I second that. Here are my three Semogue boar brothers:
Left to right: The 1800, the 1250 and the 1305. Of those, the 1250 is my favourite (actually my favourite animal hair brush overall!). The stiffer 1800 doesn't really work for me, even after several uses and two or three dozen test lathers to break it in it still seems to eat lather. The 1305 is very soft and tends to spread very wide after a while. The 1250 is just perfect, it keeps its shape, does its job, feels nice and has never given me any reason to complain.
If you don't like wooden handles, get the 820 instead of the 1250, or the 830 instead of the 1305, as those have the exact same knots respectively but with acrylic handles.
And speaking of the SOC in ash: Yes, go for it,
@RCH !
It fits the colour of the bristles very nicely. Here's mine in an old SOTD: