what is the difference??

Ash is supposedly a more 'treble' sound, whereas alder is considered a neutral wood. When tone woods are compared (like on the warmoth site) alder is considered the base wood that the other woods are compared to.

The earliest fenders were ash bodied, but were switched in the late 50's (for guitars with a non transparent finish) to alder because it was cheaper to prep. Ash has very heavy, pronounced grain so it was still retained on the 50's sunbursts and blonde finishes. The reason Fender switched is that alder is a closed pore wood and it required less prep work than Ash which is an open pore wood and required more spray prep in order to seal.

Alder is also fairly consistent in weight. Ash can very greatly in weight. Ash can be feather weight, or heavy (like Les Paul heavy). There is also *supposedly* a difference between Southern Swamp Ash (supposedly light) and Northern Hard Ash. I say supposedly because I have read two different things on the wood. One camp says that Northern Ash is the same species of wood as Southern Ash, and another website says it is a completely different species of wood. I can tell you from personal experience that I have seen Ash that was about 3 lbs. for a strat body, and seen other Ash strat bodies weigh in at nearly 7 lbs.

thankyou so much that's exactly the information i needed.

I did not realize there was such thing as light ash. My '89 strat plus delux is ash and weighs close to 8 lbs. All the Strat Plus' have been pretty heavy too. I do know that you pay more for Ash.

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Live guitars: 2009 LTD Truckster, 1989 Strat Plus, 2001 Am Standard Strat, 1996 MIJ Jaguar, 2007 Gibson Explorer 76 reissue, 1999 Ibanez RG7621, LTD MH-301, LTD FM400, 1999 Jackson Kelly, Mystery Les Paul, Hamer Chaparel, Fender FM 62SCE A/E Mandolin

Yes, there is:
http://www.georgesmusiconline.com/produ ... ts_id=6780

I also purchased this one piece, 3.2 hunk of wood of which I will turn into a '57 Mary Kaye:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0470093127

Supposedly, the Northern Ash is grown in the Northern Part of the USA, and the Swamp Ash grows in swampy areas and when the moisture dries out, it is lighter in weight.

Most guitars that are made in American are made from White Ash and the ones you see being called Swamp Ash are made from Green Ash , Red Ash or Water Ash several species fallin to the Swamp category. Its species name is based on Color and location of growth There are many many Ash species. Now if we can only save our Ash trees here in American from the Emerald Ash Borer. We have lost several hundred million Ash trees in 16 states since 2002 when this beatle was brought here in packing material. Lets not forget what happened to the American Chestnut a blight from Asia was introduced to trees at the Bronx zoo in NY. Billions of Chestnut trees died 25% of the trees in the Appalachian Mountains were Chestnut and died. Now when they grow they die when they reach 18 feet hieght becausue the blight comes back. These trees used to grow to a height as 150 feet and 10 feet round.

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