Favorite natural wood combinations

As far as looks my favorite would be cocobolo over alder with an ebony accent line for the body. And maple and ebony stringers for the neck with a rosewood fretbboard and big block inlays of pearl or light material.

 

Only a builder as I've done a Warmoth build and a couple other kit parts but as a player, can't miss with Ash body and Ebony board on on fretless. Babinga or Rosewood are nice too but not as touch and bright as Ebony. I do like your idea of using Zebrawood as an accent. I've seen it used well but if its a whole body, it gets kind of busy.

 

wenge and zebrawood wow
ash and walnut also very nice

 

My favorite combos are walnut and maple, or maple and ebony. I'm looking at ash and bloodwood next. Darks woods side-by-side (i.e. the wenge/bloodwood combo often seen in necks) don't do anything for me. Having said that, ebony with walnut is acceptable, but I've gotta have sharp contrasts!

 

My all time favorite has been in a bass Ive built. Mahogany, Padauk, Maple, Wenge and Cocobolo. Looks like a cake. Canary and Walnut is surprisingly nice too.

 

The F bass shown in this photo is one of the most beautiful instruments I've ever seen. The only thing I dislike is the conspicuous white interruption near the end of the truss rod. Were I to commission or build a comparable bass, I'd be very tempted to use ebony for the finger board.

 

Padauk / Wenge

Mahogany / Wenge

 

For neck thru I like to use:
Tiger Maple/Purpleheart/Wenge/Purpleheart/Tiger Maple
Wenge/Purpleheart/Maple/Purpleheart/Wenge
I'm still not sure which one I like best, although the wenge was easier on the outside when shaping the neck. The figured maple really likes to chip when using a spokeshave.

For body wings tops, I like Zebra, Black Walnut, Ovangkol, basically anything nicely figured.

Dirk

 

Can't really go wrong with Koa if you ask me. I love a koa top with a mahogany body. Or a natural flamed maple top with Koa binding... mmm.. that's the guitar part of me talking, you bass fellas don't do binding so much.

Also, now that I think of it, you don't see koa too often on basses.

Cocobolo is definitely another top favorite. And Ebony. Those woods look good with just about anything.

 

Hey Jeff,
My best advice is make sure you have plenty of wood on the outside laminates, that way no issues when you taper the neck.
3 1/4" is about what my finished 6 strings are so that should give you plenty of wiggle room.
And I was pleasantly surprised how well the wenge worked compare to the figured maple.
Thanks for the kind words on my builds.
Dirk

 

That's hilarious!

I like bloodwood as a lamination, in either curly maple, or pretty much any body core/top combination

 

My favorite wood combo is whatever I'm working with at the time.....

 

I"m working on a bass right now where the fingerboard has a slightly rippled "curly" grain. Shimmery in good light. I've also seen several instances where quartered bloodwood gets a longitudinal chatoyance, like quartered "ribbon-figured" mahogany... I don't think they are related at all, but they seem to share some minor similarities in grain structure (although bloodwood is MUCH heavier and harder than mahogany).

 

I like 5A quilted maple over swamp ash. I know, plain jane, but I still love it.