I Have This Strange Prejudice Against Basswood

[iskim86]

for some reason I avoid basswood like a plague. I know many expensive guitar has them, but when I see a guitar with a basswood body, a part of my brain screams "CHEAP!!!"

for this reason I avoid most Ibanez guitars and many bodies on eBay.

I haven't found out why I've come to dislike basswood so much. I don't know if it's just me, or if it's a common thing. many bodies on eBay are basswood, and avoiding it just limits my options so much.

can someone come up with an explanation? and perhaps pursuade me another direction?

thanks

[Mattia]

I've never built with it, but the chunks I have ring out very nicely, good sustain, 'musical' tone to them. Thing is, it's terribly boring looking, and I'm not really one for solid colour jobbies. And it's not much cheaper than Alder over here...not in any way that really matters.

[jmrentis]

I have similar thoughts at times. Generally, when looking for wood at my local shop I stay away from basswood, poplar, and the like as I like more natural finishes, so those don't have the look that I desire, plus I have heard and seen that they can dent really easily. I think Ash is one that I would use long before the other two, it always seems like it wouldn't be that great of a natural finish, but almost everyone I have seen looks great. Poplar is definately something I would never want without paint, unless green streaks fits your theme, lol., just not my bag. They all work though. I believe that those woods are cheaper than most and work fine which is possibly the reason they are used for some production guitars. So, yeah they are cheaper, but they aren't bad. Like you though, I prefer other woods.

Damn I saw some beautiful ribbon stripped mahog today that I should have bought for a future project, although if I had the money two of the stores near me had some killer curly koa stocks that I would love to deplete. Aside from all that, I don't know what to tell you, those woods have their places, I have an ibanez and it sounds decent, but there are so many choices out there might as well try something different. Are you just buying bodies to build up or filling, sanding and redoing them or what? Heck, if you are doing all that I would just buy some killer woods and build one or two or ten. I always have desires to buy broke guitars or beaten bodies, but I restrain myself so I can buy new tools and nice wood, its tough though, especially when you go on craigslist and find a bunch of guitars you could trick out for cheap, it sounds like so much fun.

EDIT: Alder, forgot about that one, which is way, way more common than poplar I believe, too much homework again fried the brain. I forgot to post this until way later, when I wrote it noone had responded yet, lol.

Edited May 25, 2007 by jmrentis

[The royal consort]

My knowlegde of basswood comes from european eqivilents (Lime) that a frend of mine used.

It sounds quite pleasent its warm and lacks attack but dents VERY easily....

It has a very boring appearence so most people do hit it with solid colours.

On a personal basis I would feel worried about using a wood that dents so easily.

Maybe its'd be ok for a maple fronted guitar where a couple of dents on the back or side wont matter so much

Edited May 25, 2007 by The royal consort

[chennik]

I'm in the same boat when it comes to basswood, and poplar for that matter. I've had guitars made of both, an Ibanez and a Jackson (when I was in college and playing parties and such) and I can say that they damage and dent INCREDIBLY easy, more so with basswood but i've gotten poplar to do the same. Aside from the fact that basswood is about as bland a wood as you can get to look at, I'm personally not a fan of the tone it creates, and I find poplar to be similar. Now keep in mind, the majority of the style I play is hard rock and metal, though I enjoy messing around with blues and jazz from time to time as well, and I generally demand alot of versatility from my guitars (even though I have enough of them I don't need to).

I did manage to pick up an Ibanez RG a few years ago (a body style that I love, made out of a wood I cant stand) at a pawn shop with a perfect body, no damage at all (which is rare for a used RG. Extremely rare), and I threw in a Bill Lawrence XL500 (bridge) and Duncan JB (neck) pickup combo, which sounded good, but couldnt quite achieve the low end heavy metal bite that I intended it to. It has a very warm tone, that seems to be consistent all over the fretboard. But, it just didnt have what I needed, especially for rhythm tone, the tone was almost "blurry" if you will. Now, I also have an Epiphone Flying V with a floyd that has the same pickup combo. The V has a body and set neck made of mahogany, as opposed to the maple bolt on and basswood combo of the Ibanez, so I'll say its a decent comparison for tone of the wood(pickups, bridge, fb are all the same) and the V just blows the ibanez out of the water. It has well defined clarity even under heavy distortion, and has an all around much more aggressive and meaty tone.

Now, onto Poplar, I had a Poplar bodied Jackson dinky from the 1990s that had some of the same tonal qualities as that RG. I had a JB in the bridge and two stock singles, and no matter how I sliced it, I couldnt get good tone out of it distorted, though clean tone was a different story. I will give it credit, as the single coils clean had a wonderful sound, very jazzy and well rounded for singles. I ended up replacing this guitar with a dinky from the 1980s that I found used, which has an alder body. I put a DiMarzio Super Distortion in the bridge and two Bill Lawrence singles in it, and it has similar, albiet somewhat brighter clean tone the poplar dinky did, but it has wonderful tone when distorted. Distorted, there is good chunk and clarity that I would look for in a rhythm guitar, and good single note definition for leads. Again, these two guitars are similar with the major difference being the body wood.

Based on these personal experiences of mine, I'm in that same boat of disliking basswood (and poplar)

[IbanezFreak666]

i like basswood because i like the crunchyness, and the good balence between sustain, brightness and warmth.

but it does dent really easy....simple answer is use a harshell case.

[Logical Frank]

Sometimes it's hard to believe the cheapest options can be good (and sometimes better than more expensive options). But... it all depends what you want. If you want a nice balanced tone and don't mind that you've got rather dull looking wood since you're doing a solid color, then basswood is perfect (or one flavor of perfect depending what you want tonally). If you want something gorgeous for a natural finish, you might as well not bother.

Poplar is even uglier than basswood but I really like the tone of it on a HSS strat I have. It's a lot like alder, I would say, but I might like the poplar better as far as tone. As far as not being pasty white and having ugly green streaks, I like alder better.

[westhemann]

I despise basswood,as well as poplar...and yes I have had guitars made with both.

Mahogany,alder,maple,bubinga,etc are much more tonally vibrant.

[WezV]

I like to think of basswood as having a 'transparent' tone. I think wood choice is a very important part of the final tone and when i choose woods like mahogany, ash or any other common guitar woods i know what i expect to hear in the final tone of the guitar and i like to hear the woody character in there somewhere. Basswood obviously can work quite well as a guitar wood - but i dont think it brings much to the mix.

For some people, that characteristic is exactly what they want - they wood rather not have the wood colouring there carefully tailoured sound..... not really for me though

[IbanezFreak666]

yer thats what i like. im generally using metal distortion so differenced in woods are very hard to hear apart from some bring out more treble or more bass...but i like a good solid mix of them so i use basswood

anyway about the dent thing...i think it depends how its painted coz i have a basswood LTD that after a year was coverd in dents. i also have a basswood ibanez and iv only had it since Xmas but its stilla flawless finish...despite wacking it on my amp a few times.

but iv never put that guitar in a gig bag..only a hardshell case :/

[ihocky2]

Poplar and basswod seem to be more finicky when it comes to pickups. There were a lot of 80's metal guitars that sound great that were either poplar or basswood. But with the wrong pickups, the sound like garbage.

[tubab0y]

personally, i love poplar. my local wood store has 8"x1" boards that work perfectly with a top. it sounds good, and if you get to pick what you're working with, you can get pieces without the green streaks as well. i picked some up today for one of the laminates in the neck i'm building.

the best part about basswood is how easy it is to work with.

[Jon]

You mean 8' x 1'?

Mmm, Basswood is an awesome wood. It's the softest wood I have ever worked with, though. You can route the stuff with your fist (don't do this). It is extremely boring, but on occasions you'll find some lovely flat / riftsawn pieces. I'm using the stuff for a multi-chamber project that I plan on picking back up soon.

[Primal]

You mean 8' x 1'?

I'm sure he means 8" wide x 1" thick.

[Jon]

Ahh, perfect for resaw. Makes plenty of sense.

[spazzyone]

Basswood=Poop

the the major players in building use it for cost effectiveness

and workability morethan for tone

we have not sold a Basswood body in eons and the blanks we have just collect dust and waste space

and poplar....please green is only good for the environment

[prs man]

bass wood to me says I'm cheap.

I build with Mahogany,alder,maple walnut cheery and poplar anything but bass wood I don't like because it dents so easy and I find that it's are hard to hold a bridge screw.

when building a guitar that will be a solid color I would use alder or poplar.

to me this wood have great tone.

[Woodenspoke]

Poplar is for pallets and basswood is for carving.

I think we have given these two softwoods even though they are classified as hardwood, way too much attention as a quality guitar wood. Too soft and in my experience lacking the tone I want from an instrument. But advertising will make anything sound like its the greatest thing to use since sliced toast.

I admit it's cheap and easy to work and for a prototype mock up go for it. But personally it's not my cup of tea o'l chap.

Woodenspoke

[Cherryburst]

How does basswood compare to alder in terms of weight? Is it MUCH lighter? Or not a not very noticeable difference?

[billsterl]

I have been doing woodworking for all my adult life and have only been building guitars for a couple years. I admit I was surprized when I saw many guitar bodies made from basswood. In the woodworking world basswood is used for carving as it has little to no grain but it is very boring to look at and it is cheap. Poplar is cheap as well and is used for molding as it takes paint well. I think swamp ash has the best of both worlds because it is light and tonal but has the striking ash grain. It all comes down to if you want a painted or natural finish.

[tim_ado]

i can understand companies making cheap guitars (no crap but like cheap beginner) out of bass wood but i would never build a guitar out of it

if your building might as well make it out of quality wood because if your making a guitar your not doing to to save money

Edited June 3, 2007 by tim_ado

[Maiden69]

I made one out of it. I can't complain about a single thing other than the wood is very soft and marks easily. Tone is what I wanted, sustain is PRETTY good, and it was almost free.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v195/Maiden69/DSC02229.jpg

I guess it depends on the finish you are using and the tone you want out, this is mainly for metal

[Xanthus]

My thoughts on the matter is that basswood can't be THAT bad if a lot of really good players have their custom guitars built out of basswood. Vai, Satch, Gilbert, ya know? I'm sure it's not by accident.

[Cherryburst]

What wood might be good for lighter-weight that's NOT basswood or polar?

[Mattia]

What wood might be good for lighter-weight that's NOT basswood or polar?

The right piece of Alder or Limba. F'r instance.