Ash necks?

[ViggoP]

I’ve seen a couple Private Stock guitars with ash necks on Instagram lately. Here’s one for example: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJuDTYoLg8n/?igshid=pdy3s3js89h4

Does anyone have any experience with an ash neck? What does it sound and feel like? Any stability issues?

 

[Bill SAS 513]

Don't know ...but Holy Crap!!! Gorgeous!!!!

 

[bodia]

I have no experience with an Ash neck; but, you can bet if DougDiamond spec'd it, and PRS built it, it's gonna be solid.

 

[ViggoP]

Here’s another.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIQwTAmnrCa/?igshid=1xl6qhd7ypzxb

It looks really cool. I haven’t heard of any other builders using ash for necks. Usually there’s a good reason but maybe it’s just tradition.

 

[ScottR]

Don't know ...but Holy Crap!!! Gorgeous!!!!

Exactly what Bill said!!! My word that thing is spectacular on every level!!

 

[docteurseb]

Got one last week actually, with an ash body.
Doug Diamond @ Wildcat described it as 'airy' and that was spot on. Overall sounds great, hard to complain.

 

[ViggoP]

Got one last week actually, with an ash body.
Doug Diamond @ Wildcat described it as 'airy' and that was spot on. Overall sounds great, hard to complain.

Cool. Any pictures?
I love swamp ash bodies for Fender style guitars. Both my favourite strat and tele are swamp ash bodies with one-piece maple necks. They both sound ”airy” in a way. I would love to try an ash neck but I guess that won’t happen anytime soon, especially when it’s getting harder to source it.

 

[docteurseb]

Got one of Doug's / WildCat's ash guitars (a MEV) last week actually.
Doug Diamond @ Wildcat described it as 'airy' and that was spot on. Sounds fantastics, excellent resonance too:

Check out his stock because he just got a Frostbite Glow MEV as well with a monster curly maple to and white wash+black grain filler ash neck and ash body.

There is one more thing I want to say: Doug is the single best person/dealer I've ever dealt with.
I bought a few too many guitars the past couple years from many dealers, and had my fair share of issues requiring either warranty or repair work immediately.
While every single PRS dealer has been fantastic in sorting those out, not a single one came even close to the excellence of customer service Dough provided me. It's so impressive that despite both of us being in CA (that means those lovely 9.25% taxes need to be collected at checkout) I will make it a goal to exclusively deal with him for future guitar (mostly PRS at this point) purchases.
This assessment should be no surprise to those who have dealt with Doug while he was at Wild West Guitars.

 

[strat63]

Got one of Doug's / WildCat's ash guitars (a MEV) last week actually.
Doug Diamond @ Wildcat described it as 'airy' and that was spot on. Sounds fantastics, excellent resonance too:

Check out his stock because he just got a Frostbite Glow MEV as well with a monster curly maple to and white wash+black grain filler ash neck and ash body.

There is one more thing I want to say: Doug is the single best person/dealer I've ever dealt with.
I bought a few too many guitars the past couple years from many dealers, and had my fair share of issues requiring either warranty or repair work immediately.
While every single PRS dealer has been fantastic in sorting those out, not a single one came even close to the excellence of customer service Dough provided me. It's so impressive that despite both of us being in CA (that means those lovely 9.25% taxes need to be collected at checkout) I will make it a goal to exclusively deal with him for future guitar (mostly PRS at this point) purchases.
This assessment should be no surprise to those who have dealt with Doug while he was at Wild West Guitars.

This guitar is stunning. I've been looking at the Frostbite Glow MEV on the website but yours is off the charts. Wow

 

[shinksma]

At first I was like "huh, Ash for neck?"

Then I was like "hog body, hog neck, so why not ash body, ash neck?"

I suppose even the hardest "Swamp ash" wouldn't be quite as hard as typical African Mahogany - the Wood Database backs my suspicion on that (Black Ash 850, Afr Hog 1070 Janka hardness). But one would assume it could have good tonality.

Interesting...

 

[ViggoP]

Got one of Doug's / WildCat's ash guitars (a MEV) last week actually.
Doug Diamond @ Wildcat described it as 'airy' and that was spot on. Sounds fantastics, excellent resonance too:

Check out his stock because he just got a Frostbite Glow MEV as well with a monster curly maple to and white wash+black grain filler ash neck and ash body.

There is one more thing I want to say: Doug is the single best person/dealer I've ever dealt with.
I bought a few too many guitars the past couple years from many dealers, and had my fair share of issues requiring either warranty or repair work immediately.
While every single PRS dealer has been fantastic in sorting those out, not a single one came even close to the excellence of customer service Dough provided me. It's so impressive that despite both of us being in CA (that means those lovely 9.25% taxes need to be collected at checkout) I will make it a goal to exclusively deal with him for future guitar (mostly PRS at this point) purchases.
This assessment should be no surprise to those who have dealt with Doug while he was at Wild West Guitars.

Wow! That is fantastic! Any pics of the back?

 

[docteurseb]

Not readily available.

 

[docteurseb]

At first I was like "huh, Ash for neck?"

Then I was like "hog body, hog neck, so why not ash body, ash neck?"

I suppose even the hardest "Swamp ash" wouldn't be quite as hard as typical African Mahogany - the Wood Database backs my suspicion on that (Black Ash 850, Afr Hog 1070 Janka hardness). But one would assume it could have good tonality.

Interesting...

In terms of density though it's similar to mahogany on average (in fact the lower end of the range is higher than the lower bound for mahogany).

 

[docteurseb]

Here’s another.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIQwTAmnrCa/?igshid=1xl6qhd7ypzxb

It looks really cool. I haven’t heard of any other builders using ash for necks. Usually there’s a good reason but maybe it’s just tradition.

Which is usually a business-centric one: availability, cost, ease of working with. None of those are a concern for PS builds.

 

[garrett]

I assume they use hard ash for the neck (the stuff baseball bats are made of) vs. swamp ash.

 

[ViperDoc]

Wanna know about an ash neck? Grab a baseball bat...

 

[docteurseb]

Wanna know about an ash neck? Grab a baseball bat...

and it's visibly quarter sawn:

The Frostbite and Aqua Violet sisters (there's a Bonnie Pink coming too unless it already sold):
https://www.instagram.com/p/CJuDTYoLg8n
https://www.instagram.com/p/CJro_MqMTF9

 

[docteurseb]

More pics and a video of the chatoyance on my IG post:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CJrqxktrTQd

I'll do a proper NGD once it's back from its minor surgery (one bird lost a few MOP feathers in shipping).

 

[ViperDoc]

THE HOTNESS. SO MEGA.

 

[Tonart]

Got one last week actually, with an ash body.
Doug Diamond @ Wildcat described it as 'airy' and that was spot on. Overall sounds great, hard to complain.

Somehow, that just makes sense to me. I suspect a less dense body would vibrate more and in doing so, vibrate the pickups much like a hollowbody would. That should cause a small amount of magnetic flux relative to the wire coil.

That’s probably why a Stratocaster sounds a bit like a hollowbody - the pickups are mounted on a thin and microscopically vibrating pickguard.