The best material would have extreme tensile strength and Young's modulus of elasticity, but also high internal damping. Metals can of course have high strength, but very poor damping. And if you search, one can find tables which list the Rockwell Hardness for many different species of hardwood, some can be quite high. And wood of course has high damping. Metals do have the advantage of mass, which means more energy needed to excite resonances, but lack of damping means energy storage or 'ringing'.
Wood in it's many forms is a good compromise. MDF however is typically too low in terms of strength. But there are some high-density ultra-refined MDF variants which are better.
Of the modern materials available today, thermoplastics such as phenolics I would have to say are best. They come in 1000 forms, unfortunately most are very expensive. Spec sheets are also available which list the parameters mentioned above. But some can combine tensile strength higher than 6061 aluminum, AND excellent internal damping.
Wood in it's many forms is a good compromise. MDF however is typically too low in terms of strength. But there are some high-density ultra-refined MDF variants which are better.
Of the modern materials available today, thermoplastics such as phenolics I would have to say are best. They come in 1000 forms, unfortunately most are very expensive. Spec sheets are also available which list the parameters mentioned above. But some can combine tensile strength higher than 6061 aluminum, AND excellent internal damping.