I know I am opening up a can of worms here but I am getting ready to start designing my first custom bass and I have looked at all sorts of woods. I have also looked at my pocket book and What I really want (Exotic woods and Burls) and what i can afford are two different things. I am looking for a upper mid to bright sound without loosing the balls of my bass.

I have come to the conclusion that Walnut is a very bad choice and I am not even going to consider it. I Like Mahogany because it is light BUT need something brighter and I have been kicking around this theory that if I cap the front and back with maple that it should do just that.

Can someone tell if I am on the right track with this.

BTW. this will be a bigger bodied bass and will have a neck through body possibly a mahogany neck.

Is mahogany really a good choice for bright sound? I wouldn't call it even "light".
solid maple for body, or ash? (maple->rickenbacker, ash->bright, but good lows)

but maybe your version is just what you want, I've never tried that.
for me, when SOUND matters, the first is ash for the body :)
/thats subjective, of course/

I wouldn't call maple or mahogany exotic woods. If your bass is going to be a neck-thru one ...what ever the wings are made from, they won't impact too much into the whole sound so you should get focus into the neck woods.

I guess mahogany is not stiff enough for a neck but you can use it for laminates or put some carbon fiber bars inside the neck.

with an ebony fingerboard, the mahogany can handle tension easily. I even used SOFT maple for neck, with a simple truss rod and ebony board, works fine.

with an ebony fingerboard, the mahogany can handle tension easily. I even used SOFT maple for neck, with a simple truss rod and ebony board, works fine.

I would agree. Neck wood should be selected first for straight grain with little or no run out. Stiffness can be manipulated with truss rods and carbon rods/bars. You can make jell-o stiff with enough carbon rods in it :) This is more in line with neck construction techniques today than 10 years ago before carbon or steel was "standard" protocol. YMMV

As said previously, on a neck through, the actual central core of the neck will be the main factor in relative tone. You say you want a brght bass with balls, you might want to consider Wenge, Bubinga, Jatoba, Macacauba, and Maple as possibilities. My pesonal favorite combination for such tone is Hard Maple and Walnut. This provides a good amount of brightness with the Walnut to buffer the tone. Add a nice Cocobolo or other dark fingerboard, and you get some nice deep overtone. Just my opinion. Example below, and it should fit a tight budget if you avoid figured woods for the neck. Then you can concentrate on body woods that give you the look that you desire.
Good Luck with it.

I would agree.

Better watch out, Larry. You're getting dangerously close to a wood=tone debate.

Just throught I would add, my numbers indicate on average soft maple is about 15% stiffer than honduras mahogany. But, as Larry said, carbon fibre can shore up the less stiff woods. Carvin used to (may still) make a reinforced alder neck as a production option. Alder is even less stiff than mahogany.

I would agree. Neck wood should be selected first for straight grain with little or no run out. Stiffness can be manipulated with truss rods and carbon rods/bars. You can make jell-o stiff with enough carbon rods in it :) This is more in line with neck construction techniques today than 10 years ago before carbon or steel was "standard" protocol. YMMV
Probably, but playing with pure wood is much mire fun!:)

I wouldn't call maple or mahogany exotic woods.

No I know they aren't my first coice pre wood pricing was Buckeye Burl (HA!) Maybe if I hit the lottery. My guitarist has already built a guitar out of Walnut but everyone on the Hamer forum staed that Walnut was a "Heavy" choice.

I would deffinatly consider an ash. Someone suggested to me a swamp ash body and I am very open to that the body of this is going to be about the size of a bc rich warlock maybe slightly bigger so I am trying to not throw my back out playing this thing.

I wouldn't call Walnut heavy, but Ash is a good choice for a lighter body. Basswood and poplar are also nice light weighted woods and fairly economical too.

I've seen pretty nice blanks of poplar here at some projects!!