Guitar tonewood... What's with all the differences?
Author: Siraj Jardine Date Posted:2 June 2020
To the beginner and experienced guitarist, the topic of guitar wood is a very interesting one. For acoustic guitars, there is a pronounced difference in the tone created by different woods, and this will not be discussed here. There are arguments all over the internet about the importance of tonewoods on your electric guitar. Some say that it makes a big difference to the tone of an electric guitar, while others say that all the tone comes from the strings, pickups, pedals, and amplifier.
An article in the Guitar Player magazine has been summarised below, to describe some of the expected differences generated by tonewoods. This section will be followed by arguments that reduce the importance of tonewoods in electric guitars.
All about Tonewoods
When discussing tonewoods, people are referring to the wood used in the construction of the body, neck, and fretboard. Woods of the same species cut from different trees (or grown in different regions) may also vary in their weights, densities, and so on. So the potential sonic variables exist not only between woods, but in subtler degrees, between different guitars made from the “same” wood. The descriptions below discuss the expected tonal properties of different woods.
Body Woods
Alder
Famously used on:
'50s and '60s Fender guitars
Key physical properties:
Medium weight, although high-quality cuts can be light
Brownish colour, with an attractive but uninteresting grain
Current usage:
Typically used under opaque finishes or darker translucent finishes
Often used on its own as a body wood
Tonal properties:
Strong, clear, full-bodied sound, with beefy mids and excellent lows
Its highs sizzle slightly, but are rarely harsh
Offers a decent amount of sustain.
Ash
Famously used on:
Classic ’50s Fender guitars
Key physical properties:
Swamp-ash
The most desirable form of ash
Taken from the lower portions of southern-grown wetland trees that have root systems growing below water level
Light and resonant
Attractive broad grain
Ash (from the upper portions of the tree) and Northern Ash
Harder, denser and heavier than swamp ash
Current usage:
Used under translucent/clear finishes
Traditionally single-wood slab-bodied guitars
Sometimes used in laminate bodies, commonly with a carved maple top, or as the top of a semi-hollow or chambered guitar
Tonal properties:
Swamp ash
Twangy, airy and sweet
Firm lows, pleasant highs, slightly scooped midrange
Good sustain
Ash (from the upper portions of the tree) and Northern Ash
Brighter, harder sound
Good for cutting distorted tones
Basswood
Famously used on:
Mid-level and budget guitars
Key physical properties:
Lightweight and soft
Light in colour with minimal grain
Current usage:
Typically used on opaque bodies
Sometimes used by high-end makers with excellent results
Tonal properties:
Fat but well-balanced tone
Muscular midrange, with softness and breathiness
Well-made basswood guitars yield good dynamics and definition with some grind for oomph
Korina
Famously used on:
Gibson Flying V and Explorer
Key physical properties:
Species is generically known as Iimba (African wood related to Mahogany) but imported as Korina
Light hardwood
Fine grain that is enhanced during finishing to appear as long thin streaks
White Iimba (used by Gibson and Kramer) has a lighter appearance, black Iimba has a more pronounced grain
Current usage:
Typically used under opaque finishes or darker translucent finishes
Often used on its own as a body wood
Tonal properties:
Warm, resonant and balanced
Great clarity, definition and sustain
Mahogany
Famously used on:
Gibson Les Paul and SG
Key physical properties:
Harvested in Africa and Central America
Dense, medium-to-heavy wood
Current usage:
Used in both slab and laminated bodies
Common neck wood
Tonal properties:
Warm but soft and well-balanced
Good grind and bite
Good depth
Full (but not tight) lows and appealing (unpronounced) highs
Maple
Famously used on:
Gibson ES-335 (laminate) and Les Paul (top)
Key physical properties:
Sourced from North America
Light colour with a tightly packed grain
Can have dramatic figuring (flamed-maple, quilted maple)
Dense, hard, heavy wood
Current usage:
Necks (and sometimes fretboards)
Semi-hollow guitars' laminate bodies
Figured tops on mahogany-bodied guitars
Tonal properties:
Extremely bright, precise, clear tone
Tight lows
As a neck wood:
Tightness and cut
An edge of sizzle in the highs, and firm lows
Its high end is usually not as over-pronounced as people might think, although it is a characteristically bright neck-wood choice
Mids tend to have a snappy attack, with a punchy, slightly gnarly edge when the strings are hit hard, but excellent clarity with light to medium picking
Poplar
Famously used on:
Early-90s Fender guitar bodies
Key physical properties:
A "hardwood" by definition but relatively soft
No pronounced visual qualities
Current usage:
Body-wood used in affordable Asian-made electric guitars
Also used in some Made-in-Mexico Fender guitars
Tonal properties:
Well-balanced sonic qualities
Not particularly resonant or sustaining
Does not enhance any specific frequency range
Rosewood
Famously used on:
Rosewood Telecaster played by George Harrison
Key physical properties:
Heavy
Dark brown in colour
Current usage:
Fretboards
Tonal properties:
As a body - can be overly bright
As a fretboard paired with mahogany
Complex highs, thick and creamy lows
An appealing midrange that isn’t honky or excessively punchy
As a fretboard paired with maple
Warm and sweet,
Sparkle in the highs and thick lows
Ebony
Key physical properties:
Black
Dense, hard, and heavy wood
Wears very slowly
Current usage:
Upmarket guitar fretboards
Tonal properties:
Fast attack
Muscular, controlled bass
Snappy, sizzling highs
Tonewood Isn't That Important
There have been many recent investigations into the "mythical" properties of tonewoods. The arguments against the properties of tonewoods stem from the fact that the woods of an electric guitar don't vibrate as much as they do on an acoustic guitar.
The sound of an electric guitar is produced by the strings moving over the pickups through Faraday's Law and is then altered further by the controls on the guitar, the pedals in the signal chain, the amplifier preamp, EQ, power amp, and speaker. There are simply more external influences on tone when it comes to electric guitar.
The most common conclusion of all these arguments is that the woods do affect tone by absorbing and accentuating certain frequencies of string vibrations, but these effects are very small compared to the other elements mentioned above (the chain from pickups to amp speaker).
Some of these views can be heard in the videos below: