Hi Mattia,
I'm not arguing against the neck having an effect. In fact I am sure the neck wood has some effect, but there are so many other variables, I think it's probably minimal and that we make too much of the tonal differences.
Is it a bolt on, set neck, or neck through. Does the neck have carbon fiber rods inserted, is it 1 9/16" at the nut or 1 3/4" and is it .75" deep or .8" deep, are all factors that will have an effect. And the big issues other then the player are really pickups, strings, the amp. Heck, I'd bet the size of the cap on the tone control and the Pot being 250k or 500k will probably have more effect than the 10 or 15% difference in density or stiffness between maple and mahogany. And even among one wood, from one tree, there's variations in stiffness and strength.
Now it may be that you or Perry have actually build two identical guitars other than the neck wood. I wouldn't be surprised if Perry has. But I haven't, and I haven't seen any data that would make me think wood species is a huge factor on tone. I basically think choosing a neck wood based on 3 S's and one C makes more sense: strength/stiffness/stability and cosmetics.
Best regards, and please don't take this as argumentative. And thanks for your advice on all those other things where it's helped me.
Regards,
Todd
PS) Plus one on the feel issue though, like Rick says below. My friends tele has an oiled mahogany neck. Feels nice. Not super slick, but nice.
Actually you should listen to Mattia on this one. In my experience the neck woods plays a substantial role in the guitars sound.
Obviously there are many factors impacting the sound of an electric guitar, but you cant overlook the most important ones (and the neck is important) when building for a particular sound.
So back on topic, I would suggest black limba for a mahogany replacement. It works just like mahogany and has a very similar feel and pore structure. I agree with Mattia that both limba and mahogany feel great with no pore filling and just oil.