Jazzmaster body woods

[phillip_h]

I'm interested in building a Jazzmaster-ish guitar, and I'm trying to decide on body wood.

Let me tell you what I'm looking for. I have an LP special with P90s that absolutely I love. I kinda want something that will give me a similar tonality with a little more fendery spank and bite. I have owned a couple of jazzmasters in the past, and I loved the body but hated the vintage neck radius, tremolo, rhythm circuit and overall too-bright quality of the guitar. In other words, I loved the body, but nothing else.

Here's what I have in mind:
Solid alder body
Maple/Rosewood neck
P90s
No rhythm circuit
Tune-O-Matic bridge w/ stop tailpiece

Do you think the alder body will be too bright, or should I choose a warmer body wood like korina (like a friend suggested)?

 

[Don]

My experience until now teaches me that it's better to have too much treble and roll it off with a nice EQ  than having a very dark guitar that sound great distorted with volume at 8, but sucks at anything else.
It really depends on what are going to play with it.
If I were you, and that means with my tastes, i would choose a neutral body (alder is great, adds a good bite and growl without being snappy as ash or muddy like mahogany.) with a very bright neck (maple/ebony perhaps... Even a  one piece wenge neck would be cool ) and classic jazzmaster pickups. They are a bit darker and mellower, but very similar sounding (at least for me) to P90s.
This way you would have a very versatile guitar, with a very smooth yet very well defined and clear sound.
Good luck with your build  ccasion14: