Mahogany / Thinline - partscaster tone thoughts?

I'm thinking of building a partscaster using a semi-hollow mahogany body - the new unfinished ones you buy. My reasons are: I like the look of the wood, it doesn't seem to need much finishing, a thinline body doesn't look odd to me in mahogany because i'm not used to seeing it unpainted in any teles, and it'd be lighter.

But what about the tone? Or other considerations i've not thought of?

When it comes to tone and sustain I'm someone who assumes teles are planks and if the neck fixing, bridge fixing and pickups are tele-style it's basically going to sound tele. Do you think a semi-hollow body and mahogany will affect the sound?

Do you think a semi-hollow body and mahogany will affect the sound?Very little. Pickup choice, electronics, and strings are going to have a much greater influence on the tone.

My 69 RI was less 'punchy' than my 52 AVRI. I'm not sure how the pick-ups differ.

I built one earlier this year. It's a tone-monster! Lots of sustain too! How much of that is wood versus anything else, I can't say. I think the wood does matter, but it's ultimately the whole package that brings the tone. I will say that my mahogany thinline sounds different than my ash thinlines, or my ash thinline with maple cap, etc. Bottom line: ya gotta put the thing together and see what you get!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v12/blackbelt308/redmahoganythinline1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v12/blackbelt308/redmahoganythinline2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v12/blackbelt308/redmahoganythinline3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v12/blackbelt308/redmahoganythinline4.jpg

By the way, Fender makes a mahogany '69 Thinline (reissue).

Ciao,
Rick

Here's my CIJ Fender Thinline. Currently set up with Lollar Vintage Ts and sounds great!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v12/blackbelt308/CIJThinline1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v12/blackbelt308/CIJThinline2.jpg

Ciao,
Rick

i find a definite difference in the tone of the thinlines, but i like it.
can't get "keef" tone on a thinline, and there's more to it than pickups, imho;
but you can get some mighty fine sounds from them. kind of "woody" to me;~)
i'm doing a build also, and will post pics in the near eventually.
are you going natural finish, or tint?
good luck,
mj

a stunning guitar, blackbelt. the fretboard is dark, looks like ebony. or just dark RW?

it must give you a tremendous sense of satisfaction to have created such a gem. kudos!

eljayski

can't get "keef" tone on a thinline, and there's more to it than pickups, imho;
but you can get some mighty fine sounds from them. kind of "woody" to me;~)


I can get some pretty good "keef" tones out of my MIM with the 4way switch. I actually don't notice a whole lotta difference in the Thinline when it's plugged in. I like it because it's got a great neck, sounds great, is easy on the shoulder, and sounds slightly better unplugged when I'm plinking away in front of the tv. YMMV
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk107/morroben/100_0168.jpg

That's a beautiful guitar. Very reflective. What kind of finish have you on that? Any stain? Your homebuilt looks way better than the factory model.

that really is a gorgeous guitar build. congratulations, and thanks for posting the pics.
afraid i spoke rather dogmatically about the "keef" tones, sorry.
played in a variety cover band for a short while a few of years ago,
and the tone i tried like hell to duplicate was the stones' "can't you hear me knockin'".
the thinline got close, but it took my solidbody tele to really nail it.
very subtle differences, but they are there. a heck of a lot depends on the amp too.
lately i've been bi-amping with a fender twin/bassman 100 hybrid, and a blackheart
"handsome devil" into a couple of marshall 2x12's with tech21 black label speakers. nothing short of magically delicious to me ears, me spine, and me yumyum.
thinlines look much more beautiful, imho. i love the sounds of the solid body, but i've always thought that the big chrome control plate on solid bodies was kind of ugly.
just another opinion from the feminine side.

btw, blackbelt and morro ben; those are beautiful guitars;~)

btw, blackbelt and morro ben; those are beautiful guitars;~)

Ditto! I like the matching black headstock, blackbelt!

a stunning guitar, blackbelt. the fretboard is dark, looks like ebony. or just dark RW?

Thanks! I built it to satisfy some SG GAS that was floating around in my head. :wink: The fretboard is dark rosewood. It's a neck from a "Johnny Halliday" model Tele that was MIM and sold exclusively in Europe. Was a perfect match for this build! And the humbucker set up delivers the SG rawness that I wanted! The body is from a MIM mahogany Thinline. I stripped and sanded to bare wood, used Bartley's dark grain filler, dyed with Reranch dark red mahogany (if I did it again, I'd use cherry red), and finished with 10 coats of Deft clear gloss.

Here's a shot of the body after stripping and sanding. There was quite a bit of work required to get to this point because the finish had substantially darkened wherever it wasn't covered by pickguard, bridge, etc. This seemed to occur at the deepest layer of the original finish and was tough to remove.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v12/blackbelt308/strippedsanded.jpg

Here's a pic after grain-filling and dyeing.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v12/blackbelt308/mahogsealercoatsfront.jpg

Here's that headstock. I re-finished this with nitro as well.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v12/blackbelt308/redmahoganythinline5.jpg

Hope this helps!

Ciao,
Rick

Mine is just a MIM '69 RI, not a partscaster. I just thought I would chime in about the tone possibilities of mahogony Thinlines.
MaryJane- The more I play, the more I think it's the amp. You're right, there are subtle tone differences between the solidbody and Thinline teles but I think they're pretty minimal. Can't really go wrong either way.
I will say that I've bonded with this guitar more than any other electric I've ever owned...and there have been a lot of them. I would have never thought that after all the guitars I've built over the years, an MIM Fender that I bought used would be my favorite.

Oh and Blackbelt...that is beautiful. Makes me want to put a proper black pickguard on mine. The one I have is just a spraypainted mother-of-toilet-seat.
It would take a lot more than a pickguard to make mine look as good as yours though.
Really well done.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v12/blackbelt308/redmahoganythinline2.jpg




Looks great, Rick!



I agree; the sound will vary from one mahogany body to the next - some will be pretty similar to an ordinary Tele: Here's mahogany, but with a redwood top:

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t25/Bubbanov/18OCT082009001.jpg

excellent job with the minimal pickguard!!