Favorite body wood for charvels/ Why?

[Predator1]

I was just curious as to what everyone's preferred body woods are for bolt Charvels. and why? I have Basswood,Mahogany and Alder. I forst went back and forth between the Mahohany and the Alder but recently Alder seems to win out. It just seems to have more growl and bite but the Mahogany has great sustain and chunk. What do you guy's think?

[Spivonious]

My favorite is Alder. Same reason as you - it just seems to have a bit more bite without being as bright as maple.

[dg]

Swamp ash is my favorite at this point. I have 2 alder Charvel pointies, and I like them a lot, but my swamp ash strathead is a cut above. All 3 have a Custom in the bridge. The overall tone is pretty similar & balanced and they all have excellent sustain, but there is just more of a liveliness & responsiveness to the ash guitar. Hard to describe. Another thing that may play a role is that the strathead is a 1-piece neck, rather than having a scarf joint and separate fretboard. I have no idea what role (if any) that plays. I was thinking about trying the strathead neck on my Dweezil just to see if that is what makes the difference, more than the body wood.

[cdwillis]

Mahogany nearly everytime

[GuerillaPete]

koa and alder float my boat

[shreddermon]

Mahogany or swamp ash. Different ends of the spectrum, yes. I like variety. Alder is cool, too, but a distant third.

[Frigo89]

Mahogany and Alder

Alder is bright enough, and Mahogany is just awesome

[ADR]

Poplar

[Trem]

every bodies ways of describing tones from wood, it's so hard to describe, and perception can be so different, i have no idea if what they are describing is how i would describe the same sound.
All i know is that all of the Jacksons i have are Poplar and Alder, and they are quite without any body to the tone, as if it's very airy, it rings out yeah, but not with any amount of thickness or solidity. Kinda hollow sound, i guess a way to put it.
My BcRich is mahogany, and as far as i know, the only mahogany body i've had, it does have that solidity to it, but it's also downtuned, and has heavier guage strings, but i suspect with the same gauge strings it still has a bit of a thicker tone than the poplar or alder.

I don't have a perception of Hard Ash, Soft Ash, or Maple as a body wood.
Basswood is basically Ibanez, but i haven't had one in 20 years, so i don't remember how the sound "feels" on them.
My cheapo strat is a 3 lam, and i don't know what kind of wood it is, but it's a heavy lil bitch for a strat, and it has what i would describe a "Bell" tone, just Thick and loud as hell, and sustains, I wish i knew what it was made of, because that's exactly the tone i want.
It reminds me of the tone i used to get outta my old fernandes, which anyone who picked that thing up, even guys with custom made exotic hardwood guitars would comment on the bass and thickness of that guitar.
I don't know what kinda wood it was, but it was great, .....i always wondered if also since it had old style floyd, where the posts were screwed directly into the body, no bushings, if that made a difference..

[Grumpy]

I personally like northern ash or maple

[Trem]

I personally like northern ash or maple

What about them exactly appeals to you, what kind of tone would you describe each of them as?
I'm particularily interested in these two, because i'm looking at some guitars that use these wood, and the price difference between a maple version to an ash version is pretty big, i was afraid the get the maple (cheaper one) because i don't know if it will be to bright or twangy, like a telecaster or something.
Like to hear your input.


Or anybodies input for that matter...

[Mr Metal]

Mahogany or Koa with a real (thick) maple top (not just a veneer)

[surfreak]

Nowadays I specifically go for lightweight mahogany, which is hard to find as generally mahogany tends to be dense and heavy, with a maple neck and rosewood fingerboard.

That, coupled with a SD 59/JB pickup combo, gives me exactly the tone I want. The fundamental mahogany tone and sustain, thick and mid-rich, but just a bit snappier and more responsive to dynamics thanks to the lighter weight, less density and the maple neck.

The best lightweight mahogany I have found on Charvels is in the San Dimas II of the mid-90s and the MZ mahogany Naturals from the 2nd batch onwards (the 1st batch had great wood, but more traditional, heavier and denser).

[daisp]

Nowadays I specifically go for lightweight mahogany, which is hard to find as generally mahogany tends to be dense and heavy, with a maple neck and rosewood fingerboard.

That, coupled with a SD 59/JB pickup combo, gives me exactly the tone I want. The fundamental mahogany tone and sustain, thick and mid-rich, but just a bit snappier and more responsive to dynamics thanks to the lighter weight, less density and the maple neck.

The best lightweight mahogany I have found on Charvels is in the San Dimas II of the mid-90s and the MZ mahogany Naturals from the 2nd batch onwards (the 1st batch had great wood, but more traditional, heavier and denser).

Great answer!...alder is my second choice with a TB-14 pup...

[fuel0707]

When I bought a Grosh Retro Classic in the mid '90's, I compared two models, one that was alder and one that was swamp ash. Having heard a friend's guitar that was swamp ash, I knew that I loved the overdriven tones from his guitar. But when I played the two Groshes side by side and unamplified, I thought the alder had the rounder, fuller tones. Plugged in, clean tones on the alder were more bell-like. Under pretty heavy gain, they both sounded great and I think the ash had more defined highs and cut.

Right now, if I could snag a Charvel, ash would probably be my first choice and I might think about mahogany as my fall-back. Like surfreak mentioned, I'm really interested in a few of those Music Zoo limited models.