Educate me on Swamp ash for Higain?

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veji

veji

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I have guitars made of alder, basswood, mahogany and koa but never tried swamp ash.

As i got older, i realized i gravitate toward lighter weight guitars like alder and basswood..i avoid heavier woods like koa and mahogany. When it comes to higher gain progressive metal, hows swamp ash compare to alder and basswood? Pros and cons? I have no experience with swamp ash..all i know is that its a common wood used in Telecasters. Please share your experience and thoughts.

Thank you
 
I think wood in a guitar only matters on an acoustic instrument. Once you play at high gain the wood isn't a factor.
 
Swamp ash to my ears is scooped with glassy high end and a stiff lowend response
 
Mahogany has a woofy sound at lower tunings. Swamp ash and alder hold up better imho in these situations
 
Every basswood guitar I’ve played sounds like straight garbage to me, I never even really like the high end EBMM stuff either to be honest. Swamp ash is almost right there with it to me, not into it at all. Sounds washy and loose to me a lot of the time.
 
Ash to me only sounds right to me on a Tele and everyone once in a while a strat. It’s one of those woods that varies, but in general has this thing in the mids that I don’t like, whether you get a scooped sounding example or not, the bass response I also don’t like

Also, mahogany and Koa aren’t heavier woods. They’re more in the medium range. Maple body guitars will typically be heavier and rosewood and Paduak bodies will be much heavier. I’ve had some mahogany guitars that were under 6 lbs (like the ‘64 SG Jr I had), so it is possible to have light weight mahogany guitars if you like their tone. I like poplar also and one of my absolute favorites (that’s very light) is spruce for a body wood, but that’s very uncommon sadly
 
swamp ash always sounds kinda hollow...a lot of treble, very "airy" tone, thats why they use it on teles...
For high gain I prefer northern ash(the heavy one) and maple bodies...they are so punchy that the "lighter" woods like alder sound kinda bland...

As for mahogany, the sipo ( again the extra heavy one) is the tightest...
 
braintheory said:
Ash to me only sounds right to me on a Tele and everyone once in a while a strat. It’s one of those woods that varies, but in general has this thing in the mids that I don’t like, whether you get a scooped sounding example or not, the bass response I also don’t like

Also, mahogany and Koa aren’t heavier woods. They’re more in the medium range. Maple body guitars will typically be heavier and rosewood and Paduak bodies will be much heavier. I’ve had some mahogany guitars that were under 6 lbs (like the ‘64 SG Jr I had), so it is possible to have light weight mahogany guitars if you like their tone. I like poplar also and one of my absolute favorites (that’s very light) is spruce for a body wood, but that’s very uncommon sadly
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Yes, I don’t consider Koa a heavy wood at all. I’ve had 4-5 Koa guitars and I liked all of them and considered it on the lighter side. I had a 95-96 San Dimas II Koa that was one of the best sounding and playing instruments I’ve ever owned.
The swamp ash doesn’t seem a super popular option in most the guitars I like.
 
gtrwun said:
Yes, I don’t consider Koa a heavy wood at all. I’ve had 4-5 Koa guitars and I liked all of them and considered it on the lighter side. I had a 95-96 San Dimas II Koa that was one of the best sounding and playing instruments I’ve ever owned.
The swamp ash doesn’t seem a super popular option in most the guitars I like.
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Yeah I think the Koa body guitars I’ve owned (including a 1995 koa San Dimas myself) were just under 8 lbs. Mine was a very good guitar too, maybe one of the next best Charvel’s I’ve had to the aged nitros ones I had
 
VESmedic said:
Every basswood guitar I’ve played sounds like straight garbage to me, I never even really like the high end EBMM stuff either to be honest. Swamp ash is almost right there with it to me, not into it at all. Sounds washy and loose to me a lot of the time.
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What woods do you like
 
blackie13 said:
swamp ash always sounds kinda hollow...a lot of treble, very "airy" tone, thats why they use it on teles...
For high gain I prefer northern ash(the heavy one) and maple bodies...they are so punchy that the "lighter" woods like alder sound kinda bland...

As for mahogany, the sipo ( again the extra heavy one) is the tightest...
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I’d agree with all of this. I would only add that swamp ash guitars always sound bouncy to my ears, not dull. Glassy, solid low end, but hollow. Great blues player wood.
 
DaveP said:
I think wood in a guitar only matters on an acoustic instrument. Once you play at high gain the wood isn't a factor.
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So the second you slap a piezo pickup in an acoustic it doesn’t matter anymore?
 
veji said:
What woods do you like
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Im a big mahogany fan, as well as alder personally. Maple tops add alittle bit of brightness in my experience. Jackson, ESP, PRS, les Paul’s, all with mahogany or alder bodies is what I’m into personally!
 
veji said:
What woods do you like
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For me with humbucker guitars mahogany and alder are my 2 overall favorites, but I have great ones too in poplar, rosewood and spruce bodies and even all aluminum and carbon fiber. Ash and Basswood I still yet to find good ones
 
braintheory said:
For me with humbucker guitars mahogany and alder are my 2 overall favorites, but I have great ones too in poplar, rosewood and spruce bodies and even all aluminum and carbon fiber. Ash and Basswood I still yet to find good ones
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I think my 88 charvel 475 is poplar. It’s such an 80’s sounding guitar. It’s not ash and super light.
 
DaveP said:
Not the same thing.
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So electrics that have piezos are good, but not humbuckers or single coils?

I’m fucking with you man ?

I wish I couldn’t tell the difference. I’d not be deep into the LPC restoration game that I am in now.
 
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