Which of these tonewoods would give the most sustain to an electric solid-body guitar?

I've always heard the ash is best.

Trinity has a good answer: find out what your favorite musicians play. Be careful, though, they might have significant mods or the exact model they use is needlessly expensive. I would not recommend going to guitar stores and playing something and seeing if you like it. The quality of the strings will differ and can make a great guitar sound lousy. Also, everything is very subjective. I don't think the type of wood is important. If wood is important to you, get a semi or hollow body, then maybe. Pickups are really important: some people think they save buy buying cheap guitars and then putting in nice pickups. Neck sizes are important. The 'Strat' neck is longer, the frets a bit longer, and is rounded, which give them a certain feel, especially if you like to emphasize playing a few notes at once. Also each note is a bit clearer with a 'Strat' single coil pickup. The 'Strat' maple neck with a good glossy finish I personally find the fun-est to play. The notes just play themselves, or rather suggests what to play. The 'Les Paul' neck is shorter, inspires you to play more notes, and is the best for 'shredding' and modern rock guitar. Also, the Les Paul type Hum-bucking pickups are less noisy and you really turn up the distortion - although this has been less favored recently.

Korina

swamp ash and korina

http://www.1800instruments.com/Archive/2004_htm/gh...