what to you think of this idea

jamz1823

Newbie
Messages
9
An all rosewood neck with Ebony fingerboard, and an all rosewood strat body, with maple cap.
Possibly semi-hollow, but Im not sure how comfortable I feel with warmoths semi-hollow design.

So what do you think the resulting tone may be? Any input on the design including wood etc. would be helpful.
 
It would tend to be heavy/expensive. An all-rosewood body would be a different kettle of fish, but with a maple lamtop you can save a lot of $$$ and weight by ordering a mahogany body and staining/dying it to match the rosewood. Tone will be very similar.
 
how about a solid (or semi-hollow) body sound without the maple cap. just all rosewood body and neck with ebony board.
 
Not to be a kill joy or anything but, you really can't predict what a guitar is going to sound like until you put it all together and then spend a good week tweaking it.

Of all the skills required to build a parts guitar I would say the most important one is "an open mind."

I say this because many people, myself included, have built guitars expecting it to sound a certain way and when it doesn't, more time and money is spent on trying to force it to sound the way we want it to. In my experience, I have found that listening to a guitar without bias and then working towards bringing out it's best sound, (whatever that may be), has been the most effective way to get a great sounding guitar. It may not be the exact sound you were expecting, but it will be much better than if you try forcing it to be something it's not.

That said, there's no guarantee that a rosewood neck and semi hollow rosewood body guitar will produce a predictable sound. A guy on a different forum made a Telecaster out of particle board and it sounds great, just like a Telecaster should. Go figure!

Good luck with your build. Just try to remember to work with what you've got, not against it. And be prepared to be surprised at getting an extremely cool sound you weren't expecting.
 
Telenator said:
That said, there's no guarantee that a rosewood neck and semi hollow rosewood body guitar will produce a predictable sound. A guy on a different forum made a Telecaster out of particle board and it sounds great, just like a Telecaster should. Go figure!

Leo would be proud of him. Fits Fender's goals pretty well.
 
Gerorge Harrison had an all rosewood body tele, didn't sound like your normal Tele. 

I'd throw my vote in the chambered body camp.  Rosewod has great tone when allowed to resonate.
 
I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. I have a Warmoth hardtail Strat, Black Korina body with an all Rosewood neck and Fender '69 pickups. To quote my best friend, "That's the most Strat sounding Strat I've ever played."
 
Hey RLW,

Do you have a pic of that korina strat with the rosewood neck? I would love to see it.


 
I think it sound cool and diffrent. I believe that Gretch or one of those companies back in the 50s made a guitar like that. I will try and find it.
 
W offers two types of Rosewood namely Brazilian and Indian.  On a more price realistic timber component for a guitar, generally Indian Rosewood is used.  Sonically and visually, it is more of a substitute for Brazilian Rosewood which is now endangered.  If we are referring to Indian Rosewood, it is a naturally oily wood which for some reasons will never dry out inside the densely interlocking wood fibers and grains.  Hence because of the nature of this species of wood, sonically it will be quite bottomy with less spank as with Ash or Maple.  Weight-wise, it is heavy due to the density.  As for sustain, acoustically some tones are dampened by the oil inside the wood fibers.  Having said that, there will always be exceptions to the rule.  However, in general, Indian Rosewood bodies and necks produce their own unique tone which is more on the dark side.  Many favor its looks and color or simply want to replicate George Harrison's famous Tele.  They would counter the bottomy acoustic tone with more vintage type of single coil pickups to enhance the hi-mids and highs.
 
Kinksi said:
Hey RLW,

Do you have a pic of that korina strat with the rosewood neck? I would love to see it.

If he was still on the boards he could show you.  He deleted his account a while ago.
 
Back
Top