Skip to content Uncategorized
What You Should Know About Trees Used in Guitar Making
When it comes to the woods used to make guitars, there are many things to consider.
The wood type chosen for the guitar body and neck part plays a big role in the sound of the guitar. Therefore, the manufacturers are meticulous about the wood selection. You can read our guitar body types article here.
One thing to be aware of is that there are differences even between the same species of trees grown in different regions. These differences are usually in the form of appearance, weight, density.
For this reason, when choosing a guitar tree, sound and quality differences can be seen not only between different tree species but even in guitars produced with the same tree species.
Different sounds are produced by using different trees in acoustic guitars, classical guitars and electric guitars.
You can examine the following address in detail about the trees used in guitar making. https://www.americanspecialtyhardwoods.com/
Trees Used in Guitar Making (Trunk)
Alder Guitar Body
Fender, which uses ash wood, concentrated on the production of guitar bodies with Alder (alder) towards the end of the 50s. Since these years, mostly Alder wood has been used by Fender as guitar body trees.
Why does a big and famous guitar manufacturer like Fender use Alder wood to make guitar bodies?
Alder wood is a bright, light and affordable wood in terms of tonal characteristics. It is used extensively in Fender American Stratocaster models.
For this reason, if the guitar body wood you will buy is Alder, it is possible to say that your guitar will have a bright, high-pitched tone and good clean tones. Although the wood itself is affordable, the guitars made with this wood type by many guitar manufacturers, especially Fender, are really expensive due to its quality and versatility. .
Alder (alder), which is popular in the list of trees used in guitar making, is also used extensively by Jackson, one of the famous guitar companies.
Alder wood is one of the trees that can give metal tones the best because it has high and bright sounds. The reason why Jackson uses this tree in his guitars is obvious.
In addition, ESP guitar company is one of the companies that use this wood type frequently.
Ash Guitar Body
Guitar Body Made of Ash Wood
Ashwood has been used frequently by Fender in many guitar models since the 50s. Just like alder, ash wood is a wood species with bright and hard tones with high intensity and high sustain quality.
It is among the wood species that Fender Telecaster frequently uses.
Mahogany Guitar Body
Mahogany wood is one of the woods often used in guitar making. From the now-iconic classical guitars, Gibson Les Paul Jr., Les Paul Special and SG models are made of mahogany (including the neck) and are used as an auxiliary wood in countless guitar models.
Mahogany, which grows in Africa and Central America, is a medium-weight tree species. You can get warm and soft tones with the mahogany body guitar used alone.
If the weight will be a disadvantage for you, you can reconsider a mahogany body guitar. Mahogany wood, which is generally used in guitar fretboard construction, is a cheap wood type due to its abundance.
Being cheap does not mean that your guitar will be cheap, considering that classical guitars are made with these trees, there are models that vary in price.
Mahogany wood, which is generally used in medium and high-end guitars, is at the top of the list of trees used in guitar making, which is frequently used by big companies such as ESP and Gibson.
Basswood Guitar Truck
Linden wood is generally used in beginner and intermediate guitars. Since it is light and softwood, it is among the woods used in guitar making. Although it is frequently used in the construction of low-budget guitars, high-end guitar companies use it extensively in their guitars.
Ibanez leads the guitar brands that use linden wood. Famous guitar manufacturer Ibanez uses linden wood in almost all of their guitars. Because linden wood gives warm tones, a guitar created with certain supporting equipment can have a very wide tonal range. can give you an idea.
Korina
We can recognize the Korina tree as the body tree used in the Flying V and Explorer models, which the famous guitar manufacturer Gibson made a radical decision in the late 1950s. It is a type of guitar tree with warm, resonant and balanced sounds.
You can watch the 1998 Gibson Custom Shop Korina Les Paul Custom Standard review made with this wood used by Gibson.
Maple
Maple, which is a type of wood that is frequently used in the neck and fingerboard parts of guitars, has a durable and quality structure. The maple species is widely found in the northern regions of America and Canada. Because of its durability, maple, which is usually used on the neck of the guitar, has bright tones.
Although we see that rosewood is used more in the market, maple is a wood species with brighter tones than rosewood.
When you buy a maple body guitar, you can immediately notice its weight, because maple is a heavy wood species as well as durable.
Gibson started to use maple bodies on Les Paul models in the 1950s. Today, Hollow-Body Jazz case guitars are also used in body construction.
Maple and Mahogany
Guitar bodies made by combining Maple and Mahogany wood on top of each other are produced with the aim of obtaining different tones and qualities by combining the quality of the two kinds of wood. With this system, which many quality guitar manufacturers use in their high models, the cost can change while the quality can increase.
Poplar
We would like to talk about a tree species that you cannot always see in the list of trees used in guitar making, but is becoming increasingly common. Poplar…
Since there was a shortage of alder in the 90s, there are even Fender guitars that were oriented to poplar wood and were produced with poplar wood for a while.
Poplar wood is a type of wood that is frequently encountered in guitars produced in the Far East and is becoming increasingly widespread. This wood, which has a soft sound characteristic, is used in the construction of the guitar body. Although it has a soft sound quality, it cannot exceed a certain sound range. Therefore, if you are going to buy a guitar body made of poplar wood, think again.
Brazilian Rosewood
Rosewood is one of the leading tree species in the list of trees used in guitar making. Although rosewood is generally used in keyboard construction, it is also used in the body construction of solid-body guitars.
Rosewood, which is an important tree species used in guitar making, is a tree species with brown, red, purple and close tones. The effect of wood on tone is very important. Since it is a tight and voluminous wood type, its weight is high. In terms of tone, it has warm and emotional tones. It is used in the making of instruments such as classical guitar, electric guitar and oud.
Fender produced a full rosewood body telecaster guitar for George Harrison, the guitarist of the famous Beatles band, between 1969 and 1972. The guitar with this body was extremely heavy and had very nice tones.
Walnut
Walnut wood is one of the woods used in guitar body construction. Although it is not always seen, you are likely to see it on handmade guitars and solid-body guitars. It resembles mahogany wood in terms of sound characteristics.
Trees Used in Making Guitar Neck and Fingerboard
We have understood the characteristics of the tree species listed above and how they sound on guitar bodies. The same tree species are usually not used alone but together. Now let’s examine which tree species are used in guitar fingerboard and neck construction.
Mahogany / Ebony
Ebony fingerboard, mahogany wood handle is one of the best combinations as a super duo in the list of trees used in guitar handle construction. Ebony, which is dense and hardwood, has a hard and strong structure that will withstand you when you apply hard playing techniques on your guitar.
Mahogany / Rosewood
Maple is the most used wood type in guitar neck and fingerboard construction after mahogany. The hardness and sound quality of mahogany wood combine with the soft tones of rosewood, giving you a wonderful sound experience. It is a guitar fingerboard and neck combination that we often come across.
Maple
Since the quality of maple is not discussed, it is also used in the construction of neck and fingerboards, as in the body of the guitar. Guitars with a maple neck and fingerboard alone have a bright tone. Characteristically, you can catch a very good tone in terms of both brightness and clarity.
Maple / Pau Ferro
It is possible to see the Pau Ferro tree on the maple neck as a fingerboard. Due to its structure, the Pau Ferro tree can reflect the vibration you get from the strings very well.
Maple / Rosewood
The combination of maple and rosewood is the most popular guitar neck and fretboard combination. Wonderful tone and characteristic features can be achieved by adding rosewood, which has delicate, soft and quality sounds, as a guitar fretboard, on maple, which has hard and quality tones as a guitar neck wood.
If you like to learn more about guitar body shapes. You can read Main Guitar Types and Features – Body Shapes article.
