What Is The Worst Tonewood For Electric Guitars

Tooth picks and tight bond make this a moot point though. I love the warmth a good tooth pick brings to my tone. Round only. The flat ones ruin sustain.

Polar is the #1 construction grade wood for cabinet making, typically in paint grade furniture. It is very stable, takes finishes excellent and the density ratio is perfect for guitars. It is harder and denser than Alder, and on the technical structure it is every close to Mahogany. As far as using a polyester finish over it, that is the best wood for the job, as Alder dents easier. Ash is subject to insect attacks and fractures easily if not properly handled. Comments from a Cabinet & Chair maker that also makes guitars.

I've had a poplar body guitar for almost 40 years now...never had a screw strip, always sounds great, plenty of sustain

Hi Dylan, I’m a middling guitar player at best, but I’m a master cabinetmaker and furniture builder. Don’t really understand so many folks ragging on poplar. It’s always been one of my favorites and I use it all the time. It might not be much to look at unfinished but it’s very dimensionally stable, has nice tight relatively straight grain, it’s affordable, it works and machines very nicely, takes stains and finishes really well, for any paint grade millwork it’s always been my go to species, and, unlike Honduran Mahogany, it’s environmentally sustainable. It’s also user friendly toxicity-wise. Honduran Mahogany is beautiful and works like butter but it’s quite expensive. The Ash family looks nice and makes great baseball bats, but it’s not user friendly in terms of it’s working characteristics and toxicity. Ash splinters are the worst. They get infected easily and take much longer to heal up. As far as electric solid body guitars go, if you have a poplar body one and you don’t like the guitar, it’s not the wood that’s the problem. I think our friend with the benches and classic motorcycle engines put that myth to rest. Cheers, Mark

Tone wood is bs for electric guitars. Nobody even mentioned “tone wood” before the 1990’s. It’s a marketing ploy.

I have seen the softness argument made a lot about basswood. Normal people don't unscrew pickguards all the time but they do remove trussrod covers or backplates to adjust vibrato springs. If stripping occurs, sticking the end of a toothpick in the hole is an easy workaround.

If you know how to properly 'back screw" so the threads line up with the existing hole that was made with the first screw you should never have a problem.

All I got from this test is don’t use a drill to screw in a screw. I always use a screwdriver to drive the screw home so I don’t over torque the screw. It just needs to be snug. I think it would be extremely easy to over torque the screw with the drill. If that were truly the case my old ash body American series Stratocaster would have had every screw stripped out years ago, as I’ve put mods, and various pickups in the guitar for 20 years now. I’ve easily taken the pickguard off 20 or more times to change things as simple as cap values. Every time I put the screws back in with a screwdriver not a drill with a screw bit.

When I was a woodworker, we used poplar all the time for painted furniture, and it was also useful in upholstered furniture for its ability to hold staples.

Question: Once an electric guitar is amplified and loud enough, so that, all you can hear is the sound coming out of the speaker, does it matter what the body material is? Acrylic, glass, poplar, plywood vs. traditional “tone woods”

I used poplar as a fretboard, with ebony stain, on a CBG. Looks great, works great. The weird grain pattern, in that instance, was a definite plus!

it's not about how many times you take the pickguard off, it's the attention you pay to technique and torque

Im gonna say refrigerator magnets could be the most problematic tone wood

So, you didn't see the guy stringing up a set of strings in his shed with no actual guitar body and it sounded no different than when he played the strings on a guitar ? Softwood, hardwood, NO WOOD it makes zero difference. Maybe you're using the hot button 'tonewood' for clicks...

Wood makes no difference to the sound. I don't know what this 'test' proves.

You have previously helped to demonstrate along with Jim Lill, that the material that the body of an electric guitar is made of is irrelevant regarding tone. There is no "tone wood" for an electric guitar. So, poplar as a tone wood is as good or bad as any other. Screw stripping, etc.? Another matter.

I expected the ash to go the quickest just because of how crazy light it is, but I never expected the poplar to beat mahogany.

Poplar is a tough wood. I once broke off the head of a screw trying to screw it into a poplar guitar body.

I have a guitar with a poplar body. Angled pickup. Sounds killer. Spray painted stormtrooper white and clear coated. Tone wood. Nonsense or a valid thing ? I would have to change the body to test. Does my finish affect things ? Would a more natural Hardwax Oil finish be different on the tone ? So many questions....so little time. 🤣✌️😎✌️🎸✌️

From Leo: I wax all the screw holes in every guitar I have worked on and am careful when reinstalling screws. None of mine are stripped out, even on my hollow body guitars. For the guitars brought into the shop, I kept 3/16", 1/4" and 3/8" maple dowel rod in stock. I fixed a lot of holes. There were always some ham fisted people who must have learned mechanical skills on farm implements. It seems like the last 10 years has gotten a lot worse. Using construction tools without understanding the torque limiting clutch seems to be a problem. I am fixing 2 week old guitars that people installed their own strap locks. Lots of cracked plastics too.