Ebony as a body wood

[JACKSONFREAK]

Has anybody had experience with Ebony as a body wood?
How would this sound? I have an opertunity to get a hand made guitar made to my specs but out of ebony. (hes making several out of one huge slab of it) The next question would be. What kind of neck would go good with it to compliment the tone of the ebony?. Mohagony?, Maple, Wenge, rosewood?
I can pretty much specify anything i want to go with it. I love ebony as a finger board but how would it sound as a body?
Im thinking a Stealth body with a set mohagony neck and maple or ebony board, unbound with reverse pointy Headstock, JT580LP, JB in the bridge and the Sustainiac system in neck. ( ihave a broken up DK2S and the Susatiner still works) Ive been wanting to put it in something so i figured this would be my best opertunity.
Any words of wisdom and/or ideas of how this would sound (mostly the body i can compensate with pups and what not)
would be appreciated. I'm thinking it would have good clearity and definition with a full tone but possably lackin some mids. So the JB would probably help with the mids. How far off am i?
Gil

[toejam]

Re: Ebony as a body wood

Never heard of it as a body wood, but I'd think it would be pretty bright sounding like maple. Note clarity might be good, but I think it would be bright... plus the JB is mostly treble and high mids anyway and would probably make it kinda shrill.
I'd also like to see if anyone's heard of ebony as a body wood before. If it were to be done, I'd think a mahogany or rosewood neck would be better for it.

[veliyasin]

Re: Ebony as a body wood

It will be heavy, weight-wise. Probably pretty bright sound-wise too.

[JACKSONFREAK]

Re: Ebony as a body wood

Thanks guys. Thats kinda what im thinking but i want as many thoughts on this as possable. Im also thinking the contours of the stealth body will help reduce some of the weight. Im leaning towards a mohagony neck with a rose wood board to help reduse the brightness but its still open for ideas.
Gil

[ApeDosMil]

Re: Ebony as a body wood

it would be expensive, very expensive.

[JACKSONFREAK]

Re: Ebony as a body wood

nope not expensive at all. It's a raw piece of ebony that a friend of mine has a lead on. Theres like 5 of us goin in on this piece of wood so it wont cost us alot about 100 bucks.for the body and neck fretted and clear coated on the body. I have everything else. So im just needin input and ideas on tone of said chunk of ebony. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
Thanks
Gil

[YetAnotherOne]

Re: Ebony as a body wood

Warmoth had an ebony neck w/an ebony fretboard on the front of their site the other day. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Zerberus]

Re: Ebony as a body wood

VERY expensive, far from light, and quite shrill is what an Ebony guitar would sound like....I highly recommend against it [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Ace]

Re: Ebony as a body wood

I wouldn't have terribly high hopes for tone, but if the price is right, GO FOR IT!! I am curious to see/hear the results.

[Deneb]

Re: Ebony as a body wood

The tone would be high, and not clarity would be good.

I would put maybe an EMG 85 in it, or maybe even an EMG 60 in the bridge, something that may "darken" the tone a little bit.

I would go with a mahogany neck (trying to darken it up here) and of course, and ebony board.

I don't know if I'd paint the body, it'd look pretty cool as just a raw slab of ebony.

[veliyasin]

Re: Ebony as a body wood

Yeah you should just have that thing clear coated. I think it look awesome.

[toejam]

Re: Ebony as a body wood

[ QUOTE ]
or maybe even an EMG 60 in the bridge, something that may "darken" the tone a little bit.


[/ QUOTE ]
The 60 is the brightest pup EMG makes. It's great as a neck pup, but I wouldn't use it in the bridge. From their site, "While the EMG-60 still features the close aperture coils loaded with ceramic magnets for the brightest attack of any of our many humbucking models, this pickup also packs plenty of output with both clarity and cut through high end. The EMG-60 is incredible for rhythm guitar as metal and extreme players have discovered. James Hetfield's signature ESP models use EMG-60's because their distinctive crunch sets any rhythm player apart in the mix of a band that pumps a lot of mid-range from the stage."

[quiksilver]

Re: Ebony as a body wood

Should be bright, clear and heavy, like Maple.
I'd recommend a DiMarzio Tone Zone.
Please post pics when it's done!

[Subvamp]

Re: Ebony as a body wood

Don't do it! It'll be so damn heavy you'll never wear it on a strap. I got the bright idea to make a guitar out of cocobolo,(a type of rosewood) because I thought it would look great with an oil finish. It did, and it sounded nice and warm, but it weighs damn near 15 pounds! If you're just going to play it sitting down around the house it might be cool, but if you plan to gig with it, your back is going to wind up looking like a question mark. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[VulfgangPfuck]

Re: Ebony as a body wood

Gil,
Like others have mentioned here, it's going to be shrill and very bright. Even moreso than Maple, because Ebony is a very tight grained wood. You may as well have your body carved out of stone, because it's not going to have any real resonance and tone to speak of. And yeah...it will also be a major "boat anchor" weight-wise. The only benefit to using ebony as a body wood is purely cosmetic.