...what would be the most ideal wood for a guitar thats going to be used for death metal?

im starting to (well trying to) play more death metal now and if im going to get a custom, i want to make sure it will be suitable

i hope you can help me out, cheers
user01

I guess alot would depend on the pickups you were gonna have in it. Passive pups, I would think mahogany would be good.

__________________

I dont think it matters too much, as long as the wood is good quality. People can also use exotic woods for building guitars, if you want a natural finish to show off the grain. Anyway, mahogany is good, so is alder and higher quality basswood IMO. Id personally go for an exotic wood, but if I had to pick out of the "normal" more common woods, id go mahagany.

My favorite guitar is basswood. It is so light and sounds with my Duncan JB. It just depends on what pickups you want to use

If you get active EMGs (and you should), the wood doesn't matter as much.

this realy depends on alot fo factors, do you want a guitar that sounds realy harsh, or warm, this also depends on the pickups used, a warm sounding guitar, with treble harsh pickups could just be the magic combination. theers just to many factor that will make the guitar sound like this or that.

id prefer zebrawood or mahogany (maybe walnut aswell) and a thick maple top for some more highs, zebrawood and walnut give nice lows and make those palmmutes just a bit nicer.

EDIT: i think limba (korina) would be a great wood for metal, its kinda like mahogany, but with more midrange and some more highs.

__________________

lol theres plenty of reasons NOT to go with emg's, and 1 of them would be, becuz the wood doesnt play a big role in the sound

__________________

If you play mainly with distortion, the wood really won't make much of an audiable difference except in the sustain and weight(and price) department. There is no "ideal wood" for anything, especially not death metal.

Do not go with EMG's if you're going to get some expensive wood like mahogany, it would be a total waste, just go with something more basic like basswood(which is light as fuck and sounds great too, but dents easily).

If you're getting a custom built instrument go for passives man, they'll bring the true character of your guitar out beutifully, from bell-like cleans to brutal death metal.

__________________

actualy, even with distortion will make a difference, imagine 2 identical guitars, asme pu's etc, one is made of mahogany and the other made of alder, you tell me theres not alot of difference?? pah, my ass there is

even a maple neck compared to a maple neck with say walnut or wenge laminate will have a different sound, even distorted.

__________________

if getting mahogany, get a maple top, it SERIOUSLY cuts out muddiness. Clarity is KEY. Otherwise, i'd say go with alder. IMO basswood is crap... i dont like it, sounds too much like plastic to me. And if you check the resonance of alder vs basswood, alder has more highs AND lows than basswood soooo yeah, you have the lows for the downtuning and the highs for the clarity.

My favorite setup for clarity is mahog body maple top, maple neck, a super 2 in the bridge, and a tapped super2 in the neck, gives me rhythm and cleans . But since super 2's arent made anymore, i'm probably going to haev to result for a jb/jazz setup for my next guitar. Definition is everything to me, but hey, maybe you want to sound like devourment

__________________

There are alot of other factors that have a greater effect on your sound than what kind of wood your guitar is made out of. If you're just starting out (I assume you are) you should focus on the other stuff, like what's actually in your signal chain. I would suggest getting a good metal axe (Ibanez, Jackson, ESP) and a good amp (mesa) before you start stressin' about what wood your guitar is made out of. I would reccomend the ESP/LTD M200 FM. It's a kickass guitar, even though it's made out of agathis, which alot of people diss. They can say what they want, but that guitar has a kickass sound (thanks to EMG-HZ pickups, which are just as good as the active EMGs) and plays like a dream.

But yeah. If you're just starting out don't stress about the wood in your guitar. Get a good amp and a guitar with EMGs and you'll be set. Besides, given the fact that you have little guitar experience (correct me if i'm wrong) you probably won't notice the difference.

Also always remember to put technique before tone, because a good player can make any rig sound good.

__________________

Heh.

no matter how much you spend on a mesa, you will never regret it. You'll be pretty pissed when it comes time to change out all the tubes though. Especially if it's a triple rectifier.

__________________

Dude, for a guitar anything is good as long as u feel good in it. It all depends on your dist and amp's tone.

I got a line 6 pod xt and cheap ass crate GLX1200h with my Schector OMEN6string and another schector 7 string and that shit sounds fucking balls to the wall.

__________________

I just found this post while searching for some info on Mahogany. I was wondering why Gibson make Mahogany-bodied guitars with Rosewood fretboards. Mahogany's tone is said to be very rich in lows, with some lesser mids and even lesser highs while Rosewood fretboards give out more lows than highs. These tonal qualities give me the impression that Gibson guitars are quite bassy-sounding, perhaps ideal for Blues etc..
When I think of mahogany, Tony Iommi's sound comes to mind, especially the earlier Black Sabbath stuff. Bassy and chunky.
Same goes for B.C. Rich. Their NJ series guitars used to be made out of mahogany. (These days they use Nato, which is Indonesian mahogany or whatever.)
It makes me wonder why so many Metal bands use them since in general, the Metal sound is more of a scooped-mids, boosted highs and lows sound?
I'd think Swamp Ash (scooped mids, boosted highs and lows) or Alder (flat response to all frequencies) would be more suitable for Rock and Metal?
But I understand that maple tops on mahogany bodies (Les Pauls if I'm not mistaken) gives more clarity to the otherwise 'muddy' sound, unless one wants to sound like Devourment like you said!
Any opinions are welcome, thanks!

P.S. By the way, I have been wanting to ask something about maple tops for a long time. How are maple tops attached to the bodies? Are they glued together? I don't think so. If that's the case, then I wonder how the resonance can pass through the glue?

Sounds will resonate through like anything. A lot of metal bands don't scoop the mids because it removes a lot of fullness and volume from your sound.

This might be an ignorant post, but I *personally* don't think the wood really makes all that much difference at all in any kind of music as long as you have a good processor. If you are good with that processor, then in theory, you should be able to eq any guitar to sound like the next.

That is my $0.02, take it for what you will; I am not the authority, although I have played for the better part of 13 years.

I personally don't believe sound and resonance can pass through glue. Glue is not a very good conductor, at least not in the case of drum shells where you have plies glued together. The more plies and glue you have, the less resonance and sound waves pass through the layers, hence you get less resonance, body and fullness.

Anyway, of course the sound can be eq-ed to one's tastes but the guitar has a basic eq configuration or tone, which of course depends on the type of woods used. Having said that, I personally use EMGs on my guitars. EMGs are said to not depend so much on the woods' tone and some people argue that EMGs are best used on guitars made out of low-grade tone woods since the pickups have their own eq-ed sound or whatever.

I still would like to know how Maple tops are attached to the bodies of guitars. I'd be surprised if they were just glued together. Anyone?

Most of my guitars are made of basswood and I really love the sound. They have a nice warm tone and when set up with some Super3's and PAF Pro's they fucking sing!Only downside to basswood is that they bang up easilly. Alder is a little brighter, but its most likely one of the lightest. But like many guys said in here depends what tone you want... bright or warm?

Mahogany, in my opignion, is the warmest sounding wood. A little heavier than the alder or basswood but nice low's to it.

You might wanna check out this site http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/optio...s_bodywoods.cfm gives you a good idea of what tones some woods will give you.

H.

my god you have a lot to learn...

how did you think they would attach maple tops?? of cuz their glue them, would be pretty fucked up to put some nails through a nice flamedmaple top right

sound damping depends on the glue type, alot of factory guitars are made with just regular wood glue, cuz its cheap. REAL guitarbuilders use either titebond glue or hide glue, these glues dont damp the tone, cuz they create an organic joint, and not a chemical joint like almost all other glues do, titebond and hide glue make the fibres of the 2 wood parts, that are being glued together, melt together, thats y it doesnt damp the tone...

also even a guitar made from triplex gives some sound (rather shitty sound though), and im pretty sure triplex damps alot more tones than any glue type wil do.

__________________

dont mistake the tonal differences between bassy and warm, trebly and bright, wich are totally different... mahogany is warm sounding (wich kindof gives the impression to be bassy). but woods like zebrano are bassy, they actualy add bass to the sound...

same for the trebly and bright difference, trebly sound will mean, harsch to the ears, sharp high tones, where brigt tones are (to explain realm simply) not muddy.


you have to kinda be a freak to actualy notice these kind of differences.. but im building guitars so i guess im a bit freak about it .

__________________

As much as you need to learn how to type. If I knew everything, I wouldn't need to come here.

Thanks for the info, though. I'm glad I learned how it's done.

By the way, according to ESP Guitars Japan, Basswood's EQ is like this:
High 6, Mid 6, Low 5 whereas Alder's is High 6, Mid 7, Low 6.

Cheers!

hahha, i know how to type, but im too lazy to type properly .

hmm i wouldnt rely too much on those eq numbers, cuz they can vary allot between each piece of wood.. even if both pieces are the same woodspecies. then again, im just a freak with things like that, and for a regular person those numbers will be good enough to make a choice on woods.

__________________

That's right, man. The sound can vary from piece to piece.

I wonder why Joe Satriani chose Basswood as the body wood for his current signature Ibanez...