KeeperOS
New member
For the past couple of years I have slowly but surely started to settle on what would consist of my "perfect guitar".
My current no.1, a Swing EZ-10 (aka Izzy) is pretty much it in terms of comfort and playability.
HH Mahogany neck & body Neckthru with 24 frets and a Floyd. She has an Ebony top and a Rosewood fretboard.
Unfortunately, her lack in higher mids and highs and thus, definition, keep me from loving her tone. She sounds great plugged in but that was after trying a bunch of pickups in her. Tone-wise, I feel I can do better.
My fave in terms of sound is my Michael Kelly Patriot Limited (a big part of it being that I hand picked her after A/B-ing about half a dozen of them).
HH Mahogany neck & body Set-neck with a real maple cap and Ebony fingerboard. This one has a TOM (my only hardtail).
She has what I consider to be the most balanced tone out of all of my guitars with still a decent amount of definition and attack. Best volume and sustain too. Still, she's lacking what I consider my ideal attack and definition.
Not enough growl either. Too polite which is great but not what's my ideal.
Finally, the guitar that DOES have the edge, the attack and the growl that I love is my Washburn MG-100.
Ash body, Maple neck, Bolt-On, Rosewood fingerboard. HSS with a surface-mount Wilky.
Unfortunately besides the general tone qualities that I like she's seriously lacking in low end as well as sustain when compared to the others.
She's also a little too big on the highs (if I were to believe John Suhr I would attribute that to her having a Rosewood fretboard instead of a maple one).
Spec-wise I know what I want:
General strat-shape with all the usual comfort contours, 24 frets, a surface-mount Floyd (i.e. no pullbacks) with NO locking nut, HH, a three-way, one volume, one tone, both push/pulls for splitting each pu.
I'm still uncertain about neck-joint but I know whatever it'll be it will have to have perfect upper-fret access, completely comparable to that of a neck-thru.
There's a bunch of other nit-pickings but those don't really interest anyone but me and the guy that'll build her.
Tone wise I want the round and balanced EQ (especially that low end) the Michael Kelly has but with the added edge and attack the Washburn has and I'm guessing the Ash body has tons to do with it.
I've narrowed the fingerboard wood down to either Maple or Ebony (depending on the rest of the combo). After that all I know is that I want both the tonal qualities of Mahogany and Ash thrown into the mix. I also surmise that Maple will probably have to play a role somewhere along the way be it as a neck wood or as a top.
So, I'm asking for the assistance of people with good experience in different species of wood and the way they interact with each other.
Is there anyone brave enough to take a crack at it?
My current no.1, a Swing EZ-10 (aka Izzy) is pretty much it in terms of comfort and playability.
HH Mahogany neck & body Neckthru with 24 frets and a Floyd. She has an Ebony top and a Rosewood fretboard.
Unfortunately, her lack in higher mids and highs and thus, definition, keep me from loving her tone. She sounds great plugged in but that was after trying a bunch of pickups in her. Tone-wise, I feel I can do better.
My fave in terms of sound is my Michael Kelly Patriot Limited (a big part of it being that I hand picked her after A/B-ing about half a dozen of them).
HH Mahogany neck & body Set-neck with a real maple cap and Ebony fingerboard. This one has a TOM (my only hardtail).
She has what I consider to be the most balanced tone out of all of my guitars with still a decent amount of definition and attack. Best volume and sustain too. Still, she's lacking what I consider my ideal attack and definition.
Not enough growl either. Too polite which is great but not what's my ideal.
Finally, the guitar that DOES have the edge, the attack and the growl that I love is my Washburn MG-100.
Ash body, Maple neck, Bolt-On, Rosewood fingerboard. HSS with a surface-mount Wilky.
Unfortunately besides the general tone qualities that I like she's seriously lacking in low end as well as sustain when compared to the others.
She's also a little too big on the highs (if I were to believe John Suhr I would attribute that to her having a Rosewood fretboard instead of a maple one).
Spec-wise I know what I want:
General strat-shape with all the usual comfort contours, 24 frets, a surface-mount Floyd (i.e. no pullbacks) with NO locking nut, HH, a three-way, one volume, one tone, both push/pulls for splitting each pu.
I'm still uncertain about neck-joint but I know whatever it'll be it will have to have perfect upper-fret access, completely comparable to that of a neck-thru.
There's a bunch of other nit-pickings but those don't really interest anyone but me and the guy that'll build her.
Tone wise I want the round and balanced EQ (especially that low end) the Michael Kelly has but with the added edge and attack the Washburn has and I'm guessing the Ash body has tons to do with it.
I've narrowed the fingerboard wood down to either Maple or Ebony (depending on the rest of the combo). After that all I know is that I want both the tonal qualities of Mahogany and Ash thrown into the mix. I also surmise that Maple will probably have to play a role somewhere along the way be it as a neck wood or as a top.
So, I'm asking for the assistance of people with good experience in different species of wood and the way they interact with each other.
Is there anyone brave enough to take a crack at it?
