Wood Question

[Stratoplayer]

What wood is tonally in between ash and mahogany? I'm saving money to build a 2 humbucker Tele, JB/Jazz or C5/Jazz probably. Mahogany may be too dark and ash too bright. Looking primarily for Alice in Chains and Tool kinda stuff but with the versatility to do more.

 

[Stratoplayer]

Re: Wood Question

Bueller? B U E L L E R ? lol

 

[FenderBender03]

Re: Wood Question

I would think you would wanna look in to an Alder body. I'm pretty sure these are suppose to have a mellow tone, but not bright like Ash and not warm like mahogany. You can go to lots of guitar company sites and find descriptions of wood tonality. I think this info i gave you is pretty accurate, i haven't looked at one of these "difference in tonality" pages in a while.


FenderBender

 

[BornToShred]

Re: Wood Question

Mahogany is good for Tool-style tones, Adam Jones plays Gibsons mostly AFAIK. Maybe an ebony fretboard to brighten it up a bit?
Alder w/ rosewood could work too...

 

[mrfjones]

Re: Wood Question

basswood is also an option, it would be a little darker than alder.

go to www.warmoth.com and look at the descriptions of each wood then you can chose.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Wood Question

basswood is also an option, it would be a little darker than alder.

go to www.warmoth.com and look at the descriptions of each wood then you can chose.

Alder and basswood...Basswood is Japan's version of alder except that it is softer and doesn't take as well to certain finishes..Alder is harder in that it doesn't indent as easy as basswood...Basswood is light,has a nice warm tone,almost dark at times but comes pretty close to alder overall...

Don't forget about Poplar...This is a brighter and snappier wood and lately is more expensive than alder.Fender is back using alder over poplar on the MIM models because of this price difference..

Alder is pretty hard to beat because it's a great tone wood,is hard,takes finish well and isn't out of line in price!

John

 

[mrfjones]

Re: Wood Question

i almost forgot about poplar, i do love the tone from my poplar strat.

 

[Zerberus]

Re: Wood Question

What wood is tonally in between ash and mahogany? I'm saving money to build a 2 humbucker Tele, JB/Jazz or C5/Jazz probably. Mahogany may be too dark and ash too bright. Looking primarily for Alice in Chains and Tool kinda stuff but with the versatility to do more.

Between ash and mahogany? other than rosewood, Maple or ebony just about everything

But for what you´re looking for, Alder is usually the prime choice, poplar would be my 2nd recommendation, Basswood I´d prefer not to recommend but must, as it also fits into that spectrum with the proper pickups. Walnut would likely also work well, on the brighter side, or Koa as the parallel on the darker side

Or Mahogany with a Maple cap :smoker:

If you´re into exotics, PM me , we can go into more detail

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Wood Question

Between ash and mahogany? other than rosewood, Maple or ebony just about everything

But for what you´re looking for, Alder is usually the prime choice, poplar would be my 2nd recommendation, Basswood I´d prefer not to recommend but must, as it also fits into that spectrum with the proper pickups. Walnut would likely also work well, on the brighter side, or Koa as the parallel on the darker side

Or Mahogany with a Maple cap :smoker:

If you´re into exotics, PM me , we can go into more detail

Great post from someone who should know more on this subject than most of us...
Hey Zerb...Isn't walnut dark sounding and heavy as heck?
Also....Do you actually make body shapes for guys? Like a lefty vintage strat body lefty in ash?
I still don't currently own an ash bodied strat...

John

 

[Byakhee00]

Re: Wood Question

How about Koa or Korina?

 

[Stratoplayer]

Re: Wood Question

From what you guys have said, I think I'll be going with the alder body. Probably a maple neck and still undecided on the fretboard. Thanks guys

 

[Zerberus]

Re: Wood Question

Great post from someone who should know more on this subject than most of us...
Hey Zerb...Isn't walnut dark sounding and heavy as heck?
Also....Do you actually make body shapes for guys? Like a lefty vintage strat body lefty in ash?
I still don't currently own an ash bodied strat...

John

Thanks, John

Not quite, Walnut is Dark LOOKING and heavy as heck.

But tonally it´s up there with ash and maple, with a bit of a rounding to the highs, likely due to natural oils in the wood.

As far as the body goes, right now I´ll still have to send you to Warmoth or USA CG, because I´m currently still searching for a workspace large enough to start building again. I can Mod and repair, but large woodworking projects in the same 180 sq ft room as the entire rest of your life isnt that good an Idea. I found that out while carving the Neck for my strat about a month ago...

How about Koa or Korina?

Both sound VERY close to mahogany. Korina so close that I purposely left it out

Koa as stated is a bit brighter.
Korina seems more "open" in tone than Mahogany to me, but is tonally almost identical as far as the basic properties go.

From what you guys have said, I think I'll be going with the alder body. Probably a maple neck and still undecided on the fretboard. Thanks guys

I would recommend rosewood or ebony. Rosewood will give a nice warm tone in the final product (a bit more "forgiving" to sloppy playing as well) , Maple I personally find too bright (and is anything but forgiving). Ebony is smack dab between the two and is what I would likely use. Nice defined bottom end, slightly rounded highs, fast attack and smooth playability. My personal favorite for Fretboards