wanting a good fingerstyle guitar...

[SYLrules88]

Hello, second post here. I'm also asking about this on two different guitar forums and I emailed Warmoth about it. I am skimming around and reading various posts around this site too.
Basically, I'm looking to get a Warmoth axe that is different in looks and sound than anything else I own. Here's my current collection.

Primarily this guitar will be for fingerstyle and open tunings. I plan on stringing it up first with D'addario 12-52 half rounds and tuning it to B-E-B-E-G-B or maybe 1/2 step up from that. I was thinking going with either chambered or semi hollow and using the VIP body style. I'm wanting the look of darker colored woods and I'd like to avoid using the more common woods if I can afford to such as basswood, poplar, alder, maple, and mahogany. I have one ash guitar with a maple neck and fretboard and i actually love the sound of it, so I guess I could go with ash, but I've had walnut on my mind for a few weeks. I love the look and description of Indian Rosewood but that pushes my build a bit out of my price range. The plan for the neck is wenge shaft and either figured ziricote board with no inlays or a jet black ebony board with pearloid nightswan inlays. The nut and pickups will be white and the frets and all of the hardware will be gold. This looks gorgeous in my mind!

However, I was just reading a thread where a guy had a telecaster with a semi hollow or hollow walnut body and he was looking for a way to darken his tone. He had the guitar pictured with a Mesa which I understood to be pretty dark amps, so maybe walnut is a bad choice for me in this situation. I guess I could go with an ash body and walnut top so I still get the look. I just wonder if walnut, ash, wenge, and my fretboard choice will all look weird once its all done. I'm pretty much set on my neck shaft and fretboard choices so if I am to change anything, it would have to be the body. I don't own a guitar with an ebony board and I've been dying to try out a wenge neck.

There's not really a specific tone I'm going for. I just want a warm guitar well suited for fingerstyle. The amps I will be playing it through are a crate vfx5212,a carvin v3 halfstack, and a sansamp psa-1 rackmounted preamp. If you need more information, I'll be glad to provide it.

 

[Bob Rayne]

Superwide Neck and Z-Body

 

[Kaoskadosk]

As far as I know, Black Korina is pretty warm and got stunning looks, would fit pretty well with the Wenge aswell I think.

 

[drewfx]

I would say (in no particular order):

mahogany VIP body with whatever top you like,

or

rosewood with a cheaper (non-carved top) body style, like a tele thinline

or

walnut and warmer sounding neck/pickups/strings/amp/etc. (if necessary)

 

[Paul-less]

Rosewood tele body, with either a 3 saddle tele bridge, or a vintage spaced strat hardtail.

My Vintage spaced strat hardtail has perfect string spacing for finger picking.

 

[SYLrules88]

eehh im pretty much sold on the VIP style. I can't afford a PRS so this is the next best thing! im still not comfortable with a few things about strats so i dont want to drop lots of money on a semi custom one. 3 and maybe 4 of my 7 guitars are mahogany so I'd really like to try something different. i have considered black korina, and last night i was also thinking about ash with a rosewood top. a completely rosewood body would be amazing but that bumps this one a bit above my price range. id like to keep with dark woods for this build but i may end up going wth a korina core. im just curious about the general tonal properties of walnut? is there a wood that it can be closely compared to? and would a walnut body, wenge neck, and ebony fretboard equal and entirely too bright guitar?

 

[tfarny]

I'm a bit confused - I often play w/ fingers on a standard sized strat or tele, and I have tone controls on the guitar, effects unit, and amp if I need a warmer sound - what exactly do you want from this new guitar? If you just want a new axe, I'd say go for it but it doesn't sound like you really need a new one to use fingers on.

 

[Mor Paul]

For a fingerstyle guitar, for me, I'd want a shorter scale, wider neck, higher bridge, wider string spacing.
Basically, Gibson style.

P90s would be good for fingerstyle.

I'm not a fan of fingerpicking on a tele, though I can do it, and it gets easier once you're used to fingerpicking in the smaller spacing.

 

[JaySwear]

definitely recommend the superwide necks. they're definitely really cool! a 1 3/4" nut guitar might be cool as well if you're worried that the superwides would be TOO big. mine took a little bit of getting used to, but i love the feel of the thing now. the VIP would be a great fit, too. VIPs look awesome with the Warmoth headstock, and the larger body would balance out really well with the bigger neck. anyway definitely keep us posted on what you end up with

 

[SYLrules88]

I'm a bit confused - I often play w/ fingers on a standard sized strat or tele, and I have tone controls on the guitar, effects unit, and amp if I need a warmer sound - what exactly do you want from this new guitar? If you just want a new axe, I'd say go for it but it doesn't sound like you really need a new one to use fingers on.

im wanting something different than the other guitars i own. i dont have an axe with single coils and im wanting a H-S-S (bridge to neck) config for this. either chambered or semi hollow body. different woods than i already have. and i dont want to change the pickups in my other guitars as they do what they do pretty well.

hmm i was just at my store and played a little bit on a classical acoustic with a 2" nut width. that was way too big so i dont think the superwide necks are for me. i finally found one with a 1 3/4" nut width and i liked that one quite a bit. i like to make use of the thumb on my fretting hand and i couldnt comfortablly do that on the 2" width but it was still fine on the 1 3/4".

still undecided about the body woods, but as of now im leaning towards ash body and rosewood top. the one ash guitar i own sounds very warm and has amazing sustain. its my 8 string up front in the photo in my opening post. im having trouble finding info on the tonal properties of walnut which is initially what i wanted to go with on the body.

 

[drewfx]

Most of what I read describes walnut as similar to maple, but a bit warmer, not as bright and fairly neutral. But my new walnut project isn't built yet, so I don't know for sure. And I wouldn't describe ash as particularly "warm" either.

But most people around here seem to think the neck/FB woods make a lot more difference than the body wood anyway, and a thinline/hollow style body should help as well.

IMHO, if you're adamant about neck, fingerboard and pickup choices, it's hard to totally change the results with just the body wood. For instance, I'd use ebony where I wanted clarity, not for warmth (unless the neck and body were already on the really warm side). I'd start by figuring out either what you want it to sound like (and pick appropriate woods top to bottom), or pick the woods you're interested in and go wherever that takes you.

 

[Patrick from Davis]

I don't think that the super wide neck will help all that much with finger picking.  The wider spacing at the bridge will obviously help, but the neck width doesn't change the geometry that much. 

Finger picking in general will have a warmer sound, so you don't have to go too far.  Korina is a warmer wood.  I have a tele with a korina body and a macassar ebony neck.  It makes the Ebony neck sound great.  I have a wenge neck on a mahogany body and it is quite articulate as well.  You might want to consider a chambered body as well, it adds a level of articulation to the sound.  It is not acoustic, but somewhere in the middle between acoustic and hard body.  They certainly ring out more when they are not plugged in.  If I were doing it, I'd get the korina.  It is a sound I really like.  Korina body with wenge neck is a duo that is tough to beat.
Patrick

 

[AutoBat]

I believe Mark Knofler recommends a strat.

 

[dNA]

My walnut thinline with an all-maple neck sounds very full and even with Pure Nickel 12-52 strings on it in standard tuning. I think you could probably go with something similar or not quite as bright in the neck since you don't want maple. You could actually do walnut body and walnut neck with an ebony fretboard.