• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Wood type based on 1 picture?

InstantEctobass

InstantEctobass

Feb 18, 2018
2,739
3,931
#1
Hello dear wood informed folks!

signal-2024-05-10-172747_002.jpeg


What wood do you think that is, based on the grain on that picture?
Thank you for your help
 
#6
Gilmourisgod said:
Looks kinda "pink-ish" in the photo, hence the mahogany guess. I think Fender/Squire only used ash, alder, or Agathis. I'm no Fenderite though, one of them should be along shortly. Maybe change the thread title to say Squire? You'll get more hits that way.
Click to expand...

Can't edit the title...

Bruce Johnson said:
I agree that the grain looks like mahogany, the lighter weight Philippine mahogany.
Click to expand...

So no Agathis?
 
#9
Pores look like just like luaun. That's one of dozens of varieties of woods in the Meranti family. Some like your example are whiter than luaun. Meranti is a low cost, plentiful Asian hardwood, not necessarily lousy wood, but I avoid Meranti species--coarse and splintery, not especially stiff compared to weight, not super stable like real mahogany and the only wood that ever sent me to the Emergency Room(!)

White Meranti | The Wood Database (Hardwood)
Balau | The Wood Database (Hardwood)

In the 70s (showing my age here) I was carrying a particle board exterior door through an apartment building construction site and slipping between piles of stuff. The splintery edge of a piece of luaun plywood put a 1 1/4" splinter into my thigh as I was walking past that broke off under the skin. I couldn't get it out. It wasn't deep, went in crosswise. In the ER it took one tiny injection, one tiny incision and one or two tiny stitches and all gone.

In 2024 would have cost over 3k, but back then, not a big deal financially at all.

Anyway I already didn't like working with it. But as a body I'm sure it's fine. Looking at the stiffness, maple is in the 12s, walnut in the 11s and meranti is in the 10s, so I wouldn't make a neck out of it, but a body, sure. Sorry, TMI.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dynacord, Kubicki Fan, mikewalker and 1 other person
#11
There are dozens of species of trees that are referred to as "mahogany". That could be one of them. It could also be one of many other species - unfinished wood is much harder to discern than if you have some clearcoat on it. The picture seems to be a bit over-exposed as well, which makes ID'ing what species that is pretty much a wild ass guess.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DJ Bebop and Plain Old Barry
#12
Alright, nevermind! There's no definitive answer to be given. This body was from 2010 and Fender stated it was Alder back then but subject to change. They used Agathis as far as I know but oh well... I think I'm gonna sell it "as is". Thank you for your inputs
 
#14
It could be agathis, which seems to describe a variety of species. Pictures I've seen show it to have a grain and pore structure similar to mahogany, which agrees with your photo, so I would say it is probably agathis or some sort of lauan/ meranti/ Phillipine mahogany; they grow in the same general area. It doesn't look like alder to me.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back