Metropoulos Forum

IloveMyMarshall · Post by **IloveMyMarshall** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 8:21 am

Question
finished, polished & leveled to your desire

Im getting a new neck rosewood is this something I could possibly do myself?? I know I have to be careful or I could ruin the neck, do they have kits anything to learn how to do this? 6100 wire rosewood 1 11/16 22 fret white dot inlays actually beautiful looking neck!
TONE

Tone Slinger · Post by **Tone Slinger** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 4:37 pm

Depending on where you are gettng the neck from, you might not have to do any of that. My last Warmoth neck went right on with no problems at all, with super low action and no fret outs. I would recomend USA custom guitars, Warmoth and Musikraft. Those companies are very very good. They have it down. But to answer your question, I wouldnt advise trying to do any fret dressing on your own, at least not on a new neck. Study and practice the techniques on a old neck that you dislike or one that needs a refret.

IloveMyMarshall · Post by **IloveMyMarshall** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 6:45 pm

Tone Slinger wrote:Depending on where you are gettng the neck from, you might not have to do any of that. My last Warmoth neck went right on with no problems at all, with super low action and no fret outs. I would recomend USA custom guitars, Warmoth and Musikraft. Those companies are very very good. They have it down. But to answer your question, I wouldnt advise trying to do any fret dressing on your own, at least not on a new neck. Study and practice the techniques on a old neck that you dislike or one that needs a refret.

Oh I hear ya I sure wont try anything stupid on a new neck.. I found one all ready she is being shipped. I picked up a squier F strat going to tear down put the neck(maple birds eye -Rosewood top) on her with pickguard for one pup the darkburst and leave stock tremelo might add brass nut and go from there.. But those guitars are made from alder? Hell why not give her a shot. Im kind of like do all you can to get that tone without spending thousands of dollars and leave the rest up to the hands.
I got to get this pic on her me as a kid with a 57 Gold top Les Paul, a friend let me borrow and yes you damn know I took beyond great care of her and was bummed when he came knocking on my door LOL

jnewlyn · Post by **jnewlyn** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 5:19 am

Gotta throw this in on you guys.

KORINA.

Best sounding wood I've ever heard in my life. Especially if you're after the VH tone. A must have. I've got a Swamp Ash strat that I've had for about 14 or 15 years and always swore by it. I still like it but my new favorite is the Korina. The Swamp Ash is brighter in comparison but the Korina has these warm and very clear low mid thing going on that I've been missing in a guitar. It also has a snap and a bounce about it that is just absolutely awesome. Mahogany would also be a great choice as there are similarities between the two. a la Les Pauls.

Tone Slinger · Post by **Tone Slinger** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 3:59 pm

Yeah, I've never played a Korina guitar, but have heard that it is very similar to Mahogany only with a little more brightness. I definatly hear you on the warmth thing. Ash isnt warm. Maple, which I love for necks and fretboards, is the WORST for a guitar body. Its all bite and no bark.

jnewlyn · Post by **jnewlyn** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 4:11 pm

Tone Slinger wrote:Yeah, I've never played a Korina guitar, but have heard that it is very similar to Mahogany only with a little more brightness. I definatly hear you on the warmth thing. Ash isnt warm. Maple, which I love for necks and fretboards, is the WORST for a guitar body. Its all bite and no bark.

Oh hell yeah. I hear you on that. I just sold a tele body made of maple and that thing was so stingy and bright. Too wicked for my taste.

Strat78 · Post by **Strat78** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 7:08 pm

Not much can beat the in your face aggressive tone of a hard ash strat. It's definitely not subtle but oh so powerful and colorful! Speaking of Classic six hole Fender tremolos, listen how the low E string breaths on that growl (hear clip below), you can't get that with any of that locking junk. The recording is awful on this clip but you can hear the hard ash doing it's thing. The notes are clear and peal off like gun fire. Its not for everybody but I love it:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInf ... ID=5806710

Tone Slinger · Post by **Tone Slinger** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 6:37 am

I agree Strat78 about the hard ash. It is an easy way to get more brightness, without completly going overboard like with maple. It is also a slightly clearer type tone. I do, however, feel that it doesnt have quite enough warmth in the mids. Mahogany has too much and ash not quite enough. So far Alder and Poplar have the balance I like. I havent heard Korina in person yet.
For Ed's old tone, hard ash IS what he used (Franky), and his putting that humbucker in the bridge warmed up its output and mids alot. That 'squaling' character is definatly in ash. For a stock 3 single coil strat, ash is thin and weak sounding in my experiences.

IloveMyMarshall · Post by **IloveMyMarshall** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 10:55 pm

Strat78 wrote:Not much can beat the in your face aggressive tone of a hard ash strat. It's definitely not subtle but oh so powerful and colorful! Speaking of Classic six hole Fender tremolos, listen how the low E string breaths on that growl (hear clip below), you can't get that with any of that locking junk. The recording is awful on this clip but you can hear the hard ash doing it's thing. The notes are clear and peal off like gun fire. Its not for everybody but I love it:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInf ... ID=5806710

I hear it damn right on Strat!! E growel, well I got for cheap old fender alder Im trying to put the pup in her but I have three wires coming from the input jack?>?
Great clip man!!
TONE

planetjimi · Post by **planetjimi** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 10:32 pm

Ash is pretty bright. I just put a warmoth together with a hard ash body, it is about 4-5lbs. i forget what the neck pocket said. I put a hs-3 pickup in it and it just is not wotking. To play the guitar acousticly it is bright, then with the hs-3 it is just too much, I'm going online to order an alder body, and going to throw a humbucker in here.
I can now see why Eddie prefered dead strings to record with. I thought he was just BSing again, but now I think that may be one of the few truths that he did tell about his setup.

Tone Slinger · Post by **Tone Slinger** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 11:16 am

PlanetJimi, wat type hard ash body did you use ? Was it top loaded (pick guard) or rear loaded (no pick guard)? Do you have a stock Fender tremelo bridge or a Floyd Rose ? See, in my experiences, a stock top loaded strat sounds more resonant than a rear loaded. It has to do with all the wood missing in the body (3 single coil routing, and the control routing) This makes for a unique sound. Eddies Franky was top routed like a Fender strat. If that Warmoth body of yours is top loaded, with a stock 6 screw Fender type Bridge, I would simply put a Humbucker in the Bridge. Your Hs-3 should work too, but if your using it, put a 250k volume pot, as a 500k will make it much brighter.

Ash is not a real warm wood, and unusable for some, but it is a very noticable part of the tone of Ed's Franky. I still like Alder better cause it, to me, sits in the middle, tone wise, between Ash and Mahogany.

planetjimi · Post by **planetjimi** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 7:01 pm

Tone Slinger wrote:PlanetJimi, wat type hard ash body did you use ? Was it top loaded (pick guard) or rear loaded (no pick guard)? Do you have a stock Fender tremelo bridge or a Floyd Rose ? See, in my experiences, a stock top loaded strat sounds more resonant than a rear loaded. It has to do with all the wood missing in the body (3 single coil routing, and the control routing) This makes for a unique sound. Eddies Franky was top routed like a Fender strat. If that Warmoth body of yours is top loaded, with a stock 6 screw Fender type Bridge, I would simply put a Humbucker in the Bridge. Your Hs-3 should work too, but if your using it, put a 250k volume pot, as a 500k will make it much brighter.

Ash is not a real warm wood, and unusable for some, but it is a very noticable part of the tone of Ed's Franky. I still like Alder better cause it, to me, sits in the middle, tone wise, between Ash and Mahogany.

It's top loaded, I'm using an old floyd that I took off of my Kramer Voyager (yeah real old). I even put a block of wood in the back of the tremelo so that the tremelo block is right against the body. The whole body resonates really nice but the body is just to bright. I'll try a humbucker in there because the HS-3 is too high endy. I'm using 250k pots too.

Tone Slinger · Post by **Tone Slinger** » Wed Oct 03, 2007 10:38 am

Yeah, if your gonna keep using the Floyd Rose, then I would go to an Alder body. You could fill some holes though, and put a 6 screw Fender bridge on Ash body though. I feel that the bridge is more responsible for tone than the actual body wood. Eddie's pre 81 tone was more 'solid' sounding due to that Fender bridge. It's like night and day better sounding than a Floyd Rose. I'm not sure if your going for some of these EVH tones, but if you are, then get a Fender bridge. A good example of how a Floyd will 'neuter' your tone is to listen to the tracks on the 1st 2 VH records where Ed is using his Strat (no Floyd), then listen to "Diver Down". I mean Ed still play's well and sounds great, but that certain 'musical' timbre to his tone has changed.

GUITARmole · Post by **GUITARmole** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 1:52 am

Tone Slinger wrote:Yeah, I've never played a Korina guitar, but have heard that it is very similar to Mahogany only with a little more brightness. I definatly hear you on the warmth thing. Ash isnt warm. Maple, which I love for necks and fretboards, is the WORST for a guitar body. Its all bite and no bark.

Korina is the "everything" wood. It's bright AND warm. I think if you got a really ultra nice piece of lightweight Mahogany the tone would be very similar. Unfortunately a really ultra nice piece of lightweight Mahogany is much harder to find that a decent slab of Black or White Korina so as a general rule, I think Korina is a better sounding wood

Also, to get back to the subject of this post...there's a BIG difference between hard Ash and Swamp Ash. Swamp Ash can be VERY warm if it's the high-grade ultra light stuff but it still has nice attack and top end like Korina.

Heavy Ash usually has lots of bite but not much warmth or depth to the tone IMO.

I'll agree that Maple sucks for guitar bodies. I used to own a Mahogany Les Paul with a Maple neck and I didn't like that combo either. For whatever reason though, it works great for Fender style necks!!

Tone Slinger · Post by **Tone Slinger** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 9:28 am

Man, it is tough trying to decide on what body wood to use. I have alot of experiene with strat style 25 1/2 scale bolt on type guitars, inso much as getting a grasp on what the actual sound differences are when using different things (wood, bridge pu, etc). I know I have sorta been ragging on Ash, but, if Ed's old tone is what one is after, then the Ash would be the way to go. My current #1 strat is hard Ash. I swear that I cant tell a difference in Northern or Southern Ash. If anything, the grain lines seem to be closer togather the heavier Ash gets. Also the more bite and sustain result in more weight, but resonance and warmth dissipate as the weight increases, in general. Maybe the swamp ash, although looking the same is 'softer'. I dont know. I will say that this hard Ash body of mine is VERY hard. I must admit, though not the warmest wood, this Ash strat of mine sends notes off real quickly. The bite and attack are incredible.

Come to think of it, I have played a Korina guitar. Reb Beach's Ibanez 'Voyager' model. I remember loving the tone and playability, but hated how it looked, with that big wedge cut out at the bottom, not to mention those EMG pick ups (ouch !)

Mahogany is without a doubt, the warmest wood I've tried. Its only downfall is that it is maybe TOO warm and resonant, which detracts a little from the bite and attack type dynamcs. If Korina maintains that warmth with increased bite and attack, then I'll have to check that out.

ASH

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