Selecting Guitar Body Woods
In general, light woods sound warmer and less brittle than heavy woods. As a rule, it's best to keep laminations to a minimum, but laminating two dissimilar woods often yields characteristics of both. Many cheap (even moderately priced) instruments will have as many as 15 to 20 horizontal laminations making up the body of the guitar. These instruments simply cannot be made to sound great. Passable maybe, but great guitars need to be constructed of great materials. Constructing a guitar of 3 or even 4 pieces of wood vertically joined is okay but 1 to 2 is better. Expect to pay a premium for 1 piece bodies. The discussion of various body woods below assumes excessive laminations are not used and that the wood is of good quality selected for guitars.
| Alder - A lightweight wood with a warm sound. This is the wood commonly associated with vintage, 3 pickup guitars. It's grain is not exceptionally figured or pronounced so it is usually finished in solid colors. It is a great wood for guitar bodies and is fairly inexpensive. | ||
| Basswood - A lightweight, warm sounding wood very similar to alder but, usually even lighter. It's a great sounding wood, but a little soft so basswood guitars need to be well taken care of. | ||
| Poplar - Lightweight wood with soft grain pattern. Lighter in color than alder, it is usually painted. Sound characteristics similar to alder and bass. | ||
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Mahogany - Hard, heavy wood with an open grain and a reddish color. Although, there are a few lightweight examples, most mahogany used for guitars is extremely heavy. In general, mahogany sounds fairly bright and sustains well with a strong attack. | |
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Ash - Light colored, medium weight wood with attractive, open grain. Sounds bright but still punchy in the bass. Great wood for bass bodies. | |
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Maple - Beautiful, but heavy and abrasive sounding with banjo-like attack. In varying thickness', it can work miracles on a dull sounding body as a laminate. Maple veneers are used often for their "flamed" and "quilted" appearance. | |
| Oak - Oak is not very well suited for guitars. Although sometimes used, it sounds harsh and has poor sustain characteristics. | ||