Optimal Wood selection on a extended range eletric guitar

[cesar]

How can one choose the best wood? How to identify which block will make a better instrument?
Also what are optimal woods (non conventional are welcome) for a 9 strings?

I am thinking on 3 or 5 piece neck through with 2 truss rods and so resistance will probably not be an issue.

Thanks on advance friends.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Imo scale length is the most important aspect of an extended range guitar. String gauge is pretty close too. The wood isn't hugely important except for aesthetics and accentuating certain frequencies. If you're building an 8 or 9 string you can't go wrong with maple, wenge or bubinga for the neck. A lot of basses use those.

 

[Deegatron]

WOOOOO! In before the tone snobs start a fight and this thread gets closed!

In all seriousness tho... selecting the absolute perfect piece of wood requires Voodo... lots and lots of Voodo.... and sacrificial virgins....
sorry brah... no other way.... gimme your sister....

 

[Lorcan Ward]

Maple, rosewood or wenge are all proven neck woods for basses/guitars. A skilled luthier will be much more important in making sure its stable and the scale/fan?/pickups will make a much bigger difference on a 9 string.

 

[demonx]

Your pickups will determine the sound more than the timber.

The higher the gain of the pickups the less influence the timber has. If you like low gain pickups the sound can alter with pickup swaps, usually it effects the brightness, which can easily be countered by rolling back your tone knob or using the treble/mid/bass on your amp. In saying that though, even when you do use low gain pickups and the timber does effect the tone, you might get a really bright sounding piece of mahogany and a dark sounding piece of mahogany! So you'll end up dialing it in with your amp anyway.

The pickups, bridge and strings are more important choices for your sound.

 

[Hollowway]

Yeah, pretty much what these guys said. Don't sweat the "too much tension" on the neck thing. It's still way less than a >4 string bass. The fan and scale length are what you need to be thinking about.

 

[laxu]

There are no optimal woods, just preferences and it all goes with combination of other build details like pickups, scale length, bridge type, neck joint etc.

For a 9 string you should first figure out the scale length you want. I would say maybe something like 29-26" might be good considering I feel 27-25.5" is pretty optimal for a 7-string and for an 8 you'd want at least 28 on the low strings. Definitely go for a multiscale option.

Then figure out the pickups you want and try to match those with your woods. For example if you have pickups with a big midrange emphasis, alder body might not be the best choice since it's quite prominent in mids. On the flipside ash with pickups that have less mids might end up sounding thin. Wood does matter but it's hard to pinpoint exactly how it will end up until the guitar is built. In the guitars I own or have owned I have noticed that certain woods have specific characteristics that show up even in a different instrument to a bigger or smaller degree.

 

[cesar]

So you guys are telling me that woods sound overall the same?
What about wood grades and all ?

 

[cesar]

What about brazil wood for a neck, with maple or wenge for a 9 strings with a scale of 30'' and 27''?

 

[Lorcan Ward]

So you guys are telling me that woods sound overall the same?
What about wood grades and all ?

No, if you've got half decent ears there are clear tonal differences in woods, but that becomes unimportant when you start getting into down tuning where pickups, scale and your rig is your primary concern. Your first spec right now should be scale length and fan if you're going multiscale.

 

[cesar]

No, if you've got half decent ears there are clear tonal differences in woods, but that becomes unimportant when you start getting into down tuning where pickups, scale and your rig is your primary concern. Your first spec right now should be scale length and fan if you're going multiscale.

I already decided for a 30'' and 27'' scale ,probably going to stick with lace x bars since they seem more neutral and don't have too much output thus i can have more wood tone to forge the instrument personality.

 

[Hollowway]

Woods make a difference in an acoustic, I think, but in an electric I have yet to see any definitive studies that show the species of wood makes a difference. It's quite possible that the density of wood can have an effect on sustain. But in an electric guitar, if there actually is any difference it is completely overwhelmed by the electronics and construction.

 

[cesar]

Woods make a difference in an acoustic, I think, but in an electric I have yet to see any definitive studies that show the species of wood makes a difference. It's quite possible that the density of wood can have an effect on sustain. But in an electric guitar, if there actually is any difference it is completely overwhelmed by the electronics and construction.

http://guitarworks.thestrandbergs.com/2014/12/28/the-impact-of-wood-choice-in-an-electric-guitar/

So just throw any .... and whatever even with passive pickups?

 

[Aymara]

The wood / pickup choice needs to fit (and the bridge material can play a major role too).

Example: Build a full mahogany 7- or 8-string and drop in a set of Blackouts and it will be way too bassy. Choose the same pickups for a swamp ash body with a maple neck and it will be perfect, as my Mayones Regius shows

 

[Hollowway]

http://guitarworks.thestrandbergs.com/2014/12/28/the-impact-of-wood-choice-in-an-electric-guitar/

So just throw any .... and whatever even with passive pickups?

That's a pretty cool study! I favor that sort of thing over the "I can hear it." I remember sweating a mahogany neck vs maple in my first custom 8 string. Total waste of time. I haven't found any influence of wood species on tone that makes a difference. The pickups, amp, etc seem to have a huuuge influence, so now I buy wood based on hardness, cut, color, and character. But really, do whatever feels right. Just don't worry that the wrong wood will ruin your tone.

 

[laxu]

It's also worth mentioning that lots of materials make a good electric guitar. Wood is mainly chosen because it's abundant and easy to work with. There are plenty of guitars also made from man-made materials or composites. For example I've played guitars made of metal as well as plastic. I didn't really like the sound of them that much but somebody else might.

I currently own a Flaxwood guitar which is made from injection molded spruce pulp and resin. Body, neck and fretboard are all made from the same material which looks and feels a bit like ebony with grey smudges. That guitar can easily hang with any traditional wooden guitar I have in tone but has the added benefit less likely to require adjustments due to weather.

So worry less about the perfect combination and pick something you are happy with and what looks cool to you.

 

[Aymara]

 

[Aymara]

It's also worth mentioning that lots of materials make a good electric guitar.

The metal choice for the bridge can make a huge difference for example. Brass for example sounds much warmer than aluminium, which sounds extremely cold.

 

[stevexc]

This video doesn't prove anything other than "two guitars don't necessarily sound the same". It certainly doesn't provide any evidence that one specific species of wood will have universal tonal characteristics that differ in meaningful, predictable ways from any other specific species of wood - just that those two pieces of wood, in combination with the same model of (but not the same) pickups, hardware, neck, etc. happen to sound slightly different.

If they had played 100 of each of the two guitar models and found there to be a consistent difference between the body woods it may have some merit but as it is it's just an embarrassing video, even for Chapman.

 

[Aymara]

Nobody will negate, that tone wood choice has a huge impact on acoustic guitars, so I find it totally funny, that some people think, that wood choice doesn't play a role on electric guitars, even when it's clearly hearable

This debate is not new and the conclusion will always be the same ... there are "believers" and "non-believers" until someday a really scientific study will be done.