"Core" wood

[HaMMerHeD]

I've been assembling wood for a special bass build for a while now. The design is as follows:

It'll have a continuous ebony fingerboard, encompassing both the nut and the bridge.

The maple bass side wing will be quilted maple, like this:

And the walnut treble side wing will be crotch claro walnut, like this:

The only thing I'm uncertain about is the neck and body core. In the design above, I have it set as mahogany. But I've used a lot of mahogany lately, and I kind-of want to try something else.

So, among the polled options, what do you think would complement the walnut/maple best:

 

[MPU]

Maybe wenge? Chambered body core and headstock with similar wings as body top.

 

[sprocket123]

Sapele s a good alternative wood to mahogany , from what I ve read on an old Worldshop News link .

 

[reverendrally]

For the body... honestly, Pine.

I know, I know. It's not sexy. However it has some great attributes.
1. It's sustainable and native to most regions
2. It's cheap and plentiful
3. You can stain it whatever colour you like
4. It's easy to work
5. It's light and reasonably resonant

Personally, i think the last attribute is the most important. A lot of sandwiches like you're designing end up heavy as boat anchors. It's my feeling we'll start to see pine used more and more in cheaper guitars bodies. Eventually it will make it into necks too once we run out of hardwoods... sadly.

P.s. you could actually use it in the neck as long as you added some other timber laminates and carbon/aluminum rods.

 

[SaintMez]

How would Cherry look with those? Looks like its going to be a cool build!

 

[xaxxat]

"Tone" wood?....

 

[HaMMerHeD]

I think I've settled on Sapele. The ribbon figure won't be terribly visible from the front, but will be a nice treat for the player.

"Tone" wood?....

Tone is not a building material.

 

[Lou Bottini]

Alder w/figured Koa top
Swamp Ash w/Figured Walnut
Chambered Alder w/Stika Spruce

 

[Rowka]

. It's my feeling we'll start to see pine used more and more in cheaper guitars bodies. Eventually it will make it into necks too once we run out of hardwoods... sadly.

P.s. you could actually use it in the neck as long as you added some other timber laminates and carbon/aluminum rods.

Fwiw, Bill Kirchen (Commander Cody's guitarist - hot Rod Lincoln) plays a Tele with a pine neck with no truss rod or stiffeners.

 

[HaMMerHeD]

Fwiw, Bill Kirchen (Commander Cody's guitarist - hot Rod Lincoln) plays a Tele with a pine neck with no truss rod or stiffeners.

Q-sawn OG pine would probably be fine. A lot of conifers develop hard and dense wood. The junk at home depot, on the other hand, may as well be balsa.

 

[Tdog]

Fwiw, Bill Kirchen (Commander Cody's guitarist - hot Rod Lincoln) plays a Tele with a pine neck with no truss rod or stiffeners.

Here ya go...The man himself!

 

[HaMMerHeD]

Here ya go...The man himself!

That is an extremely fat neck.

 

[HaMMerHeD]

I couldn't find any nice Sapele or bloodwood at my local lumber vendor, but he had some really nice Jatoba, so I got that. It's a nice near-quarter piece of straight-grained, even-color stuff, and I dig it. I'll get started on cutting this mofo next weekend I hope.

 

[Luthier Atlanta]

Yeah, I like bloodwood. It's just so hard to find decent specimens around here. All the stuff I can find is really brown and bland looking.

Ours is reducing there stock for years end,, I'm hating it!