Re: What wood? Mahogany/alder/ash/korina
Cron said:
What shape do u want to get?
It's a toss-up between a strat and a VIP. I tried an A2 59/Blues hybrid in my swamp ash strat and fell in love with the sound. The only thing I might want is a richer, mahogany-type lowend.
My next guitar was going to be made out of korina ("just because"), but that changed once I tried my Blues hybrid pickup in the swamp ash strat. So, it's either going to be another swamp ash strat body, or it's going to be a mahogany VIP with a swamp ash top (they don't do korina/swamp ash combos, but I suppose I could ask nicely),
My logic is that since the bridge is mounted to the top, the top will affect the higher frequencies and attack more than the rest of the body. So, by going with swamp ash instead of maple, I can get the swamp-ash snap and softer high frequencies (compared to maple). The mahogany body will round out the lower frequencies (at least I'm hoping it will work this way). Whatever choice I make, the neck will be a maple/rosewood 25.5.
Tell me a bit more about your VIP, neck woods etc.
It's basically PRS/Les Paul specs: mahogany neck with rosewood board, Gibson 24 3/4 scale length, and a mahogany body with maple cap.
If i recall correctly you said it sounded sharp and bassy in bridge position.
Yep. With a bassy-yet-bright pickup like the C5, those characteristics were overemphasized. The high E string sounded ice-picky. The D sounded nice, but the low E string sounded twice as loud as all the others. A switch to an A2 Custom Custom fixed 95% of that. I added a treble-bleed cap to the volume pot, so when it is pulled up, some extra treble is bled to ground, even with the volume on 10. I've got an A3 in the CC right now, but I'm going to switch it back to a standard A2 Custom Custom.
Overall, the guitar sounds great and has an incredible woody tone.
I want strat clean with PRS/Les paul dirty. (basically what everyone wants)
I did a modification of the PRS wiring using a Super Switch:
1. bridge
2. inner coils in parllel (or is that outer?)
3. both HB in parallel
4. outer coils in parallel (or is that inner?)
5. Neck HB.
1, 3, and 5 give you standard humbucker sounds. #2 and #4 sounds stratish and teleish. They sound OK. They're in the ballpark, but don't match the sound of a real strat or tele.
Do you think mahogany with maple cap is the way to go. What neck woods would you recommend judging the sound of you VIP because that is the shape I want. I absolutely love it. I was thinking maple neck, rosewood fretboard, mahogany back with maple cap... but recently the korina thing has started to give me doubts about what the best choice would be.
Thanx
Hmmm...the maple neck will give you a different attack than an LP as will the Fender scale (I assume you're going in that direction). The big question is: do you want the maple cap?
Maybe check out some Les Pauls and humbucker equipped strats. The Les Pauls should sound brighter (assuming the pickups don't mask it). Don't confuse brighter with "less bass". I would imagine the alder strats will be less bright and have less bass than the Les Pauls.
If you are more concerned with getting a good, rockin', humbucker sound, and aren't aren't trying to get an authentic Les Paul sound, I think I would gamble a bit and go with an all Korina body with a Fender scale maple neck.
Here's some close-ups of the VIP:
http://users.adelphia.net/~mattspeterson/
