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Spalted Gold


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This is the last guitar for me for quite a while. It was intended to be a hard rock/metal guitar but I wanted something a bit warmer sounding than my all maple guitars that I have been building lately - just for a change.

It turned out to be a much, much more warm sounding guitar than I was shooting for. I don't know for sure which part is most responsible but it does not sound anything like what I expected a cherry body to sound like.

Here's what it has:

  • 2 Piece Cherry Body
  • Spalted Curly/Hard Maple
  • Curly Maple Neck (quarter sawn)
  • 24 Fret Indian Rosewood Fretboard (10 to 16" radius)
  • Gold Fret Wire
  • Brass side dot inlay (looks like gold)
  • Amber super-bright LED inlay on the front
  • Gold Floyd
  • Sustainiac Stealth Plus neck pickup
  • Seymour Duncan Distortion bridge pickup

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body shot

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Well man you did it to me again :D I need that BIB :D

I like the hole 80's heavy metal thing you've got going with this design

It's the beauty and the beast guitar great work :D

!!METAL MATT!! B)

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It turned out to be a much, much more warm sounding guitar than I was shooting for. I don't know for sure which part is most responsible but it does not sound anything like what I expected a cherry body to sound like.

Marcel had same problem with his Korina 7 string RG. He suspected the Curly maple neck to be to blame. Might be same problem in your case.

Great guitar though!!

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The biggest contributing factor for an electric sound(minus the pickups B) ) is the neck, not the body. But I still dont see why it sounds too warm for you. maple(any kind even silverleaf) is NOT warm at all. I would like to encourage you to build a rosewood neck in your next one. Just tap on it in the shop and you'll know :D . Any acoustic player will tell you. Rosewood is the BEST tone wood peroid. Thers something about it that just makes it sound BETTER, not darker or brighter, but just better. If you hold in the center of the board and hit it with your knuckle it rings for about 4 seconds and just sounds AWESOME. Do this to any other wood and it's just a "plunk" it sounds like your hitting a 2x4. Even nice woods like mahogany/koa/spruce/maple. None sound as good as true rosewood. And it's not THAT expensive. I got enough for 2 necks for $40 USD

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Marcel had same problem with his Korina 7 string RG. He suspected the Curly maple neck to be to blame. Might be same problem in your case.

Hehe....seems RGGR already writes my posts for me. As he said I built a 7-string with a curly maple neck and it sounds way to warm for my tastes. I used quatersawn curly soft maple reinforced with two bubinga stripes though. What kind of maple did you use for the neck daveg? I am currently building a hard maple neck for it and then I'll see if it was the curly maple as I suspect that makes the tone so warm.

@Godin: Please inform yourself before posting stuff like that.

But I still dont see why it sounds too warm for you. maple(any kind even silverleaf) is NOT warm at all.

This is not correct. There are many variations of maple ranging from very hard and dense wood to quite soft and warm sounding wood.

I would like to encourage you to build a rosewood neck in your next one. Just tap on it in the shop and you'll know  . Any acoustic player will tell you. Rosewood is the BEST tone wood peroid. Thers something about it that just makes it sound BETTER, not darker or brighter, but just better.

We are talking about a solidbody guitar here. Rosewood necks are very uncommon and I never saw an acoustic with a Rosewood neck. It may sound nice, but calling it the best neck wood is quite misleading. If it is that great why are there basically no rosewood neck guitars on the market? Except for some special PRS models and some other exceptions? Additionally rosewood if used for a neck is known for dampening the highs and for sounding warm and full and not as a bright wood.

VERY nice guitar by the way!

Kind regards,

Marcel!

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I didn't want to start a debate on the tone issue. The neck wood comes from a piece of hard curly maple. I have used curly maple for other necks before and they did not sound anything like this one. The spalted top comes from a very hard piece (not soft/punky like most spalts). I don't know if anyone can really say where the warm sound is coming from. The Distortion pickup is supposed to be fairly bright (at least from reading the freq. response graphs on the duncan site).

I also didn't mean to make it sound like the guitar doesn't sound good. It's just that I was expecting a brighter guitar. It's nice to have something around that provides a contrast with my other guitars.

That sustainiac is pretty cool to play with. The pickup sounds good also (when not sustaining). It sounds better than my duncan hot rails but maybe that's not a good one to compare against?

Thanks for the comments.

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@Godin SD:

thank you very much for correcting me GuitarMaestro. After doing alot of research I found that you are right on all accounts. a little egg on my face perhaps, but were all here to learn!

No problem. I just reread my post and I should have written it way more polite. Sorry for that and respect for admitting the faults in your post. Most people never reply or start flaming if you correct them....:D

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This is the best I can do for a back side shot for now:

back shot

The colors of the top, back and neck came out very close. I had been holding on to that neck blank for quite a while since the darker color didn't seem to go well with any of my other projects. I think it turned out to match very nicely on this one.

I had also read about cherry being bright or at least as bright as maple. I guess every piece has a chance to break the rules. I still like the sound of it but I was just so surprised by the warmth instead of the screaming bite of maple. I'm sharing time between the Ibanez clone I just did and this one. I like both of them very much but still find myself drawn back to the EMG pickups (on the RG clone) for some reason.

The sustainiac adds a unique touch that I don't have on any other guitar. For the others, I use the sustainiac model C but having a sustainer built-in is nice.

Thanks again!

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