thats always the way - i have tried to stress quite a lot that these are only ever generalisations.
the truth is that wood will vary in grain structure and density incredibly even within the same tree, let only between trees and even different types of the same species of tree.
For most people this is solved by trying out lots of guitars till they find one that suits them. For people that build guitars for customers with specific tonal requirements it gets a lot harder because you have to know what to expect from a piece of wood.
You start with general species that should give you what you are after then go through lots of wood to find a piece that you think will meet the requirements closer.
For example. I am making a through neck SG at the moment and we decided to have a laminated mahogany neck through. That tells you a certain amount about what we were after. i had two mahogany neck through blanks available - both exactly the same size, both with a good grain structure and perfectly usable. One of them weighed 2.5kg one weighed 4.5kg. therefore its nearly twice as dense and that would have had a profound affect on the way the guitar sounded. we decided on the lighter one because weight is also an important factor when choosing wood. And i think it has a tap tone that will suit the customer better
my point is that we can go on about how wood will sound in theory till the cows come home but it all goes out the window once you have the actual raw materials.
If anyone is aiming to make them selves a guitar dont let this put you off - like i say, you cant go far wrong with good quality materials
