Combine a koa neck with an ebony fingerboard for the best warm sound. Appearance-wise, maple is light and typically configured in a beautiful way. The most popular wood used in fretboards and necks, maple is an easy-to-identify wood. The woodâs qualities make it stable and highly sustainable while offering a bright tone. -Charlie M. While some people argue that using two tonewoods wonât make a huge negative difference compared to a single wood, others believe that the gluing process in guitar manufacturing among multiple pieces leads to a stronger, more durable instrument. Sugar maple, black maple, sweet birch, yellow birch and white ash are all strong hardwoods. More than one are known to exist, but even those early American maple guitars seem positively au courant when compared to the maple guitars of Antonio Stradivari. I have a MIM jazz bass that has a poplar body, maple neck, and rosewood fingerboard. Perhaps the most common comparison to consider is between laminated and solid wood. Very popular for fretboards, necks, and tops. However, the highs are more omnipresent rather than glass shattering. Darrell Braun Guitar ⦠This is the same wood that we use on our necks. Nato is a term for several species of Asian hardwood that often used as a substitute for Mahogany in less expensive imported guitars. There are even manufacturers who saw a single piece of wood in half and glue it back together for this reason! Maple. The guitar sound is warm and rich, with plenty of volume and resonance. However, itâs much easier to finish and highly durable. Walnut also appears excellent when you use oil finishes on the wood, providing players with a beautiful instrument. Poplar, when used in solid-body electric guitars, has an exceptionally crisp sound, often described as "spirited" and "bouncy" - even "funky." The Main Reasons Explained, How Many Frets on a Guitar? Colored fillers or lacquer is set inside the grain to create a smooth clearing surface. For a brighter tone and more sustainability than rosewood, Pau Ferro is an excellent alternative. This tonewood is durable, attractive, resonant, easy to work with, and relatively economical. Expect to pair multiple kinds of wood for the best results. Guitar Tone Woods A tone guide for Guitar Tone Woods. Itâs so similar to rosewood, in fact, that companies like Fender even started using it as a replacement for rosewood fretboards in their Mexican-made models. Guitar bodies made from a single piece of wood tend to come with a higher price tag. It offers chocolate brown stripes and a very hard, coarse texture with open grains. Basswood: the principal wood used on many Japanese made instruments. The material is non-toxic and the guitar neck will never warp. Maple is a very hard type of wood with good tonal qualities and good sustain. It's even softer than red alder. Walnut is a dense wood with sparkly brightness, like koa. The traditional wood used for Fender necks, maple is ideal because itâs strong, hard, and dense. It's a softer body wood than mahogany, maple and swamp ash. Luthiers also tend to despise working with korina tonewoods. not to start an argument but i'm not sure poplar is dense enough to stand up to the wear. It offers a rich variety of both purple and brown colors, and the material has been used to create guitars for decades. What should I do when taking my equipment to be serviced? Soft maple mills a bit harder but easier to get a smooth painted finish. A mahogany neck is very stable due to the density of the wood, which reduces the risk of warping over time. Because rosewood is naturally oily, stray overtones are quickly absorbed into the woodâs pores and the sound comes out much richer than maple. ... (play enough high-end guitars, where every builder and his brother uses the same Duncan '59/JB pickup combination, and you'll know what I mean). In terms of sound, mahogany adds a parlor type of warm tone. Ash is one of the most common tonewoods for electric guitar bodies. Here’s a great video from the guys at Fender talking about different wood combos: You may see guitars made from a single piece of wood sometimes, but theyâre often comprised of many tonewoods. A popular wood choice for necks and fretboards, maple is highly recognizable due to the grain patterns, moderate weight, and bright tone. Well as we can see by the chart that "Hard Wood" is just a relative term as the numbers very quite a bit, and according to the numbers when compared to Mahogany both Poplar and Bass wood are way to soft to build a guitar body from and forget about Paulownia that stuff is a Bad joke some one played on guitar players. How about Nomex laminate cores in double top instruments? However, unlike basswood, alder can retain high notes and provide space for low tones. With a thicker, more expensive piece of wood, you gain superior results. Mainly found in acoustic guitars, mahogany is the most common hardwood for the sides and back of the instrument. not the strain of the string tension but the actuall physical wear of making chords. There are many reasons using multiple tonewoods can boost your instrumentâs performance. A maple fretboard comes with a tremendous amount of high overtones. How can I find out when my American-made instrument was manufactured. Itâs also ideal to combine with an ebony fretboard to add brightness. There are also two synthetic materials to choose from. Basswood tends to soften the high notes, on the other hand. "I made another guitar from the maple and poplar boards I got from you a few weeks ago. When it comes to building an acoustic guitar, there are many ways to arrange and utilize wood. The scooped middle frequencies are bright and balanced, and the sound has more balance at the top. The wood configuration, particularly when it comes to the body of the guitar, isnât as vital for electric guitars. Maple (Acer saccharum-Hard Maple): We offer two types of Maple: Eastern Hard Maple (hard rock maple) and Western Soft Maple (big leaf maple). Hence guitars with poplar bodies tend to absorb more string energy and thus they have shorter sustain than guitars with harder body woods. A wenge fretboard is normally played raw, with no finish. Today, according to Thalia, mahogany guitars come in three main varieties of hardwood. Also known as âeastern mapleâ and âsugar mapleâ, hard maple used in guitar construction is harvested mostly in the northeast USA and Canada. I also have aero instrument pickups, a badass II bridge, and a graphite nut. So, Im looking at buying a cheap strat copy then modding it with new pickups, new electrics, tuners etc and i was wondering which wood is better. Itâs truly a beautiful and highly versatile instrument. -> The opinion is that poplar guitar can sound excellent. It also stimulates the weaker end of the instrument. The result is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Unfortunately the model I wanted didn't come in a maple neck or I would have went maple. Some guitarists prefer a single piece of wood for both the neck or body of the guitar for purity sake, however. someone may disagree with me but i'm not sure poplar's that tough. You may occasionally find a piece of poplar with a stunning grain pattern if you try. However, keep in mind that everyone has a different preference. Rosewood is one of the most popular choices in acoustic guitars. Lower-end models, like the D-18, came in mahogany. As well as affecting tone, the choice can also significantly change the look of your guitar (which for many is even more important than tone!). The creamy color and bold grain pattern are more visually appealing than other wood types, like alder. However, soft ash offers a warmer feel. Itâs also stronger than maple. You can create a clean, transparent sound with single-coil pickups easily. Compared to hard ash, maple is just as dense. Your choice of guitar tonewood is a subject of great discussion among guitarists, as different woods affect your sound in different ways. The bright highs can really pop, and it has a strong upper midrange. A rare find, koa is a flowering tree related to the pea family thatâs native to Hawaii. Work from 100-grit up to 220-grit, sanding ⦠This article should serve as a useful resource in general, whether you’re about to buy a guitar or just like geeking out about this stuff. Wood is an organic material, which means the shape and density change as the plant grows. How do I set up my Fender guitar properly? Solid wood comes with bonuses over laminated wood in terms of durability. I just ordered my first guitar with a Pao Ferro board. Similar to alder, basswood is nearly mid-range. There are two main types of rosewood used to make guitars today: Brazilian and East Indian. FLAME MAPLE Stable and strong, Maple has a brightness to the top end and tends to tighten the bottom end when combined with warmer timbers. The attack is crisp and the density is similar to maple. The wood drains quickly, making it very susceptible to splitting during the drying process. This means you wonât find any deep, breathy sub-low tones. On a level playing field, the maple shells sound MUCH better than poplar. It also has a large swirling grain pattern to it. The sound has plenty of bite, brightness, and ideal sustainability. The relative disadvantages of poplar are that it is not well suited to use with transparent colours, and that on average a guitar body will weigh about 1/2 lb more. Finally, fingerboard woods are located on the fretboard. In this complete guide to guitar woods, we group each type according to whether it’s used in the body, the neck, or the fingerboard (some, such as rosewood, appear in more than one category). It also tends to stain easily in the natural growing habitat, so the color of the wood can become unsightly. Itâs a gem and icon of the golden era in guitar making when manufacturers took bold steps. Itâs a distinct sound with the character found in many acoustic guitars, like the early Beatles recordings the band created using mahogany Gibson guitars. Poplar is surfacing as a relatively popular guitar body wood because of how affordable it is. How often should I have a set-up adjustment done on my instrument? Where it differs is in the sweeter top end. Various manufacturers typically favor a type of wood, but there are tons of different options available in both exotic and alternative kinds of wood. This is a sound check of the Poplar and Basswood cajón i recently made. You can expect the tone to become softer and warmer over time, making walnut the ideal alternative to koa. The result is an overall better tone with sustain. There are so many ways to personalize your instrument to suit you! Flame Maple on an acoustic guitar backâimage c/o Josred Handmade Guitars . The sound is warm, with damp high sounds. Some manufacturers simply canât afford to import korina. Where can I take my instrument and/or amplifier to be repaired? The top end is often brighter as a result. It wonât wear out over time. Korina is well renowned in the guitar industry as the tonewood of choice for the original Gibson Explorer and Flying-V guitars. That said, Id much rather have a good poplar body of few pieces, than an alder body made up of mega pieces and veneers. Laminated wood can warp quickly, depending on the environment around you. The percussive overtones during the pick attack are tremendous and can sustain a long time. Fender claims to use swamp ash in many of their guitars in the 1950s. The result is a compressed attack and slightly compressed highs. Compared to maple, walnut tonewood is slightly warmer. The colors can vary, but in guitar fretboards, youâre most likely to see Richlite in black to appear similar to ebony. ->The fact is that there are people in the world who think that any guitar made of poplar must be a piece of junk. Sand the poplar, either by hand or with a power sander. They have a great impact on the sound your guitar produces. The right choice for your guitar may depend on your budget, preference, and what type of music you play. However, maple is an easier wood to finish because it has tight and highly durable grains. Manufacturers vary based on their approach. Wood Choices in Guitar Design First, letâs talk about guitar construction⦠Hereâs the thing: guitar companies are businesses, and as ⦠Hard maple is tough on factory equipment though, which makes it commonly only used for slim guitars. Flame maple (tiger maple), also known as flamed maple, curly maple, ripple maple, fiddleback or tiger stripe, is a feature of maple in which the growth of the wood fibers is distorted in an undulating chatoyant pattern, producing wavy lines known as "flames". The sound offers more percussion and perfect tonal combination. Itâs very warm. There are spaces between wood grains, where the density of the wood (and amount of space between the grains) varies in different wood types. It offers a bright tone with a moderate weight and highly characteristic grain patterns. For face frames MOE and MOR differences between basswood and poplar are moot. They remain more in the mid-range rather than the high side, which results in a musical sound for a beginner guitarist or a less expressive one for guitarists who play hard picking blues music. The most common material used for a guitar fretboard, rosewood sounds rich. However, the open grain wood does require more work during production to fill the open pores and finish the guitar. Itâs ideal for warmer, fatter guitar tones. They last longer and they come with better resonation. I used the maple for the neck and the poplar for the body (I wrapped the poplar in leather). A rich caramel swirls through the wood, and the fret feels like ebony or rosewood to your fingers. Color and variety alter from piece to piece, but all types of rosewood are highly attractive. The "holy grail" tones tend to be guitars built a long time ago with old technologies, so that restrains materials and mechanical advancement. 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