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Post by hermyinaz on Mar 5, 2007 0:20:45 GMT -7
Hey fellas what's happenin ? I was wondering what ya all thought what wood sounds the best with a tele for that country twang, spanky kinda sound.....I have a 63 custom shop tele with an alder body and vintage pickups, , which I just switched out for texas specials, rosewood neck and to me it still really doesn't have that spanky kind of sound and really sounds a little more vintage to me. I am also playing out of a dr z maz 18jr 2 by 10 ......Hmm, I'm wondering if it is the body on the guitar now because i borrowed one of my buddies highway 1 texas tele's and i liked it better and had more of the sound I was looking for any thoughts or help on this matter would be appreciated thanks alot, Bryan.
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Post by groovergeorge on Mar 5, 2007 3:00:03 GMT -7
I was taking about this in another thread. if you want maximum twang and tele spank then get a lightweight swamp ash body with a nitro finished 1 piece maple neck. Standard vintage Fralins are a good chice fro pickups,if you want a little more grit then fender custom shop nocasters are a good choice as well. A compensated bridge is also a big plus for setting your action without any problems and if you want lots of sustain then go with brass saddles over stainless steel. if you can afford it a Fender custom shop relic nocaster would be the top of my list,other good choices of factory guitar are the g&l asat classic or for a little more money Tom Anderson hollow t in swamp ash with maple board.
Good luck,hope this has helped.
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Post by mward on Mar 5, 2007 4:59:48 GMT -7
The hwy one has a maple neck. Also, and this is just me, if I were looking for the tele twang I wouldn't go putting overwound pickups in it like texas specials. I doubt the body wood is affecting the sound you're looking for. Ash and alder bodies both have twang when the right parts are on em.
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Post by sonicgator on Mar 5, 2007 6:50:43 GMT -7
Swamp Ash IMO will give you the best twang. Of the alder and ash bodied guitars I've had, the ash bodies seem to have a bit more sparkle and clarity, while the alder bodied ones have more midrange and seem to lean more towards a rock sound.
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Post by benttop (Steve) on Mar 5, 2007 6:54:01 GMT -7
Wow, here's one I have a different take. Alder - the lightest piece you can find. The lighter the better, which is why swamp ash works so well. It's light. But it's a lot easier to find a lightweight body in alder, and it sounds great. I've actually turned guys away from top model guitars because of their weight - it really works against that Tele Spank we like.
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Post by hermyinaz on Mar 5, 2007 8:06:38 GMT -7
Well thanks alot for the help, yeah I wasn't sure at this point what made the difference, all I was really concerned with is I wasn't getting the sound I wanted......I will have to maybe check out some different teles in alder and ash, and also maybe the texas specials aren't a good route to go.......Bentop, say i did try a lightweight custom shop 63 tele in swamp ash and that thing sounded really good but when i ordered mine it was a little over 8lbs in alder, it just didn't sound as good......so that could be a big problem as well.......hey guys thanks alot for all your help I appreciate it......thanks, Bryan.
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Post by benttop (Steve) on Mar 5, 2007 8:28:47 GMT -7
When I spy a nice Tele, if it seems heavy when I pick it up, I rarely go ahead and play it through an amp. I already know it isn't going to do what I want. Light - that's the ticket!
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Post by jwr on Mar 5, 2007 8:53:26 GMT -7
I just played a bunch of geetars at Guitar Hanger this weekend. Suhr's, a Grosh(which I'm about to order one tonight!) a Relic Strat, and a few G&L's. One G&L in particular stood WAY out from the crowd, it was a Swamp Ash body with a maple neck and rosewood board, nice and light. It was the best playing, sounding guitar in the room next to the Grosh at about a 1/3 the price, it was used. I agree that weight makes a huge difference in tone, but don't forget that a lot of those classic Tele tones were lite Swamp Ash bodies with a maple neck and board. Benttop is right, light really is the ticket.
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Post by benttop (Steve) on Mar 5, 2007 9:13:56 GMT -7
I just played a bunch of geetars at Guitar Hanger this weekend. Suhr's, a Grosh(which I'm about to order one tonight!) a Relic Strat, and a few G&L's. One G&L in particular stood WAY out from the crowd, it was a Swamp Ash body with a maple neck and rosewood board, nice and light. It was the best playing, sounding guitar in the room next to the Grosh at about a 1/3 the price, it was used. I agree that weight makes a huge difference in tone, but don't forget that a lot of those classic Tele tones were lite Swamp Ash bodies with a maple neck and board. Benttop is right, light really is the ticket. I don't think the choice of wood (between ash and alder) is nearly as important as the weight. The two woods do sound slightly different, but you'll hear a HUGE difference between some heavy tub of stone and a nice light body. I actually like to play my solid bodies acoustically before I try them through an amp. If the guitar makes a lot of sound without an amp, it's going to sound a lot cooler when the amp comes on. Of course, going back to my old song, "Everything Matters." The bridge is a big contributor to the Tele tone - if you want the old original tone, get the Callaham compensated with brass saddles. The neck wood definitely makes a contribution to the tone. The pups are a major contributor. The electronics are a contributor. The string gauge is a contributor. The player is a major contributor. Discounting the player for a minute, my view is the weight of the body and the type of pups are the two largest contributors, but next in line would be that ashtray bridge. Dang, that thing really does some voodoo to the Tele tone. ;D
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Post by hermyinaz on Mar 5, 2007 13:34:02 GMT -7
Dang Bentop man your on a roll......i didn't think you were going to ever stop ha ha....I'm just kiddin.....ah anyway yeah great info there, i was talking to the fender custom shop dept or whatever it's called today and yeah they said the same thing, the weight of the wood is the key to get those tones and yeah with my 8 pounder tele custom, I guess it is just to heavy but i sold that anyway and don't want to make another costly mistake so i do appreciate everyones help.... JWR yeah I heard those G&L's are pretty good don't know to much about them though.......
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Post by benttop (Steve) on Mar 5, 2007 13:41:24 GMT -7
Dang Bentop man your on a roll......i didn't think you were going to ever stop ha ha....... My wife says the same thing.... ;D
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Post by hermyinaz on Mar 5, 2007 13:42:59 GMT -7
Yeah mine to HA HA .........thanks for the help........Bryan.
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Post by jwr on Mar 5, 2007 16:56:11 GMT -7
Some people really like G&L guitars, they have been hit and miss with me. I've played some great ones and I've played a few that were just O.K. And Benttop hit on something that I do as well. I'll play a guitar unplugged first and if it doesn't do it for me acoustically, 99% of the time it won't when I plug it in either.
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Post by sonicgator on Mar 5, 2007 19:20:12 GMT -7
Here's another twist for you...I played a custom shop re-issue of the original Broadcaster at Gruhn Guitars last week...made out of Pine! The guitar was so light it felt as if it was completely hollowed out. I only played it acoustically, but man that thing had a serious resonance and tone. I'm with Benttop here, if it sounds goods acoustically, a good amplifier is only going to make that tone shine through.
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Post by billyguitar on Mar 5, 2007 19:48:07 GMT -7
I always wanted a Tele made out of recycled 100 year old pine. I think that would be awesome!
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Post by benttop (Steve) on Mar 5, 2007 19:50:49 GMT -7
Wow, Pine is so soft - how long would the neck stay in position? Cool idea though. I wonder if you could deal with the neck joint using some technology so you could get the light body in the deal... Hmmmmm....
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Post by Joey Beverages on Mar 5, 2007 19:55:36 GMT -7
I always wanted a Tele made out of recycled 100 year old pine. I think that would be awesome! y'all got an IKEA store handy? they gots lots of big and small pine goods ....just make sure all the extra or missing metal pieces are accounted for before you start cutting/gluing/sanding ;D
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Post by hermyinaz on Mar 5, 2007 21:36:09 GMT -7
100 year old pine ? That would be actually pretty interesting.....I live in Arizona and it seems like pretty much anything goes these day's as far as sales go with all the different amp builders and guitar makers.....Heck there are alot of mesquite trees here I wonder if I should try and hack one down and start making some guitars out of that kind a wood.......ha ha ......Anyone in on this ? Actually i can draw up a corporation tonite and a business plan and we can all go in on it.....Let's get er done ......Ah shoot i'm going off again in dreamland but anyway back to the post......Yeah Bentop I talked to about 3 or 4 different guitar builders today and they were saying the exact same thing you are and that's the weight of the wood.....although 3 of them said to go with swampash for premium spank but like you said a light alder body i think you can acheive the same thing .....
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Post by sonicgator on Mar 6, 2007 14:04:10 GMT -7
Wow, Pine is so soft - how long would the neck stay in position? Cool idea though. I wonder if you could deal with the neck joint using some technology so you could get the light body in the deal... Hmmmmm.... Good question. Guitar Mill is offering Pine bodies and I just had Mario from there quote me on a custom Pine Tele build. At $2600 though, I'm not sure I'm willing to invest in a custom built guitar that I've never even heard of anyone using before. For that price, I can get a TAG or Suhr built to my specs with a Swamp Ash body. According to Guitar Mill, Pine is basically the tonal equivalent of a super-lightweight Swamp Ash body.
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Post by mward on Mar 6, 2007 17:47:56 GMT -7
Holy @)#(*%- expensive. I hate building stuff out of pine because the pitch gunks up the blades so badly. I can see where it'd be interesting in guitars. Pine cabinets sound heavenly.
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Post by mudskipper on Mar 6, 2007 19:28:13 GMT -7
there are simply too many variable to say this and that..... i feel that density of the wood does have something to do with the final sound of solid body electric guitars, though... the string vibration traveling through all the hardware and wood, eventually reaching the pickups which influence the signal.
i don't like feather weight solidbody guitars. they feel a little too mushy and soft. i tend to like guitars that fall in the beginning stage of medium weight to smack in the middle of "medium".
wasn't it the Highway1 Teles and Strats that had "IKEA" bodies, as many as 5 pieces of wood to make up a body? sometimes Fender would put a veneer on the front and back of them for translucent finishes to hide the seams. i'm not saying that that makes them bad, btw. just wondering....
for Teles, their bridge matters a lot along with the saddles. the bridge pickup has a very direct connection to the strings as well in comparison the other guitars since they all sit on the same metal plane.
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Post by benttop (Steve) on Mar 6, 2007 19:40:01 GMT -7
Interesting. I've never experienced a Tele that is too light. The Grosh I have here is about the lightest I've ever played, and you should experience it firsthand - oh my! It has more Tele "clang" than any I've ever played. But everyone listens for something different. I know guys who can tell the difference between ash and alder by playing it - I sure can't. So my pallet may not be as sensitive as some others. In this, in more ways than one, YMMV!
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Post by hermyinaz on Mar 6, 2007 22:16:30 GMT -7
I just talked to Bill Crook today and man what a great guy.....Real friendly and takes the time to help you pick out what you want.....But anyway yeah I was talking to him about this topic and he said basically it doesn't really matter if you go with Swamp Ash or Alder but basically the weight, but on the other hand he said you don't want to go to light because than you lose some bass characteristics, but he said he usually goes with a 4.5 pound body and goes from there......but anyway he was really helpful and was talkin about Paisley and what he puts on his guitars etc.....So I pulled the trigger on a Crook Custom.....I'm just gonna do a standard color and have it medium reliced should look pretty nice .....I will post some pics when I get it......I appreciate all your comments .......By the way anyone play a Crook ? Not trying to hijack the thread ...........B
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Post by BW on Mar 6, 2007 22:31:50 GMT -7
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Post by benttop (Steve) on Mar 6, 2007 22:34:20 GMT -7
I just talked to Bill Crook today and man what a great guy.....Real friendly and takes the time to help you pick out what you want.....But anyway yeah I was talking to him about this topic and he said basically it doesn't really matter if you go with Swamp Ash or Alder but basically the weight, but on the other hand he said you don't want to go to light because than you lose some bass characteristics, but he said he usually goes with a 4.5 pound body and goes from there......but anyway he was really helpful and was talkin about Paisley and what he puts on his guitars etc.....So I pulled the trigger on a Crook Custom.....I'm just gonna do a standard color and have it medium reliced should look pretty nice .....I will post some pics when I get it......I appreciate all your comments .......By the way anyone play a Crook ? Not trying to hijack the thread ...........B I think it's not considered bad form to hijack your own thread... Congrats on the Crook - never see anything bad about them here!
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Post by hermyinaz on Mar 6, 2007 22:50:51 GMT -7
Yeah thanks Bentop can't wait, for the guitar and about the thread yeah I forgot I originally started this thread, I can do whatever i want right ? ha ha ......thanks......B
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Post by BW on Mar 6, 2007 22:58:07 GMT -7
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Post by hermyinaz on Mar 6, 2007 23:08:23 GMT -7
Hey Bw them Glendale guitars look pretty cool, did you listen to the clips ? Got some good tone going on there ? Ah did you see a price list ? I can always use another backup guitar......thanks, B.
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Post by oldgoat on Mar 6, 2007 23:18:27 GMT -7
Check out www.glendaleguitars.com for some pine bodies and other goodies...Dale Clark is an up and comer (great player too!) Dale is great to work with. I have one of his pine bodies back from being painted. And it is really light. Looking at next week when the bad boy will be all put together. My understanding from talking to Dale is that the pine, like was used on the very early teles, gives it a warmer tone. But I could be very wrong. I'll let everyone know how it compares to my 80's tele.
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Post by hermyinaz on Mar 6, 2007 23:58:36 GMT -7
Hey oldgoat, yeah definately post some pics when you get it.....man a few sound clips would be cool as well.....B
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