Is mahogany a 'one trick' tonewood.
Moderators: Slowy, Capt. Black
-
- Vintage Post Junkie
- Posts: 1743
- meble-kuchenne.warszawa.pl
- Joined: Tue May 10, 2016 9:04 pm
- Has liked: 479 times
- Been liked: 221 times
Is mahogany a 'one trick' tonewood.
......so a few months ago I purchased a 2011 LP 60's Tribute. All in all a very nicely put together gat that even holds tune! I'm a huge p90 fan and love how versatile they are. However, this guitar can sound kinda congested in the mids even after eq'ing; (I know this is inherent in p90's).
Yesterday, for shits and giggles, I thought I would dust off my Vox SSC33 (great guitars BTW), that is also running P90's (far from flash Wilkinson ceramic p90's) as the original coax pups went south a long time ago. The taper on the pots have always bugged me in this guitar, so as I had nothing else to do, I replaced them with some CTS audio taper I had kicking around.
I must admit I was quite stunned at the difference in tone between the Vox and the LP. Whereas the LP's sound is more 'dense and thicker', the Vox was twangy and snappy with what seemed like a much wider frequency response. The Vox, I believe, is an alder cap over an ash body(??) and I think the reason for this extra zing. Nothing new here I guess we all know how different woods effect tone.
Long story short, I think I have come to prefer non-mahogany guitars. Sure, there is arguably no competition from a sustain perspective, but from a tone perspective, is it a one trick pony?
My bandmate plays a gorgeous midtown custom that is a solid lump of mahogany and although this thing will sustain for days, I can't say it imparts much other tonal personality TBH....
Do I have cloth ears; what am I missing or how much of this comes down to the difference between alnico v's ceramic magnets?
I'm actually thinking of moving on the LP, having the Vox as my main p90 axe and tracking down a Strat to fill the void ( See WTB thread!!)
Yesterday, for shits and giggles, I thought I would dust off my Vox SSC33 (great guitars BTW), that is also running P90's (far from flash Wilkinson ceramic p90's) as the original coax pups went south a long time ago. The taper on the pots have always bugged me in this guitar, so as I had nothing else to do, I replaced them with some CTS audio taper I had kicking around.
I must admit I was quite stunned at the difference in tone between the Vox and the LP. Whereas the LP's sound is more 'dense and thicker', the Vox was twangy and snappy with what seemed like a much wider frequency response. The Vox, I believe, is an alder cap over an ash body(??) and I think the reason for this extra zing. Nothing new here I guess we all know how different woods effect tone.
Long story short, I think I have come to prefer non-mahogany guitars. Sure, there is arguably no competition from a sustain perspective, but from a tone perspective, is it a one trick pony?
My bandmate plays a gorgeous midtown custom that is a solid lump of mahogany and although this thing will sustain for days, I can't say it imparts much other tonal personality TBH....
Do I have cloth ears; what am I missing or how much of this comes down to the difference between alnico v's ceramic magnets?
I'm actually thinking of moving on the LP, having the Vox as my main p90 axe and tracking down a Strat to fill the void ( See WTB thread!!)
- Jay
- Vintage Post Junkie
- Posts: 7760
- Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2010 9:35 pm
- Has liked: 1630 times
- Been liked: 1297 times
Re: Is mahogany a 'one trick' tonewood.
Do us a favour please.... put the Wilkinson pups into the Tribute and then tell us what you hear. It would pay if you could record a before and after so we all can chip in with our superior hearing.
When faced with quality, I recognise it every time.
-
- Vintage Post Junkie
- Posts: 1743
- Joined: Tue May 10, 2016 9:04 pm
- Has liked: 479 times
- Been liked: 221 times
Re: Is mahogany a 'one trick' tonewood.
Good idea, but I am not overly keen on subjecting the gibby to my soldering skills (or lack of....sigh....I try and try but it always looks like s**t!!)Jay wrote:Do us a favour please.... put the Wilkinson pups into the Tribute and then tell us what you hear. It would pay if you could record a before and after so we all can chip in with our superior hearing.
- Slowy
- Vintage Post Junkie
- Posts: 22638
- Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2009 4:13 pm
- Location: Orcland
- Has liked: 1011 times
- Been liked: 2465 times
Re: Is mahogany a 'one trick' tonewood.
This!Jay wrote:.... put the Wilkinson pups into the Tribute and then tell us what you hear.
Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. This is as true of humans as it is of gas molecules in a sealed flask. The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who so survive.
- willow13
- Vintage Post Junkie
- Posts: 14558
- Joined: Sun Dec 19, 2004 2:36 pm
- Location: If less is more then just think how much more more is
- Has liked: 372 times
- Been liked: 634 times
Re: Is mahogany a 'one trick' tonewood.
Personally I prefer a lot of woods over mahogany. No wood is a one trick pony as all trees are different and all cuts of the tree are different
If Less is More Then Just Think How Much More More would be
- jeremyb
- Chorus of Organs
- Posts: 40878
- Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2008 9:03 am
- Has liked: 7685 times
- Been liked: 4157 times
Re: Is mahogany a 'one trick' tonewood.
I never thought wood could impart tone until I had an american hard ash body and it made things trebley as hell!! And then a paulownia body that made an instrument very loud acoustically... whheeeee rabbit hole.... I dunno, play with EMGs and a ton of gain and then it won't matter what you use!
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.
- GrantB
- ADMIN
- Posts: 15843
- Joined: Fri Oct 31, 2003 9:04 am
- Location: Where I need to be
- Has liked: 1353 times
- Been liked: 2087 times
Re: Is mahogany a 'one trick' tonewood.
Mahogany - like anything, tone is the sum of all parts. As others have stated, swap pickups, then report findings.
"Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible god and destroys a visible nature. Unaware that this nature he's destroying is this god he's worshipping." - Hubert Reeves
- Bg
- Site Admin
- Posts: 43187
- Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2003 12:13 am
- Location: Auckland
- Has liked: 2254 times
- Been liked: 3873 times
Re: Is mahogany a 'one trick' tonewood.
Mahogany is my favourite wood. Still have a mahogany bodied strat and I like it!
So, is that low alcohol or no alcohol at all? mmmm, no alcohol, do you want to try it? Noooooooooo.
-
- Gibson
- Posts: 731
- Joined: Sat Nov 27, 2004 1:01 pm
- Location: Auckland
- Has liked: 144 times
- Been liked: 273 times
Re: Is mahogany a 'one trick' tonewood.
I sort of know what you mean. For me I am more likely to plug a Les Paul straight into a cranked amp and just use that one tone and also tend to use the clean tones less with a Les Paul, but a strat just seems so versatile with so many effects and different tonal colours and I love all the different clean tones and in between tones and cranked out madness tones, it's definitely more of a blank canvas because it's easier to thicken up your tone by using effects or the tone knob than it is to thin that core tone down.
- willow13
- Vintage Post Junkie
- Posts: 14558
- Joined: Sun Dec 19, 2004 2:36 pm
- Location: If less is more then just think how much more more is
- Has liked: 372 times
- Been liked: 634 times
Re: Is mahogany a 'one trick' tonewood.
to be fair most les pauls have a big maple cap which is probably the bigger contributor to the classic LP/cranked marshall (generally) tone than the mahogany ..... imoVoxshall wrote:I sort of know what you mean. For me I am more likely to plug a Les Paul straight into a cranked amp and just use that one tone and also tend to use the clean tones less with a Les Paul, but a strat just seems so versatile with so many effects and different tonal colours and I love all the different clean tones and in between tones and cranked out madness tones, it's definitely more of a blank canvas because it's easier to thicken up your tone by using effects or the tone knob than it is to thin that core tone down.
If Less is More Then Just Think How Much More More would be