Mitch Posted March 16, 2009 Report Share Posted March 16, 2009 Is it fair to say that cherry and mahogany are similar in the way of tone and stiffness? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wood is good Posted March 16, 2009 Report Share Posted March 16, 2009 There are a few species of cherry. But the most common cherry, ABSOLUTELY NOT! IT is almost idenical to maple, but just with a hint of pink tint. Very stiff, Very hard, and even the same grain patterns as maple. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotYou Posted March 16, 2009 Report Share Posted March 16, 2009 I've used Jatoba a lot before. It's considered Brazilian cherry. It's definitely not like mahogany. As far as domestic cherry goes, I haven't heard it in a guitar, so i can't say, but like Wood said, it seems o be more like maple. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Posted March 16, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2009 According to wikipedia brazilian cherry isn't acctually cherry. What I would be using would be european wild cherry. I thought they might be similar as the cherry i'm using is of similar hardness as mahogany (little bit harder than mahogany i would say). Somewhere imbetween mahogany and maple? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotYou Posted March 16, 2009 Report Share Posted March 16, 2009 (edited) According to wikipedia brazilian cherry isn't acctually cherry. What I would be using would be european wild cherry. I thought they might be similar as the cherry i'm using is of similar hardness as mahogany (little bit harder than mahogany i would say). Somewhere imbetween mahogany and maple? I see. I've only used cherry from the US or Brazilian cherry (it's called Brazilian cherry because the wood is similar... they claim it is at least). It's likely to be very different if it's European cherry. It should be fine structurally. If you can get ahold of some you could just give it a good tap and compare the sound to mahogany. That should give you a real good idea how it will sound. I bet it'll be more like maple, though. Even though the hardness might be like mahogany, the structure of cherry is usually closer to maple, in my experience at least. Edited March 16, 2009 by NotYou Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted March 16, 2009 Report Share Posted March 16, 2009 No...cherry is very similar to maple in stiffness and grain,but works a bit easier...similar to soft maple...but the tone is very,very bright...more so than maple. I built a cherry neck once...hurt my ears. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Posted March 17, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2009 No...cherry is very similar to maple in stiffness and grain,but works a bit easier...similar to soft maple...but the tone is very,very bright...more so than maple. I built a cherry neck once...hurt my ears. I wonder how the cherry and sycamore neck on my current guitar is gonna turn out then. It's only my second guitar and im getting the finish on at the moment. Stop worrying me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted March 17, 2009 Report Share Posted March 17, 2009 Don't worry...if it sucks you can always take a hammer and a rock to it like I did to mine... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dugg Posted March 17, 2009 Report Share Posted March 17, 2009 I've made a hippie sandwich neckthrough with rock maple/walnut and cherry, and worked with cherry on countless cabinet installations. Cherry is harder and stiffer than mahogany, but not as much as rock maple. Probably similar to softer maples, like the Western Big Leaf that we get the lovely quilted patterns from. Cherry is a very nice tonewood and it's often substituted for the flamed maple sides and back by violin luthiers. My 'hippie sandwich' neckthrough is far from painful to the ears Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Posted March 17, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2009 My first guitar has a 1 peice cherry body and maple neck and that has a really warm sound to it. This has probably made me think cherry is similar to mahogany but it would appear not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted March 17, 2009 Report Share Posted March 17, 2009 Wes, I thought I read a post by you a few weeks ago regarding Cherry and you had said it was hard like Maple, but had a warmer sound...am I mistaken? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted March 17, 2009 Report Share Posted March 17, 2009 Wes, I thought I read a post by you a few weeks ago regarding Cherry and you had said it was hard like Maple, but had a warmer sound...am I mistaken? No...I was probably talking about Bubinga...which is very hard but is almost as warm as mahogany...but with more bite... Cherry is really,really snappy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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