Thread: Looking for maple, for guitar building

Blackwood burl for sure. Blackwood has such beautiful rich golden colouring with dark streaks and some light reddish pink marbling.

While it is agreed that electronics have a great deal to say about the quality, timbre, tone, output, and general feel of a solid body guitar we are of the opinion that they are not the be-all-end-all. Here is why:

Pick-ups and the copper that pipe the signal to your box simply take the mechanical action of a vibrating string, convert it to voltage and allow us to amplify that signal. This being the case, if the string is not "set free" to the greatest degree possible then the signal that is converted can be lack-lustre and muted. The poorly chosen woods or combination of timbers can clash acoustically and "muddy" the tonal waters.

We have come across this many times in building solid bodies and chambered solid bodies... e.g. - you have a few great sounding pieces of timber but when you put them together something is missing.

While not the forum to get into nodal analysis and other tone-geek stuff, suffice it to say that the individual component pieces of a solid body - and those pieces in combination - have a great deal to say about the tonal qualities that your finished piece will exhibit.

Not havin a go at anyone here, just sharing what we have found to be true in our shop.

{steps down off his soap box, tips his hat, grabs a stubbie}

Riggsy