darren
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And to the question of "brightness"...
What i was trying to achieve through the specs was an overall balance to the tone, but with a primary focus on excellent clarity in the lower register. Most people will be using these for low tunings, and if they aren't clear down to the lowest notes, then we've missed the mark. The main factor in both the Standard and Pro models is the 28.625" scale length. That's going to really help keep things clear and tight down low.
Ash + maple is a pretty bright and snappy combination. Most of the time it's associated with Strats. But throw a nice beefy humbucker in the mix, and you'll likely hear the "twang" turn into a really nice, articulate growl, especially tuned low.
The neck-thru model will indeed get a good chunk of its tone from the maple neck running through the body, and the EMG 808, which in basswood, i found to have a very nice "stringy" and articulate sound. The mahogany wings should help warm things up a bit.
As NegaTiveXero said, it's easier to tame a bit of extra high end than it is to try to get articulation and note definition out of a muddy sounding instrument. I'm pretty confident that the parts and materials chosen for these guitars will work out nicely. I'm already thinking of adding an EMG BQC active EQ to mine (active treble, bass and sweepable midrange) and running at 18v, just to zero in on that perfect tone with the single pickup.
What i was trying to achieve through the specs was an overall balance to the tone, but with a primary focus on excellent clarity in the lower register. Most people will be using these for low tunings, and if they aren't clear down to the lowest notes, then we've missed the mark. The main factor in both the Standard and Pro models is the 28.625" scale length. That's going to really help keep things clear and tight down low.
Ash + maple is a pretty bright and snappy combination. Most of the time it's associated with Strats. But throw a nice beefy humbucker in the mix, and you'll likely hear the "twang" turn into a really nice, articulate growl, especially tuned low.
The neck-thru model will indeed get a good chunk of its tone from the maple neck running through the body, and the EMG 808, which in basswood, i found to have a very nice "stringy" and articulate sound. The mahogany wings should help warm things up a bit.
As NegaTiveXero said, it's easier to tame a bit of extra high end than it is to try to get articulation and note definition out of a muddy sounding instrument. I'm pretty confident that the parts and materials chosen for these guitars will work out nicely. I'm already thinking of adding an EMG BQC active EQ to mine (active treble, bass and sweepable midrange) and running at 18v, just to zero in on that perfect tone with the single pickup.
I guess someone will do this on a custom 
