Favorite tonewood?

[Chordite]

The key of course is that, because of the alternating grain direction, ply is equally rigid in all directions. It is also less vulnerable to humidity changes

In probably the oldest reference you will see on here

http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fpltn/fpltn-131-1952.pdf

As you say, instrument ply must be free from air gaps, and my comment about glue was not actually fatuous, I think it is important that it is as hard and 'transmissive' as possible. I don't know what they use but something epoxy like should serve best.

[Phil O'Keefe]

My Mustang is made of poplar. My Epi Les Paul Custom is several pieces of mahogany with a maple top. They both sound great to me.

 

I'd love to hear a maple strat. Rickenbackers are usually all maple, and they sound twangy with a little more girth.

 

I've got a Ric with a solid, neck-through maple body. It's fairly bright, but it's also a wicked-cool crunch machine. It surprises rockers on a regular basis when I hand it to one and suggest they use it to do an overdub / layered track. It can "jangle" but it's not limited to only that.

 

I have a couple of poplar-bodied shortscale Fenders. To my ears, poplar is very similar in sound to alder. YMMV

[Phil O'Keefe]

I saw that at NAMM but I didn't play it or hear it.

[Grant Harding]

If I had to choose between fantastic examples of each species I'd probably go with alder or mahogany, with a maple cap.

 

Edit: Not surprising that my TA is chambered alder with a maple cap seeing as I got to choose.

[Mr Temporary]

Lately, I've been enjoying Douglas Fir, mostly because I can buy huge chunks of it with tight grain and without a lot of pitch pockets. Works great as a core wood with laminations on front and back.

 

Otherwise, I'll use whatever I damn well feel like.

[*BLEEP*]

I have a couple of poplar-bodied shortscale Fenders. To my ears, poplar is very similar in sound to alder. YMMV

 

 

 

Poplar is an excellent wood for solidbody guitars. It's inexpensive, plentiful, and has good density, strength, and woodworking characteristics.

 

But, poplar would be used more as a so-called tonewood if 3 to 5 percent of the factory workforce wouldn't eventually suffer contact dermatitis from regularly working with raw poplar.

 

The other lesser problem with poplar is that it often has moderately nasty looking mineral streaks, so you are stuck with opaque finishes only.

 

 

 

 

 

[billybilly]

I find it to lack dynamics but very good with being articulate.

[Bucksstudent]

Lately, I've been enjoying Douglas Fir, mostly because I can buy huge chunks of it with tight grain and without a lot of pitch pockets. Works great as a core wood with laminations on front and back.

 

Otherwise, I'll use whatever I damn well feel like.

 

[YOUTUBE]ijGyHv4WkDs[/YOUTUBE]

 

Douglas Fir were the ones Agent Dale Cooper loved in Twin Peaks.

[Quarter]

Lots of great woods, I'd have a hard time picking just one. Some woods do tend to favor particular pickups and styles of playing. Here are some Fender style single coils on some swamp ash that work quite nicely. Pickups are some 7 string Stingmaster types that I had Bryan at BG wind for me.

 

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[video=youtube;gv6glTOv1Ts]

[GAS Man]

1.Korina

2.Mahogany

3.Swamp Ash

 

Yeah, those are good choices I could agree with.

 

But my first thought was "Alder". I like that it's not as bright as most Ash guitars, yet not as deep as mahogany. I like that it emits a lot of vibe. Kinda the "Momma Bear of porridge or beds". But I've also found that it's not only "species" but also thickness. Although I've had a long love affair with Les Pauls, my ears are fickle and tend to prefer the thinner slab of mahogany sound on an SG or other models. I just find SGs to have a bit of that Fender "spank" to their tone due to their thinner bodies. Same, for example, with my Gretsch Corvette.

 

But agree, Korina (white limba) is cool. I own three from the Epi line (so don't have experience with top-o-the-line limba guitars) but I do hear an almost semi-hollow-ish resonance to my Korina guitars which I enjoy.

 

And indeed, a good Swamp Ash body is a much more pleasant (deeper/warm) experience than the ice-pick tones of northern hard ash.

 

When picking guitars on line, I tend to favor the lighter builds, thinking they'll more likely be more resonant and the tone won't sound as much as if it were coming off the top of the guitar. But I also find it interesting that that can backfire on me too. Sometimes a bit more heft will give the guitar some much needed soul to its tone.

 

I guess that's why this sh*t is addicting.

 

P.S. About the only wood that gives me this reaction - [ATTACH=CONFIG]n31697417[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

is Basswood. I'm not dissin it, but I'm not a heavy gain Satriani or Vai style player that can get the most out of that mid hump tone that I associate with basswood. I upgraded a JS-100 with DiMarzios, but still couldn't warm up to that guitar. My one basswood exception is that I do love the tone from my Godin Session. it uses a "Canadian Laurentian Basswood body" which sounds a lot like alder but a bit deeper. It's a denser heavier species than the basswood found on most modern "metal-style" guitars. I can't get a bad tone out of that guitar. But it's got a bit more heft to its wood, so it's kinda like mahogany.

[*BLEEP*]

Works pretty good actually

 

 

 

Just don't try and tell your shoulder and the back of yer neck that plywood is "pretty good."

 

 

 

 

[Phil O'Keefe]

 

 

 

Poplar is an excellent wood for solidbody guitars. It's inexpensive, plentiful, and has good density, strength, and woodworking characteristics.

 

But, poplar would be used more as a so-called tonewood if 3 to 5 percent of the factory workforce wouldn't eventually suffer contact dermatitis from regularly working with raw poplar.

 

The other lesser problem with poplar is that it often has moderately nasty looking mineral streaks, so you are stuck with opaque finishes only.

 

 

I was familiar with the mineral streaking issue, but this is the first I've heard about the contact dermatitis one. And yet Fender used it for the vast majority of their "student model guitars like the Mustang, Duo Sonic and Musicmaster.

[*BLEEP*]

The quality of the plywood does matter allot. The stuff used for building instruments isn't the same stuff you'd use for building houses which is loaded with air gaps and inconsistent grains/layers. Plywood is graded just like other woods. The stuff used for musical instruments will likely have a high quality laminated veneer exteriors.

 

 

 

Voidless plywood is the term that's usually used. Sometimes you'll hear the term "marine grade" to describe voidless plywoods.

 

In any case, for musical instruments, we're talking about something that's never going to be used for building a boat, so, it's voidless indoor equivalent is so-called "furniture grade plywood." Furniture grade plywood has premium quality lamination on one or both sides -- a very nice looking smoothly sanded wood species outer lamination, such as ash, mahogany, cherry, maple, or whatever you need to make that nice piece of furniture. The sheet dimensions can be thick -- up to 2 or 3 inches (5cm ~ 8cm). The inner laminations might be another species that's stable and less expensive than the outer laminations. The adhesive used might be epoxy instead of the typical fast curing formaldehyde adhesive commonly used for construction grade plywood.

 

Guitar factories making cheap plywood bodies will order a plywood stock from a lumber mill that's specified exactly for their needs. They'll order a voidless plywood stock using some wood species that inexpensive and light and that's exactly the thickness they need (like 1.5 inches thick) so they only need to saw out the body outline, route out neck pockets, control, and pickup cavities as needed, and radius the edges of the body.

 

The plywood / laminated wood used to make the top of a lower-end non-carved-top semi or fully hollowbody electric is normally hand-selected high grade wood that's precisely manufactured and sanded to tight specifications. The adhesive used might be hide glue or some other malleable and stable adhesive that will allow the steam presses to form the shape needed for top, sides, and back.

 

 

[*BLEEP*]

I was familiar with the mineral streaking issue' date=' but this is the first I've heard about the contact dermatitis one. And yet Fender used it for the vast majority of their "student model guitars like the Mustang, Duo Sonic and Musicmaster.[/quote']

 

 

 

Yes, there all sorts of wood species that can cause contact dermatitis -- or a lot worse. Many of them are tropical woods which have saps that kill predatory insects or parasitic plants and fungi.

 

With some species, just touching the raw wood can be bad, and this can vary between contacting just the sapwood, but not the corewood, or contacting any part of either the sapwood or the corewood. Others species, there's not much of a problem until sawdust is produced (i.e. -- fine airbourne inhabitable particles) or the wood is heated to the point it produces smoke (i.e. -- toxic vapours).

 

As for Fender, they last used poplar for a few years because of a shortage of alder. Once the alder shortage eased, they promptly quit using poplar again and have not used it for 20 years.

 

 

[garthman]

Strings, pick-ups and amplifiers tend to be quite important. I always go for peat-aged amps and swamp PUs though - far superior IMHO.

[Grant Harding]

I thought you preferred MDF or cardboard!?!

[garthman]

Nah! That was last year. I'm really getting into woody sort of stuff these days - you know: valves, pots, pedals, that sort of wood.

[mikesr1963]

I play it first and if I like it then check the wood. From there I've ended up with guitars made from several types of wood.

[Freeman Keller]

How about steam punk?

 

 

[Grant Harding]

[Grant Harding]

Cool guitar and made just down the road from here. The sound has a plastic feel to it. No sparkly harmonic content.

[guitarcapo]

For a solid body I like a light porous koa. For an acoustic I'd say African blackwood back and sides with a nice old growth spruce top.

[Ratae Corieltauvorum]

Spruce tops are the only would that should be allowed on top pf a guitar, with a Koa dispenastion

[Jiri Dolezal]

a. Brazilian rosewood (expensive)

b. alder (for heavier styles)

c. swamp ash (very responsive)

[speakerjones]

George Harrison used a rosewood Tele, not walnut.