Untitled by Marcin Wichary via Flickr
Necks and Tops and Fingerboards, Oh My!

Last time we talked about the different types of body woods that luthiers like to use when they make guitars. Now I’d like to take that a step further and talk about the neck, fingerboard and “top” wood choices and how they affect the sound of the instrument.

First off, let’s talk about “tops”. Sometimes, in order to make up for the lack of a specific frequency range or to enhance a specific frequency range, guitar builders will sometime laminate another piece of wood on the top of the body. This adds a new sonic twist on a particular type of wood and also can heighten the looks of the guitar (queue the dream bubble and then an Ibanez RG 360 Prestige fills in the open space).  Sorry, day-dreaming again, anyway, back to the subject at hand… Maple is probably the most used top. Maple is commonly used in conjunction with basswood, mahogany, alder and swamp ash. Ebony is hard on tools, but man, does it look cool…did I mention it looks cool?

When used with basswood, maple brings in some of the higher frequencies that basswood lacks and acts as almost a natural compressor for the basswood.  Mahogany with a maple top (which is my preference) gives you all the great lows and highs of mahogany. These two woods are so different from each other they actually cancel out certain characteristics of one another. However, you get that smooth, creamy sound that is just too cool! Alder with a maple top responds the same way basswood with maple does. The maple brings out some of those nice higher frequencies and compresses the alder a bit tightening up the overall harmonics. Maple when paired with swamp ash closes up those big pores of the ash and tightens up the sound. The maple can subdue the large variety of lows and highs the ash offers and boost the mid-range frequencies. Think of Brad Paisley’s killer chickin’ pickin’ tone.

Rosewood is not a wood too often used for a top because of its density and its high oil content. These factors however, will lead to much more sustain added to the instrument. Good luck finding one of these babies, it’s been years since I have seen or heard of rosewood tops being used (of course, now that I say that someone is going raise their hand and say “well, what about…?” this is just from what I have seen).

A “2-Tone” Koa top, just before being laminated on to the instrument… Rob Allen MB-2 Bass by Ethan Prater via FlickrKoa tops have been used from time to time. Koa just as a top drastically cuts the cost down of a full koa body and still gives you some the cool dynamics this wood can offer. Koa tops are similar to maple tops in their tonal characteristics but their aesthetics are quite different. Sometimes the sheer beauty of this wood is enough to want to have it as a top on a guitar. I would say the same thing for walnut, too.

Now, let’s move onto necks. The most common by far is maple (anyone else noticing the pattern?). Maple’s strength, tight and even grain, and its ability to withstand the elements, meaning its not as easily affected by humidity and temperature make this wood very effective in guitar building.  Maple also allows the body wood to shine by reflecting the energy of the string toward the body. Who said physics wasn’t fun? Mahogany is used because of its density and stability but you can sometimes loose out on some of the high end. Koa, again, not used very often because of its price; it falls between maple and mahogany in terms of tonal quality. A rosewood neck will add sustain to a body just like a rosewood top will and will not spike the frequencies on the top end as sustain is known to do.

Finally, we get to fingerboards. There are three woods here that are quite common, two of which we have seen on every other aspect of the guitar so far, maple and rosewood. The new kid on the block here is ebony. Ebony is cool because the wood itself is black and black always looks cool. It has the same density as maple and the oil content of rosewood so it is sort of the best of both worlds. It is more expensive because ebony is hard on tools, but man, does it look cool…did I mention it looks cool?

One more thing I want to talk about is something called “neck-through” construction. This type of building changes everything. With bolt-on and set neck construction, the body is where the majority of the tone is generated. With a neck-through design it is quite the opposite. The reason being the neck becomes the length of the whole instrument and the center of the body and the neck are all one piece. This could be a combination of woods laminated together or just one solid piece of wood down the middle. The wings of the guitar are more about balance then about tone with this method. A new technique that I have seen recently, (probably not new, but maybe more cost effective now), is a bolt-on design with separate woods for the tone block (center), the wings, and the top. The new Ernie Ball/Music Man John Petrucci BFR model incorporates this type of construction. I have yet to try one of these guitars myself, but his tone is amazing so, the proof is in the playing!