Swamp Ash Studio opinions?

[Marcus2]

Hi All,

I may be in a position to pick up a Swamp Ash Studio and am hoping to get some input from forum members who have this guitar.

I have a regular Studio model and am intrigued how the switch to a swamp ash body and all maple neck would affect the sound. I know the conventional wisdom about what sounds are associated with the body woods. I'd love to hear personal accounts A/Bing these models.

Thanks in advance for any input.

Best,
Marc

 

[Egads]

Just to clarify, you are looking at a SAS with the 57/08 bridge and two Narrowfields?

 

[Marcus2]

Yes.

 

[jrw32]

I've owned both the SA Studio and regular Studio.

The SA Studio is definitely more Strat-like, as you'd expect with a thinner, swamp ash body & maple neck...much more snap/quack/bite to it than the regular Studio. There's an immediacy to the attack. Ultimately, I couldn't deal with the jumbo frets or narrow nut width on the SAS Studio.

The regular Studio was warmer and chimier (without being too brittle) and had that classic maple/mahogany sound. It had a "singing" quality to single notes that was a little sweeter than the SAS to my ears.

 

[Marcus2]

Thanks for your input. That helps me decide on what to do quite nicely.

 

[yankeebulldog]

I had 3 Studios, 1 regular hog, maple, one an Artist Pack with maple neck, and one SAS. Compared to the regular studio the SAS Studio was definitely the most strat like. I eventually fell out of love with the regular neck profile so I tried replacing it with the Artist Studio. The Artist Pack's maple neck was a good compromise for tone and I loved the pattern neck but I didn't really care for the smaller frets. Eventually, I settled on the Brent Mason model. Tonally it's the most strat like of any of the Studio or NF3/DC3 models and I love the neck profile and frets.