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I'm planning my first bass I'm hoping to get a good deal on some purpleheart which I'll use for the body. I'm planning on a maple thru neck and a cocobolo fingerboard. how do these materials work sound-wise?

I'd think purpleheart might be on the heavy side for a body. Or are you doing a drop top.

Anyway, welcome to the forum Christian. More experienced people will probably weigh in.

Cheers

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Horton, MI

Sounds like you are building an electric bass?

All the woods you mention are used in bass manufacture.

I've used maple and purple heart in bass necks, worked out great.

A word of caution on Cocobolo especially, careful on ingesting it into your lungs. Treat it like the poison it is. You don't want to find out why bugs won't eat it. I suggest a trip over to LMII.com and read about care when using exotics.

You also might search Bill Pentz and have a look at his experiences with exotics and what he did about it. Good luck with your bass.

Purpleheart is not expensive at all, fairly easy to come by. Cocobolo is easy to come by as well, but it's getting pricey.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

I do quite a bit of woodworking, pen turning, and other miscellaneous lathe work, so I'm pretty familiar with various wood toxicities. Unfortunately, I don't have any first-hand experience to know if I do actually have the cocobolo allergy.

Welcome to the OLF Christian!