Wood talk: Basswood

Basswood, according to the guitar lay-person, is a pariah wood, often used in cheap guitars & some pretentious high end models so the manufacturer can rake in the most money from unsuspecting people. Oh?

Luthiers often classify basswood as a good tonewood to tool with due to its soft nature. It's more abundant than its other tonewood siblings hence its lower price tag. The uninformed always attribute abundance & the lack of material toughness as 'bad'; just because it doesn't comply to certain expectations doesn't mean it's dud. Fundamentally, basswood gives off a muscular midrange response but we often hear a lack of pronounced manifestation from a particular frequency hence making it one of the most neutral wood to propel guitar acoustics.

In this light, basswood is perhaps the best working material to propel your favourite/ boutique pickups' tones with minimal resonance colouring. However, the situation today is still one of basswood disapproval because it's not used in high-end guitars so it must be bad.

To date, Suhr guitars, one of the most respectable names in grand guitar craftsmanship, cites basswood as a splendid tonewood. Guitar wizards such as Joe Satriani, John Petrucci & Paul Gilbert, among others, chose basswood for their signature guitars- they must be dumb to do so, yes? Something for us to reflect upon...