All you need to know about different guitar body tonewoods and how they impact tone in a no-nonsense guide
Getting sucked into the guitar body tonewood rabbit hole can be dangerous – you could come out the other end looking like Robin Williams in Jumanji, frantically asking “what year is it?!”
That’s why we’ve created this quick fire guide to help you understood the different tonal qualities of guitar woods.
Alder
A mainstay wood in Fender guitars, alder offers a fairly balanced tone all round; a 'just right' Goldilocks approach. Not too heavy to hold, and not too bright or dark tonally. This wood is typically found on high end guitars, with poplar serving as a cheaper equivalent.
Basswood
A popular affordable wood choice, basswood its balanced tones may lack character for some, but with quality humbuckers, you can get good definition and oomph out of these woods. It’s a great budget alternative for mahogany and can also be found on more expensive guitars.
Korina
Warmer, sweeter and a little more resonant than mahogany, this wood is all about its bassy warmth and defined low ends. It’s got a lovely grain to it, which is why many korina guitars have natural finishes.
Mahogany
One of the weightier woods, it offers a striking reddish-brown grain and plenty of resonance. Warm but punchy, with an emphasis on bass and low-mids, it’s a solid choice for heavy music, but a terrible choice if you have a bad back.
Maple
A versatile wood that can be used for bodies, tops and fretboards, it's typically a very bright sounding wood. This is why, alongside its visual appeal, it’s often used for tops as it brightens up darker woods.
Okoume
A newcomer in the tonewood world, it's been used on signature gutiars for John Petrucci and Paul Gilbert. PRS and Dean use it as a mahogany alternative, which tells you a little of its fatness of tone and full mid-range.
Pine
On the heavier end and rarely used. Fender has used it as an ash replacement in a few instances across its American Professional II Series, and it's been used be Fender in the past too.
Poplar
Viewed as a budget mahogany and alder by many luthiers, it offers a better upper-midrange than alder. Poplar is often found on price-conscious guitars like Harley Bentons. It’s a soft wood, so it can dent and scratch more easily if you’re clumsy. Poplar guitars often have solid finishes so you can’t see the grain.
Swamp Ash
Light in colour and weight, its tone leans more towards brightness than it does warmth, and gives a nice twang when using single-coils. It’s more expensive than alder, which is similar tonally.
Nyatoh
The wood choice of the new Ibanez RG models as well as numerous Sterling Music Man guitars, which is the brand’s affordable range. It offers similar tonal qualities to mahogany at a cheaper price, but can prove to be a less durable wood.
Walnut
Similar to maple, its oilier qualities give you a smoother tone. It is one of the bitier hardwoods when it comes to tone, its tone can often sound as dark as this wood looks, but with plenty of clarity.
That’s all folks. So next time your GAS gets the better of you and you find yourself scrolling through pages and pages of guitars, you’ll know what tonewoods best suit your tonal cravings.
Jump over to the MMA blog page for more quick-fire guides to gear, guitar playing, and songwriting.
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