Mahagony Strat body - What Neck Wood?

jerryjg

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I've seen Charvel actualy useing   all Maple  necks on some of their hiumbucking Strats. I'm wondering if a Maple /Rosewood board might be actually TOO warm / dark  for a Strat. Actually , thats the setup I have now- a Warmoth body with a Maple/Rosewood fingerboard neck, and it sounds damn sweet. I'm just thinking waht it would sound liek with a Maple or Pau Ferro or ebony fingerboard /  instead of the Rosewood  though.
Is a Mahagony body with a Maple neck and  Rosewood fingerboard overkill for a Strat ?
 
The fingerboard doesn't make a whole lot of difference at all.  Pickups are far more important, if you're worried it'll be too dark just get brighter pickups.  So really, just go with the board you like the look and feel of best.
 
Tempest said:
The fingerboard doesn't make a whole lot of difference at all.  Pickups are far more important, if you're worried it'll be too dark just get brighter pickups.  So really, just go with the board you like the look and feel of best.
Thanks for the replay, but I've found that the fingerbaord makes a significant difference in tone wuiith a Start  clean sound. I like pickups like Duncans that, In general, accentuate the subtleties of the wood  and not like DiMarzios that, again in general, are eq''d to have a siganture sound of mostly the pickup and will sound the same on even a slab of conrete.
 
jerryjg said:
Tempest said:
The fingerboard doesn't make a whole lot of difference at all.  Pickups are far more important, if you're worried it'll be too dark just get brighter pickups.  So really, just go with the board you like the look and feel of best.
Thanks for the replay, but I've found that the fingerbaord makes a significant difference in tone wuiith a Start  clean sound. I like pickups like Duncans that, In general, accentuate the subtleties of the wood  and not like DiMarzios that, again in general, are eq''d to have a siganture sound of mostly the pickup and will sound the same on even a slab of conrete.

Did you try this with the exact same guitar, amp, and pickups? Because the fretboard has like no noticeable difference in tone, ask anyone.

EDIT: ok that came out wrong, it was late, the fretboard has hardly any difference, it has difference but not much
 
Rouse said:
jerryjg said:
Tempest said:
The fingerboard doesn't make a whole lot of difference at all.  Pickups are far more important, if you're worried it'll be too dark just get brighter pickups.  So really, just go with the board you like the look and feel of best.
Thanks for the replay, but I've found that the fingerbaord makes a significant difference in tone wuiith a Start  clean sound. I like pickups like Duncans that, In general, accentuate the subtleties of the wood  and not like DiMarzios that, again in general, are eq''d to have a siganture sound of mostly the pickup and will sound the same on even a slab of conrete.

Did you try this with the exact same guitar, amp, and pickups? Because the fretboard has like no noticeable difference in tone, ask anyone.

I'd argue against that (worked in a music store for years and played literally hundreds of mexican and US strats of all types). I honestly think I can hear it - but it is extremely subtle and my (completely prejudiced) ears are not measurement microphones, and I certainly admit that the differences could have been caused by anything from simple differences in the weight and grain of the exact peices used for the neck and body to th humidity (yup... that makes a measurable difference). I think that I've played enough guitars through the same amps in the same room back to back that it's reasonably reliable. Good chance I'd fail a blindfold test though...
 
Tempest said:
The fingerboard doesn't make a whole lot of difference at all.  Pickups are far more important, if you're worried it'll be too dark just get brighter pickups.  So really, just go with the board you like the look and feel of best.

Well I would agree that the fretbaord tone may be minimally different, but i would say it IS  different. I think i DO stand corrected in that the a different species of neck wood and not the fingerbaord itself would make quiteb a bit more noticable change of tone.
 
The trick about fingerboard tone is that it is not the greatest contributing factor, and you have to be able to tell the difference when someone else is playing.  If you know it is different because you can see the fingerboard, it will be different.

The woods that are used is going to be a crap shoot to describe, it is all about tendencies.  Pau Ferro behaves a lot like maple sonically.  So does Canary.  The difference is that they don't have to be finished.  I have a Korina Tele, with Bill Lawrence pickups, and a Macassar Ebony neck on it.  It is very articulate, and very warm as well.  I see it as a nice mix of the two kinds of woods.  My opinion on this is that too warm = muddy, and in general strats have a long enough string length and bright enough pickups to avoid that.  And it was said already, the pickups will decide if the sound is what you like.  They make the single biggest difference in sound.  So get what you like neck wood wise, and mess with pickups to find the sound that is in your head.
Patrick

 
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