Yuku free message boards

Maybe we should aproach this question from a purely cause and effect approach. These are things I know - thicker/stiffer necks necks give a clearer and more articulate tone than skinnies which tend to flex when played hard and therefore introduce discordanant string responses and a woolly bottom end (especially in high gain playing) as the strings go out of tune and then back into tune when they are hit hard. Maple is stiffer than mahogany and I guess most will agree that maple sounds clearer than mahogany and lotsa strats and teles seem to bear this out (regardless of the scale length). So maybe we need to think about the relationship between stiffness and tone as well as the relationship between types of neck wood. Secondly, Fingerboard woods, being the closest piece of wood to the strings, the wood that directly couples the frets to the guitar and also the piece of wood subject to the maximum string vibration at mid scale are generally a known quality and have been pretty much bedded down as to what effect they have (I think)........so we accept that different fingerboard wood makes a fair difference in this respect.
Thirdly, I've changed out an ash bodied strat to a mahaogany body and the change is most noticeable - even to the untrained ear. Similarly, going from alder to ash with strats makes a noticeable change in the sound and dynamics. Changing body wood makes a major fundamental change to how everything is going to respond.
My observations are that body wood and weight are the building blocks for particular tonal qualities - without getting this basic right you are simply going to struggle and no amount of fingerboard/neck fiddling is going to fix the problem. The neck and fingerboard material coupled with the stiffness of the neck dictate another part of the tonal equation and I try to match them together to provide what the player wants across his performance spectrum. But, overarching this whole question is that of hardware and electronics and the large part they have to play in the tonal palette - perhaps a better way of expressing this is that of saying that once a solid foundation has been laid we than add the additional quality inclusions to complete the building as a total package.
Bottom line for me is that I try to stick to the basics - the things that work - for laying a foundation (I'm a bit dull that way - unimaginative even) upon which to build a guitar which will meet expectations - and I recommend this course of action for most of those starting out on this fascinating journey. But , I am also most appreciative of the forum members here who go out on limb and experiment with all sorts of things - I watch and listen intently to what they find and I think they are among the most enlightened individuals of any I see or hear anywhere. Good work all you courageous types!
This is a bit all over the place but I hope it helps a bit.
Rusty.