Mahogany Tele

shaunm

Has anyone any ideas on the best wood for a tele body? Of course it will be subjective but which wood would you use to try to make things a little darker sounding? A little more LP ish? Naturally a RW fretboard will help but any thoughts?

meltedbuzzbox

check out the modern player tele

Mahogany body with P90s, it should give you an idea of the sound combination.

Not a bad guitar for the price either 

steamabacus

Brett Kingman's Smitty Hog is very nice...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQOKh_AhgGc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzdeN8n9n64

Loobs

Great sounding guitar/rig. I like his demos. 

Loobs

I really don't think wood makes too much of a difference on a Tele. More pickups/scale length/strings/bolt on or set neck.  

In fact, I think in a blindfold test, 99% of people couldn't hear much difference between alder/ash/rosewood/mahogany. 

Put it to the test. I've played a Rosewood Tele that was just as bright as any I've heard. 

octatonic

@Loobs- agreed.

It isn't really the species but rather the particular piece of wood.

You can get light mahogany, heavy mahogany- all the qualities you can think of really.

You have to take each piece of wood as its own thing.

Loobs

Exactly. What do you think regarding my other point, on an electric, of the wood being one of the lesser contributors to the overall tone of the instrument? 

octatonic

Loobs said:

Exactly. What do you think regarding my other point, on an electric, of the wood being one of the lesser contributors to the overall tone of the instrument? 

I've gone back and forth on this a lot over the years.

Where I am at now is: wood does matter, the body and neck matter more than, say, the fingerboard though.

I reckon the pickups matter more than any of them.

The guitar speaker is the biggest filter of them all though.

What I've noticed is there can be next to no correlation between acoustic sound of an electric to how it sounds plugged in.

I reserve the right to change my mind on any of this, however.

ToneControl

and chambering the body will make more difference than changing the wood in a solid body

Loobs

Somewhat. Again, I can't hear a huge difference between chambered and non, at least plugged in. 

koneguitarist

octatonic said:

@Loobs- agreed.

It isn't really the species but rather the particular piece of wood.

You can get light mahogany, heavy mahogany- all the qualities you can think of really.

You have to take each piece of wood as its own thing.

Agree with this, I have played alder 60's tele's that sounded fat as hell early 50's that were Ash and thin, not sure exactly if anyone can say which is which, only that they can hear a difference.

shaunm

Maybe I should start a thread "what is everyone's idea of a perfect spec for a tele?"

Loobs

Pretty much what it was designed as, with a slighter flatter fretboard and slightly bigger frets. 

koneguitarist

Plus the modern wiring!

octatonic

and a tummy cut.

shaunm

Les Paul type wiring with the two tone/ volume set up for me

GSPBASSES

Have look at link’s below. The first guitar is a Tele but built as a LPJ I’ve made a lot of these and the one thing you can be sure of it does not sound like a Tele but just like a LPJ. I also build a lot of Tele’s with a  Mahogany body with a Maple /Rosewood neck HB at the bridge SC at the neck. Sound wise bridge P/U almost a LPJ but not a Tele, the neck P/U single coil still not a Tele sound. The second guitar in the link is a Alder body Maple / Rosewood neck. This will more of a Strat sound then a Tele.

If I’m ask to build a Tele with a darker sound I tell them there are not many ways to do this and keep the the  classic Tele sound. The easy way a standard Tele in Alder or Swamp Ash but with Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder pickups. The bridge has a coil tap so full on almost a HB but when coil tapped it takes on a glassy hot Texas sound. The neck P/U sound is a bit heaver then a standard Tele neck PU. If you then add a 4 way switch you will have a guitar thats a Tele and and almost a Les Paul will nearly. There are more ways to do this but this way works really well, although have a look at the second link this is my Tele built with Bare Knuckle PU’s and a 4 way switch not as heaver as the SD pickups but add’s a bit more to the Tele sound. 

If you go Mahogany then you will lose some of top end glassy twang. 

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/13333/lpj-come-tele#latest

http://simnettguitars.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=3708.0

kelvinburn

That LPJ looks amazing

rocktrout

ive just ordered a smitty tele. im going for a alder body with the belly contour vintage white ,  with a flame roasted maple neck 6100 frets kluson tuners . vintage bridge with the 3 saddles , tele neck pickup but its going to be routed to take mini humbucker too, strat middle pickup and tele bridge , les paul 3 way switch on the tele plate going up and down as opposed to the tele switch going left to right and mini switch between the volume and tone to turn on middle pickup . he winds his own pickups and basically if i give him the outputs of any pickups i like he winds them to your spec . gator hard case and delivery to ireland is 2000 euro . gonna be intresting to see how it turns out . a few guys i got talking to on the fourms who owns a smitty say there are the mutts nuts . anyone on here have one ?

GSPBASSES

Have a look on the guitar classified I have a partcaster all Mahogany T/C for sale.

                              

Danny1969

Friend of mine has a Tele made of rosewood .... Very very heavy and sounds nothing like a Tele