Anyone know the sound? swamp ash with burled redwood top

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mooncobra

mooncobra

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I am considering a Charvel Custom Shop, it has a birdseye maple neck with a one piece swamp ash body with a burled redwood top. anyone know how this wood combo sounds??
 
I've read that swamp ash sounds a bit like alder with a nicer bottom end. The maple neck will give it a nice bit of high end snap. My understanding is that the burled redwood is purely decorative and adds nothing to the tone.
 
I prefer alder or basswood unless your going for clean sounds like a tele. that's just me though.
 
IME all I can say is that it'll sound like a guitar. Different guitars absolutely sound different. But that's true even when they're built exactly that same way. So it's hopeless IME to guess what it could sound like based on a particular species. Choose wood based on aesthetics, weight, and durability.
 
Oblivion DC":1acz3yzl said:
I've read that swamp ash sounds a bit like alder with a nicer bottom end. The maple neck will give it a nice bit of high end snap. My understanding is that the burled redwood is purely decorative and adds nothing to the tone.
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Agree. The guitar will likely be on the brighter side, with lots of attack. The redwood top is probably a thin laminate and will not be thick enough to influence the tone.
 
Redwood is soft. As long as it's thin,you're good to go. I have a flamed redwood top guitar that's a little too dark sounding compared to the rest of them,but it's a thick top on mahogany.
 
I have a warmoth swamp ash strat/ birdseye maple neck( Pau Ferro fingerboard)....Fat tight bottom end, slightly scooped mids and a very articulate high end. using a Bill Lawrence L-45s in the neck and a MCP Angel Dust in the bridge. sounds incredible....
 
I don't know about redwood, but from my experience, Ash body guitars tend to sound quite bright with mids on the scooped side, sharp trebles (vs a more rounded treble on Mahogany, Alder and even Maple body guitars), and the bass tends to be tight with a good amount of attack and clarity. Ash is cool, but I prefer Maple body because it has that brightess, attack and tightness of Ash but with more mids, rounder/smoother trebles, and a more woody sound. I wish Maple was used more often for a body wood. My 1978 Gibson RD Standard has an all Maple body and it's one of my favorites! I don't know how to explain it, but Ash to me doesn't sound as woody as Mahogany or Maple if that makes sense. Maybe it has to do with the mids being less pronounced on Ash, but not sure exactly. That being said, I own 3 Ash body guitars (Mayones Regius, Skervesen Raptor, and an HSS Strat) and I really like all of them
 
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