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Been thinking that the perfect match for a thick strat neck i have with an Ebony board maybe a Maple body...... would an all Maple body sound much different then an Alder body? Alder is said to be close to the Maple family of wood..... I figure that neck with a Maple body and a Vintage style Fender trem should be one bright guitar but it may be nice for that strat sound....

aside from the bodies that are marked as ash (generally the sunburst models), two ebay dealers said that mighty mite bodies are made of maple. I dont know if you have experience with one of those?

I cant image it'd be too bright... Jerry Cantrell used a maple body Gamp;L with a JB in the bridge.

Holy cow will it be bright. My Kramer is maple and even with a rosewood board it's bright. With ebony I can only imagine how bright it would be. Stick with alder for the body. Much lighter and warmer than maple.


Originally Posted by ErikHHoly cow will it be bright. My Kramer is maple and even with a rosewood board it's bright. With ebony I can only imagine how bright it would be. Stick with alder for the body. Much lighter and warmer than maple.

Maybe not then. I personally love the brightness so It'd be a good thing for me, though if I had the choice I'd take swamp ash anyways.


Originally Posted by joelapMaybe not then. I personally love the brightness so It'd be a good thing for me, though if I had the choice I'd take swamp ash anyways.

Swamp Ash with a maple neck/fretboard is Tele heaven. But ebony is brighter than maple so it would be too much. Swamp Ash is also a tad warmer than maple. Still bright, but not as bright.

I'd be making the body myself.... i have the neck almost done... i need to add the inlays, and fret... some final shaping and i'm done.. At my work i may be able to snag a 20 inch X 14 inch piece of Basswood for free but i was thinking of using that for another guitar....

Maple would be bright for sure! I wonder.... Maybe if i try it and if i should not like it i can make a Mahogany neck for it as i still have a 6 foot rough board of 1inch mahogany in the basement.... My Godin has a Maple body and Mahogany neck.... great pair!

WhoFan

That would be interesting (maple body/mahogany neck). The basswood would be really nice.

Besides, worst case if you really dont like the maple body, sell it. I'm sure someone here would end up picking it up... maybe even myself.

My Charvel is all maple and it's bright. Although it's not as bright as most 70's heavy ash Fenders. All maple guitars weigh a ton, but they have sustain for days.

As far as brightness I general rate the most popular tone woods this way:
Heavy ash
maple
swamp ash
alder
basswood
mahogony

I have tried alternate neck woods on the maple Charvel just to see. It's noticably warmer with a rosewood fret board. It's also warmer with a mahogony neck. I didn't find it much brighter with an ebony board/maple neck.

I wouldn't recommend a maple body. Aside from the weight, it will be overly bright and hard through the upper mids. The only circumstances I can think a maple body with an ebony board would be useful would be to help cut through a very dense keyboard mix while using very high gain.

If any of you want a Fender alder strat body in black, let me know.

I have a dead mint one, taken from a 2004 50th Anniversary American strat, I'm selling.
PM me, if interested. Sorry for the spam.

Two of my Gamp;L, S-500's have maple bodies, and they are fairly bright sounding. The odd thing is, the one with a rosewood fretboard, is brighter than the the one with a maple board. I say try it, experimenting is fun!

Sprinter

cant hurt to try./...i played an all maybe strat (custom thing) over the summer. it was rather bright and rather heavey, 2 things i dont like in strats, so i didnt love it. but it was just my opinion...


Originally Posted by SprinterTwo of my Gamp;L, S-500's have maple bodies, and they are fairly bright sounding. The odd thing is, the one with a rosewood fretboard, is brighter than the the one with a maple board. I say try it, experimenting is fun!

Sprinter

Some species of rosewood sound pretty bright. Brazilan rosewood is usually brighter than east indian or madgascar varieties. Rosewood is a much denser and harder wood than maple, so it can be comparitively bright. It's the oil content and the larger grain size that atentuates highs a bit. Maple also varies considerably in density. Western big leaf maple is much softer than eastern hard rock maple and not as bright sounding. I prefer the Western maple for maple body tops. Maple seems to bring out upper mids, moreso than treble, while allowing the highs and lows through.

Who fan,

One of the best guitars I managed to cobble together uses mahogony for the back wood and I put on a 1/4 inch western maple top over that. Before gluing on the top I cut some chambers in the mahogony too. That's a variation on the Les Paul formula and it's proven to work, so if you have stocks of maple and mahogony, I'd do something like that rather than an all maple body. This combonation works with a ebony board too.

Likewise, using basswood as the core and putting a maple top over that is a good formula, as long as the basswood is nice and light. This is the EVH EB formula. I built a guitar several years ago out of basswood with a maple top and it was rather heavy. It sounded too bright with ebony fingerboards too. A light weight example of basswood works with fine with a bright neck.

Anytime you glue on a seperate top wood I figure why not cut some chambers in it.

i wouldn't do it, But that is just me. I like swamp ash in a strat or tele but that is about as bright and twangy as i would go. I never liked overly bright and heavy guitars.


Originally Posted by Lake Placid BluesSome species of rosewood sound pretty bright. Brazilan rosewood is usually brighter than east indian or madgascar varieties. Rosewood is a much denser and harder wood than maple, so it can be comparitively bright. It's the oil content and the larger grain size that atentuates highs a bit. Maple also varies considerably in density. Western big leaf maple is much softer than eastern hard rock maple and not as bright sounding. I prefer the Western maple for maple body tops. Maple seems to bring out upper mids, moreso than treble, while allowing the highs and lows through.

Who fan,

One of the best guitars I managed to cobble together uses mahogony for the back wood and I put on a 1/4 inch western maple top over that. Before gluing on the top I cut some chambers in the mahogony too. That's a variation on the Les Paul formula and it's proven to work, so if you have stocks of maple and mahogony, I'd do something like that rather than an all maple body. This combonation works with a ebony board too.

Likewise, using basswood as the core and putting a maple top over that is a good formula, as long as the basswood is nice and light. This is the EVH EB formula. I built a guitar several years ago out of basswood with a maple top and it was rather heavy. It sounded too bright with ebony fingerboards too. A light weight example of basswood works with fine with a bright neck.

Anytime you glue on a seperate top wood I figure why not cut some chambers in it.

Excellent points and good info. Thanks for sharing. Funny, I was thinking about the EBMM EVH model when he mentioned basswood. I absolutely love how balanced that guitar is. To me that's about as close to perfect as it gets. Not because of who's name is/was on the headstock but how it played.

Whoa there fellas! I think 2 important questions haven't been asked here.

1. What kind of music is this guitar going to be used for.

and

2. What kind of pickups are you planning on dropping in it?

Well the neck is made from an extremely hard Maple!!! Dense! I had enough of this maple board to have roughed out about 6 necks.... Good stuff almost like steel to work with! Of course adding the ebony made this neck feel even more like a rock! Been thinking maybe i will use a solid One Piece Basswood body for it to help with the tone.... Since the basswood is free... I've made bodies out of basswood before and it is easy to work with... A bit fury when routing but nice and soft....

I have played a custom made all maple strat before and it felt great! I love heavy guitars... I hate the fact that my 1996 Tex/Mex strat weighs nothing... it's like holding air!

If i do make the Maple body i will use a Gotoh 6 Screw Vintage Fender style trem that i have here in a box, and i have a set of early 80's Fender Strat pickups that i got from a guitar a friends band smashed..... hope they still work! The pickguard came off the guitar and they flew a few feet away and i got the remains of the guitar after the show.. Odd part is i don't think the set of 3 Strat pickups have a reversed middle pickup... all 3 have the same coloured wires... local tech tells me that they are early 80's Fenders.... I thought they were more vintage pickups as they have the paper coating sheilding on the wires... but they are not vintage stuff, so i'm told but they are Fender's..

I'll have to see what i get for lumber... I need to go wood shoping..