What is the difference between basswood and mahogany

Some of the top custom makers, like Suhr really like using basswood in their guitars and I don't think you could really say Suhr exactly make shit guitars. I own both a basswood and mahogany guitar with maple top and like both honestly. It's also a question of what pickups you want to use, since the tonal properties of both body woods are quite different.

Mahogany guitars don't have to be heavy btw. My mahog axe is actually a very nice weight, but packs some serious fucking tone and has quite amazing harmonics. So it would be dumb to make 2 V's really. If you're gonna go with an 81 in the bridge position, basswood shouldn't even be in the running here. Nitrobattery Member. I in fact hate vintage guitars in general. Both were Mahagony, that explains it I'd guess.

I will believe that until I'm proven wrong I'd guess. Sacha Throbbing Member. Basswood is absolutely not just for cheap guitars, that's an internet myth because cheap guitars happen to use Shitty quality basswood Plenty of high end guitars like Suhr, Musicman etc.

It's a tonewood like any other and will sound great in a well constructed guitar. If it matches your preferences is another story It depends on the guitar and pickups but I find it brighter and more biting with a more slender low end then mahogany in my experience.

Good swamp ash is both light and resonant, and generally carries a broad grain that looks great under a translucent finish. The swamp-ash sound is twangy, airy, and sweet. It offers firm lows, pleasant highs, a slightly scooped midrange, and good sustain. Ash from the upper portions of the tree has also been used, as has harder northern ash.

Both tend to be denser and heavier, and have a brighter, harder sound that might be more useful when cutting, distorted tones are desired. Ash is traditionally used for single-wood, slab-bodied guitars, but has sometimes been employed by more contemporary designers in multi-wood or laminated bodies—most commonly with a carved-maple top, or as the top of a semi-hollow or chambered guitar with a back made from a different wood.

Affordable and abundant, basswood is particularly associated with mid-level or budget guitars. But basswood is a good tonewood by any standards, and it has been used by many high-end makers with excellent results.

Solid basswood bodies have a fat, but well-balanced tonality. On a well-made guitar, basswood can yield good dynamics and definition with enough grind to give the sound some oomph. It also yields great clarity, definition, and sustain. The species is known generically as limba—an African wood related to mahogany, but imported under the trade name Korina.

White limba—as used by Gibson and Hamer—has a light appearance in its natural state, and black limba has a more pronounced grain.

Alongside maple, mahogany is a classic ingredient in both slab and multi-wood or laminated bodies, and is a common neck wood, too. As for the classics, the Gibson Les Paul Jr. Harvested in Africa and Central America, mahogany is a fairly dense, medium-to-heavy wood that yields a wide range of guitar-body weights, depending upon stock sources.

There is usually good depth to the sound, with full but not especially tight lows, and appealing if unpronounced highs. Used for both bodies and necks, maple is a dense, hard, and heavy wood, sourced mostly in the Northeast and Northwest United States and Canada.

Maple is often used as an ingredient in a multi-wood body, where it is generally partnered with a second, lighter wood. Maple is also one of the most common ingredients of laminates used for semi-hollow electric-guitar bodies, where it contributes tightness and clarity. This was kind of a swap with my dad who borrowed my EC and loved it so much I made a deal. That was all mahogany. I could play about anything on that guitar as it had just amazing tone overall, but the M with EMGs just sounds like a metal machine.

Basswood may not really color the sound, however it does color the scoop with sweet sweet crunch. Thanks for your comments, guys.

Just had EMG Het Set purchased and wondered if I need a mahogany guitar in addition to my low end basswood, now will stick with basswood at least for a while and then will see.

Soumyajit A. Updated September 28,