Swamp Ash, Pau Ferro questions

[Wheelbarrow]

I'm thinking about building a guitar out of a decent one piece swamp ash body and a pau ferro neck and fingerboard. It will be a H/H guitar with probably a custom in the bridge and a seth lover or some low output alnico 2 or somthing in the neck. I need this to do Nuno Bettencourt first and foremost but also be able to get as close to a Joe Pass sound as a rock guitar can get. Any info or suggestions on these woods and pickups would be appreciated.

Oh yeah, and it will have an original floyd rose on it, which will make things a bit brighter I suppose.

[devastone]

For Nuno's sound, I would use Paduak for the body and neck, and an ebony fingerboard. Although, his main recording guitar is his old N4 with an alder body, maple neck, and ebony board, I'm not sure if I've ever seen him use one of the swamp as N4s. His pickups are a Bill Lawrence L-500XL (from Bill and Becky, www.billlawrence.com) and a '59 in the neck.

To stick with Duncans, the Custom would probably be a good choice in the bridge, I'm thinking the PATB-1 or C5 might be too, but none of them are as hot as a 500XL, you could also try a Distortion but that might be too mid-heavy. For the neck a '59 would be a good choice, as would the A2 Pro.

Oh yeah, you have to run through a Rat. Hope this helps.

[El Dorado]

That sounds like a pretty combo to me. The ash and pau ferro are both on the bright side and the custom/a2p are pretty dark. For a Nuno sound, that would probably work out real nice. I have a mahogany bodied USA Custom with a Pau Ferro neck and fretboard with a distortion/jazz combo and it sounds fantastic. Nice and balanced. The ash body with the darker Custom/a2p would probably sound fairly similar, just a little brighter maybe, which would be good for a Nuno sound.

[El Dorado]

By the way a Pau Ferro neck is fantastic. Sounds a lot like maple, requires no finish, and is as smooth as can be. I've been playing on mine for 2 years and it has required almost no adjustment. It's awsome.

[Wheelbarrow]

I think the swamp ash has less mids than alder does, but I could probably make up for that with eq on amp, couldn't I?

[El Dorado]

I think the swamp ash has less mids than alder does, but I could probably make up for that with eq on amp, couldn't I?

Alder is pretty flat across the spectrum. Swamp Ash has more treble. I like to boost my mids on my amp anyway, so you'd probably be fine.

[devastone]

Swamp as is a little more scooped in the mids than alder, but it's still a great sounding wood.

[Lake Placid Blues]

I would consider black korina for the body wood with PF neck. Black Korina looks fantastic with a clear finish, like S ash does, but it's warmer sounding than alder.

This may off set the little extra brightness of the pau ferro. Pau ferro is great for a jazzy pick attack ( you mentioned Joe Pass), so that's a great choice.

[El Dorado]

I would consider black korina for the body wood with PF neck. Black Korina looks fantastic with a clear finish, like S ash does, but it's warmer sounding than alder.

This may off set the little extra brightness of the pau ferro. Pau ferro is great for a jazzy pick attack ( you mentioned Joe Pass), so that's a great choice.

That would be a very good combo, similar in tone to my honduran mahogany/PF neck strat. Basically it would be warmer than ash/pf. I believe they both could be good combos depending on what sound you're after and what pickups you choose. I have a Duncan Distortion and jazz in my strat. I think a Custom/a2p could sound very good in a brighter guitar.