Here we are again, this time to help you select the perfect guitar body. Much like the other steps in selecting the components of your DREAM GUITAR, we suggest playing many existing guitars to figure out what aspects you like of each one. Weight, wood type, shape, comfort and construction are the most critical aspects of this process, but the aesthetics such as color, grain patterns, and figuring can play in important part in a guitar that you have to look at every day for the rest of your life.

Once again, you do not have to be an expert to pick a guitar body. Your only expertise has to be in LIKES and DISLIKES.

Weight is an important aspect for most working musicians. We weigh each body individually so that our customers know exactly what they are going to be dealing with. A guitarist who is gigging a few nights a week is not going to be comfortable with a BOULDER hanging around thier neck the whole time. A comfortable weight is generally in the 3-6 pound range. If your seller is not telling you the weight, then there is a reason. If they don't post it THEN ASK. And don't accept 'about' or 'range' as an answer. This is a very important part of your buying process and it needs to be exact. 

Routing is another important aspect. You need to know what kind of pickup configuration you want on this guitar. Most of our bodies are UNIVERSAL routed which means it will accomodate just about any pickup configuration you can conceive. However, many of our bodies are VINTAGE routed which only accepts the standard 3 single coil setup. Both styles are pre routed for all the wiring and tremolo cavity so no worries about that. All you need to do is bolt on your desired components.

Wood Selection comes into play when talking about your desired tone. There are many descriptive words that are used to describe wood tones, but the best bet is to develop your own opinions. Once again. use existing models as a template. For example, I like the body resonance of the Eric Johnson strat. Look up the specs for that model and you will see that is a light weight alder body. It is important to be able to distinguish how much of the tone is actually a product of the wood selection and not specific the pickups on that guitar. Resonance and frequency depth are the key aspects of tone when selecting body woods. To make sure you are making the right distinction, try this. If you think that Ash is the right wood for you then try several ash based guitars with different pickups in it and look for the common aspects of the tone. That will help you to filter out how much of this has to do with the wood and how much has to do with the pickups. Alder and ash are the most common wood selections due to the wide range of usable tones for a working musician. Maples and other harder or exotic woods are more tone specific and don't fit in as well as alder or ash. However,A flamed or quilted maple veneer top are quite common and have little effect on the overall tone. They are more for looks that anything, but do slightly brighten up a normally warm ash body.

As we mentioned before in our SELECTING NECKS, guide. There is no WRONG way to pick a body. The neck pockets of any Fender or Fender licensed body are all 2 3/16ths and always will be. Do not worry about that. Concentrate on the aspects that wil make you happy. Even if color is your priority.

Thanks for listening and we will be back soon with more tips and guides!

Metal Shop Music