The ESP Guitar Company

So I want to make my own custom guitar by buying all the parts and making them by myself.

So I have a few questions about woods :

Whats the diffrence between maple, alder and mahogany body?
Whats the diffrence between maple and ebony fingerboard?
Whats the diffrence between a body with a maple top and without maple top on a mahogany back.
Are flame and quilted only for esthetic? If no then why?
What would be the best combo (body+neck and fingerboard) for each of those bodies : maple, mahonany and alder bodies with any kind of neck/fingerboard.

thanks for your time.

Maple is very bright, and also very heavy. Alder is reasonably bright compared to woods like mahogany, but not overly so. Mahogany is warmer (darker) than alder.

Maple and ebony are both bright wood compared to rosewood, but maple is brighter. Body wood makes a bigger difference in tone than fingerboard wood, so usually the feel of the fingerboard wood is the deciding factor for most players, not the tone. Maple fingerboards also need a coat of finish on them which will lend a different feel than bare ebony.

If the maple top is actually a thick top, then the tone will be brighter.

Not sure if a full thickness flamed top will sound different than a full thickness standard maple top, but I doubt it.

Heres some good combos:
B: Mahogany
N: Mahogany
F: Ebony
Will give you a very dark, heavy tone.
B:Alder
N:Maple
F:Rosewood
A Classic, from fender 50's strats to todays modern Super Strats, a good solid tone. WIll be fairly bright but not overly so.
B:Mahogany
N:Maple
F:Maple
Dark like the first mentioned, but will have more brightness.

It also has to do with the neck construction, ex. Neck thru Set Neck or Bolt-on

If you have anymore questions than feel free to Pm me.