Body Wood

[eddie_van_earache]

Koa for every style of music

Alder for metal only

mahogony w/ maple top for most stuff

Ash for active pickups

[Soap]

I already voted and I voted maple, but I'll elaborate alittle bit more.

Top Three:
1. Maple
2. Alder
3. Mahogany

[Bengal65]

I agree.

+1 Here (All around tone wood for a variety of pickups and neck woods-rating)
1. Alder
2. Mahogany
3. Korina (White Limba)
4. Swamp Ash
5. Basswood with a 3/4" maple top
6. Maple, I love working with this wood, as Mark said it finishes the best. It also, machine's and sands well. A great shaping wood!
7. Koa? I'm trying to find some!

I'm in the process of completing an all maple guitar, with passive pickups, I'll let you know how it sounds.

[Nazgul]

Alder here.

[DonP]

I'm trying the "old" George Lynch recipe. Heavy ass maple with a Duncan Distortion.

Even though mahogany is in most of my favorite guitars, I'm pretty open to trying anything. As long as the end result is good (combination of wood+pickups+scale length+....), it doesn't matter much.

[siggy14]

Most of my guitars are mahagony, but latley i found myself playing my alder Ibanez 540P. I also have a ESP Horizon from the 80's with the Ash body and it sounds killer, nice mix between alder and mahagony. I also have a ESP tele which from what i gather is maple, but it sounds very warm so could be the pickups in it or maybe it is mahogany, heavy little sucker, probaly a good 8 to 9 pounds. So when it comes down to it, i love all woods, even basewood can sound killer, just to damn soft!

See now if this was the 80's everyone would be saying alder, but because where we are now everyone is saying mahogany since that is the wood of choice for this decade. Lets see how the tides shift in a few years, I am already starting to see more strats and tele's on stage at shows.

[mm2002]

Yeah Siggy, the trend is definitely towards mahogany right now. The truth is, mahogany is a very "open grained" and "airy" wood, and yet is considered a hardwood because of its tensile strength. To me it sounds more like a softer wood, and not very resonate at all. Maple, on the other hand, is a very dense and HARD wood. It seems to be very bright and tinny (of course this is all based upon listening to the axe acoustically, not through an amp and effects) All in all, I'd have to say Alder is a very nice tone wood because it's somewhat dense, kinda heavy, but not too brittle and crispy sounding like solid maple, yet more defined than mahogany.

(I still want to build a guitar out of fir or pine, slap an EMG in it, post some clips, and see who can tell me what I'm playing!)

[gtrcollectr]

I own more alder guitars than others but I prefer Mahogany by far.......although it is a bit heavy.

[mm2002]

I own more alder guitars than others but I prefer Mahogany by far.......although it is a bit heavy.

OK, I'd like to know (not sure why!).
Is alder lighter than mahogany? By how much? Just curious.

(and I'm not talking about weighing a mahogany LP against an alder Jackson dinky, I mean by volume)

[Twisteramps]

I like Korina - one of the best sounding guitars I owned was a Jackson with a Korina body. I know pickups make a huge difference, but the wood still helps.

Even within the same wood type, how well it was dried and where on the tree and how cut can make a difference too. Even body shape can make or break it - ever hear the story of EVH's Ibanez Destroyer that he cut the wedge out by the trem and it totally killed the tone?

Pete

[shredmonster]

Well I go against the grain on this one. If I had ONE single wood to go with it would be Swamp Ash - light, responsive, resonant and cuts through the mix.

Then Alder.

Mahogany just does not cut through the mix. Its OK if its the only guitar in the band. Still I prefer the sound of other woods over mahogany UNLESS you have a Maple Top. Mahogany with Maple Top is my favorite combo.

Suhr says Basswood with a Maple Top is the "holy grail" of tone. May be. But I had a plain basswood Jem and the tone was weak and muddy. So I got turned off with basswood from that experience.

[Rupe]

See now if this was the 80's everyone would be saying alder, but because where we are now everyone is saying mahogany since that is the wood of choice for this decade. Lets see how the tides shift in a few years, I am already starting to see more strats and tele's on stage at shows.

???WTF??? Mahogany then and now for me. I don't recall anyone in the 80's (besides Fender players) who preferred alder. The guitarists that I knew all argued the merits of mahogany, maple, and basswood.

Korina is a bit misleading-there is no such wood (it is African Limba, a type of mahogany). Korina is a name made up by Gibson, like Chromite (Balsa).

As for questions of weight, I have owned 50's LP Jr.'s that were unbelievably lightweight and others that were over 9 lbs...all built from mahogany. It really depends on the particular piece of wood in question.

[MBreinin]

I like a nice piece of hard maple. I am also a big fan of Basswood and swamp ash.

Mike

[DonP]

How about Oak?

I know oak is not considered a "tone-wood", but has anyone had first-hand experience with an oak guitar, and if so, what did it sound like?

[siggy14]

If you look back to the 80's most people were playing alder or basswood guitars. Yeah usually the rythem player had a les paul, but if you were a lead guitarist in a metal band you were using some super strat made of either alder or basswood.

Then grunge came and you start to see more regular fenders and gibsons, then the mid 90's PRS guitars were the ones to have with a few people playing gibsons, then 2001 hits and it slowly changes to mostly gibson everywhere, either les's or SG's.

Now of course i am talking about mainstream music, metal mostly has always been alder type guitars with some rythem players playing gibsons. But now you are starting to see the tide in that change as alot more people just play gibsons no matter what style of music.

Now in 2006 you are starting to see the tide switch back to fenders, they havent gotten big yet, still alot of SG's out there and some Les's in the mainstream, but i think mostly people are getting tired of the les's and want a change in music style.

???WTF??? Mahogany then and now for me. I don't recall anyone in the 80's (besides Fender players) who preferred alder. The guitarists that I knew all argued the merits of mahogany, maple, and basswood.

Korina is a bit misleading-there is no such wood (it is African Limba, a type of mahogany). Korina is a name made up by Gibson, like Chromite (Balsa).

As for questions of weight, I have owned 50's LP Jr.'s that were unbelievably lightweight and others that were over 9 lbs...all built from mahogany. It really depends on the particular piece of wood in question.