Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: lyonk55 on November 23, 2013, 12:06:29 PM
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Hi folks,
A while ago, I posted a thread asking about custom guitars.
Now that I've got a good amount of money coming in, I'm almost certain I'm going to go for one around about March neck year (after Musikmesse). It may be a bit early, but I want to have a good think about what specs I want and one of the things I'm most curious about is the neck wood: particularly 5-piece rosewood/ebony(or maple) necks.
So far, I've only been able to try maple, mahogany and an ovankol neck. Does anyone have experience with rosewood ones (particularly laminates)? How do they feel and how would you describe the tone compared to the more common maple and mahogany ones?
The guitar I'm thinking of will probably be a neck-through (possibly a bolt-on) and leaning to either a swamp ash or limba body.
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I've a Warmoth PRS clone with a Rosewood neck, and I've quite a few strat clones with different neck and fingerboard woods (from Wenge through to Anagre). I find that the neck contribution to the tone is actually less than people usually expect, unless it is a neck through guitar. The fingerboard wood affects the attack of the note, rather than an overall affect on the tone. I know that a lot of people might disagree with me on this, but to me the real difference with fingerboards is feel. I have quite a lot of guitars with Ebony fingerboards because I like the feel of them, but a change of pickups does much more for a guitars sound than the neck woods. The main difference with feel is that Rosewood doesn't need finishing (I have Goncalo Alves and Wenge which don't need a finish either). That does make a bit of difference when you are playing, but a lot of players like a light oil finish, which can still give the natural wood feel.
The real difference is sustain. Different woods make a big difference to the sustain of the note (though I have an all mahogany Les Paul that sustains for days!). Neck though also makes a difference there. But in order for all these to make an effect you need a solid bridge system. If you're puting in a Floyd Rose, then you won't notice anything!
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It definitely won't be a Floyd: hate those things!
The bridge will either be a Hipshot, a Schaller Hannes or some kind of single string (like the ABM) if I go for a fanned fret. Mayones, Strandberg and Dingwall are at Musikmesse, so I'll decide then what I'm doing with that.
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I've got a Charvel San Dimas with a solid rosewood neck (with a maple board) and I love the feel and look. The guitar has a bright and responsive tone with plenty of sustain, though I have no idea how much of that is down to the neck and how much is the influence of other factors - as Phil says, I'm sure the pickups make more of a difference. I mainly enjoy the sensation of the natural wood when I'm playing it and the visual contrast between the dark rosewood neck and the birdseye maple board, which is pretty eye-catching.