Are there any mahogany strats? Does anyone have any experience with them?

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weinergod

New member
Mahogany is my favourite wood and I love how thick and full it sounds, and I love the sound of strats, I was wondering if there was a way to get the best of boths worlds


A S-S-H (Neck-Mid-Bridge) configuration preferably


I don't know how this would sound in real life, but in my head, I picture very bright single coils which paired with the mahogany, would give a really full bodied yet defined sound, really letting you hear the wood breathe through your playing
 
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Re: Are there any mahogany strats? Does anyone have any experience with them?

there was that GC exclusive one a few years back. might still be available i dunno.
 
Re: Are there any mahogany strats? Does anyone have any experience with them?

weinergod said:
Mahogany is my favourite wood and I love how thick and full it sounds, and I love the sound of strats, I was wondering if there was a way to get the best of boths worlds


A S-S-H (Neck-Mid-Bridge) configuration preferably


I don't know how this would sound in real life, but in my head, I picture very bright single coils which paired with the mahogany, would give a really full bodied yet defined sound, really letting you hear the wood breathe through your playing
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Fender makes a mahogany strat. Musician's friend has it.

A mahogany-bodied axe with P90s and rolling back the volume will give the what you are describing. You won't get the notch sounds, but the P90s can go where no strat pup can dream of going. (Unless you get the SD custom shop p90/strat pups).
 
Re: Are there any mahogany strats? Does anyone have any experience with them?

With true strat single coils?

I've got a mahogany bodied strat that has had an H-S guard (Crazy 8/Cool Rails) and a single humbucker (Distortion). The 25.5" scale maple neck, tremolo, and guard mounted pickups lend a little bit of the strat vibe, but obviously true singles will get closer. The H-S guard I had was wired with splits and achieved some stratesque tones, though. There was plenty of snap to the tone, but it's hard to say how much of that was due to teh split and how much was due to the architecture of the pickups.
 
Re: Are there any mahogany strats? Does anyone have any experience with them?

I have a P-90 on my mahogany epiphone black beauty


Sadly, it doesn't work as well as you described because the stock volume knobs completely cut off treble as you turn the volume down. I really need to replace them.
 
Re: Are there any mahogany strats? Does anyone have any experience with them?

not to mention epiphone les pauls are half alder

and you can't hear the wood anyway because it's muffled by about an inch of polyurethane
 
Re: Are there any mahogany strats? Does anyone have any experience with them?

weinergod said:
Sadly, it doesn't work as well as you described because the stock volume knobs completely cut off treble as you turn the volume down. I really need to replace them.
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it's the tone pot's cap you need to replace. personally, i love sprague orange drop .015 caps for the bridge and .022 for the neck with humbuckers and .033 with singles/p-90s.

btw i'm pretty sure there's a fender model that is exactly what you're describing(HSS mahogany strat) called the mahogany special strat. or somesuch:scratchch
 
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Re: Are there any mahogany strats? Does anyone have any experience with them?

weinergod said:
Wow. Seriously?
Even the Black Beauty? I had no ****ing clue.



FML.
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Yes... no... maybe.... sort of. Depends on where and when it was made. Epiphone bodies have used a plethora of woods. There are some alder bodies floating around out there, and still many are Philippine Mahogany, also know as luan.
 
Re: Are there any mahogany strats? Does anyone have any experience with them?

If it was, they'd announce it right?

I searched for the specs on Black Beauty's from several years and they're all listed as mahogany, so I don't know
 
Re: Are there any mahogany strats? Does anyone have any experience with them?

I played a vintage 1963 Strat at a GUitar Show several years ago that had a factory mahogany body as well as as a 63 Telecaster with a mahongany...much to my surprise they sounded like a Strat and a Tele!

Several years after that I built a mahogany Strat with 2 single coils and a bucker in the bridge...sounded like a Strat. Im not saying that the body had no effect...I guess if I had compared it to say an ash or alder body with the same neck and pickup it woudl have been a little warmer/thicker but all in all it's still gonna sound like a Strat.

Also to further proe this point...Gibson sold a Les Paul model several years ago made from Swamp Ash...sure they're a little brighter and a little more airy sounding but they still sound like Les Pauls.
 
Re: Are there any mahogany strats? Does anyone have any experience with them?

Some mahogany sounds very bright and aggressive if you don't form it into a Les Paul shape.

Just play one of those SGs with fancy maple top. They take your head off, and much more so than a maple-topped alder or ash Strat.

And as fire inventor said, the tremolo and the large body with huge upper horn shapes the sound, a lot.
 
Re: Are there any mahogany strats? Does anyone have any experience with them?

I built a mahogony body superstrat for a friend. It turned out a fine guitar and was surprizingly bright. It had more sustain than the typical alder strat. It basically had all of the frequencies going on too. It was HSS and each pickup position delivered the goods that it was designed to deliver. The Surfers in the neck and middle sounded pretty much like you would expect them to in alder or ash, and the bridge hummer sounded like a humbucker should in mahogony.

I built another one for myself that turned out quite different, and I ended giving it to my nephew. It just didn't have any sparkle to it, but it sounded fat and was great for thick tone.

I built a mahogony tele with a maple cap that I just love. It's H/H and I like to use for Led Zep covers. It's really great for that! I think the maple cap combined with the tele shape lends it's self to more of that type of classic tone, despite the scale length.
 
Re: Are there any mahogany strats? Does anyone have any experience with them?

Thanks for all the good info and sharing your experience guys :cheers:
 
Re: Are there any mahogany strats? Does anyone have any experience with them?

Howdy,

I've had a flamed Mahogany USACG Tele for over 6 years and its' fantastic! It has DiMarzio Twang Kings and roars through my Carmen Ghia. Clean tones through my "The Twin" are shimmering and glassy. I hope I haven't hijacked..

Eggman
 
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Re: Are there any mahogany strats? Does anyone have any experience with them?

the new all-maple raw power SGs and Les Pauls sound more like their mahogany-made brothers than they do Fenders or even all-maple ESPs....

played some Teles with fat les paul tones...get some sick twang out of my SG...honestly, every guitar has a different voice...they all sound like guitars tho...
 
Re: Are there any mahogany strats? Does anyone have any experience with them?

Years back, I played a Mahogany Strat-type guitar with a Full Shred and a Floyd. Amazing guitar!
 
Re: Are there any mahogany strats? Does anyone have any experience with them?

Lake Placid Blues said:
I built a mahogony body superstrat for a friend. It turned out a fine guitar and was surprizingly bright. It had more sustain than the typical alder strat. It basically had all of the frequencies going on too. It was HSS and each pickup position delivered the goods that it was designed to deliver. The Surfers in the neck and middle sounded pretty much like you would expect them to in alder or ash, and the bridge hummer sounded like a humbucker should in mahogony.

I built another one for myself that turned out quite different, and I ended giving it to my nephew. It just didn't have any sparkle to it, but it sounded fat and was great for thick tone.

I built a mahogony tele with a maple cap that I just love. It's H/H and I like to use for Led Zep covers. It's really great for that! I think the maple cap combined with the tele shape lends it's self to more of that type of classic tone, despite the scale length.
Click to expand...


What neck wood was used with these mahogony bodied guitars?
 
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