"Weird" pieces of wood do not make guitars sound like synths, and anyone who disagrees has no idea about what goes into the sound of a guitar. It may give a slightly different tonal quality in terms of frequency (mahogany is darker than swamp ash, etc) but it will not drastically change the ADSR (that's Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release) qualities of the instrument.

My guess on the guitar solo is that he is using an EQ with alternating boosted/cut frequencies (for those of you who have graphic EQ's, try alternating each frequency band with a heavy boost then a heavy cut and it will sound like a phaser at a certain point of the sweep) along with a heavy noise gate to kill the sustain and make the notes end rather suddenly. Add a light flange and you should be about there.

That's all speculation but I've gotten close to that sound excluding the noise gate.