Walnut
This wood is very little used in guitars despite its price, affordability, and its quality. Walnut has been used, among others, in Kramer Baretta guitar bodies in some models, for example, one of the most used Baretta models is Van Halen.
It gives a very good balance between bass and treble. The latter does not sound as muffled as mahogany, they have a brightness, while the bass is sharper and less ‘thin’ than in an ash body.
The disadvantage is that it is rarely used, perhaps because of the standards with which the electric guitar was started, since the ‘classical’ bodies are made of ash, alder, or mahogany. Another problem is that it is a very hard wood, with many knots, and the elaboration of the wood usually requires more work, although the wood itself is cheaper than others.
Ash
Highly used for Fender type guitars, ash is a wood with a very fickle resonance range. We can find, from a body with a strong resonance in media, nasal sound, very typical of the telecaster, to a body with more density in bass, although the ash usually has a more medium or sharp sound than the alder. The low-quality ash can sound gaudy, excessively bright and poorly defined in bass, and the high quality ash has a high or mid-range presence that makes it ideal for southern rock, blues, or country.
In this case, there are woods of very low quality and very high quality, so buying a guitar with low-end ash, without trying it beforehand, is a lottery, subject to the possibility that your guitar turns out to be much more of what you expect.
It is, on the other hand, a safer option, since, with a few exceptions, it is not an expensive wood, and usually a low-end guitar with ash body has a better wood resonance than a wood of the same range. Let’s say that, at low prices, ash tends to bring you the best cheap bass guitar.
Mahogany
Although mahogany is a wood of excellent quality, the truth is that in current guitars, the quality of mahogany wood is usually medium or low. Even so, the brands of prestige do not usually employ a bad mahogany, and mahogany of an intermediate quality already assures us a sound with body, weight, and profusion in bass.
Mahogany is often considered to work especially well for the type of resonance and body that give the sound. In contrast, their balance is lower in treble, they are somewhat darker and less gaudy. Perhaps it is the most used wood to play styles like heavy rock and metal.
Maple Laminated
It is a classic in semi-solid guitars most used in jazz, as it could be similar to the Gibson ES335 or the Ibanez signature of Pat Metheny. It is the most common wood in these guitars, whose pads generally, with ceramic elements, and the strings, which are generally smooth, and are responsible for achieving a very deep and ethereal sound.