Best/Favorite Guitar Woods

brothersnowgone · #1 03-09-2006, 03:51 AM

I'm am going to be getting into custom guitar building, mostly for selling, but I may keep a few to myself in the future

. What I need to from you jemsiters is suggestions on what woods to use, I know my preferences, but like I said before I'm basically building them to sell (so I figure take the questions to my favorite guitar community). The sky is the limit on price as I have enough $ put away to make some beautiful instruments. Please feel free to make any suggestions whether it be your favorite body wood, fingerboard wood, or even a combo of woods to get your favorite sound/look....whatever it is I'd like to hear it! Also forgot to mention they will be shred guitars if it makes any difference to you guys.

nickcoumbe · #2 03-09-2006, 07:08 AM

Body - Alder, Paduak (dust is horrible towork with though).
Finger Board - Ebony
Neck - Maple

Try and stay away from exotic maple necks (not fret boards). I have a friend with some experience that the exotic (flame, birdseye) necks are much less stable. If you are selling it, you will be bound to have to gaurantee it, save yourself some trouble.

I too am starting down this path, and wish you every success

brothersnowgone · #3 03-09-2006, 07:29 AM

Yeah I heard that about exotic maple necks, but I might do a 5 piece laminate neck. I was thinking birdseye or curly (not sure yet) maple-ebony-maple-ebony-maple neck (maybe even switch the ebony with some nice koa or something, not dead set). The 2 ebony stripes would be somewhere around 1/4" less or more not sure yet until I have the materials in my hands, but I think it should make it quite stable hopefully not too stiff though. Funny you mention those particular woods, you basically nailed my favorites (esp. the ebony fretboards). Another thing I forgot to mention is that they will be more on the exotic/figured wood side (not that I won't make ones with wicked beautiful paint jobs, I'll just be doing less of them). Hope you run into lots of success in this field aswell

.

rastachild · #4 03-09-2006, 02:45 PM

man i have like 20 guitars and i've recently been craving having rg bodied guitars made of different wood offerings than what ibanez currently has. my main guitars are the old rt models, with the alder rg bodies and standard trems (i prefer standard trems or fixed bridges, which narrows down my ibanez options considerably). it's funny that nickcoumbe mentioned paduak cause i have a washburn n4 that is all paduak (except for the ebony fingerboard) and it sounds fantastic (super heavy though). i have really been jonesing for a paduak rg, but i will have to wait until eddie from ekg finishes my swamp ash rg first.

anyway, to get back to your original question:

body
alder
mahogony
paduak
swamp ash
koa
korina
basswood
walnut

veneers & tops
flame, quilted, spalted maple
flame walnut
flame koa

necks
hard maple
birdseye maple
paduak (only with a paduak body)
mahogony

fingerboards
brazilian rosewood
indian rosewood
maple
pau ferro
ebony

a lot of those woods are classified as irritants and sensitizers (cocobolo is extremely hazardous i hear), so covering up as much as possible is recommended when working with them. do you have a lot of experience building or is this your first venture?

wallopwallop · #5 03-09-2006, 03:14 PM

I'm a big fan of Swamp Ash!

It sounds really zingy but not too toppy and generally has fantastic figuring. Looks awesome with transluscent finishes.

I also really love the look of Snakewood but you don't see it around too much. Looks great when used to bind bodies and headstocks.

Rotti · #6 03-09-2006, 03:22 PM

I'll second the swamp ash. Swamp ash has so much spank to it. A nice shred guitar with a swamp ash body, maple neck and fretboard, extra jumbo frets, double humbucker or even hum bridge and single neck. Single coils sound wonderful in swamp ash. Actualy a swamp ash shred guitar with some really high output singles would be f'in sweet.

shredfreak · #7 03-09-2006, 04:49 PM

Body - Mahogany
Neck - Mahogany
Fretboard - Ebony
Top wood - Quilted maple

At the time I like that combo very much. Alder is also nice as well as basswood as a body wood with maple top.

fettouhi · #8 03-09-2006, 05:08 PM

Neck - Birdseye Maple

Body - Basswood, Alder, Mahogany

Top - QUILTED!!!!

Fretboard - Bidrseye Maple

Regards

André

brothersnowgone · #9 03-09-2006, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rastachild

man i have like 20 guitars and i've recently been craving having rg bodied guitars made of different wood offerings than what ibanez currently has. my main guitars are the old rt models, with the alder rg bodies and standard trems (i prefer standard trems or fixed bridges, which narrows down my ibanez options considerably). it's funny that nickcoumbe mentioned paduak cause i have a washburn n4 that is all paduak (except for the ebony fingerboard) and it sounds fantastic (super heavy though). i have really been jonesing for a paduak rg, but i will have to wait until eddie from ekg finishes my swamp ash rg first.

anyway, to get back to your original question:

body
alder
mahogony
paduak
swamp ash
koa
korina
basswood
walnut

veneers & tops
flame, quilted, spalted maple
flame walnut
flame koa

necks
hard maple
birdseye maple
paduak (only with a paduak body)
mahogony

fingerboards
brazilian rosewood
indian rosewood
maple
pau ferro
ebony

a lot of those woods are classified as irritants and sensitizers (cocobolo is extremely hazardous i hear), so covering up as much as possible is recommended when working with them. do you have a lot of experience building or is this your first venture?

Thanks for all your suggestions guys keep them coming! To answer your question rastachild, I do have quite a bit of experience. I have confindence in this as a new career path because of that fact (Grew in body shops, been learning metal and wood work since the age of 8 ). My dad has taught me everything I know about metal and wood working. He is also the best painter I know and has taught me how to paint (He's painted everything from cars to semi's and even whole foundry buildings and is not just an auto painter but an industrial one too.) You can see why I can see myself having success down this path, but words are just words until I start producing these babies. I won't be doing custom orders until I get my name out there, obviously people need to see some finished products to be able to trust me with thier project. All I can say is thanks for all you suggestions guys, I can't thank you enough.

shredfreak · #10 03-09-2006, 05:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fettouhi

Neck - Birdseye Maple

Body - Basswood, Alder, Mahogany

Top - QUILTED!!!!

Fretboard - Bidrseye Maple

Regards

André

Sounds like Music Man Axis.

brothersnowgone · #11 03-09-2006, 08:09 PM

So I think I'm going to start out building 3. 2 with not such expensive woods(paduak, basswood, ultralight weight ash.), but one I want to go all out on and instead of having a quilted maple top I think I'll make the whole body a solid block of quilted maple. I won't be using much other than 5A (or better if I can find it) woods when it comes to figure, just because I want to become known for some beautiful guitars. Although I realize Maple will make the guitar pretty bright, but Ill see what I can do to fix that.
Thanks again to all of you, I knew I could count on you guys for suggestions on what the high end guitar community is looking for. Also I did post this in the "other 6 string guitars" area but I'll definately be doing 7's and maybe even 8's if I get the requests for some. Myabe my first 3 should one 6 string, one 7 string, and an eight if you guys think theres a real market for it. I know I can barely handle 7, but then again there are some great players out there who could prolly occupy 10 strings lol. Another think I'm trying to offer is not so expensive customs, I mean $3-4000 is a lot to some people and bringing that down to the $2000 hell even $1500-$1700 range would make a lot of people have beautiful guitars made to fit thier taste without killing thier bank account.

Rotti · #12 03-09-2006, 08:28 PM

Sounds cool but I don't think too many people are going to want a solid maple body. Maybe if it had a lot of tone chambers or something it would be okay.