Choosing woods for a custom...

[ballstix]

Getting a custom 7 pretty soon and having a tonewood crisis! Here's what I have so far:

-Mahogany body with ebony cap
-bolt on neck--idk which wood?
-Macassar ebony fretboard
-stainless steel medium jumbo frets
-BK cold sweat neck / painkiller bridge

I'm stuck with these pickups so I kind of want to cater the woods to them. I'm really uncertain about the neck. Don't need anything exotic; would rather keep prices down. Looking for a balanced tone. I'm mostly considering either flamed maple of mahogany I think. As far as looks the flamed maple looks cooler but the mahogany would fit better. Nothing's painted. I know maple is brighter but I do have an ebony fretboard. Les pauls and stuff have mahogany bodies and necks and sound good, but maybe a seven string would need more definition?

I also want it to be durable and as warp-proof as possible.

 

[JeffFromMtl]

Well, you could look into Walnut for the neck. It should cover a lot of range between the snappy response of maple and the low-mid growl of mahogany.

 

[ballstix]

Walnut is another option. I've heard so many different contradicting things when it comes to tonewoods...it's hard to decide without trying the exact woods on this exact guitar

 

[littlephil]

Maple or Mahogany with Wenge or Purpleheart laminates if you want it to be really rigid.

 

[ballstix]

Yeah, cept laminates make it cost a lot . Gonna look into them, though. Also, on another note, is a flat 1/4" top wood going to affect tone much? I know some carved top guitars and stuff have thicker caps.

 

[shogunate]

Considering that you want the Painkiller in the neck, and Ebony (IMO) is even brighter than Maple tops, I would second the Walnut neck. Mahogany usuuually isn't stiff enough for a bolt on neck, and maple with the ebony board may make the painkillers painfully bright. Walnut is more rigid than mahogany, and the darker grain will look more natural in contrast with the ebony and mahogany, but that's just aesthetics Oh it'll also add a hefty weight increase to the guitar, if that matters to you, but an ebony top is more than worth the back problems later

And yes, a quarter inch of ebony is going to add a ton of brightness and percussiveness to the attack, and macassar ebony on the board (nice choice ) will give you lots of brightness and percussive thwack to the natural tone. Should sound S-I-C-K

As far as tonewoods, everyone will have different opinions of course, but here's my quick rundown on the woods you've mentioned: Maple = Bright, clear string separation, stable low end but not boosted. Ebony = Maple, plus percussiveness in all registers. Mahogany (varies species to species) = Sweetened top end, low mid boost, strong bass response (coupled with short scale and indian rosewood boards, sounds dark as shit a la gibson ) Walnut: Sweetened top end of mahogany with more volume in the higher registers, mids are biting and prominent, low end is loud and snappy. Excellent string separation. ^All IMHO ^

 

[ballstix]

Aight, that all makes sense. As far as the weight, all the ebony might make it a little heavy so idk about the walnut thing. Tonally it seems like a good option, but if mahogany will accomplish something similarish regarding the brightness I could always get a 5 piece mahogany + something else for better stability? The body being mahogany would aesthetically lend itself best to a mahogany neck (imo; I could get it with ebony stripes to best match the front) as opposed to walnut, buuut idk if ebony stripes would make it really heavy too...

 

[JaeSwift]

I picked up a tip from a luthier that helped me choose a combination of tone woods should I get a custom made: Don't look at what each wood individually will contribute, but look at how the entire construction will work as a whole.

That said I really am not a fan of Mahogany necks, even with an Ebony fretboard. Personally I'de go for maple, as Painkillers really aren't that bright as some think. Hell, I have a K7 with a calibrated Painkiller set in it and it's still very warm due to the body wood quality.

 

[7deadlysins666]

Mahogany usually isn't stiff enough for a bolt on neck

That doesn't make any sense, Mahogany works as a bolt on just as well as it does a set neck and there are many companies out there that give the option of Mahogany bolt on with no problem (See Warmoth, and Carvin for some examples). What I have discovered over the years is laminate bodies (not tops, but say Mahogany/Purple heart|Mahogany|Purple Heart\Mahogany for example) take away a lot of the sustain of the guitar and make it a bit brighter. It could just be all the laminate guitars that I have played were like this though.

With that being said, over the years I have came to want a guitar that will be overall balanced and with all the guitars I have owned and played I want my next guitar to be Swamp ash body, with Mahogany neck, and maple fretboard. Maple because its my favorite FB, the others for the tonal properties. I don't like Mahogany body + Neck guitars, just too warm and wooly, though I don't want my guitar to be ridiculously bright either. z

Tone and Wood are all subjective things though, and there are so many different varieties, and species of those varieties that it would be insane for everyone to agree. To be quite honest, I would ask whoever is building the guitar to give you a list of some of the exact species of woods that he purchases and look those woods up.

 

[shogunate]

^A very valid point, and thank you for that I should qualify it with "Mahogany GENERALLY is softer and less dense than maple". That would be my main reason advising against blindly using whatever mahogany is lying around for neck wood, but as Blackdroids prove, there are specimens that will own all as neck woods There's no real "rules" to tone, especially the guitar woods.

I also second Jaeswift, the culmination of tones will prevail more than anything else If you want to go with stripes in a mahogany neck, go for it, it'd look sexy as hell and keep the mahogany/ebony theme. Also, ebony laminates in the neck won't add nearly as much weight as the entire top will The ultimate choice is up to you of course.

BTW which builder are you going through, out of curiosity?

 

[ballstix]

IT's through Jim at strictly 7, so I guess it's more of a semi-custom since I'm using his body and headstock designs. That said he has an awesome attitude toward trying to make whatever I want a possibility, and at an incredibly reasonable price point. Patient, too . If the axe is as good as the customer service I think I'll be namedropping S7 all over the place.

 

[Stealthdjentstic]

IT's through Jim at strictly 7, so I guess it's more of a semi-custom since I'm using his body and headstock designs. That said he has an awesome attitude toward trying to make whatever I want a possibility, and at an incredibly reasonable price point. Patient, too . If the axe is as good as the customer service I think I'll be namedropping S7 all over the place.

Just ask him for help, he wont freak out or anything if you ask

 

[xtrustisyoursx]

What about a wenge neck? I've heard it's somewhere in between maple and mahog as far as tone goes.

 

[littlephil]

^ Very expensive too, but it looks awesome. Dont want to get a splinter from it though, the stuff is toxic

 

[ballstix]

Just ask him for help, he wont freak out or anything if you ask

Oh I definitely have; he's given me some advice, but more opinions are good, too! Wenge and walnut seem like nice middle of the road options. If I get a 5-piece would I factor in both types of woods for the tone or just the main wood?

 

[littlephil]

Laminates will make a difference to the tone, but mostly they're there for stability. I prefer one piece necks because when you're glueing more pieces together, the glue can dampen the transfer of vibration in the neck and it sometimes sounds kind of dead.

 

[Stealthdjentstic]

Oh I definitely have; he's given me some advice, but more opinions are good, too! Wenge and walnut seem like nice middle of the road options. If I get a 5-piece would I factor in both types of woods for the tone or just the main wood?

Totally

I would go with mahogany for the body with a maple cap.

 

[shogunate]

Mmmm.. IMO, ebony is more exotic and rare to see as a guitar top, and looks a lot better to my eyes. If it were my custom I would want all the crazy specs and woods that no production guitars offer It confuses me when people get a Rhoads shape with a maple neck and alder body and a floyd.... What's custom about that, aside from the price?

Anyway, definitely listen to 7deadlysins' remark about multiple piece necks sounding (for lack of a better term) "duller" than necks without laminates. It's far from the first time anyone has noticed this about multi piece necks, and the reason I think is that more of the neck is glue, and there are more pieces over which the vibrations disperse themselves. That's why the stripes are usually very dense bright woods (ebony, walnut, bubinga, purpleheart) to combat that perceived loss

However, the advantage to having a multiple piece neck is that you can have the pieces of wood alternate the direction of the wood grain, so that are "interlocking", creating a stiffer, more stable neck. For example in a 3 piece neck, the two outer pieces can run north/south, while the center piece runs east/west (if you get what I'm trying to describe ) That's how I understand the advantage to multiple piece necks, but definitely talk about that with Jim and see what his experience and knowledge/opinion of it would be, and definitely ask if he can get a very stiff, stable piece of wood for a one piece neck if that's an option.

Someone bitchslap me or flame me with all caps if I fucked up my descriptions or am totally of the mark, I'm no luthier and will never claim to be