Best Wood For Both Bass And Guitar?

[guitarbassmetalhead]

What I plan on building is a guitar/5-string bass double neck, I have a pretty good idea of a lot of what I want, but especially on the wood I'm clueless, as I'm about as new to guitar building as you can get. As is obvious from my username, I play mostly metal but I want the flexibility to play other stuff with good tone. I'll give an idea of what I have in my head so far:

Upper neck (guitar): 24 fret, very thin, going for a feel similar to high end Ibanez.

Lower neck (bass): 24 fret, again, high end Ibanez type feel

Guitar bridge: Floyd Rose Pro

Bass bridge: haven't looked into this yet, feel free to make recommendations

Guitar pickups: undecided, possibly EMG 81/85

Bass pickups: undecided, all I know is I want active pickups

Keep in mind that I just started thinking about what I want beyond the basic guitar/bass double neck idea, hence the shortage of detail, all I'm sold on is thin 24 fret necks on both and a Floyd on the guitar. Any help will be appreciated.

[ngaa]

my friend just made a 6 string bass with alder body and mahogany

neck, and it sounds good for metal and funk. as for the bridge, just

go on stewmac and look in the bass bridges and order from there.

For guitar I would say use mahogany or alder for the body and maple

for the neck (for brightness). But I'm not sure if these woods will be

great, because I'm just on my second build as well.

Anyways, have fun with your build.

Edited September 19, 2007 by ngaa

[Kenny]

BUBINGA

[Hector]

I would use maple for the necks. both of them.

[fryovanni]

DRY WOOD.

Actually, nice clear straight grain Maple, flat or quartersawn is a nice choice. Especially for thinner necks. Body wood? Lots of good choices. Alder, Khaya(african Mahogany), Sapele are very reasonably priced and very nice woods. Swamp Ash, Genuine Mahogany, Black Limba, White Limba are nice for a few bucks more. Of course you have many more options just depends on what floats yer boat.

Peace,Rich

[erikbojerik]

dry HARDWOOD. Don't go softwood. Visit a lot of lumber places and talk up the folks there, they'll bring you up to speed pretty quick.

After that, there are too many choices really to narrow it down to one or two. On the stratty side think alder or poplar for the body and maple for the neck (same deal for Fender basses). On the les paul side, think mahogany for both body and neck.

It's a bit like asking which book is best for men & women.

[ToddW]

Well, you don't want it to be too neck heavy. Bubinga weighs a lot, (but I'd still avoid pine unless you want a 15string bass.)

A Purple heart and Maple laminate might be nice. Purple heart is stiff and pretty stable, but there are lots of options.

Todd

[Geo]

Weight might be an issue with both guitar and bass in one instrument. I would design for a lighter body, and use smaller tuners, etc.