The king of tone woods

[WarmothRules]

It's poplar. Best body tone wood to my ears, neck woods makes the biggest difference but poplar sounds great. I know you all agree :glasses9:

 

[bagman67]

Kinda early in the game to go trolling like that so soon after the "snobs" thread seems to have cooled off, ain't it?


Heh.


I've had nice sounding electric guitars in mahogany, maple, ash, alder, poplar, basswood - so I have anecdotal evidence that all of them can make a decent guitar.  But as the dead Roman guy said, "De gustibus non est disputandum."

 

[WarmothRules]

Kinda early in the game to go trolling like that so soon after the "snobs" thread seems to have cooled off, ain't it?


Heh.


I've had nice sounding electric guitars in mahogany, maple, ash, alder, poplar, basswood - so I have anecdotal evidence that all of them can make a decent guitar.  But as the dead Roman guy said, "De gustibus non est disputandum."

True they all make great tone woods. I've owned two poplar guitar still have one and liked those best. Also own a black korina just sold a mahogany and own basswood and alder body guitars. Ed Roman says basswood is junk, I like it. The mahogany was a carvin 7 string with mahogany neck and rosewood fretboard. Sounded great and all but I'm over 7 strings. If I want to tune to b standard I'll use a baritone.

 

[Phinox]

Ill play along. I have a Polar Strat in the works. But ins't plywood the king of tone woods. After all such iconic companies as B.C Rich and Epiphone use it.

 

[AutoBat]

I've owned bodies from Basswood, Alder, and Mahogany (w/Maple cap)
All sound pretty good to me, with slight preference to the latter two.

 

[greywolf]

I used Alder on the last build and liked quite a bit, the grain is nothing to look at but the tone was pleasing.  Working on my first all walnut (except the ebony fretboard)  should be intersting to see how it turns out.
I'll give poplar a try down the road.

 

[Great Ape]

I love it when everyone just keeps right on falling into another no-right-or-wrong, 110% subjective topic trap!!! Have a ball, Y'all!

 

[line6man]

My issue with poplar is that it's pretty much the ugliest wood you can make a guitar out of. You're usually out of luck if you like natural or transparent finishes.

 

[Cagey]

What if you wanted a lightweight Strat painted seafoam green, or any of the other vomit-inducing colors Fender typically uses? You could make the body out of compressed carrots and cat litter and it wouldn't matter. At least Poplar doesn't stink. Not sure how it tastes.

 

[m4rk0]

My issue with poplar is that it's pretty much the ugliest wood you can make a guitar out of. You're usually out of luck if you like natural or transparent finishes.

unless you have a solid flamed piece... like me... but don't experiment on it with stains like me and completely ruin it!!!!  :tard:

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

I'll bite too.  It seems the progressive builders, the ones that go out the way to not rehash the same tonewoods  of the 50s and 60s lean to basswood.  I'll never know though.  It seems guitars don't want to be made out of it, atleast made out of it and take abuse.

 

[line6man]

My issue with poplar is that it's pretty much the ugliest wood you can make a guitar out of. You're usually out of luck if you like natural or transparent finishes.

unless you have a solid flamed piece... like me... but don't experiment on it with stains like me and completely ruin it!!!!  :tard:

That one ended up a nasty pink, IIRC?

 

[m4rk0]

no, a very nasty purple brown!

 

[Tweed]

Pianos, violins, upright basses, etc. are made of poplar.

I think my next Warmoth will be a poplar Thinline.

 

[lucky13]

After the billion dollar market Ibanez cornered using Bass wood I dont think wood can really be construed as a serious factor unless your trying to duplicate vintage tones or a specific sounding instrument,

but there again I believe weight and density of the body itself play a more crucial roll to the overall sound,sustain and tone than what type of wood is used,

throw in different pickup winds, different pot and cap values and it changes the whole spectrum, so it only becomes relative if your building several guitars out of all the same other parts...ie pickups,pots caps, bridges etc. etc.

then and only then could a guy truely pick up each guitar and make a more accurate subjective analysis.....but that brings you right back to if it sounds good it is good.......etc. etc.....ad nauseum