Jake E. Lee tonewood

[Guest]

I'm building a hardtail strat and am going back and forth between
Swamp Ash, Alder and Mahogany for the body. I'm going to be using a H-H or an H-S-H pickup configuration.

Do you guys have a favorite?

Jake E. Lee is probably my favorite guitarist and I was wondering were his strats Swamp Ash or Alder? What would he have chosen?

Will swamp ash not have enough low end and be too ice-pickey? Will Mahogany be too muddy? Alder too plain? or just right? What would ol Jake choose do you think?

Thanks for all replies.

[Firebird V]

hmm. well he has had guitars made of all of those woods so...

if it were me i would go for mahogany but that is what i like the most out of those...

[Shwayman11]

id say mahogany only because i saw Jake playing a Gibson Melody Maker in the Bark at the Moon music vid

[thenine]

here is my Jake tribute. I know, I know, it needs a black pickguard. This guitar is swamp ash. Very cool. Really light, excellent sustain and sounds great.

http://www.users.qwest.net/~wj15/current/hardtail/hardtail%20001.jpg

[charvel750]

here is my Jake tribute. I know, I know, it needs a black pickguard. This guitar is swamp ash. Very cool. Really light, excellent sustain and sounds great.

http://www.users.qwest.net/~wj15/cur...tail%20001.jpg

But your pickups aren't crooked and you've got a hummer in the neck!

[ADR]

Here is Jake: If you look close you can make out the N.O.S looking bridge (no hole for bar though),also the neck has "bullet truss rod", kinda weird.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhZBvb0raso

[Sonomakeys]

Whitey

Do you know what kind of wood his white strat was made out of? Did Jake like Swamp Ash better than Alder?

[slash]

I'm not sure about his guitars but my personal favorite is Mahogany. I like the warmth that it produces.

[superduty01]

IIRC, I read an interview of him in Guitar World where someone asked him why he switched from Charvel to ESP. His response was that the last Charvels that were made for him weren't made of swamp ash, which he specified he wanted.

[Firebird V]

The esp models he uses are swamp ash I believe.

[toejam]

Here is Jake: If you look close you can make out the N.O.S looking bridge (no hole for bar though),also the neck has "bullet truss rod", kinda weird.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhZBvb0raso

The white guitar has a bullet truss rod because it's a Fender. He had a friend working at Charvel who did a little work on it and added a Charvel logo.

[Bengal]

I remember Jake being a swamp ash guy as well...

Only you will be able to tell if swamp ash is too Ice-pickey. It's a good tone wood. Not my favorite but it can be bright. Alder is a good in between wood. Mahogany is my favorite by far. With the right pickups it's never muddy and it's warmth is unbeatable. But that's to my ears...

[toejam]

I can't remember if the production ESP signature models had alder or swamp ash. I've gotta see if I can find my old ESP catalog from like '95 with it in there. I know frets 1 through 12 were jumbo and frets 13 through 22 were medium, as per Jake's preference.

[Bengal65]

Jake liked Swamp Ash, but I like Alder and Mahogany in the SG Junior.

[dg]

Swamp Ash kicks ass. Ice-picky is the last way I'd describe it. Maybe hard Northern Ash would be too bright & shrill, but Swamp Ash is smooth & balanced to my ears.