Here's a selection of other Whittaker guitars. As you can see, I like to work with a wide range of exotic timbers. Each species has its own characteristics, both sonically and visually. (Even within species groups the variety can be amazing. Blackwood for example can vary from fairly light weight, mid brown colour to very dense rich, streaky almost black colours).

Whilst it may seem counter-intuitive, the timbers used in solid body guitars can really influence the tone, and I always aim to produce guitars that sound great when unamplified because I know that it will be a better guitar when amplified.

Dense, crisp-grained woods give the best tones and sustain, (but obviously the weight of the instrument must be kept within bounds).  For solidbodys Maple and the denser Blackwoods have what it takes, but a solidbody from these woods would break your neck on tour. A common way around this is to laminate a 'plate' of Maple over a blank of Mahogany (this is the Gibson Les Paul 'recipe'). The Aussie version would be dense Blackwood over Basswood.