Why is Mahoganey not desireable for a Superstrat?

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thiswaythatway

thiswaythatway

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I have seen some guys comment that they really didn't like Mahoganey for Superstrats. I consider Chubtone an expert on Charvels and remember seeing a thread that he didn't like those Music Zoo naturals, the one's made of Mahoganey bodies. I did own a mutt that was just like a Music Zoo natural and it was pretty dark. It was good for metal but maybe a little too smooth, it had a hot rails in the neck so it simply couldn't do a clean tone to save it's life.

But, plenty of guys rave about those Suhr Modern Satin guitars. Are they made of a type of Mahoganey that lends itself better for a Strat body? My friend has an Anderson that's Mahoganey and hard tail and I've been trying for YEARS to get him to sell it to me. THAT guitar sounds awesome, for heavier tones it really bitch slaps a lot of other Superstrats.

Does Alder have more of snap and edge to it?

Discuss.
 
I don't like a mahogany body with a bolt on maple neck. Lots of other [eople do though. They sound so scooped to me and can have overwhelming highs. Good lows, yes but very unbalanced IMO. I think the only person who ever agreed with me was John Suhr who used to say on the Woods section of his website that he didn't like that combo. So finally someone else agreed with me.
 
I've tried to like mahagony in a strat, but I just can't.
 
Anderson Cobra is mahog with a maple top, correct?
 
I know Washburn made a run of Sepele N4s that got a lot of love
 
I just got one of the Music Zoo Naturals. Its a pretty cool guitar all it needs is maybe pick-up with a greater emphasis in the mid-range. it currently has a Custom 5 im sure it would benefit from something like a JB or Aldrich.

I have other super strats as well one with a solid maple body, one alder and one basswood/maple. They are different sounding, but all cool nonetheless.
 
Chubtone":3phu6gox said:
I don't like a mahogany body with a bolt on maple neck. Lots of other [eople do though. They sound so scooped to me and can have overwhelming highs. Good lows, yes but very unbalanced IMO. I think the only person who ever agreed with me was John Suhr who used to say on the Woods section of his website that he didn't like that combo. So finally someone else agreed with me.
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I agree. I've never heard a mahogany body super strat with a bolt on maple neck sound good to me. I have, however, heard plenty of mahogany body/maple top/mahogany neck/rosewood fretboard bolt on super strats sound really good...

Steve
 
I agree. I've never heard a mahogany body super strat with a bolt on maple neck sound good to me. I have, however, heard plenty of mahogany body/maple top/mahogany neck/rosewood fretboard bolt on super strats sound really good...

Steve[/quote]


Many moons ago, I had a Mahogany bodied kit strat with a one piece maple neck... Never could get a decent tone out of that guitar... clean or dirty... It just didn't cut it. I wonder if it's a resonant frequency mismatch thang going on between the maple and mahogany? FWIW, I have heard Anderson cobras that have mahogany bodies and mahogany necks... But they all sound very midrange focused to my ears... Maybe the LP scale length on those guitars plays a factor in that also... I dunno. :confused:
 
sah5150":2rsautr5 said:
Chubtone":2rsautr5 said:
I don't like a mahogany body with a bolt on maple neck. Lots of other [eople do though. They sound so scooped to me and can have overwhelming highs. Good lows, yes but very unbalanced IMO. I think the only person who ever agreed with me was John Suhr who used to say on the Woods section of his website that he didn't like that combo. So finally someone else agreed with me.
Click to expand...
I agree. I've never heard a mahogany body super strat with a bolt on maple neck sound good to me. I have, however, heard plenty of mahogany body/maple top/mahogany neck/rosewood fretboard bolt on super strats sound really good...

Steve
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My friends Anderson Drop Top is Mahoganey with a maple top, maple neck and rosewood board and sounds killer. The Anderson Cobra's are also Mahoganey body but I'm guessing the maple top brings them to life.

Some guys seem to like the Suhr Modern Satin model, I haven't tried one.
 
sah5150":3vmkk4q0 said:
Chubtone":3vmkk4q0 said:
I don't like a mahogany body with a bolt on maple neck. Lots of other [eople do though. They sound so scooped to me and can have overwhelming highs. Good lows, yes but very unbalanced IMO. I think the only person who ever agreed with me was John Suhr who used to say on the Woods section of his website that he didn't like that combo. So finally someone else agreed with me.
Click to expand...
I agree. I've never heard a mahogany body super strat with a bolt on maple neck sound good to me. I have, however, heard plenty of mahogany body/maple top/mahogany neck/rosewood fretboard bolt on super strats sound really good...

Steve
Click to expand...

Yup,my favorite of my Suhrs is mahogany body and neck, maple top and rosewood board. Has this mid smarl that nothing else has including alder body maple neck Suhr std. Have the same exact guitar with basswood and maple cap, maple neck rosewood board and it doesn't sing or chunk like the Mahogany one.

Had an Tom Anderson, mahogany body, maple cap neck with rosewood, my most beautiful guitar I've ever owned looks wise, could get a decent sound out of no matter what, on any of the 3 pickups. Traded it away....I think mahogany with mahogany neck is OK, maple neck on Mahogany is questionable to me for some reason.
 
Let me go through some of my experiences with Mahogany body bolt on maple neck... Ive had several music zoo charvels with that combo and now I have a Tom Anderson with it. Can you get a great tone from this set up YES, is it a more consistent or safe bet to go with say alder body bolt on maple neck YES. Its also worth mentioning that maple neck through with mahogany wings tends to be a safer bet.

Ok so lets talk Mahogany body\maple neck bolt. In general the tone will have a pretty forward midrange with bite, no slouch in the low end department either. Usually I find the tone to be very dense so you get a thick lead sound on higher notes and the midrange emphasis helps to cut through a mix. The problem is some guitars with this combo end up being bitey in an unpleasing way. The music zoo charvels sounded pretty good with the custom 5 bridge they ship them with. The scooped midrange of that pickup seems to balance them out. I have to be honest and say as far as Charvels go I prefer Alder body which yields a more compressed, saturated and smooth 80's type of tone. The mahogany charvels have more of an open , tight tone with crunch in the midrange.

Now onto the Tom Anderson. This guitar shares most of the attributes of the music zoo charvels I've had but overall it just sounds and feels better to me. This guitar takes the qualities I mentioned and produces them in a more pleasing way. Im real happy with my Anderson with this combo , its the best sounding mahogany body with a bolt on maple neck I have owned. It has bite but in a good way without anything standing out as being annoying or harsh. It has a nice tight and responsive low end, a smooth top end. Just an overall nice combo of a mean rhythm tone and a pleasing lead tone. The saturation and compression is there but not overwhelming.

So point being is that Mahogany body strats can be a bit more of a gamble than other woods. Thats not to say they cant sound and feel amazing because just when I thought it might be time to give up on them the Anderson changed my mind.
 
My experience has been that they sound very scooped. For the Zoo to order that combo with the very scooped sounding Custom 5 always made me :confused: .

The only pickup I have ever found that kind of worked with this is the Duncan Custom Custom which is mid boosted.

Other guy in this thread said that this combo is strong in the mids while I am saying the opposite. We might be talking about different degrees of mids. To me, this combo will take your head off with the highs and has great strong lows but no midrange warmth.

It probably all depends on your rig too. It's so hard to put sounds into words and we all use different words to describe things. Let's just say if an amazing guitar came through my door with this wood combo I probably wouldn't even bother bringing it home to check out with my rig. I've done this combo 3 or 4 times already with the same results everytime. With a Floyd or with the vintage style Charvel brass bridge, it never mattered.

Now it would probably sound killer if it was layered with some other guitars in a recording if you're going for a wall of sound. As a stand alone tone, it's just not for me though I wouldn't be shocked to hear someone else get a killer tone with it.

Give me boring old alder or hard northern ash please.
 
I have been using a Suhr modern with Mahogany body/Maple neck as my #1 for a while now. I think it sounds amazing!
The neck is vulcanized maple with an ebony fretboard. Aldrich pickups. Love this one...You can see it in my avatar by the stack.

I had an Anderson Cobra, Mahogany body/Mahogany neck which I sold, although I liked it's tone and it was light.
But, I always seem to be coming back to the Suhr moderns and LOVING them.
I also have a 2009 LTD Suhr that is Alder body/Maple Top/Maple neck and Aldrich pickups. Definitely a little more snap in the high mids.

Just my experience.
 
this one is mahogany/maple top and maple neck and is one of the better sounding playing guitars Ive owned.
 
Chubtone":3ktol1uv said:
My experience has been that they sound very scooped. For the Zoo to order that combo with the very scooped sounding Custom 5 always made me :confused: .

The only pickup I have ever found that kind of worked with this is the Duncan Custom Custom which is mid boosted.

Other guy in this thread said that this combo is strong in the mids while I am saying the opposite. We might be talking about different degrees of mids. To me, this combo will take your head off with the highs and has great strong lows but no midrange warmth.

It probably all depends on your rig too. It's so hard to put sounds into words and we all use different words to describe things. Let's just say if an amazing guitar came through my door with this wood combo I probably wouldn't even bother bringing it home to check out with my rig. I've done this combo 3 or 4 times already with the same results everytime. With a Floyd or with the vintage style Charvel brass bridge, it never mattered.

Now it would probably sound killer if it was layered with some other guitars in a recording if you're going for a wall of sound. As a stand alone tone, it's just not for me though I wouldn't be shocked to hear someone else get a killer tone with it.

Give me boring old alder or hard northern ash please.
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I'm sure your experience is as you described. Guitars in general are a gamble , we cant always assume certain woods will sound a certain way. My experiences from the 5 or 6 guitars I have owned with Mahogany body bolt on Maple neck. My experience has been they have a very dense midrange to the point where it can be too much and the tone becomes overly crunchy in a bad way. This is ofcourse the end of the spectrum that is undesirable, I have had the other end where there is a nice pleasing aggression thats not harsh. Yet there has always been a lot of mids for me.

Now it is def possible that your guitar sounds very different. You cant count on anything with guitars. I think to make any type of connections hold any consistency is from owning and or trying out several guitars with the same wood combination from various manufacturers. Yet still any general judgements could be thrown for a loop with a guitar that just has its own unique sound.
 
My Drop Top is mahogany body with maple top and chocolate maple neck. Pretty smooth and balanced but has plenty of mids to cut. I love it!

 
I have owned a MZ Natural and an Ibanez RG3120 (mahogany body/maple top and maple neck) and I could not get along with either.
 
I think when you add a maple top to the mahogany body or an ebony or rosewood fretboard to the maple neck you might change the sound just enough.

And part of this may be that I have been playing alder body guitars forever and I dial everything in to those guitars. Then I plug in a mahogany body with a maple neck and it just sounds so different I don't like it. Is it the guitars fault or mine because I'm too dumb to realize I might have to turn a few knobs to make a completely different wood combo'd guitar sound good? :D

the4thlast1":2vxw6wwj said:
I'm sure your experience is as you described. Guitars in general are a gamble , we cant always assume certain woods will sound a certain way. My experiences from the 5 or 6 guitars I have owned with Mahogany body bolt on Maple neck. My experience has been they have a very dense midrange to the point where it can be too much and the tone becomes overly crunchy in a bad way.
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You know, that's another point I've experienced. It almost sounds like the same pickup in the mahogany/maple guitars is way higher output than the same pickup in an alder body. I think it might also be the term "midrange" is really hard to determine. Some guys like low mids and some guys like high mids and certain amps emphasize one or the other. My amps may emphasize the same frequency that the mahogany/maple combo does and it's too much.

To the guys who love this wood combo, I don't see anything wrong with that. It's quite possible for your rig and with your hands and your style this sounds better than if I put my favorite sounding guitar in your hands. You might play mine and go "meh". This stuff is so subjective.
 
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