Andreas Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 Im planing to make an electric this summer..it will be my first one so I must prepare alot of things in my mind. Im thinking to make an SG and the body will be mahogany (suprise suprise ) Now I plan it to be a neckthrou and the neck will consist of diferent woods. Im thinking to laminate together ebony ,purple heart and oak. Hopefully it will be like this : Oak|purpleheart|ebony|purpleheart|Oak For the fretboard im still not too sure...Im thinking ebony or rosewood. From the guitar I would like a very warm tone with a nice blend of highs and treble and a good portion of mids. I now let it to the hands of you the masters to answer my humble request BTW, please write any favourite wood combinations you have so as to keep them in mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skibum5545 Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 Well, the mahogany should be good for your warm mids, so if you want good mids, it's a good choice. As for the fretboard, ebony has a harder, clearer, brighter sound to it, while rosewood has that classic rock 'n roll thump to it. It sounds like you want to go with ebony if you are interested in those highs. As for the neck woods, the ebony will give you very good sustain (according to www.alembic.com, which I trust). I don't know about purpleheart or oak, but they are both rather hard, which should give you a clear bright sound. However, the way I see it is this: yeah, there are plenty of good tonewoods out there, but almost all the major guitar and bass manufacturers use maple for their necks, so it must be a good wood for it. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreas Posted April 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 From what i read oak is prety close to maple and since I might have a good suply of oak it would be preferable. I might go for rosewood since this guitar is ment for classic rock and blues sounds,altho the more versatility the better. BTW those alembic guitars are beatifull. I want them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diehardcrew Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 That setup should be fine. From what I read maple is used over oak for necks because maple has a great hardness to weight ratio and is pretty stable in straight grained or quarter sawn. Oak is very pourous I guess so it's harder to finish than maple, although I haven't had a problem with cabinets, etc. I guess oak's grain isn't as close together as hard maple. Purpleheart is very hard and pretty darn heavy, but is supposedly bright, like a maple+ wood. Maple is bright as well. Purpleheart is supposed to boost clear lows too. Ebony is also bright, emphasizing the upper range, and oak I'm not too sure. Being a little bit softer than maple would probably lend it to be a bit warmer, but not by much. I think maple would finish smoother than oak, but it should be fine. You can just go by feel. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 Just wondering if the mahogany would be a non issue being it would just be wings glued on to the neck. The neck would produce most (if not all) of the tone being it is a neck through. Again I'm just wondering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreas Posted April 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 Just wondering if the mahogany would be a non issue being it would just be wings glued on to the neck. The neck would produce most (if not all) of the tone being it is a neck through. Again I'm just wondering. I feel the same way..so im thinking of cuting the neck in almost half width and join it with the rest of the body...something like a bolton that covers the whole guitar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MKGBass Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 Just wondering if the mahogany would be a non issue being it would just be wings glued on to the neck. The neck would produce most (if not all) of the tone being it is a neck through. Again I'm just wondering. Although it seems logical (the strings are not connected directly to the mahongany) i don't think that is a correct assumption. Given that the wings are properly jointed and glued, the vibrations would transfer from the bridge to the body the same as it would if they were a single piece of wood. I'm sure wood density, weight, (and maybe porousness) in the wings have their effects on the vibrations of the wood. An instrument with no wings would surely sound less whole than one with wings? Saying the wings have no effect on the tone would be similar to this scenario: Say you have a neck 5 pc, maple, ebony, bubinga, walnut, mahogany The neck would no doubt produce a distinct tone, but it is highly unlikely (has anyone tried this?) that playing your b and e strings produce a completely different sonic sound than the a and d strings just because they above a different sort of wood. I could be way wrong, I'm just trying to be logical... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreas Posted April 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 Yeah thats true..the whole guitar vibrates as one system and not as an individual part..that would mean every time you played anything it would fall appart due to diferences in resonance... never thought it like that before..oh well live to learn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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