Timbers and their tones...

[Frank666]

Hey everyone, I'm considering a custom build but am at a loss as to what woods to use, all I know so far is that I want an ebony fretboad but the body's wood is a complete mystery to me at this stage. I know what mahogany and alder sounds like but what about others like poplar (I'm a huge steve morse fan) and any others that comes to your respective minds. I'm looking for a warm sounding guitar that isn't too heavy in a strat style if that's any help. By the way, this is strictly at the research stage

[Philly Q]

We have some guitar builders on the forum who can give you lots of great advice, but this isn't a bad place to start, especially assuming you're going for a bolt-on neck:

http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/options/options_bodywoods.cfm

[WezV]

i was going to point to the warmoth thing too.. its a good basic guide but dont forget wood is quite variable and it still comes down to the actually pieces chosen so any tone talk is mostly generalisation

if you are after a traditional strat sound but a warm version of that i would say swamp ash... if you want it a bit richer and definately warmer i would go for korina.  both are generally lighter in weight - especially swamp ash

poplar is ok, like basswood its generally quite transparent

[Scotty477]

This link might be of some help as well. It's pretty good for describing various tonewood properties.

http://www.bothner.co.za/articles/bodywoods.shtml


Good luck  :D

[WezV]

slight off topic rant but i have an issue with what it says about korina.. pet peev of mine so bare with me!!

There are two variants of Korina, white and black. Black Korina is a medium weight wood, which is olive in color with black streaking. White Korina is a medium to heavy weight wood. The colour a light yellow/green.

If only it were that simple!!!

Black Korina = terminalia superba
White Korina = termialia superba or terminalia ivorensis

superba may also be called afara or limba

ivorensis may also be called idigbo or confusingly black afara

ivorensis is generally slightly heavier with a courser grain and more even colour (yellows, greens, olives)

superba is prized for its colour variation - you can get black and white korina from the same tree or incredible mixes of both... even the odd really bright orange streak if a bug lived in the tree

both make great guitars and sound pretty similar.  because superba is sometimes prettier it is more prized and costs significantly more than ivorensis

[Roobubba]

Ask and ye shall receive!

[WezV]

yeah, but no-one asked and i ranted anyway!!!

[Roobubba]

Welcome to my world, Wez :D

[Frank666]

Thanks guys, this has been a very good help so far, I'm thinking korina whenever I get the money together

[froglord]

The Suhr site has some good info on woods:

http://suhrguitars.com/wood.aspx