Rosewood Tele Body
- Thread starter rodtod423
- Start date
Cactus Jack
Senior Member
- Messages
- 484
It’s worth a call to customer service to see if they can make it happen. However, I’m not aware that a full rosewood body is a current offering.
DangerousR6
Mythical Status
- Messages
- 15,478
They have on occasion in the past, it was random. So I'd imagine now it's a custom order, plus probably based on the wood on hand...But as mentioned, best to call to be for sure...
Ace Flibble
Hero Member
- Messages
- 865
Solid rosewood bodies and necks don't have a bright tone, but they do give a very sharp 'attack' to single notes. I've got one of each, though not paired together. My rosewood body is a Tele shape but with two humbuckers and even with a maple/maple neck (25.125" conversion) it sounds just like one of my more standard Les Pauls. My rosewood neck is on a solid alder Warmoth carved Tele body, with a LP configuration, and that also sounds indistinguishable from a LP other than the very slightest more 'snap' if you pick a single note clean. For reference that neck has also been on a regular Tele body and there too it provided a much warmer and overall smoother sound than the maple & ebony neck that had been on it previously. Rosewood is never not warm-sounding, no matter if it's a neck or body.
I've had two problems with my solid rosewood body. The first was doing the initial assembly and finishing as rosewood is a massive pain to work with. It's naturally very oily and porous so working with it is simply an all-round more complicated job than a simple wood like alder. The second problem, which never goes away, is the weight. I never weighed the body alone, but fully assembled with a maple neck and all the hardware the rosewood guitar out-weighs every other guitar I've ever owned, including basses, a Gibson Raw Power LP which is entirely solid maple, and a double neck SG.
At the time of writing this post I am in fact recovering from my fifth herniated disc. I can still play regular Strats and Teles stood up but LPs are getting sketchy and that rosewood Tele is right out of the question, permanently. Even playing it sat down, I get a dead leg after about fifteen minutes or so.
I can not stress this enough, if you go for a rosewood body get it chambered. That's actually how most of the Fender rosewood Teles are. It doesn't change the tone at all because the rosewood is already as deep and warm-toned as it's ever going to get anyway. Solid rosewood is not worth it for bodies, other than as a conversation piece. It does seem to sustain just a hair better compared to a chambered body, but if that's your bag then go for solid maple, which still wins the battle of sustain. Solid rosewood bodies are simply too heavy to bother with, even when you're entirely healthy. (As I was when I first got it, and yes it was still painfully heavy back then, too.) Or if you absolutely detest chambering for whatever reason, get a mahogany body with a rosewood top. It'll still sound 95% the same and it'll save at least a third of the weight. (And save a lot of money too, I expect.)
I've had two problems with my solid rosewood body. The first was doing the initial assembly and finishing as rosewood is a massive pain to work with. It's naturally very oily and porous so working with it is simply an all-round more complicated job than a simple wood like alder. The second problem, which never goes away, is the weight. I never weighed the body alone, but fully assembled with a maple neck and all the hardware the rosewood guitar out-weighs every other guitar I've ever owned, including basses, a Gibson Raw Power LP which is entirely solid maple, and a double neck SG.
At the time of writing this post I am in fact recovering from my fifth herniated disc. I can still play regular Strats and Teles stood up but LPs are getting sketchy and that rosewood Tele is right out of the question, permanently. Even playing it sat down, I get a dead leg after about fifteen minutes or so.
I can not stress this enough, if you go for a rosewood body get it chambered. That's actually how most of the Fender rosewood Teles are. It doesn't change the tone at all because the rosewood is already as deep and warm-toned as it's ever going to get anyway. Solid rosewood is not worth it for bodies, other than as a conversation piece. It does seem to sustain just a hair better compared to a chambered body, but if that's your bag then go for solid maple, which still wins the battle of sustain. Solid rosewood bodies are simply too heavy to bother with, even when you're entirely healthy. (As I was when I first got it, and yes it was still painfully heavy back then, too.) Or if you absolutely detest chambering for whatever reason, get a mahogany body with a rosewood top. It'll still sound 95% the same and it'll save at least a third of the weight. (And save a lot of money too, I expect.)
PhilHill
Hero Member
- Messages
- 1,653
Ace Flibble said:
In the late 40's Gibson got a request from a famous Country Artist that wanted a guitar made out of rosewood because he thought it would have a very mellow tone. Gibson repeatedly told the gentleman that because of rosewood's hardness, the tone would be brighter than usual. The Artist insisted that he was right and ordered the guitar. When it was finished he found out that Gibson had been right. He paid for anyway and sold it to someone else. My experience with rosewood has also shown me that it tends to have a bright tone, so if you'll excuse me I'll tend to follow my experience and that of Gibson, who have been building guitars for a little while now. Oh, and George Harrison, who had a Rosewood Telecaster that Fender made for him also was known to remark about it's brite tone..... :dontknow:
Ace Flibble
Hero Member
- Messages
- 865
And once again, sharp attack =/= bright.PhilHill said:
I will refer you again to the fact I literally have these guitars in this very room with me, giving a live, tangible reference point rather than romanticised folklore, and if you want to cite secondary opinions, Warmoth themselves also say the same thing; rosewood bodies are extremely warm-toned.
edit:
Since it did strike me "hang on, I do have a rosewood-bodied guitar right here" I figured I'd quickly record a couple of clips with it vs an alder-bodied but otherwise identical guitar that is also at hand.
You'll excuse the sloppy playing of a couple of basic chords but it's past 11pm and right now I'm supposed to be in bed happily drifting off on a fresh dose of painkillers which I am currently regretting not taking before I tried lifting that blasted guitar.
Two tracks, one on the bridge pickups and one on the neck. The first guitar in each is a solid alder Tele with a 25.5" one-piece maple neck. The second guitar is the solid rosewood Tele with a 25.125" two-piece maple neck.
The pickups in both guitars are the same across the board, Gibson Burstbucker #3 in both positions of both guitars, in all cases running to a 300k volume pot per pickup, no tone controls. (Obviously I can't guarantee each volume pot is 100% identical in value, but they were all CTS 300k pots advertised with a +/-5% tolerance.) Pickups are roughly the same height from the strings but I'm not going to check that precisely at this time of night. Both guitars have .0095 strings but I think they're different brands, d'addario on the rosewood and ernie ball on the alder I think, not that that should make much difference.
Amp is only a Roland JC-22 because hey it's 11pm and anyway it makes for a usefully neutral playing field. EQ set with everything on 10.
https://soundcloud.com/aceflibble/sets/alder-v-rosewood-body
The difference on the bridge pickup is immediately noticeable; the rosewood body is far warmer (or some would say rounder, and others might say dull) in tone compared to the neutral balance of alder. (We are all agreed that alder is a neutrally-toned wood, yes?) For reference most of my Les Pauls with similar pickups have a bridge tone pretty much the same as this. (But I don't have a LP in this room today so that'll have to wait.)
The difference on the neck pickups is minimal, I expect because there's so much less treble to work with there anyway and the BB#3 is a fairly powerful pickup for the neck position and is probably 'overruling' the difference in construction. The rosewood still comes out warmer but it is admittedly a much smaller difference than with the bridge pickups.
PhilHill
Hero Member
- Messages
- 1,653
Opinions as to tone are highly subjective, everyone hears things differently. I am unimpressed with your possessions and I did not mention any romanticised folklore, just an actual historical occurrence. In general harder woods give a brighter tone. However there are over 300 different sub-species of rosewood, and their tonal properties can very widely. so how about we leave it at that instead of resorting to discord.... :icon_thumright:
PhilHill said:
The Harrison-style body doesn't require huge lumber because of the center seam on the top and the maple veneer through the middle. Warmoth's neck blanks might be only slightly narrower than a rosewood body would require. Fortunately you could also make bodies from stump wood that isn't particularly stable but doesn't need to be in that application.
