Best wood for a superstrat?

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Scott Ians Beard

Scott Ians Beard

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What kind of wood do you think tonally works best in a superstrat. Nothing too exquisite though!

Im going to put together a superstrat from a bunch of parts I have lying round, but I need to get a body. The config will be HSS, Floyd, Bolt-On Maple neck with Rosewood board. The finish is going to be oil, so an attractive "darker" wood would be preferered.
 
Depends on what kind of tone you're going for, and what you like the sound of. For what I play I prefer mahogany.
 
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Scott Ians Beard":8aa7c said:
What kind of wood do you think tonally works best in a superstrat. Nothing too exquisite though!

Im going to put together a superstrat from a bunch of parts I have lying round, but I need to get a body. The config will be HSS, Floyd, Bolt-On Maple neck with Rosewood board. The finish is going to be oil, so an attractive "darker" wood would be preferered.
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It really depends what kinda sound you like, I have heard some amazing superstrats made from Mahogany, some from Swamp Ash, some from Alder etc. They all have their own unique sounds so it depends what you like most!
 
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MrDan666":de0fb said:
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It really depends what kinda sound you like, I have heard some amazing superstrats made from Mahogany, some from Swamp Ash, some from Alder etc. They all have their own unique sounds so it depends what you like most!
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Good point guys! Just general "Hard Rock" tone for me, your Whitesnakes, UFOs, Shotgun Messiah ballpark.
 
What kind of bridge pickup are you going to use? Or are you going to wait until after you decide on the wood first?
 
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Scott Ians Beard":4be27 said:
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Good point guys! Just general "Hard Rock" tone for me, your Whitesnakes, UFOs, Shotgun Messiah ballpark.
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Mahogany could sound good for that. Swamp Ash will have a bit more of that VH kinda vibe, its brighter sounding than Mahogany but still sounds huge. Ralph's GMW's are Swamp Ash and he can get crazy good hard rock tones with them!
 
Alder.....


look at the Superstrats that are out there, alot are Alder, I've had some killer sounding SS guitars made of it.
 
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Megadeth7684":30694 said:
What kind of bridge pickup are you going to use? Or are you going to wait until after you decide on the wood first?
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Ive got a duncan distortion that i took out of another guitar for the short term, but id rather get the wood right for my needs than match it to the pickup!
 
Alder has a nuetral sound to me, not too dark and not too bright. Lot's of Strats are made of Alder.

I owned a few Anderson's with Basswood and they sounded awesome. Nice mids and low end. On Anderon's website they explain why Basswood get's a bad rap by some people. A few companies that were making cheaper guitars used mystery woods that were passed off as Basswood.

Basswood or Alder with a maple top is a great combo.
 
Black Korina looks pretty nice oil finished.


here's mine, not a good pic, it's oil finished.
 

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here's pics some i borrowed from Warmoth.
 

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light weight Alder is my first choice. although a chambered swamp ash body sounds great with humbuckers IMO
 
I like Basswood a lot. It's light, and sounds good. Black Korina looks good though! Not sure on the sound, but I'm sure it's nice.
 
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70strathead":9f3a0 said:
light weight Alder is my first choice. although a chambered swamp ash body sounds great with humbuckers IMO
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Do both...hollow alder/ash sandwich, one of my Tylers got that and I so dig it.
 
Swamp ash body, both maple and rosewood fingerboards match pretty well. It has a mid cut on frequencies but when you play loud it delivers the goods and accepts well high output humbuckers. Alder sounds nice on lower volumes but on higher it gets honky tonk.
 
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Scott Ians Beard":d63be said:
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Ive got a duncan distortion that i took out of another guitar for the short term, but id rather get the wood right for my needs than match it to the pickup!
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i didn't like the distortion i tried in an alder super-strat, i thought it was way too bright.

That being said, I like alder, ash, basswood and mahogany, so as you said, probably best to get the wood right and match the pickup to that!

:thumbsup:
 
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