# Need some advice Mayones Regius owners! Ash vs Mahogany



## TheBigGroove (Apr 5, 2012)

So I'll be going this route, sending my deposit off this weekend to RockBox (very easy to deal with btw). BUT, I'm still not sure whether I want swamp ash or mahogany wings. 

1) I fully understand the tonal differences between these woods and have owned an all swamp ash guitar at one time (gibson les paul voodoo). I also have experience with similar wood combinations (i.e. maple neck and hog body).

2) I understand that the tone is mostly influenced by the neck woods as it is a neck-thru.

3) going passive pickups - like articulate, punchy prog-metal tones (hate to genre'fy but it's what it is)....I would say Red Seas Fire's ep is one of my favorite tones of all time. 

So I thought it best to just ask around here where people may have owned this guitar with both options, or can at least give some thoughts on the the tone of their mahogany regius 7 or ash regius 7. 

At this point I'm somewhat leaning towards mahogany, simply because I feel Bulb would never go with a guitar that's overly warm....but that was his live guitar, so I'm really just not too sure. BTW, this guitar, nor I, will ever see a stage...this is all 'bedroom' tone I'm talking about.


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## FadexToxBlack81 (Apr 5, 2012)

TheBigGroove said:


> So I'll be going this route, sending my deposit off this weekend to RockBox (very easy to deal with btw). BUT, I'm still not sure whether I want swamp ash or mahogany wings.
> 
> 1) I fully understand the tonal differences between these woods and have owned an all swamp ash guitar at one time (gibson les paul voodoo)
> 
> ...



what Kind of neck wood do you have picked out?

And no offense to Misha but maybe you shouldn't base your choice of what he would do. It is going to be your guitar not his.

I have always liked the mahogany guitars that I've played. I own a Carvin with maple neck and mahogany wings and I feel that wood combination balances out well. Mahogany has a nice bottom end that I like but my advice is go to a music store and check out some different guitar woods and hear for yourself!


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## TheBigGroove (Apr 5, 2012)

I own 4 guitars with maple necks and mahogany bodies..... 3 high-end 6'ers and an Ibanez k7....like I said I'm familiar with this wood combination and the tonal differences of....well all woods to be honest. I was asking about this guitar specifically. Why? because the construction is quite a bit different in my opinion than anything I've played...I mean an 11 piece neck? you just don't see that very often. 

And come on dude I was referencing Misha's tone with this same guitar in question (he has a mahogany regius 7), wasn't really saying that I'm some kind of fanboy and anything he would do I would feel comfortable doing. Am I a fan of his music? Eh it's not really my thing...am I a fan of his guitar tones and production skills? absolutely! I would definitely follow his judgement on pretty much anything involving tone/mixing/production.

I just don't see why people bother commenting without actually reading your post....


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## SamSam (Apr 5, 2012)

Swamp Ash is currently my favoured bodywood. I've always found that mahogany bodied guitars have a bit too loose a low end for my liking, whereas both my ash bodied guitars sit great in a band mix and still have plenty of low end grunt. 

I'll add that I'm comparing high end to high end here (My Daemoness and KxKs) so no cheap timber


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## guitarguy44 (Apr 5, 2012)

I own a all mahogany set neck Schecter with active emgs :/ it's extremely over bassy and feels really loose on the bass end and chimey highs and good mid
Punch but deff not a djent wood :/


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## chopeth85 (Apr 5, 2012)

Well, I have a custom 7 string made of maoghany body, maoghany neck, flame maple top and ebony fingerboard and a g&l made of swamp ash body, maple neck and ebony finger board and i'm in love with the tone ot the swamp ash, more agressive, clear and de cleans are really wonderfull. The maoghany guitar has a great body on the sound ( it has bk aftetmath bridge and cold sweat neck ), it's like a wall of sound, but i prefer the clarity and the abrassive and agressive tone of the gl...And I must tell you that i have just ordered a mayones regius 7 baritone with swamp ash


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## leonardo7 (Apr 5, 2012)

Its truly a tough call and hard for me to tell since my swamp ash ones are 25.5" 7 strings and my mahogany one is 27" 8 string and also my swamp ash ones have thick clear coats which I know add to the tone as well. One thing to note about Mayones is that their Mahogany is Sapele Mahogany and it always comes chambered since they use a rather heavy variety. This type of Mahogany gives it a good stable solid low end and the chambered gives it a lighter more airy tone in the higher register with higher notes on chords just cutting through like crazy. But the diferences are so subtle you prob wouldnt even know if I didnt tell you. The swamp ash has more attack and bite while being brighter but still very defined on lows. I prefer the Swamp Ash to be honest but its a very very close call. Red Seas Fire used Mahogany so maybe thats what you should get since you love their tone. Swamp Ash will be more temperamental to pickups and EQ settings but I like the attack, bite and definition of swamp ash on this guitar. Swamp ash is defined and Mahogany is deep.


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## Rook (Apr 6, 2012)

My swamp ash Regius has the most aggressive, punctuated attack of any guitar I've ever played. It has a punchy, slightly metallic feel to it, it's pretty unique, and great! My Jackson RR1 (also maple neck thru but with alder wings sounds really chunky and less bright in comparison with the same bridge pickup, which is suprising as I'd always considered the Jackson a really bright guitar.

The other Regius I've tried (held) was mahogany but i didn't plug it in. In my hands it's didn't feel as resonant as mine, but maybe I just got lucky.


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## JPMDan (Apr 6, 2012)

I've always loved Swamp ash for 7 strings over Mahogany specifically for the high-mid focus and much tighter on the low end. Pickup wise, I know Nolly (guitarist of Red Seas Fire in case you didn't know) has been getting into the BKP medium outputs however I would recommend sending a message to Tim Mills at BKP and he can offer you a better insight. Just tell him the specs of the guitar and what you are looking for in a pickup or just try to get ahold of Nolly for a recommendation. I know Misha had a set of Cold Sweats in his Swamp ash body, maple neck Blackmachine.


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## MF_Kitten (Apr 6, 2012)

I have always loved alder and swamp ash personally. And poplar. They have this light and resonant loud sound. I have never heard a mahogany guitar that has had that. The loudes mahogany body guitar i ever played was my intrepid, and it was only loud in the lower mids.


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## deepsal (Apr 6, 2012)

koa if available my friend,i would go with swamp ash over mohagony i tried a schecter daimen 8 string with mohagony body it lacked low end defintion and sounded flubby


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## glpg80 (Apr 6, 2012)

Another to favor swamp ash over mahogany for 7's

The low end is much tighter while still having the aggressiveness of alder and the top end is like basswood in that it still sounds great to the ear without sounding overly spikey like maple.

There are two types of swamp ash as well, northern ash (heavy) and the lighter ash - swamp ash or southern ash. Just like there are different species of mahogany, which species it is has just as much to do with it as the cut of that specific piece of wood.

I will say that i prefer mahogany/maple top over any wood combination in existence though. That combination is hard to beat for balance, balls, pleasant top end, and cutting attitude.


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## TheBigGroove (Apr 6, 2012)

glpg80 said:


> There are two types of swamp ash as well, northern ash (heavy) and the lighter ash - swamp ash or southern ash.



The difference between northern hard ash and swamp ash has less to do with species and everything to do with the environment the wood was in. Swamp ash, as it's name implies is from the swamps. Most of the wood used in instruments was submerged below the water level, which to my understanding, removes a lot of pitch from the wood. So basically when heavy saturated woods cure, they end up much lighter and less dense....I mean I'm no expert, but I worked in a saw mill from like 14-18 and there were a couple of submerged-timber guys that would have us mill their stuff. 


As for the few guys that commented specifically on the Mayones, thanks a ton! I think I'll probly end up going with the mahogany still seeing as it's chambered. Pickup wise, I'm going for crunchlab/liquifire as I'm hoping to stray away from BKP's for a while....every one of my guitars has them at the moment.


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