Mr 9finger
Digitally Challenged
Anyone ever played an all Mahogany strat?
Mahogany Strats?
- Thread starter Mr 9finger
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NoOnesFang13
New member
Re: Mahogany Strats?
ill IM ganzo to tell you about his... only person i know to have one
ill IM ganzo to tell you about his... only person i know to have one
tone?
New member
Re: Mahogany Strats?
XSSIVE has made more than one all Mahogany super strats of what i know.
And with all Maple necks which is a weird combination. maybe he can give some insight.
I had made one once from USACG parts. The Mahogany was real darn heavy though. i had an all maple neck as well. To my ears it had a bit too much mids, but other than that it made a good super strat. kinda makes me wonder why i dont try and make another one with a maple cap this time and using a lighter body. Mahogany is just a great tonewood to me though. It is thick and real musical to my ears.
Did really dig the single coils in it though.
Now you got me itching to try a nice Mahogany body with maple cap and mahogany neck/rosewood board combo. Hmmmmm......
XSSIVE has made more than one all Mahogany super strats of what i know.
And with all Maple necks which is a weird combination. maybe he can give some insight.
I had made one once from USACG parts. The Mahogany was real darn heavy though. i had an all maple neck as well. To my ears it had a bit too much mids, but other than that it made a good super strat. kinda makes me wonder why i dont try and make another one with a maple cap this time and using a lighter body. Mahogany is just a great tonewood to me though. It is thick and real musical to my ears.
Did really dig the single coils in it though.
Now you got me itching to try a nice Mahogany body with maple cap and mahogany neck/rosewood board combo. Hmmmmm......
Mr 9finger
Digitally Challenged
Re: Mahogany Strats?
That's kind of what I was thinking. I was thinking of a regular ol 3 single coil strat only in all mahogany. I'm hesitant though cuz I've never heard or played anything like that.
On a side note though. It might be cool to do a short scale type strat w/ some Brian Mayish kind of singles and wiring w/ that wood combo.
That's kind of what I was thinking. I was thinking of a regular ol 3 single coil strat only in all mahogany. I'm hesitant though cuz I've never heard or played anything like that.
On a side note though. It might be cool to do a short scale type strat w/ some Brian Mayish kind of singles and wiring w/ that wood combo.
jerryjg
PinkElephantologist
Re: Mahogany Strats?
I assembled this one. It didnt sound a whole lot different than a regular Strat. Maybe darker. Right now Im putting
some surfer style vintage pickups and an all rosewood neck to try and see if i can get it to be extra warm with some sparkle from the pickups.
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I assembled this one. It didnt sound a whole lot different than a regular Strat. Maybe darker. Right now Im putting
some surfer style vintage pickups and an all rosewood neck to try and see if i can get it to be extra warm with some sparkle from the pickups.
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ganzosrevenge
New member
Re: Mahogany Strats?
As NoOnesFang 13 said, I do have a mahogany stratocaster, and here's what I've observed (Having owned both a normal american deluxe HSS stratocaster and the mahogany variant).
Mahogany strats are heavier on the whole than their alder / ash cousins, and they are more porous wood-wise. The result is that the body tends to emphasize a bit more of the low-end present and hide the higher-end, and it makes the mids shine a lot more. My strat tends to put most of its emphasis into the low to mid range department, which means that the chunk of wood mine came from was fairly porous. Surprisingly, for a 10+ lb guitar, it isn't terribly heavy feeling when worn for gigs and jams, it just means that you may have to readjust your balance to prevent the headstock from going sky-high.
As far as the typical sound you'd get, it really depends on the pickups, however a good BASIC rule to follow would be "if it works well in a gibson or a jackson, odds are it will work well in a mahogany strat". (Assuming you're putting in a humbucker) With a maple neck, and mahogany body, the sound will be somewhere between traditional strat and an SG / Les Paul depending on how much of the mass is in the mahogany, and how much is in the maple neck. My first mahogany HSS strat ended up with a '59 and 2 SSL-1s in it and the sound for the single coils was "strat, with more low-end creaminess by about 10 to 15%" and the '59 should be standard equipment in all HSS strats regardless of wood. It fattens up the strat sound into SG territory while allowing the characteristics of the strat to remain. Think SG 61RI with a bit less low-end due to the maple neck and you have my idea.
We can only give our subjective views on what we have done with mahogany stratocasters and we'd need to know a bit more on your tastes before we can really see what you'd need in it to make your ideal stratocaster with pickups. Seymour's site has the tone wizard interactive selector that can be an immense help in giving a basic idea of what pickups work for what genre, and it has a provision for "mahogany strat". I for one think that a great starting point for 3 single coils would be to purchase the california set (3 calibrated SSL-1s) and work from there. Just remember that mahogany emphasizes the low-mids a bit, and it wouldn't hurt to do research on what type of neck you wish to use, as the neck also influences your tone. (Mahogany neck + Mahogany body = a good amount of the "gibson recipe").
Well that's my .02 on this, if you have further inquiries, feel free to ask.
PS: Jerry, that strat neck is HOT! make the whole guitar heritage cherry and you have something going.
As NoOnesFang 13 said, I do have a mahogany stratocaster, and here's what I've observed (Having owned both a normal american deluxe HSS stratocaster and the mahogany variant).
Mahogany strats are heavier on the whole than their alder / ash cousins, and they are more porous wood-wise. The result is that the body tends to emphasize a bit more of the low-end present and hide the higher-end, and it makes the mids shine a lot more. My strat tends to put most of its emphasis into the low to mid range department, which means that the chunk of wood mine came from was fairly porous. Surprisingly, for a 10+ lb guitar, it isn't terribly heavy feeling when worn for gigs and jams, it just means that you may have to readjust your balance to prevent the headstock from going sky-high.
As far as the typical sound you'd get, it really depends on the pickups, however a good BASIC rule to follow would be "if it works well in a gibson or a jackson, odds are it will work well in a mahogany strat". (Assuming you're putting in a humbucker) With a maple neck, and mahogany body, the sound will be somewhere between traditional strat and an SG / Les Paul depending on how much of the mass is in the mahogany, and how much is in the maple neck. My first mahogany HSS strat ended up with a '59 and 2 SSL-1s in it and the sound for the single coils was "strat, with more low-end creaminess by about 10 to 15%" and the '59 should be standard equipment in all HSS strats regardless of wood. It fattens up the strat sound into SG territory while allowing the characteristics of the strat to remain. Think SG 61RI with a bit less low-end due to the maple neck and you have my idea.
We can only give our subjective views on what we have done with mahogany stratocasters and we'd need to know a bit more on your tastes before we can really see what you'd need in it to make your ideal stratocaster with pickups. Seymour's site has the tone wizard interactive selector that can be an immense help in giving a basic idea of what pickups work for what genre, and it has a provision for "mahogany strat". I for one think that a great starting point for 3 single coils would be to purchase the california set (3 calibrated SSL-1s) and work from there. Just remember that mahogany emphasizes the low-mids a bit, and it wouldn't hurt to do research on what type of neck you wish to use, as the neck also influences your tone. (Mahogany neck + Mahogany body = a good amount of the "gibson recipe").
Well that's my .02 on this, if you have further inquiries, feel free to ask.
PS: Jerry, that strat neck is HOT! make the whole guitar heritage cherry and you have something going.
Philcguitars
New member
Re: Mahogany Strats?
I've been thinking of building a "Gibso" Strat project with Stop Bar, ToM, and Humbuckers for some time. I've been in a quandry as to go all the way and make the body and possibly the neck mahoganny to go that extra step. At the moment I've discarded the idea of a mahoganny neck, and am more attracted to the figuring in other woods for the body.
I may be building a similar project for a friend who wants a solid paint job so will probably try mahoganny on his one, but that's some way off.
Essentially the idea is to build a strat in shape only.
I'm just not keen on the flexibility of mahoganny in necks. This is the major issue for me.
I've been thinking of building a "Gibso" Strat project with Stop Bar, ToM, and Humbuckers for some time. I've been in a quandry as to go all the way and make the body and possibly the neck mahoganny to go that extra step. At the moment I've discarded the idea of a mahoganny neck, and am more attracted to the figuring in other woods for the body.
I may be building a similar project for a friend who wants a solid paint job so will probably try mahoganny on his one, but that's some way off.
Essentially the idea is to build a strat in shape only.
I'm just not keen on the flexibility of mahoganny in necks. This is the major issue for me.
vinterland
New member
Re: Mahogany Strats?
I've played a Suhr all mahogany standard. It sounds like you think it would sound like.
I've played a Suhr all mahogany standard. It sounds like you think it would sound like.
JB_From_Hell
Jomo's Nimions
Re: Mahogany Strats?
By "all mahogany", you mean body & neck, right? Coz that's gonna be way different than a maple neck.
By "all mahogany", you mean body & neck, right? Coz that's gonna be way different than a maple neck.
WITH FULL DISTORTION
F. Hails Railsologist
Re: Mahogany Strats?
Im building one with a local beginning luthier here in my city. he will "endorse" me.
so, it will be a big headstock, all mahogany neck , 22 frets jumbo, "Ipe" fretboard, and all mahogany body with a wooden Pickguard.
q
q
ill show pictures as soon as the project starts!
Im building one with a local beginning luthier here in my city. he will "endorse" me.
so, it will be a big headstock, all mahogany neck , 22 frets jumbo, "Ipe" fretboard, and all mahogany body with a wooden Pickguard.
q
q
ill show pictures as soon as the project starts!
Re: Mahogany Strats?
Howdy,
On a related note, I've got a USACG flamed Mahogany Tele. It's got a Maple neck, DiMarzio Twang Kings, vintage bridge..and tone. I think the Brass saddles and Mahogany body filter out some of the shrill highs associated with Teles. The tone is a bit darker than my Alder Tele, but the slightly overdriven raunch through my old Vibro Champ is puuure "Get yer Ya-Ya's Out"! It's good for Bakersfield duties through my Twin, as well. Think "clean". It's forte' seems to be raunch, IMHO.
In short, my flamed Mahogany Tele (finished with 6 coats of Minwax "tung oil") is sort of like good Sweet & Sour Chinese food: It has contrasting qualities that seem to be pleasing when combined. Of course, she weighs in at 9 lbs, though.
Eggman
Howdy,
On a related note, I've got a USACG flamed Mahogany Tele. It's got a Maple neck, DiMarzio Twang Kings, vintage bridge..and tone. I think the Brass saddles and Mahogany body filter out some of the shrill highs associated with Teles. The tone is a bit darker than my Alder Tele, but the slightly overdriven raunch through my old Vibro Champ is puuure "Get yer Ya-Ya's Out"! It's good for Bakersfield duties through my Twin, as well. Think "clean". It's forte' seems to be raunch, IMHO.
In short, my flamed Mahogany Tele (finished with 6 coats of Minwax "tung oil") is sort of like good Sweet & Sour Chinese food: It has contrasting qualities that seem to be pleasing when combined. Of course, she weighs in at 9 lbs, though.
Eggman
Jerry Madderra
New member
Re: Mahogany Strats?
Fender actually built some mahogony Strats back in about 63 I think. I will have to find that passage in one of the Fender books. The story was that they just used up some wood they had for another project to build a bunch of strats that wound up with sunburst and solid color finishes. They were not sold or promoted as mahogany bodied strats, just regular old Strats.
Information from "The Stratocaster chronicles" page 142.
Fender actually built some mahogony Strats back in about 63 I think. I will have to find that passage in one of the Fender books. The story was that they just used up some wood they had for another project to build a bunch of strats that wound up with sunburst and solid color finishes. They were not sold or promoted as mahogany bodied strats, just regular old Strats.
Information from "The Stratocaster chronicles" page 142.
Lake Placid Blues
New member
Re: Mahogany Strats?
I've built three Fender style guitars with mahogony bodies in the last few years. One was a Tele shape and two superstrats.
With the Tele I already had an ebony fret board maple neck and the guitar was really built to utilize that neck. For some reason this guitar just really worked. It has a maple cap 1/4" thick and it's H/H. I love it for playing Led Zep covers and the like. That is the type of sound it gets. The guitar is a looker too. Everybody that plays it likes it. This lead to the second mahogony guitar I built.
I built this one for sombody that liked the Tele but wanted a super strat. As different in concept from the H/H tele this guitar turned out good. It was a one peice mahogony body with a Wilk trem, and the neck was maple with a slab rosewood board. It sounds very lively and it's fairly bright, with miles of sustain. The bridge pickup ended up being a Pearly Gates. He wanted Evos but it was too cutting. The guitar isn't particulary heavy at all, about the same as a alder strat.
With those two guitars working so well, I built another mahogony super strat, but with a hard tail bridge this time. This one just had something about it that never meshed for me. It was just a little too smooth and perhaps a little dull sounding. It also turned out heavier than the other two.
So I guess it depends on the indvidual guitar combonation and the exact peice of wood.
I've built three Fender style guitars with mahogony bodies in the last few years. One was a Tele shape and two superstrats.
With the Tele I already had an ebony fret board maple neck and the guitar was really built to utilize that neck. For some reason this guitar just really worked. It has a maple cap 1/4" thick and it's H/H. I love it for playing Led Zep covers and the like. That is the type of sound it gets. The guitar is a looker too. Everybody that plays it likes it. This lead to the second mahogony guitar I built.
I built this one for sombody that liked the Tele but wanted a super strat. As different in concept from the H/H tele this guitar turned out good. It was a one peice mahogony body with a Wilk trem, and the neck was maple with a slab rosewood board. It sounds very lively and it's fairly bright, with miles of sustain. The bridge pickup ended up being a Pearly Gates. He wanted Evos but it was too cutting. The guitar isn't particulary heavy at all, about the same as a alder strat.
With those two guitars working so well, I built another mahogony super strat, but with a hard tail bridge this time. This one just had something about it that never meshed for me. It was just a little too smooth and perhaps a little dull sounding. It also turned out heavier than the other two.
So I guess it depends on the indvidual guitar combonation and the exact peice of wood.
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Philcguitars
New member
Re: Mahogany Strats?
That was probably the lack of the rear trem cavity, that added to the weight.
Can you, put you finger on what you suspect made it sound "dull".
It could be significant to my next project.
Also - Anybody built a Strat with a ToM and Stop bar? Care to comment????
This is such a great thread!
That was probably the lack of the rear trem cavity, that added to the weight.
Can you, put you finger on what you suspect made it sound "dull".
It could be significant to my next project.
Also - Anybody built a Strat with a ToM and Stop bar? Care to comment????
This is such a great thread!
Lake Placid Blues
New member
Re: Mahogany Strats?
Well I don't know, but I may have got too much finish on it. I first tryed to do a trans red, but it came out root beer. That was cool up close, but from a distance it just looked #$% brown. I sanded off as much as I could before going to a nitro solid color, that I kept thin, but maybe it had already absorbed too much.
The tele has a hard tail (a strat type) of course, but it also has the maple cap. A maple cap seems to work well with mahogony in most cases. On the other hand, the superstrat with the Wilk works fine without a maple cap.
You might consider tyring Korina (aka Limba) as it stands a greater chance of being a bit livelier than regular mahogony, if you do a hard tail.
The pros like Suhr and Anderson usually reccomend mahogony necks with mahogony bodies, but maple has worked OK for me with both ebony and rosewood boards. Maybe it could have worked even better with mahogony necks, but I don't know for sure.
Well I don't know, but I may have got too much finish on it. I first tryed to do a trans red, but it came out root beer. That was cool up close, but from a distance it just looked #$% brown. I sanded off as much as I could before going to a nitro solid color, that I kept thin, but maybe it had already absorbed too much.
The tele has a hard tail (a strat type) of course, but it also has the maple cap. A maple cap seems to work well with mahogony in most cases. On the other hand, the superstrat with the Wilk works fine without a maple cap.
You might consider tyring Korina (aka Limba) as it stands a greater chance of being a bit livelier than regular mahogony, if you do a hard tail.
The pros like Suhr and Anderson usually reccomend mahogony necks with mahogony bodies, but maple has worked OK for me with both ebony and rosewood boards. Maybe it could have worked even better with mahogony necks, but I don't know for sure.
JeffB
Let it B
Re: Mahogany Strats?
I've played these as well- It's African Mahogany (Sapele or whatever they call it) but the couple I've played both had a nice warm throaty tone compared to Alder or Ash.
I'd be really interested to try some genuine Honduras Mahogany in a strat- but good luck finding anyone save maybe Hamer or some other high end custom builder to do that. Nearly everyone uses African Mahogany for high end MIA/MIJ production guitars these days.
Dirtbagg has one of these:
And it ROCKS. It's stratty but with a punchy, smooth, full, rich, and growly flavor. Awesome guitar... hopefully he can come in here and tell you more about it.
I've played these as well- It's African Mahogany (Sapele or whatever they call it) but the couple I've played both had a nice warm throaty tone compared to Alder or Ash.
I'd be really interested to try some genuine Honduras Mahogany in a strat- but good luck finding anyone save maybe Hamer or some other high end custom builder to do that. Nearly everyone uses African Mahogany for high end MIA/MIJ production guitars these days.
ImmortalSix
John Mayer's Mankini
Re: Mahogany Strats?
That's really interesting --- I love little idiosyncrasies like that
That's really interesting --- I love little idiosyncrasies like that
