"Balancing" neck and Body woods?

[arealken]

I have a Warmoth Walnut body. I had thought maybe an all Rosewood neck might be the ticket to balance out some of the bright nature of walnut wood with a warm sounding neck.

I do see where Warmoth does ( or did) suggest an Ebony Fretboard with Walnut body. Now I'm sure that is an excellent suggestion, but why? I know on, and I'm going to use the G-word here- G*bson use a Mahogany neck with rosewood fretboard  for their Walnut guitars? Wouldn't Ebony accentuate the brightness of the Walnut, or would the  (I am assuming Rosewood)  just balance it all out in a pleasing manner?


In fact that is the direction I am leaning to ( mahogany and Rosewood) , although I suppose Mahogany  and Ebony would be just super!

Not that we can extrapolate this thread  into a discussion of balance of neck and body woods in general , but some ideas on such would be cool.

 

[stratamania]

Welcome to the forum.

I thought I would answer your post so your not left hanging. Strangely enough overall as a forum we don't tend to go in much for tonewood as a recipe that will produce some sort of definitive result.  Which is why you probably have no one who has taken it up.

Personally for your fretboard, choose what you will think is best for your feel and tonal preferences. If you like the feel of ebony and the overall result is a tad bright there are tone controls on the amp and pedals. Do you like sparkle or warmth ?

What pickups, what tonal result ? Country twang or Heavy Down tuned to use a couple of extremes no one knows what you want.

There's too many variables of personal subjective taste involved here I think.

 

[musicispeace]

Hi from the forum. From what I have experienced so far I would say I agree with the general consensus of the guitar being a sum of all components but that wood wise the neck is arguably the big wood factor of influence. I agree with anyone saying you really have to go for what excites you. If you find it turns out too this or too that you have options from your tone controls on your amp to changing out the pickups to move things closer to what you are seeking if need be. I am a strat player and have one all Bubinga neck and a couple maple necks with whatever dark wood fretboard caught my attention at the time. They all sound like strats. MAYBE the Bubinga is a little rounder on the attack of the notes than maple but it is by no means out of what most people would expect from a strat. I'm happy with what I have got. The bodies represented are swamp ash, alder, and poplar. Again, they all sound like strats. I personally think necks and pick ups are the biggest things that can color the tonal direction.