Poplar will work but will get shabby as hell over time with heavy play. Actually, that is true for any light colored wood. All the oils and dirt in your fingers, you know. If you want to keep your FB looking clean and tight over time add some coats of lacquer to it.
IMHO, poplar doesn't have as nice a grain as other hardwoods. Red oak is nice but has an open grain that needs to be filled to get a nice smooth finish.
On my first build, I just used maple for the neck/board (no seperate fretboard) with a tung oil finish and it came out okay. My second is using a maple neck lacquered black with a 1/4" Padauk fretboard, and it looks stunning. The third one is for my supervisor at work which is again a maple neck but with 1/16" cherry laminated to it. Thinking about toothpick frets for it.
I am almost finished with my second build, i used poplar for the neck and red oak for the fret board. I stained the fretboard but left the neck natural. It turned out pretty nice.
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IMHO, poplar doesn't have as nice a grain as other hardwoods. Red oak is nice but has an open grain that needs to be filled to get a nice smooth finish.
On my first build, I just used maple for the neck/board (no seperate fretboard) with a tung oil finish and it came out okay. My second is using a maple neck lacquered black with a 1/4" Padauk fretboard, and it looks stunning. The third one is for my supervisor at work which is again a maple neck but with 1/16" cherry laminated to it. Thinking about toothpick frets for it.
-wy