Domestic wood suggestions?

[bertzie]

Looking at the list of woods from this place not to far from my house, http://www.schmidtlumber.com/Lumber-Pricing-Guide.pdf and trying to decide on some woods.

Cherry for the top, no question about that, but what would go well with it?

(And before you ask, I do plan on doing an African mahogany/maple build, probably with a maple fretboard too)

 

[gator payne]

Walnut, myrtle, sicamore

 

[bertzie]

Walnut, myrtle, sicamore

Walnut is the only one of those they have.

 

[mojotron]

Butternut is interesting, Alder can go well with Cherry's grain/colors... with a hard maple neck, I've been wanting to make a one-piece Maple neck with a scarf joint at the head. Since you have a top wood picked out, I think you may want to select for the weight balance you want between the neck and body. Perhaps Butternut with a soft Maple neck and hard Maple fretboard?? Maybe soft Maple neck with a matching Cherry fretboard - I'm going to give that a try sometime in the future.

 

[bertzie]

Unfortunately, the butternut they have is only in 4/4, not 8/4.

 

[WildeStarr]

 

[TKOjams]

Poplar is a good tone wood but, it's just not very pretty because of it's greenish tint. If you plan on painting it instead of staining it, it will work well for the body.

 

[bertzie]

Poplar is a good tone wood but, it's just not very pretty because of it's greenish tint. If you plan on painting it instead of staining it, it will work well for the body.

Hmmmm, that could work. How's this sound.

Cherry top, cherry fretboard, poplar body, maple neck. Stain the body and neck a really dark red, to compliment the natural color of the cherry.

Wonder how that would sound...

 

[mojotron]

Hmmmm, that could work. How's this sound.

Cherry top, cherry fretboard, poplar body, maple neck. Stain the body and neck a really dark red, to compliment the natural color of the cherry.

Wonder how that would sound...

I would use Alder - it's very similar to Poplar - but most of the time has some beautiful understated grain with wide grain. The big difference between Alder and Poplar, besides cosmetics, is that Alder is sensitive to sudden changes in humidity and will crack/check if you don't store it inside and provide a slow transition from one environment to the next. Basically, I would not use Poplar if I can get Alder; and then if the mill I got the Alder from was outside I would put it in my garage for a week, then put it in my attic shop.

The one big advantage that Poplar has over just about every other kind of wood is that it is forgiving in every way. By far the easiest wood to work with. Alder shares a lot of Poplar's forgiving properties - with the exception of the humidity sensitivity. But that sensitivity goes away once you have oil or finish on it and is very easy to work around as all the precautions are things that one should do anyways for any wood project.

Sound...
Well Alder and Poplar are very similar as far as sound. With some exceptions (i.e comparing basswood with ebony...), the wood only colors the tone a little - but I try to match up wood and pickup choices as that going to determine the tone you start with:

The tone that I get from Alder is kind of mid heavy with an active, but kind of soft, high end. The low-end is not really tight, but not really loose. Alder bodied guitars sound awesome loud - IMO - and have pretty good focus for single note stuff and double stops... Alder is a great wood to use for weaker, more sensitive pickups - like Gibson '57 PAF, T-Tops, P90's... not so much for overwound stuff.

Poplar bodied guitars - IMO - sound a lot like Alder, but have a little more resonance/liveliness in the upper mids. Comparing the 2, I would use a little more overwound pickups with Poplar bodied guitars because some of that liveliness comes out as sort of a twangy bubber-band kind of sound if the pickups are on the weaker side - I've mostly experienced this with cheap single coil pickups, but should not be a problem at all with humbuckers.

That said, IMO, a Cherry top is going to add some tightness to the low-end and more edge to the highs - using a mid-heavy body wood may be a good thing to keep the tone more even - IMO. Something like a Dimarzio Norton might work pretty good with those wood combos as it's got a round high end and fat low end; PAFs would be fine too - most of the time that's all sorted out with the EQ on the amp.

Please show us your build - I would love to see how the Cherry works out on the neck and/or body.

 

[TKOjams]

This was my first attempt at building a guitar.
Poplar body, maple top, 3pc. mapel neck and PAF style pups. Neck pup 8.3k bridge pup 8.7k.
This should give you an idea of what a poplar bodied LP can sound like, good or bad, it's up to your taste.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pI7ri-nDnQ]project sound sample - YouTube[/ame]

 

[bertzie]

That's got some fat tone to it!

 

[TKOjams]

That's got some fat tone to it!

Yes, the cleans are full, warm and round. When you give the grit it comes very close to the EVH brown sound in the bridge pos.
BTW the poplar I used, I got it a Home Depot.
Being this was my first attempt at a scratch build, I didn't want to F up an expensive hunk of wood and liked what I had read about Poplar.
It's perfect for a first build, it's cheap, easy to work with and it's a pretty good sounding tone wood. It's just not the most beautiful wood out there, I would use it again in a minute.