alder or ash?

[warcripp]

which one should i get? all the strats i have played have alder bodies. how does ash sound in comparison to alder. 

 

[line6man]

Depends entirely on the tone you are after.
Also, whether or not you are concerned with weight.

 

[JaySwear]

kind of a general question. i think both will do pretty much any style of music with the right pickups. i have one alder and two swamp ash bodies now, so i voted swamp ash. my two swamp ash bodies are really light, where my alder body is pretty heavy. and put a super distortion in a swamp ash body and it screams!

what kind of playing style / what kinds of pickups? my first swamp ash strat has a humbucker bridge and p90 neck, so it's not exactly a normal strat by any means

 

[jay4321]

Ash is a bit brighter and cooler looking. Alder doesn't look bad in it's own right, and to me it always sounds thicker. Kind of like if ash went to the gym for a while and put on some muscle.

I'd say if you don't have any experience choosing guitar woods, absolutely go with alder. It's a nice middle-of-the-road sound, neither muddy nor brittle, has oomph, is reasonable in weight and price. You don't really have to fill the grain when finishing like with ash or mahogany. It works with any kind of pickups.

 

[warcripp]

i am shooting for dimarzio area pickups (until i change my mind 100 more times). weight isnt too much of a factor here and not looking for a razor sharp sound something mellow yet crisp. not butter but maybe i cant believe its not butter. 

 

[AutoBat]

Judging from the showcase bodies, swamp ash has a nicer grain to it for translucent finishes.
I like alder because I like the added weight.
I'm not voting because I have nothing against either one.

 

[dmraco]

if you are finishing it yourself...alder will be loess work with grain fill....just thought this should be pointed out.

 

[AprioriMark]

Alder is my favorite tone wood for guitars.  I've found ash to be inconsistent, though prettier in some ways visually.

-Mark

 

[dNA]

not looking for a razor sharp sound something mellow yet crisp. not butter but maybe i cant believe its not butter. 

while both are good and i think people will vote either way - it sounds like alder is more what you want. generally ash is regarded as having a brighter midrange.

 

[m4rk0]

alder.... the chicken of tonewoods!

 

[drewfx]

Both are good choices and both sound equally good. I think of ash as a little brighter/punchier and alder as a little warmer/smoother.

But it's not like you can't get a punchier/brighter/warmer/smoother tone by varying your pick/strings/technique/PU's/tone controls/amp setting/etc., so unless you're chasing a really specific tone...

 

[Doughboy]

I've found Ash to have a scooped mid, spongier & brighter tone. Alder seems to be very even sounding with no frequency overbearing on the others.

My Ash guitars weight a lot less than my Alder ones, if weight is an issue.

 

[Cagey]

My Ash guitars weight a lot less than my Alder ones, if weight is an issue.

You have to be careful, though. Swamp ash is only light at the lower sections of the trunk of the tree, where it's down in the swamp. Up above about 8 feet or so, it actually gets fairly dense and heavy. You can get swamp ash bodies that weigh much more than alder pretty easily, especially from companies who are only going after the species rather than the quality. That's one of the reasons Warmoth publishes the weights of their bodies. Go through the Strat bodies on the Showcase, and you can see the exact same bodies varying by as much as a pound or more. That's a lot, and it has an impact on the tone.

 

[dNA]

That's a lot, and it has an impact on the tone.

Just curious because I've heard it mentioned, but how does weight affect tone? Like is heavier wood denser, and therefore stiffer and going to have more sustain and more highs? Or is heavier wood going to be less resonant and therefore sound dead

 

[Cagey]

There's more than one consideration, and weight is usually only an indicator, not a rule. Generally speaking, the denser a wood is, the more it's going to sustain, while the harder it is the more it's going to bring out the higher frequencies. Density and hardness usually go together, but not always. It depends on the species. For instance, balsa is a hardwood, but I can't imagine anyone would call that heavy or dense... quite the opposite. The stuff's almost like styrofoam <grin>

Most of the qualities of what are considered "tone woods" are really only apparent in acoustic guitar construction. You have to go to extremes to get those qualities to show up in electrics. Part of that is because there's just so much mass in an electric. It's not going to absorb the energy in the strings and resonate in sympathy the way an acoustic will. On the other hand, electrics get heavily amplified and the differences are amplified as well to become more obvious.