I've always been of the opinion that the choice of wood used in instrument construction is only important for instruments that depend on the natural vibrations of the wood (i.e. pianos, violins, classical & acoustic guitars). Is this assumption true also for the electric & bass guitars? If so, how do the main types of wood (namely mahogany, alder & maple) differ in defining the sound of the guitar?

This post has been edited by changhao: Jan 13 2007, 07:10 PM

from what I know, different types of wood means difference in tone as in bright or heavy, sustain.

a telecaster mostly made of alder and maple fretboard will for sure sound brighter than a les paul mahogany/rosewood ?

wasnt that pickup works?

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/columns/the...tone_woods.html

list of wood and their sound character
http://www.espguitars.co.jp/oversea/customorder/index.html

I know this topic like the back of my hand. Consider the following (for solid-body electrics; jazz boxes and acoustics are different due to the construction):

1. Pickups are microphonic so the vibration of different wood combinations do have an effect.

2. The denser the wood (or the type of wood), the higher the resonant frequency. The thickness of the wood also affects the resonant frequency. For example, the back wood on violins are tuned, preferably to high-F.

3. The combination of different woods on a guitar is necessary as some parts need to be stronger (high density, high resonant frequency) and some parts made of softer wood to balance out the resonant frequency. The preferable resonant frequency for a guitar? Beats me.
BTW, when I say resonant frequency I'm also referring to multiples of it. So to be accurate, it's resonant frequencies. And too much emphasis on a single frequency would give you.... tadaa, feedback.

4. So now onto the woods. It's widely acknowledge that the holy grail of tonewoods is the black korina. White korina is not as good, though it's still better than all the other woods. The cheapest tonewood that sounds great (and I don't mean relatively) is alder.

5. Mahogany is a good tonewood especially with a maple top. The maple top has to be at least 1/4" (at it's thickest) to make a tone difference. Anything less is purely cosmetic.

6. The construction of a guitar also helps in transferring the vibration from neck to body. The cheapest and most effective way is the bolt-on design due to direct contact of wood (neck) to wood (body); the cons: big ugly heel. I can talk more about construction but I won't dwell deeper for now.

7. Densest wood you all probably know would be ebony, least... basswood.
That's all I can think of right now...

Cool, change the topic to wood, tone and construction. I was always interested on how neck joining and bridge choice affect tone and sustain and etc etc....

Done~

I've always been under the impression that the sound & tone of an electric guitar/bass is mostly dependent on the pickups, but it's only now that I'm rediscovering the effect of the choice of wood.

PUs do their stuff and woods do theirs. If everything depended on PUs, then e-guitars would be made out of a carbon fibre neck with a bridge at the end and nothing more. There are such things out on the market of course, but honestly i think they sound like crap. The worse Squire sounds better.