Favorite wood combo for Guitar

Favorite Wood Combo for guitar

  • Basswood Body/Maple top w/Roasted Maple neck & Roasted Maple Fingerboard

    Votes: 5 33.3%
  • Mahogany Body/maple top w/Mahogany neck & Indian Rosewood Fingerboard

    Votes: 7 46.7%
  • Alder Body w/Roasted Maple Neck & Indian Rosewood Fingerboard

    Votes: 2 13.3%
  • Swamp Ash Body w/Roasted Maple Neck & Roasted Maple Fingerboard

    Votes: 2 13.3%
  • Koa Body w/Pau Ferro Neck & Pau Ferro Fingerboard

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    15
Mahogany body, maple top, maple neck, ebony fretboard. It’s a combo that cuts bass and emphasizes high mids IMHO.

I also like mahogany body, maple top, mahogany neck, rosewood fretboard. This targets bass and low mids IMHO.

I’m sure an ebony board on a mahogany neck also sounds great ala post-Norlin LPCs
 
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For body woods : Mahogany , Alder or Maple

Necks : Maple or Mahogany

Fretboard: Ebony or Maple

I will also echo that Mahogany body and neck with a maple top and ebony fretboard is a great combination. A maple neck would be just as good, just a different flavor.

Swamp ash body or Basswood body have been mostly not that good for me. Even the ones that sound good are mediocre in comparison to mahogany. I also haven't had great luck with exotic wood necks , I dont think they bring anything to the table better than maple or mahogany.

Alder is a nice body wood alternative and recently I built a warmoth with a maple body and neck that sounds killer. First time I tried a maple body.
 
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I like a mahogany body, maple neck, and rosewood fretboard.

Ebony looks pretty, but I like the warmth of rosewood.
 
I’m not a fan of alder bodies. I’ve owned a custom shop ESP that was alder and also a strat that was alder body/maple top and have sold them both. They just don’t compare to the big body sound of mahogany. Alder also targets an area of mids I don’t prefer for standard or Eb tuning.

Rosewood is definitely warmer than ebony and both have their place. I prefer rosewood for how well it plays with many amps, but love ebony through a boosted Marshall. It adds an aggression that no pedal or mod can really add itself and it’s taken me years to learn you can’t tonally mod or change a harmonic character to magically exist that doesn’t start in the guitar.
 
For body woods I've yet to play any good sounding basswood guitars (not even older guitars) and only liked Ash on teles. Good Honduran Mahogany is hard to beat. The very best sounding guitars I've played so far have all been various '50's Les Paul Jr's (Honduran Mahogany body, neck, rosewood fb). I did't like Alder much either except on Strats until I got into my Charvel's, particularly my aged nitro's are the next best sounding guitars I've had only to my jr's (honestly still a distant 2nd though). Alder can be great, but is often very meh. One of my aged nitro's has a roasted alder body and sounds killer. It gets tighter, punchier, warmer and more growly sounding than the non-roasted ones. Almost like something in between the tone of mahogany and non-roasted alder. Koa for bodies can be pretty good, but it has this nasally cocked-wah upper mid thing that I don't like. Maple is bright, clear, lotta upper mid presence, but very lacking in tonal complexity and growl. The denser tonewoods like rosewood, paduak, and purpleheart can also be cool for body woods. They have tons more bottom end than the more traditional tone woods and really shine in lower tunings

Finish is also extremely important and often way overlooked. Poly finished tend to make guitars sound sterile, choked, almost suffocated and plastic-y unless it's a thin enough one, but even then imo never sounds as good as nitro (the way to go imo). And all the oil finish body guitars I've had tended to sound too dry and lacking harmonics to me, but can have a more open, woody sound. Don't overlook finish. So many good tone woods can go to waist with all that poly

For those neck and fretboard woods they can all be equally good imo, just depends what you're looking for
 
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