Korina as Strat body...good? bad?

[* velcro-fly *]

Seems most all of the Korina guitars I've seen over the years have been on neck through or fitted type of builds. Very few bolt on examples out there...

Anybody care to share their experiences and or photos with Korina as a bolt on type tonewood?

Thanks in advance ~

 

[LocustXReign]

"Body refinished amber, Refinished! Why on earth would I have a refinished Strat in my collection? Well it goes like this. A guy had called me at one time and said he had an old Strat, but it wasn't put together. The body was stripped and he was going to refinish it but he never got around to it. He had all the parts in a box and he asked if I was interested. We agreed on a price and I started cleaning off the body to refinish it. Strangely enough this body is Korina. I know they were experimenting a bit with woods in this period of time and we've all seen some mahogany Strats & Teles but this isn't mahogany! I just sprayed an amber clear coat over it and used it as a player for a few years (hence the strap locks), but as I am more of a maple neck fan it never got much use."

This is from Dave's Guitars in Wisconsin, and is a part of his personal collection. Were I you, I'd drop him an email or phone call regarding the tonal properties of this guitar.

-DB

 

[John Hurtt]

Ron Thorn is building a Korina bodied/neck strat type. Give him a buzz and see what he has to say.

 

[george4908]

Korina (or limba) is a great tonewood, period, and will work with all kinds of guitars. It's probably just tradition that it's associated with setnecks because it was Gibson that first popularized korina, and it's closer to the mahogany end of the spectrum than it is to alder or ash.

 

[shane8]

sounds cool to me

 

[cmatthes]

You bet your @$$ it is! Even better when it's three lbs of pure goodness like this one I'm working on putting together now:

 

[JBG]

I've built a few bolt-on Korina guitars. Nice stuff. Works & sounds like mahogany.

 

[Brett Faust]

A while back I did a hollow "Tele ",later a hollow "Strat". Both guitars had a pronounced lower midrange ,in a really good way. They both had excellent "chunk". More focused than mahogany with less compression.
I sold them both, so it may be time to make some more.

 

[Majin GeoDooD]

Oh god yes.. it's good. My Warmoth Strat has a black korina body and the tone is to die for.

 

[Rod]

My main electric slide guitar is a Warmoth L5S body which is Korina wood...The neck is Koa..The guitar sounds amazing

 

[* velcro-fly *]

A while back I did a hollow "Tele ",later a hollow "Strat". Both guitars had a pronounced lower midrange ,in a really good way. They both had excellent "chunk". More focused than mahogany with less compression.
I sold them both, so it may be time to make some more.

Well, ok then...since you're basically the guy I would be calling via Tommy re: any Korina Strat action - whats your call on appropriate neck woods? Should I stick with Korina for that as well ? rosewood fretboard? ebony ???

(BTW - anybody thats reading this who's wondering who the @#$% Brett Faust is, all you you need to know is that he builds mind bogglingly killer guitars, former Fender Custom Shop employee )

Steve E

 

[george4908]

Bolt-on mahogany bodies generally have bolt-on mahogany necks, so for korina I'd probably stay with korina for the neck, at least for the first one. If you want to add a bit of spank to the tone, try a pau ferro fretboard.

 

[Mike9]

Korina baby - yeah!!!

 

[Red Suede]

Korina body, flame maple top, Lindy Fralin steel pole pickups, old Dimarzio bridge. I had four old strats at the time and wanted something different.

 

[Dave Wakely]

Korina baby - yeah!!!

That's nice. I get the feeling I'm about to type 'tell me more ...'. Damn, just did.

 

[stolguitars]

Limba sounds great on any guitar its a great tonewood i think someone above said it sounds like mahogany(JBG) I say not at all like mahogany. just wondering if anyone is finding it hard to get GOOD white limba.??

 

[Brett Faust]

Steve E ,thanks for the kind words.
To answer your question fully you need to define what you want from the new guitar. Fast vs compressed attack,long vs short sustain.Wide open tone or midrange heavy. Scale length can have a big effect on all these things. How big is too big for the neck profile?
So ,you see there are many things that would define "best" for any project.

I will say generally that softer woods give softer attack and harder ones yield faster response. Limba is generally more low mid focused sounding than Mahogany.Maple is about as fast as you want, as far as response. Indian Rosewood is softer than Pao Ferro or of course Ebony. If you want fast go harder, smoother go softer.
I would set the main wood tone with the shaft wood,adding some" seasoning" with the fretboard wood. For another layer of flavor consider the tuners ,"klusons" (Gotoh) generally give a wide range sound. Die cast tuners tend to focus the mids more up front.
I hope that helps you define what is best for you. Good luck cooking up your new guitar.

 

[TwoTubMan]

Black Korina, all Rosewood neck, Fender '69 pickups. Great sounding guitar.

 

[yodaeatsfishstx]

This is black Korina with a Koa/Ebony neck.
It sounds phenomenal.

 

[Starman]

Korina is I believe the best strat wood, it's like having the best qualities of ash , and alder
.. And yes type of neck wood will change tone...
I just got my Rick Kelly custome strat, It has a padauk neck, 3 custom Fraylin p90s
It's called the 111 model, Papa Chubby has one with a swamp ash body, it's sweet
I had it before selling it to him....the newer model with the korina body, it's hard to
Find the words of it's perfection....chubby ain't getting this one, i have had over 50
Strats, vintage to new custom shop, I just don't think I'll ever find a better one