telecaster woods.

[benbenben]

intending to buy a telecaster off warmoth.
surf green, with swamp ash body. Is swamp ash a good body for a tele caster in terms of blues and rock?
I know the swamp ash tele is very common, but not sure how the different types of woods compare in teles.
Anyone able to comment?
What other woods would be good in a tele? Alder? Koa? Black Korina? I'm not too fussed about the price cause i can easily save up a little longer for a perfect tele. Please gimme suggestions, will definately show off my tele when i get it.
Also what neck?
I was thinking brazilian rosewood on the AAA Birdseye Maple.
Pickups? I was thinking of some Lindy Fralins Blues Special Neck and Bridge Pickups.
Anyway please comment, Thanks

 

[JohnnyGuitar]

Re: telecaster woods.

Swamp ash is an amazing wood for tele- considerd to work better with a maple fretboard then plain rosewood. However, brazilian rosewood should be hard and heavey like maple so it might work really well- but I don't know if I have ever played on a brazilian rosewood fretboard.
I like swamp ash. Alder also works, but for me swamp ash is better for teles.

It's hard for me to predict how a tele would sound with exotic woods. I play an all mahagony gibson (maple top and rosewood fingerboard) with a slant bridge pup that gets a few tele tones- probably more because of his shape and the strings through body bridge... these guitar sounds amazing- so if you want something different- think about mahagony body and neck tele.

Hollow bodies also sound good for teles.

 

[flank]

Re: telecaster woods.

typical tele woods are ash/maple fret and alder/rosewood fret

 

[benbenben]

Re: telecaster woods.

what do the hollowbodied telecasters sound like?
i'm not very impressed in terms of looks by the hollowbodies and their oddly shaped pickguards.
warmoth supply hollowbodied teles which are hollowed on the inside and but no external holes.
how will they sound?

 

[MikeRocker]

Re: telecaster woods.

Check out www.usacustomguitars.com too. Their stuff is killer. Swamp ash/Maple is the classic Tele formula, I don't think it's possible to go wrong with that combo. Rosewood should make it sound a bit warmer and less snappy. To make it sound even better (and save a little money) you can finish it yourself in nitro, check out ReRanch at http://home.flash.net/~guitars/ (they have Surf Green in rattle cans). Nitro will sould better than the polyurethane that Warmoth uses.