stratty tone from mahagony?

[mr426]

Anybody get a good clean stratty tone from a mahagony bodied guitar? Im thinking about building a guitar with a mahagony body because the brdge pup tone has all ways been killer and a hum in the neck is great too, but id really like a strat clean tone from the neck. Is this a possibilitie or would it be too dark? Thanks.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

If it's just a mahogany body and a bolt-on maple neck it won't be that dark. So, yeah. I think the neck single in my mahogany-bodied Strat just sounds like a nice, very slightly warmer Strat tone.

[mr426]

I was thinking neck thru, but was also thinking of a maple neck, maple board. The sound I really like is that combo with a basswood body wich I like, but playing with my buddy who plays LPs it sounds thin. In the studio it sounds great, but live thin...

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Most anything sounds thin next to a Les Paul, unfortunately.

I have an H/S I built, Strat, with a Korina neck and Mahogany body. It has a Classic Stack in the neck. Now, it wouldn't fool anyone on an A/B comparison to a real Strat but it's quiet and the tone definitely has that chimey quality you would expect from a neck single.

So, let's just say that the pickup type is going to get you most of the way there for the "stratty" quality IMO.

[mr426]

Ya know the stratiest single coil tone that I have ever come across that is great has been from my Bill Lawrence L500 neck hum that is split and using the bottom coil. Weird. Sounds great clean and has a nice boominess that is not muddy.

[moku]

not sure if a mahogany body will sound like a strat... i mean you can combine it with pickups but the wood itself is pretty dense and so carries deep warm mids. perhaps if you match it with a bolt-on maple/maple neck, which will make the natural tone of the whole guitar a bit brighter to balance the warm tone of mahogany. but if you make a neck thru mahogany body/neck i can guarantee that it won't sound like a strat.

[Chad]

IMO, yes. As long as the guitar is 25.5" scale length, and the pickups are single coil and in the same location as on a Strat. Bolt-on would be ideal, but I'd say neck-through could be convincing enough to suit me.

Wood just varies too much to make any broad generalizations. Some mahogany bodied guitars are quite bright. Some alder can be dark.

[mr426]

Lots to think about huh? My taste in single coil tone has allways been a bit darker. More acoustic like really. It will be fun to experiment anyway.