cedar + mahogany = warm and punchy tone. did i get it right?
if u wanted more brightness, why not try a spruce top?
all my knowledge about guitar woods came from this thread..hehehe!
we play the same style actually..fingerpicking and picking hybrids. i have andy mckee's mp3s and vids. onehelluva guitarist..VERY percussive.
boss, i think selection of wood could determine the sound of the guitar.. to some extent. marami kasing variables eg. thickness of wood, bracing, finish, even yung glue.
isa sa malaki ang contribution sa sound is the bracing, kaya yun nga ang pinag ukulan namin ng maraming experimenting ng luthier natin. i think isa ho iyon sa gusto ko sa luthier na you can discuss with yung specs mo pagka meron ka something in mind talaga. of course its not for everybody, just like the smallman classical guitar is not for everybody. he experimented kasi sobra sa bracing, very radical in his time. he veered away from the tried and tested torres fan bracing which only slightly modified by fleta, hauser and romanillos yata. but in the end na attain nya ang unamplified volume na di pa naachieve before. medyo ayaw ng iba at wala ang percussive sound ng fleta, but then again who could say that to john williams ng palitan nya dati nyang fleta with smallman, but not after few smallmans he rejected, nakita nya yung gusto nyang sound sa huli.
the moral, you can never say what would be the result pag pacustom. all your knowledge about wood, bracing, etc. would give you a good chance of getting the sound you are aiming pero dont expect too much na spot on ang tunog kase hangang ngayon di pa exact science ang accoustics ng gitara. if you are not that adventurous, you can get ready made guitars (taylor, martin); slightly adventurous, yung mga non traditional (breedlove, klein); if your whack like me then experiment with your own design and let someone do it for you, sinubukan kokase mag aral pagawa gitara, mahirap pala