Guitar blanks-Swamp ash?

[GFBentz]

seen guitar blanks made of swamp ash, thinking of carving on one.
How is this wood to carve?

if its as hard as baseball bat ash forrrget it!

I see basswood blanks for sale but is that any good as a "tonewood"? cant see anyone shelling out $$$ for a beautifully carved guitar that sounds like *you know what*.

[ajcoholic]

I do a lot of guitar building...

Swamp ash can vary quite a bit from fairly light weight compard to Northerni white ash, to almost as hard and heavy. Grain wise, it is pretty much identical. So, it will be a long grained wood you have to watch to not lift chips up from.

Basswood makes a very decent guitar body, it tends not to color the tone as much as ash, alder or mahogany - some mightnlook down on it but i have made several bodies from it, and it sounds fine.

The biggest disadvantage from a guitar perspective, is that it marks easily being so soft, whereas ash does not.

What kind of neck, fretboard and electronics are you going to use?

AJCoholic

[ajcoholic]

Just thought, three of my all time favourite guitars i have made, were done in white limba (korina). I actually just tried carving some today, and it carves very well. Gibson's original flying v and explorer were made with it, as are many boutique and high end gutars today. Tone similar to mahogany.

Would make a great body wood, that would look great and carve well.

AJC

[mpounders]

A guy at the hardwoods store gave me a piece of wood that he called "pumpkin ash". He said it was used a lot in Japan for guitars. It is fairly light and carves pretty easy. I have made a few cane handles and crosses from it. Looks similar to butternut.