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On the other hand you might actually be a smuggler
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If you haven't got a router to do the work yourself, then possibly just drilling some fairly big holes almost to the thickness of the body under the scratch plate, would be the cheap answer.
Your life will improve when you realise it’s better to be alone than chase people who do not really care about you. Saying YES to happiness means learning to say NO to things and people that stress you out.
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resonance change to the guitar when rebuilt?
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On the smugglers routes, they were only used by Fender for a small time in 67 when wood supplies started to get heavier. To me, it was a weight relief technique that didn't really work that well, so they didn't keep doing it. Probably not cost effective for the difference it gave in the factory
As well as the original fender above I worked on, I also recently added some to another build that had a large plate and was feeling a bit heavy.. It only gives about 1/2lb of weight reduction on guitars in the 8-9lb range.... Most players wouldn't even notice this. How much are people willing to pay for a 1/2lb reduction on an existing guitar?
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What it used to be was scrap. Its other name was Punk ash. Not because it's good for punk music as I have read in all seriousness on the internet, but because it was crap for everything you would normally choose Ash for. it dents easily and has none of the stiffness you want in furniture or construction.
It's the regular Ash that grew in the wettest conditions. This made for faster growth, bigger cells, and wider pores. heavier when wet, but if you can dry it without too much waste it does leave a very light wood behind which works well for guitars.
The trees grown a few meters away could be totally different
We are left with a term that exists with no criteria for its use. It should mean the wood will be lighter than standard ash, hopefully it means it grew somewhere near a swamp. It certainly doesn't mean it will be lighter than another standard guitar wood like alder. Generally, i think it tells you its not stupidly heavy, and it probably has some of that nice grain we associate with swamp ash
I've had some truly lightweight pieces before, so light you would swear they were made from foam. I should have stocked up when i had the chance
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"The term “Swamp Ash” does not refer to any particular species of ash (Fraxinus genus), but is generally used by luthiers to describe lightweight wood yielded from ash trees which are usually found in wet or swampy areas"
The catch here is the stuff sold as "swamp ash" is still lighter than your standard ash. It can still be lightweight ash, without being a lightweight body blank, normal ash can be very heavy.
The cubic weight is much mote important than the addition of the word "swamp"
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I've never believed that Fender used Swamp Ash in there original production in the 50s and then into the 60s, I believe it was white ash that is totally different. I say this as when I used to do guitar repairs re-sprays etc the Fenders I was working on during the 60s and early 70s would definitely not Swamp Ash, but that's another story.
There is plenty of Swamp Ash around and very light. Today I went to DD's to purchase some Swamp Ash, I'm about to make a small production run of F Hole TC's, so I needed middle to heavy Swamp Ash. Most of what I picked up was far too light, I guess I would say most of it would make Strat under 4lb, that is no good for an F hole TC.
The photo below shows some of DD's Swamp Ash stock, that is just a very very small amount he has in stock, I believe he has about 10 m³ of Swamp Ash, that is an awful lot of guitars just. There are lots of one-piece bodies in stock plus pre-joined two-piece bodies.
I did manage to find a few planks that weren't too light, I will let you know tomorrow roughly how heavy the guitars are going to be if they were solid body Strat's or TC's
The price of Swamp Ash has more or less doubled in the last year, so much so, a one piece Swamp Ash body costs about the same as the one piece Honduras Mahogany body blank.
I should point out I do not work for DD, he just happens to have his premises about 20 minutes drive away. I would be the 1st to admit or say his website is total crap, we all need to see the wood before we buy it and that you can't do on his website. However, you only have to contact Andrew or Lewis at DD's and they will sort wood for you and photograph it so you can see exact what they have and choose from there.
Your life will improve when you realise it’s better to be alone than chase people who do not really care about you. Saying YES to happiness means learning to say NO to things and people that stress you out.
https://www.facebook.com/grahame.pollard.39/