Help me choose a wood

[wildbill1962]

Howdy everyone. I am going to build myself a Tele, but really want something different from what you see all the time.
I am looking at Black Walnut, Cherry and Mahogany. What's your opinion on these hardwoods ?
I know they will be heavy, but I play sitting, so it won't be as bad as standing hanging on a strap.

Looking forward to hearing you opinions, wisdom and advice.

Bill

[frankhond]

What’s wrong with swamp ash or alder?

[wildbill1962]

Originally Posted by frankhond

What’s wrong with swamp ash or alder?

Nothing wrong with either of those woods. You just see a lot of Tele,s made out of it.
Want to be different. Plus, I want to do a hand rubbed oil finish.

[wildbill1962]

Leaning towards the Black Walnut because of the great grain patterns in it.

But Cherry tends to finish very nice with oil also.

[ClaptonWannabe2]

Hand rubbed finish then cherry.

[Steel and wood]

I'm not convinced that the heavier/darker woods will give you a true "Telecaster tone" if that's what you are after.

There will be those who refer to Fender's rosewood Telecaster but the Telecaster twang gets slightly lost in my opinion.

If you didn't want to use alder or ash, you could go the other end of the spectrum and use pine perhaps?

[rwmct]

Originally Posted by Steel and wood

If you didn't want to use alder or ash, you could go the other end of the spectrum and use pine perhaps?

Some of them are made out of poplar, are they not? I have a mid 90s Mexican Tele and I always thought it was poplar, though I can't remember where I read that.

[stephenT]

I've built several mahogany tele's, works great, looks beautiful.

I don't know about import teles made of poplar, could have been but Leo didn't use poplar. Some of the earliest teles were built of pine and I've built a handful of pine teles all worked out great. Back in the day Fender did make a few mahogany solid T's and many mahogany thinlines.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by wildbill1962

Howdy everyone. I am going to build myself a Tele, but really want something different from what you see all the time.
I am looking at Black Walnut, Cherry and Mahogany. What's your opinion on these hardwoods ?
I know they will be heavy, but I play sitting, so it won't be as bad as standing hanging on a strap.

Looking forward to hearing you opinions, wisdom and advice.

Bill

If I was going to build a Tele I would probably go with Black Kornia

[Scotso]

Originally Posted by Steel and wood

I'm not convinced that the heavier/darker woods will give you a true "Telecaster tone" if that's what you are after.

There will be those who refer to Fender's rosewood Telecaster but the Telecaster twang gets slightly lost in my opinion.

If you didn't want to use alder or ash, you could go the other end of the spectrum and use pine perhaps?

I have a mahogany G&L Legacy that sounds like every other strat I have ever played. My rec- just pick the one you like the best.

[muscmp]

for the best tele sound, swamp ash.

play music!

[Big Band Guitar]

Swamp ash came about because Leo got a bargain on carloads of "swamp" ash. Ash that is not good enough for hammer and shovel handles was rejected and sold at almost firewood prices.

It turns out that it made a acceptable guitar body except for a number of them that were not kiln dried enough in the 80's. Bugs started showing their trails under the finish. All of those were recovered and destroyed.

I would go with Cherry if it were me. Works ok finishes well and ages beautifully. It does chip easily going through the plainer so direction is critical for a smooth surface.

[Johnny K]

Shame well never see another rosewood Tele, like the one George Harrison played.

Or will we?

[perttime]

Heat treated (torrefied) birch?



Just something I saw on an almost local luthier's Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/aurora.guit...20176984730325

[DukeX]

If I was going to build a Tele, it would be a Pinecaster.

As a matter of fact , it would be a Pine Snakehead Esquire--but a home built, not a CS like in the video.