Anyone use a swamp ash guitar?

gnugear · Post by **gnugear** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 1:32 am

I'm not sure I'm ready to try Northern ash (don't even know where to get it). Have any of you guys tried swamp ash with much luck? I've got walnut and I think I can do better. My other choices would be Mahogany or Alder.

robkeeler · Post by **robkeeler** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 3:32 am

My main guitar is a custom Framus.

Swamp Ash Body
1 Piece Flame Maple Neck
Wilkinson Bridge
Virtual PaF HoT -> Class of '58 -> Virtal PAF Neck

Amazing response out of this thing. Very Alive

mightymike · Post by **mightymike** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 8:47 am

My main guitar has a Swamp Ash Body, with AAAAA Koa Flame top, birds eye maple neck, sperzel locking tuners, wilkenson trem.

Swamp Ash Rocks

Bainzy · Post by **Bainzy** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 9:09 am

Nah just northern ash - which sounds amazing. The great thing about it is that it totally balances out having humbuckers in your guitar under gain, and adds massive sustain, attack and punch. I got mine from Warmoth.

awangotango · Post by **awangotango** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 4:11 pm

I'd suggest going to your local guitar shop and acoustically play various fenders. They will have a swamp ash tele, an alder strat etc. and likely a heavier ash tele and it's easy to hear the differences. I find medium weight ash to have a nicer balance and less brittle highs generally, than lighter ash. The light ash tends to be very bright and does not sustain much, which can be cool, but not for everyone's taste and not a super-versatile guitar. Maple for example is bright, but in a different way than ash. sustains more and is not as brittle. I'd also say a similar thing about light weight alder and would stay away and stear towards medium weight for that wood as well which will give more balanced sound and more low-end and sutain, which light weight alder will not give. Honduras mahogany is one wood where lighter is definitely more desirable though. Each actual piece of wood is different however, and the only way to really get what you want is to be able to tap each board and compare. Taking into consideration tha each board at the lumber yard is different in thickness and width, meaning it will sound different because of its overall mass. BUT if you do this enough times to enough boards, you can learn how to discount the differences in overall mass of the board and find the essence of that piece of lumber and how it compares to a different board/species. Crosscut hardwoods and Compton lumber are down on 1st ave south of the stadiums, right before the bridge and are retail lumber yards with wholesale woods where a customer can walk around and select his own boards. i am a woodworker and go there for work mostly but anyone can buy there. I found a super light weight mahogany board and killer black limba a while ago, but each of those is getting harder to find and was not stocked in good amounts as of last week. They've got every imaginable species though, domestic and imported and new stuff once a week. It would be a great learning experience for you to be able to tap so may different species, and you will see why guitars are not made of white or red oak, brazilian cherry, hickory etc. Way too hard/dense/heavy non-resonant etc.

908ssp · Post by **908ssp** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 7:03 pm

Nice ash Fender for sale in the classified section...hmmm..well it is mine but it is nice. Oh yea Ash. Make me an offer by email.

http://www.metroamp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6720

bmf5150 · Post by **bmf5150** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 10:20 pm

chris,
my old guitar was a swamp ash.there not bad.i got rid of it to get my northern ash body.it seems to have more sustain and note clarity.not as bright as i would have originally thought it would be.my favorite body wood i have tried!!