Ash looks the best. What do you think?

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2000 American Deluxe Stratocaster
2011 Gibson Les Paul Trad Pro 50's
2007 Epi Les Paul Custom
90's ESP Eclipse
JH-1B Jimi Hendrix Crybaby
Analogman KOT
Korg Pitchblack
Boss NS-2 PH-2
Blues Deluxe Reissue
1999 & 2007 Marshall TSL 100 w/1960BV cab

We cabinetmakers love us some alder.......

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The blues ain't nothin but a good man feelin bad.

I've got two American Standards that most likely have poplar bodies and with the right pickups they sound just as great as the Vintage Reissues I have that are alder....see Ryan3985,I can change pickups in any POS Strat and make it sound like a Custom Shop Strat...tonewood is secondary to great pickups.

I'd be really surprised if they have American series made out of poplar. I know they made MIM and MIJ's in poplar and basswood, but I dont know of any American that do, except possibly in the 80's when they were competing with the S-box super strats.

Ash or Alder? Let me ask my instruments what they think.

Strat says ash.

Tele says ash.

P-Bass says ash.

I say pie, so pie gets the vote.

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I traded my car in for a microphone.

I only know what I've read here about the poplar,both of these are mid '90s American Standards and painted,so I'm not going to go scratching off the paint to see.
I was surprised also....but I don't worry about it,they sound and play great.

Under a trans finish I think ash generally looks very nice, though I always work carefully to find a body with grain that goes together well. Not all of them do.

On the other hand, I was recently in a guitar shop in the company of Forum users mclmk8d, Nutter and Nikininja and we saw an Am Deluxe Tele with a very unusual and eye-catching flecky grain on it's alder body and it was seriously tasty - I was scratching my head to come up with a reason I needed to buy another Telecaster but I just couldn't quite swing it with my wallet (and there were too many other items of lust in that shop too).

Naturally, if a guy feels he hears important tonal differences between timbers then of course all these observations are redundant - but then I guess such a person wouldn't be asking advice from others on an internet forum.

Cheers - C

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Leo used Ash for the Strat originally. Ash grain usually looks better. Nothing like an Ash body with blonde finish IMO. Alder is usually lighter in weight, although there is light weight Ash also. If I could only have one, I would choose Ash. For any tone considerations, you would have to take the guitar as a whole, the sum of it's parts. If all wood was very consistent, it might be easier to detect the tonal differences from one type to another, but since it isn't consistent, it is hard to accurately define the differences.

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

Really? I believe you, I dont really follow the nuances of all the guitars, now even less than before. I'd be disappointed if I got an american and found out it was poplar, regardless of how nice.

as for ash's weight, i believe it has to do what part of the tree the get it from. Bottom is heavy, top is light, or vice versa I dont recall what i had read.

I don't get all excited by "tonewood",I use the amp and pickups to get the tones I want and wth the vintage amps I have that's some tasty stuff.
I was reading somewhere though that poplar was similar to alder and a suitable material....it doesn't matter that much,you read all about those '90s American Standards with the "swimming pool" route not having good tone,I say B/S!....mine sound as good as my Reissue Strats with the right pickups are in there,that's where it's at as far as I'm concerned.