Materials Question...Applewood?

[Dustykatt]

New to the site but not new to building things.

I've become really excited about the prospect of building my own bass, but i dont want to do anything easy. I never do.

Has anyone ever thought about using wood from Apple trees? The grain and color is pretty cool but I would not even fathom a guess on tone from a fruit wood tree.

Anyone out there heard of any basses made out of fruit wood tree lumber?

 

[Beej]

Apple's a nice hard wood, but it does move a little in service with the seasons and weather. It's hard to find in larger pieces which is likely why you don't see it commonly on larger parts of musical instruments. It and other fruitwoods are used in acoustic construction more, esp old reproductions (tuning pegs, bridges, bridge plates, etc). If you could find large enough pieces with straight grain, you could probably use it for electric instrument construction too. Another reason that you don't commonly see it in larger modern instruments is that it's kinda boring in appearance...