Tele & Strat Pickups In Mahogany Bodies

[MrBump]

Has anyone got experience in mahogany bodies Fender-type guitars?  Do they tend to differ much from Ash/Alder etc.

Mark.

[dave_mc]

how close do you mean to a fender?

i have an ibanez rg3270 which is mahogany back with maple top, and it has a middle single coil.

Also have a patrick eggle new york which is mahogany body, maple neck, ebony board and it has a wilkinson vintage strat-style trem and a neck single coil.

They sound pretty fendery to me (when those pickups are selected). I mean, any differences I put down as much if not more to the pickups (or the double-locking trem on the ibanez)- the blue velvet is a bit warmer and hotter than a vintage fender-style single coil, and the neck single coil in the PE is a hot ceramic single coil, so obviously neither is going to sound exactly like a vintage fender pickup regardless of what wood the body's made of.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the body wood will make no difference... I'm just saying that if everything else is the same bar the body wood, it's still going to sound pretty fendery, just maybe a little warmer or something like that.

EDIT: after all that you'll probably try a mahogany-bodied fender-style guitar and think it sounds completely different, lol.

[WezV]

i like mahogany type woods for fenders - more than i like regular fender woods

my main guitar is korina with a blackguard flat 50 in the bridge and maple neck. it still sounds very much like a tele when i want it to, but i like the extra depth the warmer wood brings. 

[roland_rat]

No idea myslef but seem to remember that Johnanthan Laws strat type guitrar was all mahogany body. 

[MrBump]

OK, cool.

I'm toying with another selfbuild, which will be a single coil bolt on, but I love the look of mahogany and so the body will most likely be that - I just haven't seen (or heard - I think) many mahogany telecaster/strats.

Thanks.

Mark.

[Brow]

1 of my SSS Strats is a Mahogany body with an Ash laminate on front and back with a Maple neck. It's quite an odd guitar to get pickups for tbh.

It currently has a set of aged Mothers Milks in it and they sound great. It had a set of Duncan Antiquities in it before and while they sounded good, they were too dark and smooth to work in that guitar.

[AndyR]

Didn't Gwem build himself a mahogany-bodied strat a little while back? (Haven't got time to search for the post)

[Telerocker]

Of course woods influence the tone. My swampashstrat is quite percussive, as mahogany generally will sound mellower, but there are so many sorts of mahogany on the market that it's hard to say sometimes. I think most Asian mahogany sounds brighter then South American. I doesn't mean mahogany is no good for Fender-type guitars. If you want a beefy strat by example. I would be tempted to have me build a mahogany tele with P90's in it or Blackguards.

[gwEm]

Didn't Gwem build himself a mahogany-bodied strat a little while back? (Haven't got time to search for the post)

yes i did - worked out really well!

[dani]

had a usacg mahogany body mated to a mahogany/ebony neck with a humbucker and singe coil in the bridge and neck respectively.

the neck single coil still sounded like how a normal strat does with slightly less attack. reckoned the construction, scale length and pickups plays a bigger part in the tone, feel and response as opposed to body wood.