Project Guitar Questions-- body wood for P-90's? Tung Oil?

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kojdogg

kojdogg

bollocks redux!
I'm starting to gather parts for a project guitar (have a sweet neck and tuners) and I kind of want to put together a one or two P-90 guitar. I may go with Harmonic Design Z90's or Fralin split coil HB's depending on what kind of body I can find. I want to use high quality parts and components and don't care too much if it's pretty or not.

Anyone here have some experience with P-90's in both swamp ash and mahogany body and, if so, would you feel inclined to comment on the differences in tone between the two, what you like better, etc.? Is alder out of the question?

Also, can anyone here recommend a type of tung oil for treating a raw neck? I see that there are a bunch of different types-- including polymerized, etc. Is this stuff good for treating bodies too? If so, can it be applied directly to the forehead... I mean directly to a sanded/sealed body?

Thanks!
 
kojdogg said:
I'm starting to gather parts for a project guitar (have a sweet neck and tuners) and I kind of want to put together a one or two P-90 guitar. I may go with Harmonic Design Z90's or Fralin split coil HB's depending on what kind of body I can find. I want to use high quality parts and components and don't care too much if it's pretty or not.

Anyone here have some experience with P-90's in both swamp ash and mahogany body and, if so, would you feel inclined to comment on the differences in tone between the two, what you like better, etc.? Is alder out of the question?

Also, can anyone here recommend a type of tung oil for treating a raw neck? I see that there are a bunch of different types-- including polymerized, etc. Is this stuff good for treating bodies too? If so, can it be applied directly to the forehead... I mean directly to a sanded/sealed body?

Thanks!
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Tone is such a subjective issue it's hard to advise on that. Alder is a fine wood for bodies but often not the most attractive.

As far as finishes for the neck and body. If you want to use a tung oil type product and there is no reason why not, I'd recommend you use a polymerised product and the best of those is Birchwood Casey's Tru Oil. I've used it myself in the past and so have a lot of other good luthiers. It is easy to apply and builds to a nice finish with decent protection. It's a gun stock finish but it gives a great finish to a neck. It's not the hardest finish but plenty hard enough if you take reasonable care of it. It's also easy to go on top of in the future either with more tru oil or an alternative finish.
 
muttley600 said:
Tone is such a subjective issue it's hard to advise on that. Alder is a fine wood for bodies but often not the most attractive.

As far as finishes for the neck and body. If you want to use a tung oil type product and there is no reason why not, I'd recommend you use a polymerised product and the best of those is Birchwood Casey's Tru Oil. I've used it myself in the past and so have a lot of other good luthiers. It is easy to apply and builds to a nice finish with decent protection. It's a gun stock finish but it gives a great finish to a neck. It's not the hardest finish but plenty hard enough if you take reasonable care of it. It's also easy to go on top of in the future either with more tru oil or an alternative finish.
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Thanks for the tip on the Birchwood Casey!

As far as the subjectivity of tone-- that's fine. I'm looking for opinions not specs! :)
 
Wood is wood and there's only so much you can predict about the outcome. I prefer a dark sounding guitar so Honduran Mahogany would be my first choice among the woods you listed. African Mahogany is actually a range of species each with their own properties but generally speaking they will all be a little brighter than Honduran. In terms of brightness, Alder and Ash follow in that order. Be advised that this is a gross generalization and your mileage may vary wildly.

I'm using Fralin P-92 split coils on my Heritage H-555 (a Gibson ES-335 style guitar so not a good comparison for your project). In my opinion they do not sound quite like traditional P-90s but they're closer to P-90s than anything else I can think of. I'd say they're a little brighter and have slightly better manners. They have about the same gain as P-90s. The split coil design is very effective at hum cancellation. I love the sound they give me, sort of a humbucker with spank. For what it's worth, I love 'em.

Good luck with your project. Muttley can correct me now.:D
 
Thanks! I'm really interested in the P-92's actually. If I go with humbucker sized pickups it's basically a toss up between those and the HD Z90's. The debate is how well the guitar and wiring could be shielded to minimize hum vs. getting the P-92's, so it's good to hear that they work well. My tech feels like it can be done pretty effectively, so I guess I'm leaning towards the Z90's.
 
I can HIGHLY recommend either the P-92's or Lindy's Twangmasters. GREAT pickups.

For P-90's, the classic wood is mahogany, but as it is getting more than a little hard to find in good quality (and therefore expensive), you might look into Sapele, which to my ears sounds exactly the same, looks similar (but better, to my eye - I like the striped figure it has), works great, and is WAY easier to find.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
FWIW (not much, in comparison to the previous posts), I have a guitar with an alder body and Gibson P94 pickups -- I *love* it. I'm not a big strat fan, but to me, it's got what I like about a strat sound and not what I don't. Is it the wood? If so, it's definitely the pickups, too.
 
Light said:
For P-90's, the classic wood is mahogany, but as it is getting more than a little hard to find in good quality (and therefore expensive), you might look into Sapele, which to my ears sounds exactly the same, looks similar (but better, to my eye - I like the striped figure it has), works great, and is WAY easier to find.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
Click to expand...

I find that mahogany of the types I've always used is still available it's just that colour and to some extent with little run out that is hard to come by (not a problem for bodies but is for necks ribs etc). I have to pay a LOT these days for decent neck blanks with the colour and quarter I like.

Sapele I've tried and it just doesn't suit me. Nothing wrong with it, just not for me. Just for the record it isn't a true mahogany by the way but I'm sure you knew that. Just pointing out for the benifit of others.
 
muttley600 said:
I find that mahogany of the types I've always used is still available it's just that colour and to some extent with little run out that is hard to come by (not a problem for bodies but is for necks ribs etc). I have to pay a LOT these days for decent neck blanks with the colour and quarter I like.
Click to expand...


Most of the South American stuff I'm getting these days is just awful. I pick out the best I can find, but by the time you start working it, large unpredictable sections of it are punky and soft, making it all but impossible to sand to a fair curve. I'm hating one of the ones I'm working on right now. Brushing it with some sanding sealer helps, and I'm thinking of trying to size it with some thinned out hide glue, but even five years ago I would never have bought this crap.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
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