First off, I've been playing for almost 30 years now. In that time, I've played all sorts of woods, guitars I"ve built myself out of "shit" like "construction grade plywood" or "pine", as well as guitars made of Basswood, Poplar, Alder, Mahogany, Agathis, Instrument-grade-Plywood (what I Call "Fish Magnet Plywood"), Acrylic, Cedar, Oak....you name it. even masonite and pine Danelectros. And the truth is, they ALL sounded good. Sure, the sustain might be longer or shorter from one to another, or some might have been sharper or darker in tone, but overall, the body has made less of an impact on the guitar's sound than the speakers, pickups, electronics, scale length, or bridge system.

Species matters not at all in a solidbody guitar, and the material the body is made out of, or neck by that matter, makes little difference in the sound of the instrument save for some VERY minor things, mostly just bolstering the conditions imposed by pickups, electronic components, and other supporting hardware.

The two things a body DOES affect, is sustain - on a tiny degree (and just wait till I lean in on the "sustain" debate in this series) - and absorbing certain frequencies. This has f***-all to do with the species, and everything to do with "Density" "hardness" and how well pieces are glued together, and all the OTHER variables about the guitar and how that wood is sculpted (and how it affects things like string geometry, scale length, breakover angle of the strings - and so on).