keepers with other, non agathis-made instruments, including the cheapest of Squier Bullets, and tried-and-true EMG SA p'up set.

I sold it to fund what it turned out to be the best-sounding economic instrument I've ever owned: a Yamaha Pacifica 112J from early '90s. I recorded about seven projects in the studio with that one, hosting EMG SA p'ups.

Even if the sample I had experience with certainly is pretty small, the outcome in my case is: no mo' agathis for me, no sir!

HTH,



HTH,
 
Re: Why agathis wood is so hated??

And just how many guitars of how many various woods have you used that did not have EMGs in them?

It's the new basswood, since basswood is used so often these days.
It's cheap, and like anything else, cheap means it can't be good. It's also soft, so those drunken staggers on stage mean dents and dings in your new guitar. I mean, everyone wants that nice "beat to hell" look on their Number 1 guitar, but preferably after they're famous like Keith Richards, SRV, or those guys. And they want the guitar to actually survive that long, so there's absolutely no way agathis could be that body wood, right? I mean, if it was so great, we'd have seen vintage guitars made with it instead of mahogany, maple, walnut, and shtuff like that.


Seriously, people are now extolling the virtues of pine as a tone wood, so the hate for agathis is invalid.


I remember years ago Chinese tubes were crap, and the best stuff came from Russia, in the form of NOS Cold War Era leftovers and the one factory that still made them. Now, we see people swearing up and down that one Chinese tube is better than another Chinese tube. 70s USA Gibsons were always frowned upon and could be had for under $700 all day long, now people will pay well over a grand for a pancake Les Paul that just a few years ago was a chunk of firewood not worthy of the Gibson name or LP logo, because the "good ones" are in the tens of thousands of dollars price range, and of course, the new ones aren't as good as the old ones. We see this with pedals all the time, where the old MIJ with the 65742F chip that's hard to find and expensive when you do sounds so much better than the new one with the 47821gK chip. Of course the only tonal evidence is "listen to it on this CD by this band vs this newer CD by this other band and completely ignore all the other important tonal factors, because once you start breaking it all down you don't hear a difference between the two". Then you get the "well I've got both, and side by side, I hear a difference, because my old one is worth a lot more money than the new one, and I have to say the old one sounds better to preserve that dollar figure".

It's self-righteous cork-sniffery, basically.

Also, get off your lawn, right?

I agree with you. My cork radar is strong, and the taint of cork is never a good thing....unless perhaps you're trying to sell some overrated relic to a believer....
 
Re: Why agathis wood is so hated??

Ooops, all of the old and new guitar makers using Basswood, Cedar, Pine, Spruce, etc. didn't get that memo.

Linden/basswood is a HARDwood... one of the softer ones, but a hardwood nonetheless

Screenshot_2017-05-31-22-48-07.jpg
 
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Re: Why agathis wood is so hated??

Linden/basswood is a HARDwood

:clap:

Guitars are meant to be hardwood.

Where can I find this iron clad rule that conifers are never meant to be used in guitars? (and you must think Fender, Martin, Gibson, Guild, etc. are all terrible guitar makers for breaking your rule.)

The classification does not determine whether the wood is hard or soft–Balsa Wood is classified as a Hardwood but no one would call it a hard wood. ;)
 
Re: Why agathis wood is so hated??

My Gibson Howard Roberts had a center block of BALSA. You can dent it with your finger. Smart move, there. It didn't do anything for the tone, although it made the guitar lighter. Other construction techniques would have done the same thing. I don't think balsa is known for its tone.
 
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