Not to start an argument here, but..... It might generate a very bright tone. And it might not. Predicting the sound of a solid body guitar based on component choice is impossible.

People say that the Les Paul, for example, produces a certian tone because of it's combination of a mahogany body and a "bright" maple cap. So why do all Les Pauls sound different? because you can't predict how the guitar will sound based on materials.

I know what you're thinking: if it's impossible, why does everybody, including guitar and component makers and this really cool guy I know at the local guitar shop, say that it IS possible? Because these myths have grown up in thousands of local uitar shops and have been reinforced with a million retellings, just like the myth that less paint will let a Stratocaster "breathe." (Hint: it's not an acoustic guitar.) So it's simply easier for Fender to say that the "Thin-Skin" guitars have less finish for a better tone than to fight what their customers have already decided they want.

You can come closer to a prediction by weighing the components, and judging where the weight of the body falls along a scale of other guitar bodies of the same size and shape (for exmaple, is it light or heavy for a Strat).

Expert builders can take a pretty good guess how a given piece of wood will sound if they have it in their hands and can knock on it, put a tuning fork on it, etc. But if they're being honest, they'll tell you that any given piece of wood will have a characteristic sound depending on the resonance of that exact piece. The sound is not dependent on species.

The only way to know how a given guitar system is going to sound is to build the damn thing and play it. If you think it will look cool, go for it. If it doesn't sound good, change the pickups, tweak the set-up, move the knobs on your amp.

Well, yes, just as all Strats sound "the same:" there's a design characteristic, but all Strats don't sound the same. If you ask the guys at the Les Paul Forum if Les Pauls are "pretty consistent," you'll get a solid "no."

My point is this: if you could predict how a guitar will sound and respond by spec'ing materials, then every ash-bodied Strat with CS '50's pickups in it would sound identical. But they don't.

A guitar is a system, and every system makes a characteristic sound. Of course the wood makes a difference. But you can't predict that sound by listing what it's made of. I've played to many guitar to believe it.

And I further propose that very few people on the Internet who jump into a thread such as this to say, "A maple boded guitar will sound very bright," have enough experience with wood or guitars to even make such a statement, but are merely repeating conventional wisdom they picked up in the above-mentioned guitar shops or on the Internet, which is world-headquarters for misinformation.

And if Leo had listened to conventional wisdom, there'd be no Fender.

It would if every piece of ash were of the same density and resonant frequency. But they're not.

You are more like to be wrong that right but saying the kinds of things that guitar players says: for example, "Ash produces a tight, focused tone." I have read that statement a thousand times on line, and I still don't even know what it's supposed to mean.

"Tight, focused tone?" WHich frequencies does one emphasize or de-emphasize to produce that sound?

In my experience, predicting the sound of a guitar - for example, saying a ample bodied Strat is going to be "bright" - is street corner jive, the kind of loose talk engaged in at the speed shop. How bright will it be with a bass-heavy set of pickups with a steep dip at 4K? Or played through a very "dark" sounding amp?

I am not arguing with you that wood makes a difference. Of course it does. I am saying that you can't predict the effect, and telling the OP that a maple bodied Strat will necessarily be heavy and bright is wrong. There is maple that's light and resonant. And when you consider the impact of the player's style, the pickups and the amp, wood becomes a very small sliver of the equation, and more a matter of personal visual taste than anything.

I don't look to make a neck due to my limited facilities and lack of tools and confidence. One day maybe, but for now there are plenty out there for cheaper than the needed tools would cost.

And that is a sexy piece of quilt. The price was pretty good for the figuring too if my mental conversion worked correctly. Best of luck on the piece you're following now! I'm still bouncing between one piece or two+, solid or trans finish, yadda yadda. Leaning towards swamp ash and a blue trans finish right now, but that is subject to change... hourly.

'Think it's a great idea to build your own. Kinda think most of us "should" build a guitar at least once, to have a better overall feeeling for what we are doing and talking about and playing.

Best of fortune. Have at! Show piccies when you have it going, in vared stages and complete.

True that there are differences in a particular species of wood, but even then those differences tend to be relatively small. On the other hand, the difference in a mahogany body versus an alder body is much larger. So yeah, you can't tell spot on what a particular piece of body wood will sound like, but you can get in the ballpark.

It's not an exact science, but neither is it complete hoodoo magic. If one of those (us?) misinformed, jive talking people who got information via word of mouth or the internet were to go into a shop having never heard a particular guitar they would expect a LP to sound warmer, with a more pronounced mid and low frequency and a strat to sound brighter, but more balanced. And they'd be right. More specifically, take the FSR Mahogany Strats. Almost every strat player who plays one says it sounds warmer with more bottom end, but almost every LP player says they sound like... a strat. To a LP player, the electronics are the difference, but to a strat player, the primary difference is solely the tone wood.

You can fight it all day with pickup voicings and resistors, but a certain wood type will still have a certain tonal characteristics... in a ballpark range.

Here is a great blog of a gentleman who created his own custom guitar/partsocaster. http://www.jamesbisset.com/project/guitar/tech-spec The guitar started as a Hank Marvin Japanese Squier. Of particular interest is the basswood v alder sound clip halfway down the page. I have seen no other comparison of this type anywhere. (So, if you're a member here Mr. Bisset, thanks!) He exchanged the basswood body for a one piece alder body, everything else is the same. The relative tones are almost exactly what you would expect based on the general misinformation and shop talk out there. In the case of alder vs. maple, you're looking at a difference approximately three times as great towards the bright end. Or, without sound clips, the difference would be roughly the same as that from mahogany to alder. Those are the ballparks. Each piece will vary.

And, yes, there is maple that is light and resonant, but not birdseye, which was the initial poster's idea. Birdseye is exclusive to rock maple. Light(er) would be big leaf maple due to it being porous and less dense. It's all resonant.

As an aside to all this, I think the basswood bodies that were more prevalent on the Japanese strat models are a large part of the reason they find so much favor lately. The build quality is great and the wood difference is just enough to notice.

well after a day of thinking about it, i am considering building an acoustic.

i know 2 diffrent guys who have built many acoustics-one guy for fun and another who has built guitars for a living. im gonna keep thinking though

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You mean build a neck like this?



It's not too hard especially if you make the truss rod from the front. But from the comments trj1393 is making it would probably be better to put the curley maple away until you get some experience building under your belt. Get some books "Make Your Own Electric Guitar" Melvin Hiscock or whatever you can find. An acoustic is even harder and more expensive to build. Start with a solid body. You already have a neck. Learn how to carve out a nice body for it. Paint it, put some pickups on it and see how it sounds. Then move on to your next one.