Best body wood for P90's?

[David]

Hello folks,
I have a pair of Dimarzio DLX90's and am shopping for a body to stick them in.  These are humbucking P90's, but are supposed to be true to the P90 sound.

I already have maple/kingwood neck that I plan to use.  What kind of body wood would be best for that tradtitional P90 sound.  My first thought was mahogany, but i am wondering about the swamp ash, which would like nice under a trans red finish on a rear-routed tele body.  Thanks for any input.

David

 

[RLW]

Hard to argue with mahogany, THE definitive P90 tone, IMO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iqj6XQ65OqU

 

[tfarny]

I don't think you're going to get close to the sound of an old LP special or anything, no matter your choice - you've got P-90 shaped humbuckers and a maple neck. Go with swamp ash if you like it, I'm sure your guitar will sound great, but I wouldn't expect you're going to recreate some old school sound no matter your choice of body woods.

 

[jackthehack]

Body wood doesn't make that much difference... If you want a "traditional" Gibsony LPS/SG Special kind of sound you need a mahogany neck

 

[Rick]

Mahogony or Korina

 

[David]

So is it true that the neck wood has more of an impact on tone than the body?  That seems counter-intuitive to me, probably just because the body has more mass.  It is hard to be objective about it without building 100 guitars to test (a personal goal that wife does not yet know about).  I have a Warmoth all mahagony LP with TV Jones humbuckers in it that sounds so buttery smooth, but I can't be sure what is the biggest contibuting factor is.

 

[DiMitriR33]

the body has more mass yes but is very rigid. the neck is thin and resonates with the strings. the way the neck resonates will have an effect on how the strings resonate and therefore sound.

oh and the biggest factor...  the electronics and guitar cable. those vitage spiral cables that clapton and hendrix used had so much capacitence it could drop the resonant peak of a single coil to near that of a p-90 or humbucker.
but a set of singles with a normal cable will probably show the characteristics of the woods a bit more.

 

[Ted]

Mahogany would be my choice.

 

[Nando Vallart]

It is hard to be objective about it without building 100 guitars to test (a personal goal that wife does not yet know about). 

Jack is way beyond leader in this race... believe me...

 

[Orpheo]

korina, all the way!

 

[ss396]

korina is well known for complementing p90's. see the raves for the thorn junior 90.

 

[Rick]

Remember scale length will have an impact too.