Basswood Tele body

[smitty302]

What would a basswood tele body sound like? We have a guy here in Georgia that makes/builds/relics guitars. I found a tele that I'm thinking about going to look at, but it's a little drive from the house but it looks awesome and only $600. It has a custom built basswood body with an American tele neck. It has mex pickups so that would be the first thing I change. I've read great reviews on the guitars this guy builds. I'm just wondering what to expect from basswood and how would regular alnico 5 pickups sound in it, or something like Duncan STL-1? Thanks

 

[devastone]

Re: Basswood Tele body

I like basswood, it' warmer and more midrangey than alder or ash, not quite as warm and thick as mahogany, kinda nicely in the middle. Some people will say it is cheap crap, but there is all of EVH's guitars for the past 30 year or so are basswood, Suhr says basswood with a maple cap is his favorite distortion tone, Vai's original JEMs were basswood, Satriani's Ibanez is basswood, basically it has a long list of fans that play it and aren't internet cork sniffers. It should sound good with singles (haven't tried myself, I usually use hbs) since it has a little more midrange than ash or alder, and a slightly softer attack.

And yeah, if the neck feels good, that is a pretty cool lookin' tele there!