Newbie Question About Solid Body Wood

[wallwriter]

Hi, I'm new here and hope everyone is fine.

I'm looking to build my first project strat type guitar. I've been scouting around for some bodies and came across one that was made of Peach wood (solid body).

I could find little info about guitars made from this type of wood and was wondering if anyone could tell me anything about its qualities.

I discovered it's a hard wood and 'apparently' has good tine and sustain. However, I was hoping someone here would have some deeper knowledge and/or experience......

Thanks in advance.

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[Crusader]

Do you want to match the sound of a Strat or improve upon it? - "Improving" of course is purely subjective

Most Fender Statocasters are built of 'Alder' as far as I know and if you want to go with another type of timber then you have to do your research

If you can find little info on 'Peach' then it seems to me you are venturing into "unknown waters"

My first two guitars were made from Jarrah (from WA Australia) which I found the hard way is not a good 'tone-wood' But apparently there are good Tone-woods that come from the Goldfields area of WA Australia - as long as they've been dried-out the appropriate way (long story, look it up)

Having said that, the best guitar I made from Jarrah has a 3-piece, straight-through neck and has awesome sustain

[wallwriter]

Thanks for the reply, I suspected as much. I can't really find anything about peach bodies on the net. I think I may leave it for now and maybe come back and try one as an experiment further down the line.

[ihocky2]

You probably won't find much on peach bodies, since this the first I have ever heard of anyone even considering it. The first thing to do is find out the characteristics of the wood from peach trees and go from there. See what it compares to and use your best judgement. The nice thing about building your own guitars, are there are not many hard or fast rules. It's all about experimenting.

[Drak]

An old wood supplier I used to buy from many years ago had some nice 2" thick Peach wood once, I was tempted to buy it.

I remember it looked like great wood, I would have used it if I was in the market for body wood at the time.

Now, trying to match the tone of a Strat if that's what you want to do is a whole different ballgame and a different set of parameters from asking if Peach is a usable wood or not.

I say Peach would be a fine tonewood, but no idea how close it would sound to an Alder or Ash strat.

[Woodenspoke]

An old wood supplier I used to buy from many years ago had some nice 2" thick Peach wood once, I was tempted to buy it.

I remember it looked like great wood, I would have used it if I was in the market for body wood at the time.

Now, trying to match the tone of a Strat if that's what you want to do is a whole different ballgame and a different set of parameters from asking if Peach is a usable wood or not.

I say Peach would be a fine tonewood, but no idea how close it would sound to an Alder or Ash strat.

I have some Pear but that came from a neighbord fallen tree. His failure to prune was my gain Ha. Nice wood, just wish it was a wider trunk. Peach a fruit tree wood is not a viable tree to make lumber from. You will only find it at a local mill who got access to a few trees from an orchard or yard. Alder is the way to go cheap and plentyful in the west. I just paid 3.50 bd ft. for 12 quarter stock. Thats 1.5" thick. About the same for the 2" stock. Also very light weight like swamp ash.