# Swamp Ash vs Normal Ash?



## Rectionmaarten (Feb 24, 2013)

Hey,

I'm going to order my first custom guitar (Skervesen) in 2 weeks but there's something I still haven't decided yet: the body wood.
I want an ash body, but I'm not sure if I'd go for swamp ash or normal Ash.

I'm looking for a bright, punchy tone. (I play metalcore most of the times with bouncy riffs.)

Can someone explain me the difference in tone between Swamp Ash and normal Ash?
Thanks!

These are the specs of my custom:

- Model: Raptor 6 string (right-handed)
- Scale: 25,5
- Body: Swamp ash / ash ?
- Top: Flame maple (acrylic satin)
- Binding: Ivoroid (body + neck + headstock)
- Neck: 5-piece rosewood/ebony neck
- Bolt on neck
- Macassar ebony fretboard
- Stainless steel frets
- fluorescent side dots
- Ebony truss rod cover
- Bareknuckle Black Hawk pickups
- Hipshot bridge
- push/pull volume knob
- 3-way switch
- Hipshot locking tuners
- copper shielded cavity


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## 7 Strings of Hate (Feb 24, 2013)

The difference? Not enough to worry about  They both are great woods for guitars.


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## Rectionmaarten (Feb 24, 2013)

7 Strings of Hate said:


> The difference? Not enough to worry about  They both are great woods for guitars.



Yeah I most of the time read that swamp ash is a bit lighter than normal ash, but I don't see much about tonal difference so I wasn't sure if there were any big differences.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Feb 24, 2013)

Technically I think normal Ash (White Ash) is denser and brighter in tone than Swamp Ash, also a little heavier. I had this exact same situation on my last build, I bought some White Ash thinking it was the same stuff, however, the White Ash works just fine, the body I built came out good. Unless you've got a masters degree in studying trees you'll basically see no difference in the two. There are other threads on this site I've read that explain how the tone is affected by the wood, Tone is made up like this: 10% wood, 15% electronics, 75% in the amp settings and how you play.


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## thepylestory (Feb 24, 2013)

Whatever you choose will be awesome and you will love your Skervesen!!


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## forshagesan (Feb 24, 2013)

Swamp ash has a mid/upper mid emphasis whereas regular ash is more scooped with extended highs and lows


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## Rectionmaarten (Feb 24, 2013)

forshagesan said:


> Swamp ash has a mid/upper mid emphasis whereas regular ash is more scooped with extended highs and lows



Thanks! Do you have any idea if the difference is really big or almost not audible?


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## Deadnightshade (Feb 24, 2013)

I think the difference depends on how dense is the "regular" ash.

I have a super thin guitar made from really hard ash.I recall the luthier was using a dremel to enlarge the electronics cavity a tiny bit more to fit a battery,and the wood wouldn't actually get normally cut,it got burnt instead  He also gave me to hold two similar wood scraps out of hard ash and wenge,and boy the ash was indeed heavier.


I'm waiting for a siggery custom order that'll have a body made of swamp ash ,so I can give you a better comparison then..


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## 7 Strings of Hate (Feb 24, 2013)

forshagesan said:


> Swamp ash has a mid/upper mid emphasis whereas regular ash is more scooped with extended highs and lows



Thats just a very very general guideline. I would say it comes down to the specific cut. If you had dense SA against a little more porus NA, they could easily swap your description.

The wood lower on the tree is lighter and more desireable than wood that is higher on the tree with swamp ash due to density.


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## Rectionmaarten (Feb 24, 2013)

I think I'm gonna go for my first choice, Swamp Ash.

But I think you can't go wrong with either of them if it's a quality build, like Skervesen.
Thanks for all the replies!


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## AwDeOh (Feb 24, 2013)

I read an interesting piece about this a while back. Swamp Ash is much heavier than regular Ash when wet, and much lighter than regular Ash when dry. It has to do with all the pores (forget the actual name, little pockets inside the wood) that hold the water when the wood is under water. So pound for pound, when both are well dried the regular Ash will be heavier/denser than Swamp Ash.


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## leonardo7 (Feb 24, 2013)

DistinguishedPapyrus said:


> Unless you've got a masters degree in studying trees you'll basically see no difference in the two. There are other threads on this site I've read that explain how the tone is affected by the wood, Tone is made up like this: 10% wood, 15% electronics, 75% in the amp settings and how you play.



I have a different outlook on how body wood affects tone. I have used a swamp ash body guitar with maple neck and maple top with Aftermaths and tracked it through an amp. Then I kept the settings the same, and tracked the same riff with a mahogany body rosewood neck guitar with aftermaths. The tones are night and day. The mahogany track has this well defined bottom end and the swamp ash has this loss in mid low end. The difference in the low mids to me was a much larger than 10% difference. In addition, yes the swamp ash had more clarity in the upper mids.



forshagesan said:


> Swamp ash has a mid/upper mid emphasis whereas regular ash is more scooped with extended highs and lows



This is pretty close if not spot on. Both are scooped in the low mids. The opposite of Mahogany IMO


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## Rectionmaarten (Feb 24, 2013)

leonardo7 said:


> I have a different outlook on how body wood affects tone. I have used a swamp ash body guitar with maple neck and maple top with Aftermaths and tracked it through an amp. Then I kept the settings the same, and tracked the same riff with a mahogany body rosewood neck guitar with aftermaths. The tones are night and day. The mahogany track has this well defined bottom end and the swamp ash has this loss in mid low end. The difference in the low mids to me was a much larger than 10% difference. In addition, yes the swamp ash had more clarity in the upper mids.
> 
> 
> 
> This is pretty close if not spot on. Both are scooped in the low mids. The opposite of Mahogany IMO



But if you really want to compare bodywoods, I think you have to use 2 guitars that are exactly the same, except the body wood? Or am I wrong on this one?


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## AwDeOh (Feb 24, 2013)

The problem is that if you built two identical guitars from the same slab of wood, using the same construction method, and used a single set of hardware between the pair of them, you'll end up with two different tones.

Guitar tone theory is the Devil. And not the cool Devil that presides over heavy metal and first person shooters. It's the Devil that was responsible for herpes and American Idol.


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## leonardo7 (Feb 24, 2013)

Rectionmaarten said:


> But if you really want to compare bodywoods, I think you have to use 2 guitars that are exactly the same, except the body wood? Or am I wrong on this one?



Well we are talking about two things then. One is if the woods affect the tone more than 10% which I believe they absolutely do. I believe that maybe the neck wood is 10% and the fretboard is another 10% and the body is maybe another 30%. So Im saying that different woods can define 'up to' a 50% difference in a guitars tone.

What you want to know is if there is a difference between body woods if everything else is the same. Yes there will still be 'up to' a 30% difference. When I say 'up to' I mean in different species of woods, not of similar varieties. The difference between ash and swamp ash might be a 4% difference if even that. I do think that they both lack low mids and have very sparkly high end mids. If your guitar is a 6 string and 25.5" then you cant go wrong with ash or swamp ash. You wont be really going into that low mid territory unless you tune down to like A so may be just fine with the ash or swamp ash for 6 string

Lastly, you stated that you want a bright/punchy tone. The ashes are definitely what you want then. Maybe go with Swamp Ash, it might have that 2-4% more punchiness to it


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## Rectionmaarten (Feb 24, 2013)

leonardo7 said:


> Well we are talking about two things then. One is if the woods affect the tone more than 10% which I believe they absolutely do. I believe that maybe the neck wood is 10% and the fretboard is another 10% and the body is maybe another 30%. So Im saying that different woods can define 'up to' a 50% difference in a guitars tone.
> 
> What you want to know is if their is a difference between body woods if everything else is the same. Yes there will still be 'up to' a 30% difference. When I say 'up to' I mean in different species of woods, not of similar varieties. The difference between ash and swamp ash might be a 4% difference if even that. I do think that they both lack low mids and have very sparkly high end mids. If your guitar is a 6 string and 25.5" then you cant go wrong with ash or swamp ash. You wont be really going into that low mid territory unless you tune down to like A so may be just fine with the ash or swamp ash for 6 string
> 
> Lastly, you stated that you want a bright/punchy tone. The ashes are definitely what you want then. Maybe go with Swamp Ash, it might have that 2-4% more punchiness to it



Thanks a lot! I'll go with the Swamp Ash then!


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## ASoC (Feb 25, 2013)

Don't know if this was mentioned, but swamp ash also looks much nicer. Northern Hard Ash (White Ash, Normal Ash, etc) tends to have a very linear grain pattern, mostly just straight parallel lines. Swamp Ash tends to have more variation in the grain and looks more interesting with a natural finish


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