Which is the best wood for guitar bodies? (for metal tones, specifically)

[AD Chaos]

Mahogany? Alder? Basswood?
Maple, Nato, Poplar, Agathis?
Any other?

So far I personally like Ebony for fretboard, and I guess maple is a standard for necks..


THanks much for your opinions!

 

[Djunn]

I prefer mahogany body, mahogany neck, ebony fretboard. Maple necks are cool too. I totally hate basswood. It just doesn't have a specific character, way too much mids for me.

Ash can be good for baritones and 7 strings. I like the "bite" it has.

 

[MatrixClaw]

Mahogany for that deep, chunky and full tone. Sounds beastly for rhythms, more smooth for leads.

Alder for a more bright and cutting tone. Little thinner sounding, but more aggressive.

Basswood I'm honestly not a big fan of, but some of the higher end Ibanez RG Prestiges sound pretty good with it. It's sort of a hit or miss for me, some guitars sound great and others sound like shit. The tone qualities of basswood also seem to vary a TON, depending on the quality of the wood.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Mahog for teh chuggz, alder for teh shredz!

 

[Chryst Krispies]

Mahogany/Maple top is pretty standard for awesome guitars.

 

[DominikJW]

The wood isn't everything, remember to compose it wisely with pickups! Some pickups tend to bring up the best of the wood's specific character and compare each others tonality, while others can intensify the nasty features of it.

 

[Robert W]

Mahogany bodied Schecters tend to sound a little "wooly." Maybe it's due to the heavy layers of paint they put on them?

I have a cheap Schecter with a basswood body and it sounds good for rhythms.

 

[kev]

Mahogany for metal riffage and basswood for lead stuff. I'll take rosewood for lead playing fretboards and ebony for riffage. I cant stand bending on glass!

 

[sprack]

My vote is for walnut body with maple neck. Mahogany is second choice.

 

[BLUElightCory]

Mahogany/Maple top is pretty standard for awesome guitars.

This. Warmth from the mahogany and brightness/snap from the maple.

Alder is nice too for good midrange punch.

 

[FIXXXER]

well and naturally dried wood!

 

[53Crëw]

For a long time, I liked the brightness and clarity of Alder.

Now days, I really like the warmth and ballsy-ness of Mahogany.

When I go back to playing my Alder Superstrat now, single note leads sound screechy and thin by comparison.

 

[Ermz]

Mahogany.

 

[Zozobra]

Woods arent like plastic and metal; homogeneous materials with tight composition control, lots of consistency. They're heterogenous structures with many, many variables that affect how they end up sounding. 'Mahogany' or any other wood doesnt have one sound. Never mind wood from different countries or forests, wood from different trees; two peices of wood from the same tree will not sound and perform the same in a guitar. Where in the tree the wood was taken from affects it a lot. The exact piece of wood matters at least as much as the species, more even: oil and water content, grain density and distribution, pore size, everything is highly variable within one species, as well as including how a piece has been cut.

Then theres the shape of the guitar, its construction method and quality and the hardware, especially the bridge. All these are about as important as the wood, if not moreso.

Go in a shop and play as many theoretically identical guitars as you can. A lot of them will sound very alike, but some of them will be very different. Take a mate with you and if you can tell what species of woods are in the guitar blind.

Bottom line; use the species of woods used as a guide (which is all it is) by all means but find guitars you like (make and model doesnt matter, I mean specific guitars; you play a guitar you like in a shop, buy that exact one, because another thats the same on paper will be different; maybe a little different, maybe shockingly different), use the guitars that sound good and refuse to give a fuck what woods they're made from.

Edit: oh, and the neck wood affects the tone more than the body wood; the vibration course underneath the strings is the most important; a resonance feedback loop between the strings and through the guitar from the nut/frets to the bridge develops (which is why the guitar affects the sound at all; feedback of the gutiars resonance back into the string, making the string vibrate with the resonant modes of the guitar) and the neck is the biggest oscilator in that and affects the tone more than the body

 

[Pex]

Woods arent like plastic and metal; homogeneous materials with tight composition control, lots of consistency. They're heterogenous structures with many, many variables that affect how they end up sounding. 'Mahogany' or any other wood doesnt have one sound. Never mind wood from different countries or forests, wood from different trees; two peices of wood from the same tree will not sound and perform the same in a guitar. Where in the tree the wood was taken from affects it a lot. The exact piece of wood matters at least as much as the species, more even: oil and water content, grain density and distribution, pore size, everything is highly variable within one species, as well as including how a piece has been cut.

Then theres the shape of the guitar, its construction method and quality and the hardware, especially the bridge. All these are about as important as the wood, if not moreso.

Go in a shop and play as many theoretically identical guitars as you can. A lot of them will sound very alike, but some of them will be very different. Take a mate with you and if you can tell what species of woods are in the guitar blind.

Bottom line; use the species of woods used as a guide (which is all it is) by all means but find guitars you like (make and model doesnt matter, I mean specific guitars; you play a guitar you like in a shop, buy that exact one, because another thats the same on paper will be different; maybe a little different, maybe shockingly different), use the guitars that sound good and refuse to give a fuck what woods they're made from.

Edit: oh, and the neck wood affects the tone more than the body wood; the vibration course underneath the strings is the most important; a resonance feedback loop between the strings and through the guitar from the nut/frets to the bridge develops (which is why the guitar affects the sound at all; feedback of the gutiars resonance back into the string, making the string vibrate with the resonant modes of the guitar) and the neck is the biggest oscilator in that and affects the tone more than the body

Some say you even can't tell different types of (body)wood apart. (handbuild, to assure similar quality and crafting method).

 

[Robert W]

Some say you even can't tell different types of (body)wood apart. (handbuild, to assure similar quality and crafting method).

While I seriously doubt that I could personally tell a tone wood apart just by it's sound, I have found that SGs and Dan Armstrongs tend to always sound like an SG or a Dan Armstrong.

 

[Damage, Inc.]

Edit: oh, and the neck wood affects the tone more than the body wood

Disagree, my experience is that the body is a more important factor than the neck. The fretboard is pretty important, however; this is touching the fret, and in turn, the string, so a harder wood like ebony will give a brighter, snappier sound, while rosewood is somewhat darker.

 

[Keregioz]

I think neck is supposed to be more important only in neckthrough guitars, or so I've heard.

Personally, I think differences between woods are mostly exaggerated.

 

[amarshism]

I like alder, maple, basswood and mahogany.

 

[amarshism]

And ash.