Hi there,
Apologies in advance for what I'm sure will be a monster post.
I'll attempt to put the most necessary info in bold to make it easier to read.I'll be at music college from September of this year, and I feel like I need to have a
versatile workhorse guitar for session work and more traditional sounds.
I'm looking at Warmoth guitars, because it seems like the cheapest way to get a high-quality personalised instrument.
I'm looking to spec an extremely versatile strat-style guitar since all of my other guitars have dual humbuckers, and I've always found the strat shape to be the most comfortable.
I'm hoping that someone with knowledge of tonewoods and electronics can help me out with a few questions I have.
I already have the pickup set that will be going into this guitar. It's a Joe Barden H/S/S set (sorry Tim!). They are incredibly clear, transparent and are hum-cancelling. The bridge pickup can be split to exactly the same specs as the single-coil bridge model, so I get the best of both worlds.
I've always loved strats, but found a lot of niggling things that mean that I find them practically unplayable.
Firstly,
I always long for a fatter, warmer tone. The tone Andy Timmons gets from his mahogany AT300s makes my jaw drop. Here's a link to a video which demonstrates this tone:
link.
For this reason I was thinking of getting a mahogany body. I do still want it to have that strat flavour - is mahogany a bad choice? I'll be speccing the comfort heel since I'll frequently need the upper fret access.
Neckwise, I'm a fan of all-maple necks.
I don't, however, see many maple necks/fretboards paired with mahogany bodies. Is there a reason for this? I've always been a fan of thin, fast necks so I'll be wanting the wizard profile and big frets. I'm also very fussy about my guitars' intonation, so I'll be fitting an Earvana nut.
I don't like tremelo systems, but for the sake of versatility, I will be looking to fit a Wilkinson bridge with locking tuners and a tremelo-no device.
Finally, the electronics. One of the things I find most offputting about stock strats is the placement of the pots. I bang my picking hand against the volume knob whenever I'm picking on the top strings, and I have no need for two tone knobs. My solution is the following: I place the volume pot where the outermost tone knob normally goes, and just above it, instead of a tone knob I have 3-way toggle.
The idea behind the toggle is: I know that even when at maximum, a tone pot has an inherent capacitance that lowers the output and rolls off the high end.
My idea is to have a toggle with a couple of capacitors attached that enables me to switch between the sound of the guitar without a tone knob, with a "simulated" tone knob, and the simulated tone knob set to half-way. That way, I'll have three preset sounds ranging from bright and hot to warm and smooth.
Has anyone tried or heard of a similar idea?Thanks very much for your time in reading this. I have given it a lot of though and would greatly appreciate any input and/or opinions.Adam