I'm curious. I'm saving my pennies to cure a gas attack and in looking at guitars I got confused. Some are basswood body, maple top. Some are mahogany body, maple top. Some are mahogany body, mahogany top. The ones with all mahogany seem to be more expensive. Is it that much of a difference? Here's the deal. I played a Hagstrom Swede the other day and WOW! The price was more than I could ever afford but I fell in love. I have found "B" stock with slight flaws on fleabay for as low as one third the price. But I want to be happy with the sound. Sorry for the rant.
Wood, what's the difference?
-
- Rated: 38 ↑
Jan 28, 2010 10:36 a.m. Unclegrumpy:
-
- Rated: 72 ↑
Jan 28, 2010 10:53 a.m. yettoblaster:
The wood used in solidbody guitars has a subtler effect on tone than in acoustic guitars, but to my understanding are chosen by formulas mostly worked out in the 1950's by early manufacturers (when much of it was likely lighter - by species).
I've read articles about how Ted McCarty and the development crew at CMI tested various "sandwiches" of wood to be used for Gibson Les Paul guitars.
These woods also were chosen with an eye towards workability in a manufacturing setting.
The combination of (neck) scale length, body wood, pickups, and bridges/saddles etc all combine to deliver something that hopefully the guitaring public will accept and use.
I know Ibanez uses a lot of basswood, and I liked early Squire strats and tele's with basswood bodies for their "airier" sound (to my ears). I dunno that I've ever heard it sandwiched with something else.
My current partsocaster ride is an alder body with a very thing maple veneer that sounds fine to me, but I should declare probably that I'm using a mixture of bridge saddle materials in an AllParts ABR-1 bridge, which skews things pretty far off base for common usage and tones I would think.
-
- Rated: 38 ↑
Jan 28, 2010 10:58 a.m. Unclegrumpy:
Thanks. I know the Swede has a carved top. I don't know how much of a difference that makes either. I don't know much, do I? They are heavy though. Great sustain! Mahogany neck as well.
-
- Rated: 90 ↑
Jan 29, 2010 8:33 a.m. Ratrod:
have read through this.
-
- Rated: 10 ↑
Jan 31, 2010 9:48 a.m. stokes:
The maple laminate tops are used to brighten up the warmer mahogany bodies.When I bought my PRS the guy I got it from had 2 for sale,a "ten top" model which had a highly figured maple top over a mahogany body and a solid mahogany model,I preferred the solid mahogany.Back in the '70's I built a solid maple Tele body to go with an old Tele neck and some older pickups I had,my nickname in that band was "Trebel without a cause" it was brutally piercing,even with the tone turned down.My son bought a Tele body from a builder in Texas that had a one inch slab of walnut on top of a one inch slab of mahogany,it is one of the best sounding Tele's I've ever heard.Even in a solid body ax,the choice of wood has a big impact on the tone.
-
- Rated: 13 ↑
Feb 1, 2010 12:03 a.m. pkeenan:
The ones with all mahogany seem to be more expensive. Is it that much of a difference?
That's got more to do with wood supply and demand. Mahogany is considered a desirable wood for many purposes, not just guitars, and older growth lumber is harder - and more expensive - to come by. Older, slower-growth samples may be denser and heavier than newer pieces from trees that were encouraged to grow more rapidly, and consequently respond differently.I've got a couple of mahogany guitars, and while I like them both, they are not really tonally all that similar. One tends towards mudiness and the other could be a Telecaster.
Yes, the choice of woods (solid or laminate) makes a difference in the tonal result. The other components do, too, as you will find if you pop on a Tru-Arc or change light, open gears to heavier sealed ones.
The combination of materials and parts affects the harmonic content of the string, and that's what the pickups have to work from.
As to comparing guitars you've never seen, when I was choosing a Gretsch I looked at a pair of 6120AM models that arrived in the same shipment. They used identical woods, hardware and construction, I adjusted the setups to be the same, and one was noticeably more responsive than the other.
So I'll say that ultimately you can make generally reliable statements about how one or another combination of materials and parts will sound, but not about how a specific instance will respond. In a different context, you can make generally reliable statements about the occurrence of a disease in a population, but not identify in advance those who will contract it.
There's lots of technical information available about the tonal properties of woods. Violin and piano makers have been paying attention to this topic for centuries, for example, and wood suppliers and custom builders often have materials available discussing the properties of the woods they sell or use.
HTH -pk
