Guitar woods for no holds barred soloist build

[Keven]

Hey guys,

after treating my cheap strat with a nice warmoth neck, i've gotten the bug to build myself a take-no-prisoners 80's soloist 6 string.

after doing a bunch of reading it shows that basswood may be the best wood for that type of guitar, but i'd like advice, budget is not a problem as it's more of a long term project than anything needed now.

for the neck i'm sold on maple necks and fretboards so there's no question here, the thing is more about the body.

i'm also not really sold on floyd roses, so i'm opting for a wilkinson trem with locking tuners, as i'm not much of a trem whore in the first place but i liked messing about with the vintage 6 hole trem on my strat copy. (i hold the $%&#er with 5 springs and really tighten it up as i use 11's on my guitars), dive only.

i also -really- liked swamp ash as a body on my seven string, i always thought this particular guitar had a nice raunch to it when striking a full chord that couldn't be replicated on my other guitars.

I'm hesitating between a few nice tonewoods as well... black korina, swamp ash, basswood, or walnut.

it'll be a HH 24 fret of course ;)

also, recommendations for a nice set of pickups? I'm prepared to go as low as a riff raff set, but i wouldn't mind trying something punchier and hotter. the Holy Diver intrigues me....

thanks guys!

[gwEm]

i like the sound of your project!

this won't be much help, but i've only ever heard one basswood guitar i liked the sound of. i'd be leaning towards a nice bit of alder. its got a balanced tone, and i think would be nice on a soloist.

korina always sounds magical to my ears, might be a cool non-traditional choice. swamp ash is quite soft, so be aware of that, i've a warmoth swamp ash strat body that dents very easily even with its solid finish. i've always thought walnut can be a bit touchy with pickup choice, looks great though.

[Attica!]

Basswood w/ Maple Top for sure. Suhr describes it as the Holy Grail on Tonewoods, and I agree very much. Absolutely fantastic sounding for 80s style music. It's also great for modern metal too. There's just something about that combo for me. It was used by a lot of 80s guitarists, especially Van Halen. The Maple compliments the Basswood and sorts of balances everything out so you have a perfect blend.

It's be good to request Warmoth to ask Warmoth by email to only have a standard maple top, as to having figured, as it will cut the cost dramatically. That's if your having a solid colour though.

[Keven]

I'm going for all natural color. satin clear on the body and satin clear on the neck. so a nice figured top would be sweet

[Attica!]

I'm going for all natural color. satin clear on the body and satin clear on the neck. so a nice figured top would be sweet

Well Basswood w/ Maple Top would be fantastic. With Satin though, the Basswood will be very prone no knocks and knicks. So i'd take good care of it. To have a feel of what Basswood and Maple feel like, try and find a good guitar shop with the Ibanez RG Premium. Fanastic guitars in my experience :)

[Philly Q]

I'm going for all natural color. satin clear on the body and satin clear on the neck. so a nice figured top would be sweet

Personally, I'd say that pretty much rules out basswood.  :?  Its sonic qualities are a different matter, but it sure is ugly.  Though not quite as ugly as poplar.

Tonally, I'm a mahogany and korina man but that's for a different type of guitar.  For a bolt-on, I like swamp ash - light weight, sounds great and looks amazing.

But.... to come full circle and ignoring my personal preferences, for your '80s Soloist basswood probably is the way to go.  Just not with a natural finish!  :P

[Attica!]

I'm going for all natural color. satin clear on the body and satin clear on the neck. so a nice figured top would be sweet

Personally, I'd say that pretty much rules out basswood.  :?  Its sonic qualities are a different matter, but it sure is ugly.  Though not quite as ugly as poplar.

Tonally, I'm a mahogany and korina man but that's for a different type of guitar.  For a bolt-on, I like swamp ash - light weight, sounds great and looks amazing.

But.... to come full circle and ignoring my personal preferences, for your '80s Soloist basswood probably is the way to go.  Just not with a natural finish!  :P

Yeah shudda mentioned that. Basswood can have some nasty streaks in it

[Keven]

hmm. maybe something like korina with a maple cap would fill my needs! the fact i favor a maple fretboard as well would sort of even out the fact that korina is a bit darker than  basswood.

[Madsakre]

A good swamp ash body will even fill out your needs if you would like an acoustic one day. Swamp ash guitars tends to shout as loud as a drill sergeant on PE day

[Alex]

I'm with gwem here, I never liked basswood very much and find it rather bland. I find alder a very nice tone wood and great match for any strat.
I am also a fan of swamp ash, but if it were my guitar it would have to be alder body and maple neck, either fully maple or maple with rosewood fretboard.

[Toe-Knee]

I really like basswood. It's my preferred tonewood purely because of the fact that its so neutral and you can put pretty much any set of pickups in and it will sound awesome.

However i haven't tried Alder but that is the next on my list.

I found mahogany to be good but too heavy on the lows and ash i found to give a very soft rounded tone which also wasnt for me.

[Telerocker]

Swampash + Holy Divers would make it a great combo.

[Keven]

let's steer this discussion around. supposed i wanted to get a set of VH2 into said soloist, what wood would i build this around?

[Telerocker]

The VHII works in lots of woods, korina, mahogany, alder, (swamp)ash. I have one in a an ash Fender Am. Series strat. Wicked tones.

[Keven]

I think i'll settle with unfinished black korina, and apply an oil finish! how's that sound?