softwood solid body guitar?

[Brian Evans]

I am mulling over designs for a solid body (actually a quite chambered solid body, not quite semi-acoustic) and planning to use some flame sinker redwood for the top. I have been trying to decide on the main body wood, and it came to me just now, why not use the redwood for the back as well as the top? Am I just following expectations to use a mahogany variant for the main body, or will redwood have the guts and strength for the job? It would make an extremely light guitar to the point where it might have neck-heavy balance issues...

[David King]

Redwood is such a pain to sand and finish and it dents so easily I'd do almost anything to avoid it. How about swamp cypress for the back? If you really want light then pawlonia or Spanish cedar. My east coast faves would be butternut or sassafras.

[Beate Ritzert]

No experience with redwood, but i made a solid body from Spruce, and that one sounds fine.