Walnut body, what is the tone?

[rowz]

Hi guys i need an advice.
I got an warmoth neck tele style with maple and pau ferro fretboard.
Im thinking to purchase a body with walnut.
Its for two P-90s and hardtail bridge.
What do you think about the tone.
I talked with a friend recently and he says that will be too bright and trebly.
i asked in another forum and they say walnut is like mahogany with more mids and that is what i want.
im really confused for the contradictory opinions.
thanks in advance!

 

[AutoBat]

The type of p90s that you use will probably have more of an effect on your tone than the body wood.
A maple/pau ferro wood will generally give a brighter tone than, say, rosewood. If it winds up too bright consider using a tone knob.

If you haven't seen the wood description page, check out the following:
http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Necks/NeckWoods.aspx
http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Bodies/Options/BodyWoodOptions.aspx

 

[rowz]

Thanks for your reply.
I got a set of suhr S90 and a set of gibson P-100.

will see but is hard and its so relative.

 

[greywolf]

I'd concurr with the like mahagony but a bit brighter assessment ,  not as much as Maple though

 

[m4rk0]

it may be a bit trebly..
I have a walnut thinline with a pau ferro neck and it is pretty bright.
it was actually "icepick in the ear" bright before i switched out the 500k pots for 250k pots

 

[stubhead]

Walnut with P90's reads "bright" to me too. Bright is OK with me - I prefer sending along some treble into the amp, and taming it down with PA speakers by choice. But if you're going to be using a "normal" guitar amp with normal Celestion, Jensen, Eminence guitar-amp speakers, that boy's gonna bite.

 

[rowz]

Thanks guys !!! i really apreciate yours reply, specially Marko.
I will change to wenge or mahogany.

 

[jackthehack]

Body wood on a solid body really has no effect on "brights"/"mids"/"treblys" or whatever else you think y'all are hearing the. The axe below sound IDENTICAL to another I have with an alder body/maple neck/same pickup configuration...

 

[crash]

Body wood on a solid body really has no effect on "brights"/"mids"/"treblys" or whatever else you think y'all are hearing the. The axe below sound IDENTICAL to another I have with an alder body/maple neck/same pickup configuration...

What he said.


Of all the factors that effect the brightness of the tone, the wood of the body is near the bottom of that list.  The guitar cable you use will have a 10 times greater effect than the body wood.

 

[rowz]

Body wood on a solid body really has no effect on "brights"/"mids"/"treblys" or whatever else you think y'all are hearing the. The axe below sound IDENTICAL to another I have with an alder body/maple neck/same pickup configuration...

What he said.


Of all the factors that effect the brightness of the tone, the wood of the body is near the bottom of that list.  The guitar cable you use will have a 10 times greater effect than the body wood.

Wow so in this consideration every guitar can have a poplar for the body?

 

[Cagey]

Wow so in this consideration every guitar can have a poplar for the body?

I don't think you can go so far as to say that, nor is he. What he said was that on the list of things that will influence the tonal characteristics of an electric guitar, the wood species the body is made of ranks fairly low. That doesn't mean it has no influence, just that it's not as prominent as things like the pickup design/placement, string scale length, neck wood/construction, etc.

 

[tfarny]

Poplar sounds great, OP. Nothing wrong with it. It just looks ugly sometimes, so it should have a solid color. All those MIJ Fenders that everyone says are better than the American ones? All Poplar, or Basswood. Body wood species does not have a major, predictable effect on guitar tone. Body weight and just the particulars of the individual piece affect tone more than the name of the wood species.
Guys here have tried enough combos to know.

 

[line6man]

What's wrong with Poplar?

 

[Orpheo]

nothing wrong with poplar. the statement that bodywood doesn't matter for the tone is hogwash, though. I have 3 wenge neck'd les pauls, same pickups, but they sound all different. the only change can be attributed to the body.

 

[tfarny]

nothing wrong with poplar. the statement that bodywood doesn't matter for the tone is hogwash, though. I have 3 wenge neck'd les pauls, same pickups, but they sound all different. the only change can be attributed to the body.

It's not that the body doesn't affect the tone, it's that the SPECIES of body wood doesn't RELIABLY affect the tone as much as the weight and individual qualities of the wood. You can have three alder bodies, one really heavy, one really light, and one just dead.

 

[line6man]

nothing wrong with poplar. the statement that bodywood doesn't matter for the tone is hogwash, though. I have 3 wenge neck'd les pauls, same pickups, but they sound all different. the only change can be attributed to the body.

That's also nonsense. Haven't you learned by now that every piece of wood is wildly different? You can see variation in the wood, even from the same tree.

 

[rowz]

For what i know poplar is the worst wood for everything that is why is so cheap.
every luthier i talk here talks shite about poplar bodies that has a very thin woody sound and sustain isnt very great.

the discuss seems interest personally i dont think the body doesnt affect the tone. for me is a set of everything, maybe with the P-100 pickups i got which they are dark can sound good but i must try them and all got different taste so its so relative.

 

[tfarny]

Poplar is ugly, that's why you don't see it on expensive guitars with pretty paint jobs. It's cheap because it's common easy to find wood, unlike mahogany which won't exist in 20 years. Nothing to do with the tone.

 

[m4rk0]

I have to disagree with Crash here...
and also agree with tfarny.. I think wood (both neck and body) affect the tone a lot (based on experience)  but the actual effect is very unpredictable.
I still don't think it is a good idea to pair a "bright" neck wood with a "bright" body wood with "bright" pickups...  a little bit of a balance is good.

 

[m4rk0]

on a related note, I read an interesting article the other day, I think it was from the founder of Hamer, His theory is that wood  has a way bigger effect on tone than the pickups, which I thought was interesting.
He compared it to the voice of the guitar: a shit singer using an expensive microphone will still sound shit.