I am pretty sure my next guitar will be mahogany, but I noticed a lot of "metal" guitars are made of basswood. I searched a lot of sites, and posts here, but I alway found information contradicting. The only info I could find was that basswood I light, and easy to dent.

Some people say it is good for metal, and has nice base response, tough it seems unlikely because of the light mass. Can anyone explain a bit what this wood is about?

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i have a basswood guitar... ibanez RG. It's heavier than a les paul reissue, and is hard as a rock... no dents or anything. but that just might be luck. Slabbefusk knows his shit about this.

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Yeah basswood should have a nice bass response, pretty low mids and smooth highs. If you want more highs you can always add a maple top. Mahogany has good lows too but a more pronounced midrange than basswood, and mellower highs.

The sound isn't just the wood though, pickups have great influence and if you go with EMG's you can have any tonewood and it'll sound roughly the same with whatever you choose.

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I think most machine made guitars are made of basewood because its easier to cut and shape then other woods. That means the the company will not have to change blades and bits as often on the CNC routers. It is also cheaper in price then other woods and still has a decent tone.

I prefer maple and mohogany, but thats just me. Everyone is different. Some people like a lighter wieght guitar, but for me it makes no difference. I have a Ibanez 7 string with Blaze 7 pickups and it is made of basewood. I love it.

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Mahogany is great because it can still give you a deep sound but won't weigh you down, a lot of Jacksons are made of mahogany.

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basswood is a very soft wood, not tough really. i worked with it a few times in shop. i'd rather have a mahogony body.

A lot of Jackson's are made of alder, only a few of the high-end and some USA ones are made of mahogany.

I prefer Alder. It's a good even response wood which is lighter than mahogany, and when combined with a Duncan Distortion you get sparkley, glassy highs that Mahogany/maple can't seem to produce as well. Very sweet. Perfect for melodic metal. If you play BM or DM, it's easy to deaden the sound.

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I think Alder has a bit more punch to it ...

We use American Basswood in our acoustic guitars, for kerfing, and we use it as a body material in some of our electric guitars. The color varies from grayish-white to tan, and occasionally has mineral streaks through it. If a clear piece is available, we'll go ahead and stain it, otherwise, we'll just paint it. With the Rock Maple through-necks on our electric guitars, Basswood helps to contribute a "warmer" sound, and tends to make more "subtle" the guitar's sound. It's light, and easy to work. You only have to watch for "dings" when you have a Basswood body guitar.

Mahogany, has long been known to produce a "warm", lively tone. It enhances low to mid-range tones, either as an acoustic back/side set, or as an electric guitar body. We also use it as a neck wood. Acoustic guitars made from Mahogany are easier to record with than probably any other wood. They are more "predictable". Mahogany is also sometimes used as an acoustic top wood, giving a rich "warm" texture, to the sound.

heres the difference i've found between basswood and mahogany.
Basswood is more like alder, its less mellow. With mahogany, you dont have as much of a high end, therefore your distortion wont have as much high end crackle. So if you like warm clean tones, go for mahogany, but if you want some brighter highs in there for you distortion, id say go for the basswood.

to me, basswood sounds like alder with some more low end.

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basswood is awesome. ive played a few rg's and loved them. it sounds kinda like a mix between alder and mahogany. good overall. alder dents so fucking easy, i hate it. mahogany sounds really good, lots of low end, sounds good clean and distorted. basswood has a little low end, and a little high end, sounds really good clean and distorted as well, and it is hard as a rock. steve vai, kirk hammett, joe satriani..... all use basswood.

Um, not Kirk. I know that he uses all maple guitars. And basswood does dent easy too. You just got to get through the Ibanez finish first.

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oh, really? i could have sworn i saw basswood in his esp model description. it may have been the cheap version though.

Last I checked he normally perfered a ESP MII deluxe that was customized with EMG's, skull bone inlays, extra jumbo frets, and a neck-thou maple body and neck. I could be wrong. It would not be the first time I know there are many Kirk copy guitars but I have no ideal what they are made of.

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i have a basswood and alder guitar... neither of them have ANY dents and im pretty rough on them...

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yeah basswood is a very soft wood. i am in a wood carvers guild (yeah laugh it up, but its really cool) and we mostly carve basswood becaus its soft. we use super sharp kniws and everyhting but basswood is some of the best wood to carve because of its softness. just as a rant i got third at state in the novice class last year, and this is texas and thatts a lot of fuckers to beat. i carves a "spirit" face in cotton wood bark.

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Cool. I like learning about woods myself. I found that there is one tree that has poisonous wood. They make guitars out of it by you have to wear protection while around the dust from it or you will die.

That would be grim. A guitar that killed someone while thay were making it

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This is what my Ran will be made out of... poor Dariusz! That is so grim, imagine how cool it must be to tell ppl that your guitar killed its builder, so it's haunted or some shit, that's kvlt.

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I had an Ibanez RG1570 and the bitch dented too easily. .. I mean drop a phone and yeah it would dent the wood not just the paint. . . I guess that is why I have a lot of fucking clear coat finger nail polish and I love battle scars because they add uniqueness. . . but I love mahogany and I choose it over everything. . . active EMG's fuck you over if you have 12 hours of college courses and you play in like 3 other bands than the college bands. . . hence now I hate my EMG 81/85 set.. . . . they are going to begin screwing me out of a lot of money. . . . . considering I'll just take my cover off and keep my AC/DC tester handy and keep a lot of 9 volt batterys around. . . plus strings and extra cables. . . . Basically, I'm so broke I have to beg my friends for bullshit decent(okay, great. 3-4 hours = 60-70 dollars) paying jobs.

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why dont they just genetically engineer super wood.besides they do it to veggies.. its an idea. or make a guitar out of kevlar... thats just an idea too

Kevlar, Fiber glass, or fibercarbon graphite? Well, actually guitars are made of those thing to, but they sound way different.

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acrylic Bc rich suck ass

like these??
http://www.music123.com/CA-Guitars-...d-i145585.music
not kevlar...but getting there...

That actually looks like a nice guitar. I would love to try it out and see what it could do.

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Because what'd be a 'superwood' to you wouldn't be what someone else wanted

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I cant understand how a guitar made of carbon fiber can vibrate...much less make it pretty...but ill keep an open mind...it could sound amazing...

Thats why I would like to try it first. I'm not sure how it would sound really, but at least you could take it everywhere without worry of warping the neck. I bet you could even play it in the rain

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key word: BC Rich

i played an acrylic before... sustain wasnt great, it was fucking heavy, but it had the wierdest sound... definately something id get for an experimental band so i could have some random tone.

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in the rain, snow, sleet, hail, you could use it as a shield while being shot at...

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see ill put a patent on it before u!!!
HAHAHAHA!!!










actually it sounds pretty nice. well we'll just have to hear how it sounds. if one of us becomes famous i give u permision to steal my idea

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why dont they do that for the strings! lol jk
bullet strings??? kevlar strings???

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Or nylon strings Wait, never mind they suck for metal.

Besides, DR make the best string on earth as it is

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id do it too hahahha.

man... the only thing you have to do to make it sound good is slap in some EMG's and a PA2 gain booster to give you some sustain.

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Man, Dimebag sure could have used that bullet dodging kevlar guitar

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Not unless he straped it his face His killer knew how to murder a person, sadly.

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thats a great party joke

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