Thoughts on a mahogany tele?

axisus

As mentioned recently, I have a burning desire to knock up an old/battered Telecaster. I'm thinking of going with my available wood, which would basically mean a mahogany body (chambered), some cheap wood as a top (basically an old vintage wine crate!) and a mahogany piece for the neck with a dark fretboard of some kind (need to buy that).

I'm not good at all with tonewoods and all that stuff, does it sound like a recipe for disaster?

Mockup:

pintspiller

Sounds nice.

Sporky

It'll be fine.

If you subscribe to the "the timber makes no difference" school of thought then it'll make no difference.

If you don't, then it'll make a difference, but it'll still sound like an electric guitar.

Thus fine either way.

Apart from the Mateus Rose thing.

Funkfingers

My Warmoth self-build Cabronita Tele turned out to have a mahogany body. I ordered a pre-painted body that I (and Warmoth) believed to be alder. When it arrived, there was a handwritten note, explaining the error and hoping that mahogany would be acceptable.

Funny that Warmoth felt unable to e-mail me to check prior to despatch.

As it turned out, mahogany was fine.

Corvus

Tone spectrum wise a bit of EQ should sort it out, also there's a difference in the attack, note formation, with different woods & densities but it'll be fine. It'll clang like a proper drinking man's Tele with the steel bridge & suspended pickup so all good. I've a shot-to-hell pine table with gouges & fire marks from a drunken evening, reckon there's two maybe three Teles in that, so hopefully doing similar-ish some time. Crack on : )

Funkfingers

Leo's earliest lap steel and solidbody electric Spanish guitars were made of Pine for reasons of appearance and cost. The look was popular on domestic furniture at the time. Plus, Leo had a stash of Pine that he was already using for amplifiers. Notions of acoustic properties did not enter into the equation.

DavusPG

I recently bought the Jim Root Tele that was in the classifieds on here. Mahogany body, maple neck and ebony board.
I absolutely love it.
The EMGs had been swapped for DiMarzio Transitions, which with the 5 way selector makes it a very versatile guitar perfect for rock & indie covers.
I have no idea what music you intend to play and your ear may be much better than mine, but of you intend to play rock then I don't think you have any worries.
As @Corvus said nothing a bit of EQ won't sort out.

Best of luck

dindude

I think a 'hog bodied Tele would sound ace, it will have an effect, maybe a slightly softer attack and less high end - but it'll be subtle and depends on the wood. 

Not a fan of 'hog necks, never found them to be as stable as maple and for bolt on purposes I'd have concern that the neck screw threads wouldn't be particularly robust, I'd certainly not be wanting to take the neck off and on too many times. 

Someone who who actually makes guitars may well tell me I'm talking bollocks, which is fine.

WezV

mahogany and pine are both well proven in tele's, i see no risk for distaster here.  It won't sound bad - but it probably wont sound like an ash or alder tele either



@dindude is correct about the bolt on neck - it will need a little more support than a maple neck - something like threaded inserts.  The threads in mahogany won't stand up to being taken off and on the same way maple would.   they would probably crumble on the 3rd go

I would also would say to either go for through body stringing, or extra long bridge screws so its firmly in the mahogany ... Pine doesn't hold a screw as well as mahogany.  You won;t need to remove this as often as a neck and the tensions are quite different so it will be fine with longer screws, doesn;t need inserts like the neck would

octatonic

dindude said:

'hog 

WITH THIS I WILL NOT UP PUT!

Stop it and stop it now!

dindude

octatonic said:

dindude said:

'hog 

WITH THIS I WILL NOT UP PUT!

Stop it and stop it now!

Typing it the long way is too, erm, long, time is precious and where we can abrviate guitar terms to animals of a few letters we should.

therefore:

Hog
Pup

etc etc 

TimberG

I've done a mahogany body Tele with a 3 ply mahogany neck with twin SD humbuckers and it sounded wonderful 

go for it that's what I say

GSPBASSES

I've made loads of mahogany T/C, most were fully chambered with fancy maple caps. Most did not sound like T/C's, but this is because they were built for humbuckers or P90's , and some with T90 T/C pickups. Also fair to say that some that were built as a classic T/C fully chambered "F" hole did come very close.

sweepy

Some of the old CSL and CMI Telecasters from the 70's and 80's had mahogany bodies, they were superb guitars 

ICBM

It's an abomination. 

How could you possibly even consider not putting a P90 in the neck position?



It sounds like it would be great actually. (Although still better with a P90.)

axisus

ICBM said:

It's an abomination. 

How could you possibly even consider not putting a P90 in the neck position?



It sounds like it would be great actually. (Although still better with a P90.)

My main guitar is a tele with a p90 in the neck and it is my favourite pickup/position in any guitar I have owned. This one needs to be different. I don't think I even like tele neck pickups, but I want a guitar with trad tele pups.

(give it a year and it may get p90'd!)

Teyeplayer

In the process of putting a Korina one together myself, I'd have a think about the tonal properties you like and see what you can find that meets your brief. Remember there are no rules, so have some fun with it, if you don't experiment you won't find the combination that is right for you.

ICBM

axisus said:

My main guitar is a tele with a p90 in the neck and it is my favourite pickup/position in any guitar I have owned. This one needs to be different. I don't think I even like tele neck pickups, but I want a guitar with trad tele pups.

(give it a year and it may get p90'd!)

I give it six months .

It will sound different anyway, if your other Tele has a maple neck. There's just something about P90s and all-mahogany guitars which is 'right'.

If you do insist on fitting a Tele neck pickup , and it sounds too muddy (which it might in an all-mahogany guitar), disconnect the cover from ground - that makes quite a big difference, and makes it more like a Strat neck pickup.

GSPBASSES

Some of my Mahogany Tele builds.

axisus

GSPBASSES said:

Some of my Mahogany Tele builds.

Very nice indeed.

It's full steam ahead for me.

usedtobe

I'm sure it will be fine, and the mock up looks awesome!