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Originally posted by StuTDavis: I'm curious about a couple things...
James at the time he went with ESP, everything I was reading in magazines, he was saying that he "wanted guitars like his Gibson but with better woods than Gibson was using". I was always confused by exactly what that meant. Isn't it just mahagony/mahagony/rosewood...like Gibsons?
Another thing...hey...where's your "EET FUK" on the guitar??? C'mon...without that, it's just a custom ESP with flippy-bird inlays, ya gotta get that on there! Hehehee... [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Cool to see one of these...
Stu
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I have refinished a handfull of the 80's no pickguard, solid color finished Explorers and they all had a Mahagony necks on an alder body. Maybe James didn't like the Alder body wood.
[ August 26, 2003, 10:04 PM: Message edited by: Jim Shine ]
with better woods than Gibson was using. I was always confused by exactly what that meant. Isn't it just mahagony/mahagony/rosewood
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">There are different types of mahogany and rosewood and others and they have different tonal qualities. Most agree that the best mahogany and rosewood for instruments is Honduras and Brazilian, both of which are endangered and very scarce/expensive anymore. Checkout Warmoth.com for a lot of in depth info on the different types and how they vary in tone and finishing. (Warmoth uses African mahogany by the way).
Once the wood has been cut and aged by being on a guitar for ten years + it becomes almost impossible to tell what kind of wood it was originally. Brazilian rosewood is a hard one to identify with age infact alot of people think some types of rosewood after ir gets old is actually ebony. Look at my ESP explorer for example it looks like ebony but it is not. By the way I have an 1984 explorer and I guarentee that guitar is mahogony but I know production changed alot in 85 and I can see them using alder.
Originally posted by jamie: Jim do u know when they switched or were solid colored ones alder bodys w/ bursts & natural mahogany?
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I have seen it on solids, most I have refinished were models with those 'graphics'. You know, the lines running in patterns. The others were black or white that had repairs.
"Brazilian rosewood is a hard one to identify with age infact alot of people think some types of rosewood after ir gets old is actually ebony."
To add, often people believe that age and play make brazillian look like ebony when infact it was the cut of rosewood that always had a dark color and waxy appearance. Old Fender's used alot of the Brazillian, and I believe it was cheaper grade than figured rosewood. It is loaded with natural oils that has a heavy dark reddish purple pigment that is natural to the wood. I have a unplayed '59 Jazzmaster that exhibits thhis very type of wood. You can see if it was a naturalky dark piece by looking at the finished areas. If its dark under the finish, it was dark to start.
While aged wood does open up and sound different then it did new (part of the vintage mystique), different woods still have different tones. And while your rosewood may be stained from oily hands and look darker like ebony, guaranteed it doesn't feel or sound like ebony.
Actually the rosewood was of the dark variety on the explorer I posted originally if you look at pictures of Hetfield Eet Fuk explorer it had real dark rosewood as well. I do know what you mean TC but I bet you if I posted two sound clips with an all mahogony explorer with a rosewood fretboard and an all Mahogony explorer with an ebony fretboard you would not be able to say without a doubt just by the sound clip this one is ebony and this one is rosewood. I have always felt the fretboard wood is just for looks. I have heard the Les Paul's dont sound good with ebony argument but if you wear a blind fold its almost impossible to say that Les Paul sounds like crap because the Ebony is not bringing out the mids like the rosewood would.
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