Tone diff in Alder vs. Ash vs. Mahogany vs. Laminated

CajunBlues · **Posted:** Mon Apr 26, 2010 7:13 am

BigJay wrote:

My advice to you is this....if you are not splitting hairs on every aspect of your guitar (pickups, neck, woods, circuitry, strings, amp, etc), your body wood selection might not matter much.

Oh my god... so true... If you don't mind, I may use this quote in my signature...

straycat113 · **Posted:** Mon Apr 26, 2010 7:20 am

Civilleira is dead on about that. Usually Basswood which is kind of greenish has a Maple cap or some other wood put on top to aid in tone and for appearance but most of your shred guitars were made from them.Eddie Vanhalens EBMM and Peavey Wolfgang and new Fender Wolfgang are all made of basswood with maple tops, and there killers sounding guitars. The Peaveys that were Ivory, and Black had no tops. So are Charvels and the old Jacksons dont know about the new Jacksons.

cloud011085 · **Posted:** Mon Apr 26, 2010 7:56 pm

BigJay wrote:

Twelvebar wrote:

NP Jay

there's a section on this in 'The Stratocaster Chronicles' when Tom Wheeler interviews both Dan Smith and George Blanda.

So to recap if/when people ask 90's strats:

90-93(possibly early 94, but not until 97 or 98 like Ed Roman :roll:

says,) they used poplar since there were issues getting alder due to environmental concerns.

for much of the 90's they used alder caps, even on alder bodies to combat grain shrinkage on the paint.

If you have a swimming pool routed strat you have one or all of these 'unfavorable' features.

Obviously, if your AmStd burst doesnt have visible seam-joints (at least one), its capped.

Seems to me that if the guitar body is finished in such a way so as to cover up the hint that its capped (or a design-feature cap, as with LPs), I dont want it. Its basically an illusion, designed to deceive.

My 91 AM STD has visible seam-joints, its seems like 2 piece.. i wonder is it 2 piece of poplar or alder ? is there any possible way to identify the wood?

Twelvebar · **Posted:** Mon Apr 26, 2010 8:07 pm

cloud011085 wrote:

My 91 AM STD has visible seam-joints, its seems like 2 piece.. i wonder is it 2 piece of poplar or alder ? is there any possible way to identify the wood?

According to George Blanda, and Dan Smith in the book I mentioned above They used Alder until 1990, then because of environmental restrictions on Alder they used Poplar until '93 or early 94 so yours is poplar.

Rebelsoul · **Posted:** Tue Apr 27, 2010 6:10 am

I have a '93 AS and a '97 AS,and they can sound good even with the different wood and stuff....but mine have had the pups changed....even though,they still are somewhat tonally inferior compared to my RI's.
A lot of what I don't like about the AS guitars is the thick skin finish,but it has it's merits when you're gigging in joints....you can use it as a club and still not damage the finish. :lol:

Seriously...I would be okay if all I had was my AS Strats,but as a tone hound,I'm always chasing after something better.

Twelvebar · **Posted:** Tue Apr 27, 2010 4:58 pm

BigJay wrote:

cloud011085 wrote:

BigJay wrote:

Twelvebar wrote:

NP Jay

there's a section on this in 'The Stratocaster Chronicles' when Tom Wheeler interviews both Dan Smith and George Blanda.

So to recap if/when people ask 90's strats:

90-93(possibly early 94, but not until 97 or 98 like Ed Roman :roll:

says,) they used poplar since there were issues getting alder due to environmental concerns.

for much of the 90's they used alder caps, even on alder bodies to combat grain shrinkage on the paint.

If you have a swimming pool routed strat you have one or all of these 'unfavorable' features.

Obviously, if your AmStd burst doesnt have visible seam-joints (at least one), its capped.

Seems to me that if the guitar body is finished in such a way so as to cover up the hint that its capped (or a design-feature cap, as with LPs), I dont want it. Its basically an illusion, designed to deceive.

My 91 AM STD has visible seam-joints, its seems like 2 piece.. i wonder is it 2 piece of poplar or alder ? is there any possible way to identify the wood?

If you can see the seam-joints, its got a clear finish. Its very unlikely, probably impossible, that Fender used poplar in a clear finish guitar like a burst. Its most likely alder.

Fender uses alder in most Strats because of the consistency of the woods density. It makes for more consistent tones. Ash and alder are used in clear finish bodies, but usually alder. Poplar and beechwood and other softer woods are used in guitars where you dont see the grain. Poplar especially is difficult to stain because it has a very puky natural green color and its cheaper.

I didn't see where he said it was a burst. odds are they used ash if it was.

With poplar its not so much that it is green, but that it is streaked with green mineral deposits, so it is hard to find pieces which will take stain evenly, or that have the attractive grain patterns of ash and alder.

i have seen opaque guitars where the finish has shrunk and you can see the join lines, i thought that was what he meant.

nikininja · **Posted:** Tue Apr 27, 2010 5:37 pm

BigJay wrote:

It's not that is green, agreed. It definately ha a greenish tint, though. That color makes it difficult to stain, at leAst to the color you'd anticipate from the stain.

He didn't say he had a burst or clear finish. I assumed by his suggestion he could see the joints. If it's not a clear finish and he can see the seams, there is somethingvery wrong with the finish.

Jay you'd worry over my guitars then mate. Theres only one where you cant see the join and thats a mexican tele. I can see 5 visible join lines in my black mexican strat (7 piece). My hotrod has 1 join (straight down the middle) as does my customshop. The hotrods paint is so thin I am just able to faintly see the grain pattern on the forearm contour. The paint isnt worn off anywhere it's just really thinning out.

I always thought it was from using too little fullerplast.

Twelvebar · **Posted:** Tue Apr 27, 2010 6:49 pm

BigJay wrote:

Wow! That is amazing to me. Personally, I would not be happy about that. Seems to me that the finish really shouldnt do that. But maybe that's natural.

pretty common on the thin skin finishes, one feature of which is less of the polyester(fullerplast,) sealer.

nikininja · **Posted:** Tue Apr 27, 2010 7:01 pm

It's down to Fender not using enough car body filler on the guitar bodies. Literaly.

Probably due to the current trendy notion of thinner finish's sounding better. How thin can you get a finish? Ceri remembers all the details on how much paint I took off my MIM when I stripped it. That was a properly covered guitar. A lot of people with these thin skinned guitars are noticing the same thing.
It makes sense that you have to put X amount of finish ontop of X amount of sealer to get good, solid, stable finish. Vary either of those first two factors and the final outcome has to be different doesnt it.

Personaly it just doesnt worry me. I'm beyond caring what the thing looks like as long as it plays and sounds nice. Anyway as vain as it sounds, I know that my 2 expensive solid colour guitars have 2 piece bodies.

Waaaaay better than 3 piece bodies from a tonal standpoint :wink:

	Page 3 of 7	[ 103 posts ]	Go to page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Next
Go to page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Next

	Page 3 of 7	[ 103 posts ]	Go to page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Next
Go to page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Next

Andorra	EN	ES	FR
Belgium	EN	DE	FR
Croatia	EN
Czech Republic	EN
Estonia	EN
France	EN	FR
Germany	EN	DE
Italy	EN	IT
Latvia	EN
Lithuania	EN
Malta	EN
Netherlands	EN
Poland	EN
Romania	EN
Slovakia	EN
Sweden	EN
United Kingdom	EN

Austria	EN	DE
Bulgaria	EN
Cyprus	EN
Denmark	EN
Finland	EN
Greece	EN
Hungary	EN
Ireland	EN
Liechtenstein	EN	DE
Luxembourg	EN	DE	FR
Monaco	EN	FR
Norway	EN
Portugal	EN
Slovenia	EN
Spain	EN	ES
Switzerland	EN	DE	FR	IT

Mod Shop

Custom Shop

Tone diff in Alder vs. Ash vs. Mahogany vs. Laminated

Who is online