Why do people use these guitars??

[HJM]

It will happen! Parker tried it as did Steinberger -

I passed on  some 300 year old Mahogany blanks four years ago, reclaimed from an old piece of furniture!

Is there any fast growing wood that's good for guitars??

[FELINEGUITARS]

I have used Idigbo which is pretty much the same as Limba or Korina and it a great tonewood- my flying V is made from it.
Sounds great on bass too

[big steve]

are there any guitar builders that use wood from sustainable sources? i'd sure be glad to pay an extra £100 to know my guitar wasn't driving mahogany to extinction

[Johnny Mac]

kids nowadays overrate ibanez's so much, but if I'm gonna get a superstrat I'll get the real thing - a Jackson

Yeah but even they aren't what they used to be

That's what my local guitar shop were saying about new Jacksons. Try and get an 80's one or cheaper still a Charvel like my model 6.

[Joe Dorcia]

are there any guitar builders that use wood from sustainable sources? i'd sure be glad to pay an extra £100 to know my guitar wasn't driving mahogany to extinction

It's strange coz you dont here about it. The thing is theat their are many sustainable forests out there used for supplying, problem is, that they are either the wrong place to grow the right wood, or that they are currently being planted, so in a couple of decades time, we may have decent mahogany supply. Something should really be done but the corperationsare rolling in the profits of raping the forests and CNC labour, so they really couldnt care less.

As for alternative materials, its a trcky one. Theirs the ol' Hagstrom madel made of plastic (played by that C-word from Franz Ferdinand), and the Ampeg Dan Armstrong See-through guitars made from Perspex (lucite i think). And what HJM mentioned. Another alternative is using less popular woods, that may not have the tone you want but are plentiful, then using something like Carbon fibre towrap it in, to improve sustain and tonal clarity. Checck out http://www.gusguitars.co.uk, they use cedar bodies with carbon fibre wrap, they are very good sounding guitars and good to play, if not a little eccentric (maybe one for TO there;) )

Cheers

Joe

[Steve-Mr Pig 2U]

are there any guitar builders that use wood from sustainable sources? i'd sure be glad to pay an extra £100 to know my guitar wasn't driving mahogany to extinction

Im pretty shure Organic do.

[Ratrod]

I read this somewhere. Guitars are not responsible for the extinction of tree species. Guitars are only about 1% of the total wood consumption. Most wood is used for constuction and furniture.

Can anyone verfify or is it total b*ll*cks?

[HJM]

I bet that's right, but I'm not sure it's correct to stick our heads in the sand and say "it's not us!" either though

The worst offenders are the mass production plants, we'll look back and think 90% of guitars were a waste of wood in 10 years time....

[Bob Johnson]

Yeah, there are some very good alternatives to the old tried and trusted stuff and I guess we'll see more of Korina, Bubinga and others when people get used to the idea of using them. It's all a matter of public acceptance. Plenty of top custom builders are using Korina already.
Actually Ibanez are one of the companies pioneering synthetic materials like Luthite. I also read an article recently about a violin made from a long string polymer; the resonant characteristics of which could be tweaked by controlling the amount of nitrogen in solution in the polymer. Where's it all gonna end? :roll:

[tav]

There's always Switch guitars, made from "vibracell", although I find it difficult to get past the ugly designs. They're supposed to be quite nice guitars though.

How about pine for a tonewood, maybe as a core with an outer layer of hardwood?

[Davey]

well.. the #1 reason IMO why there is such a poor QC in the big names is, they are so damn big, they dont care for the low cost guitars anymore. in gibsons case, they dont even care past their historic/custom division

i've read so many horror stories about fretwork, binding, finish etc etc that i am put off of gibsons forever.

ibanez i will never own one, unless its an early 80's destroyer II

i'm looking for a fender that i can mod, but i dont want the price tag, so i'll go custom next year, just build the body and neck, i'll do the rest. they seem to be on and off.. some have had really a LOT of clearcoat on the neck and the nuts were cut badly, the others were realy nice, but the neck wasnt for me

the jacksons QC is getting better since the buyout, and i have played some really nice axes from them, but a couple dont mean all so i'm not saying they're better than everybody.. plus i'm biased haha

the LTD guitars however just flat out suck. i played some 50 of em that are around town and the setup from the fatory is pretty bad to start with. it being a 700$ guitar with 500$ worth of parts (tonepros, sperzels, gotoh EMG's etc etc) leaves very little for good wood and assembly

and also.. for going custom as you know i ordered me a rhoads guitar. it's still going to cost me a fair bit, but i will have 100% what I want. if you want a quality guitar get in touch of some independent guitar builders like Gajic and Feline. they will either make you a new part, make your existing ones better or order a fully new axe from them. it's going to be cheaper than the fender or gibson or jackson CS, but if you ask me, the guitar is going to be just as good, or even better


using dif tonewoods.. poplar is AFAIK one of the fastest growing trees around and the tonal signature is close to alder (in some cases even better)
i'm not to keen on ibanez basswood cos it sounds so flat and lifeless to me, but my charvel is supposedly made from basswood, or poplar, i dont know, cos i got 2 diferent answers from two very knowledgeable people.. anyway what was my point? forgot .. =P sorry

[Davey]

There's always Switch guitars, made from "vibracell", although I find it difficult to get past the ugly designs. They're supposed to be quite nice guitars though.

How about pine for a tonewood, maybe as a core with an outer layer of hardwood?

pine i wouldnt use.. it's WAY too soft and flexible. imo it would just suck out all the sustain

birch on the other hand could be ok from a density and hardness point of view.

[jt]

:D Lets not get to carried away here, Ibanez make good guitars for the money they charge, no your not going to get a $2000 finish or hard ware on a $400 guitar !  You get what you pay for ! As for Jackson i can say from personnal experience when trying a cheapo Jackson against a cheapo Ibanez for a student of mine the Ibanez was head & shoulders better quality & better sounding than the Jackson !!  which to be quite frank was utter S**T !!

As for different materials for guitars, i`ve just got back from Felines were Johnathon is building me a custom build he has put the thing together so i could hold & feel it & i can tell `ya right now the feeling you get from holding a well crafted piece of wood is wonderfull it`s very organic the problem will be trying to convince us guitarists not to use wood.

 :D  8)

[Kemra]

After reading evryone's posts I realised no-one has mentioned BC Rich. Are Bc Rich's good quality? Or are they utter sh**e too? I noticed when on their website that they are starting to use Nato which is a type of eastern mahogany. I wonder if guitarist's will accept it as a replacement for real mahogany? Only time will tell I guess.

[Davey]

their bronze (was it bronze) series is shite .. totaly


apart of that, i am not familiar with bc rich guitars