Wood Species and Electric Guitars

The woods in an electric guitar play a major role not only in how it looks and feels but how it sounds. The effect that the woods have in an electric guitar sound is often overlooked or underrated by players who tend to rely more on pickups and the amplifier to dial in their sounds. There is no doubt that every component in the electric guitar signal chain has an effect on the final sound, but the fact is that it starts from the vibrating strings and it is this natural acoustic sound that gets amplified to a much louder volume. Many experienced players and artists often test a new or old electric guitar that they pick up for the first time unplugged, listening to the guitar’s acoustic tonal character and its resonance before plugging into an amplifier. If they don’t like how a guitar naturally sounds and resonates, they don’t bother to plug in. In their minds, the acoustic sound of the guitar is like an ant that gets amplified to a dinosaur. If the ant sounds great, then the dinosaur will sound great. If the ant sounds bad, then the dinosaur will sound bad. We care very much about the woods we use on our guitars and put a lot of consideration into what combinations work well to get a balanced and full-bodied tone. The body woods and the neck/fretboard woods work in conjunction to complement each other’s sonic characteristics. An important factor is that the woods of neck and fretboard play a much larger role than most players realize. The neck/fretboard woods produce at least half, or even a little more, of the overall acoustic sound of the guitar.

As big fans of great classic electric guitars as well as top-of-the-line modern custom guitars, we thoroughly studied the properties of the woods used on them and how they’d work on our own innovative design guitars. Combined with the lightweight headless design and the unique proprietary hardware crafted of aerospace-grade hardware, we found that the tonal characteristics of the woods were more pronounced than other guitars with much livelier acoustic resonance.

We believe it is very important for players to seriously consider the woods on their guitars not only for the way they look but how they sound. A guitar sound is very subjective and there isn’t just one “Holy Grail” sound for everyone. Some players like their overall sound to be on the bright side with a snappy response. Some like it to be warm with a smoother response while some want a very balanced and neutral sound. It is all up to the individual player and we want to help you make the right choice.

Body Woods

The woods of the electric guitar body are certainly a major component of the overall acoustic character of the guitar (around 50%) but not as much as many players would think. This being said, with the woods on the neck and fretboard being the same, the body woods do make a big difference. If the body is producing 50% of the acoustic sound, then the top wood contributes around 10%. While this may not seem like a lot, the top wood does complement the back wood underneath and combine to provide a certain tonal character.

Typically, figured Maple like Flame Maple and Quilted Maple are used for their visual beauty as top woods on top of traditional body woods such as Alder, Basswood, Mahogany and Swamp Ash. Maple is a dense hardwood that mates well with the aforementioned body woods. Maple’s density and hardness provide more brightness, a faster pick attack and tighter lows to complement the softer and warmer sounds of the traditional body woods.

For our bolt-on production and USA Select Custom Shop guitars, we decided to offer Alder, Basswood and Swamp Ash as body woods and Flame Maple, Quilted Maple and Poplar Burl as the top woods. Each body wood has a very distinctive sonic character and mates very well with the top woods as well as the neck and fretboard woods we offer.

No matter what woods you choose, you still get the unique and distinctive tonal characteristics of a .strandberg* due to its inherent design features and the hardware. This being said, the woods will allow you to dial in a particular sound that you envision and have preferences for. We will now examine each body wood type in depth to help you decide which body wood may work the best for you.

 

 

 

Neck and Fretboard Woods

The neck is, ultimately, the life of the guitar. It is not only where your fretting hand plays but also a critical component of the overall sound. Naturally, the neck needs to be dense, strong and stable to withstand the tension of the strings and Maple checks off all of these qualities. To further strengthen the neck and improve long term stability, we only use roasted Maple necks.

The Maple is essentially roasted or heated to a very high temperature for a certain length of time in an oxygen-free oven and this dries out the moisture, resulting in a harder and a more stable neck. Roasting the Maple not only strengthens it but also improves resonance and the overall tonal quality, making the neck sound brighter and feel more robust.

Due to its density and hardness, Maple naturally produces a bright sound with a strong high-midrange and smooth treble. It has a tight bass and produces a punchy and focused sound. Essentially, it is the neck wood that provides the counterbalance to the body’s softer and rounder sounding woods like Alder, Basswood and Swamp Ash which are not rigid enough to be used as neck woods.

With the body producing around half of the guitar’s natural acoustic sound, the neck and fretboard together produce the other half, perhaps a little more although that’d be difficult to measure. It can also be said that the neck wood produces around half of the neck/fretboard sound with the fretboard producing the other half. So, this means that the body produces 50% (40% if there’s a top which would produce the remaining 10%), the neck wood 25% and the fretboard 25%.

Is this a scientific measurement? No, it’s more of a general reference point that has been culled from many decades of experience and working with some of the top guitar builders in the world. It is more of a guideline in helping players understand what kind of effect each wood component has on the overall acoustic character of the guitar. With this in mind, we will now move onto the popular fretboard woods that we offer on our guitars.