Alder vs Poplar
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jackthehack
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If you are going to finish in a solid color, probably not a lot. Otherwise, yes.
SkuttleFunk
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the Poplar will have a somewhat mineral stained ambience to its tonality, whereas the Alder will impart more of an organic, mossy glistening
all the best,
R
all the best,
R
SkuttleFunk
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to be blunt - we're NOT talking acoustic instruments here, so the term "tonewood" simply does not apply. "tonewood" is nomenclature correctly used by acoustic instrument makers. unfortunately its definition is not correctly understood by a significant percentage of the posters here, and it's therefore incorrectly used on regular occasion by people when referring to wood used for solidbody electric instruments
to speak from actual building experience, Poplar is a great wood for electric instrument bodies that you plan to finish with an opaque paint color. it has consistent workability, is structurally sound, and resists denting well ... and there is an enormous quantity of incredible sounding instruments with bodies manufactured from it.
if you are having issues with a Poplar bodied instrument made from a reputable company, I would suspect that there is an issue with the assembly or choice of installed electronics
all the best,
R
to speak from actual building experience, Poplar is a great wood for electric instrument bodies that you plan to finish with an opaque paint color. it has consistent workability, is structurally sound, and resists denting well ... and there is an enormous quantity of incredible sounding instruments with bodies manufactured from it.
if you are having issues with a Poplar bodied instrument made from a reputable company, I would suspect that there is an issue with the assembly or choice of installed electronics
all the best,
R
jackthehack
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adamj said:
Exactly blotto...
Poplar is what is used in the Music Man Steve Morse guitar. Mine sounds very good, in fact the best Strat sound I have in the house right now.
It's a little difficult to compare to a Strat since it has a tone-o-matic and a flat tailpiece, but I feel confident to say that if you want "good" sound it won't be any worse than Alder. If you want to recreate a specific Strat sound by the bit it might not be the most promising approach. But then, picking up a random piece of Alder won't bring you there either.
Some people say that Poplar is more consistent than Alder, Ash and Mahogany. Ash and Mahogany in particular come in so many variants and have great variety between pieces. Those people say if you pick up a random guitar body made from poplar you have the highest chance to get something light and nice sounding.
It's a little difficult to compare to a Strat since it has a tone-o-matic and a flat tailpiece, but I feel confident to say that if you want "good" sound it won't be any worse than Alder. If you want to recreate a specific Strat sound by the bit it might not be the most promising approach. But then, picking up a random piece of Alder won't bring you there either.
Some people say that Poplar is more consistent than Alder, Ash and Mahogany. Ash and Mahogany in particular come in so many variants and have great variety between pieces. Those people say if you pick up a random guitar body made from poplar you have the highest chance to get something light and nice sounding.
kboman said:
I'm not in the habit of logging every link just to guard myself against smartasses like you.
There's some lengthy piece on the web where somebody advocates poplar saying that most Strat buyers would be very happy with it's weight and "resonance" (his words, not mind) and would rate it as a great Strat if they didn't know it's poplar. I think it was some interview on a guitar magazine website, not a standalone webpage. I'll leave it to your google-fu to bring it up if it's important enough for you.
Another obvious place is here but keep in mind that these people are usually happy Morse signature owners.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=poplar+site%3Aernieball.com&btnG=Search
Superlizard
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adamj said:
Looking at the Warmoth body woods chart http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Bodies/Options/BodyWoodOptions.aspx:
It appears there's really no difference for a body.
I've never owned a poplar guitar, but definitely have done the alder Strat several times. Think mids (as in around 1Khz range). The "tastes like chicken" of woods.
As well, when comparing wood tone, keep in mind that if you're running your guitar through a crappy amp/amp emulator and a crappy speaker and/or with tons of distortion and hi output pickups, you're not going to be able to hear much of a difference at all even in the most extreme cases.
Like, I could plug a stock Les Paul Custom into say Guitar Rig 3 (emulator for PC) or say a SS Crate and compare that to a stock Strat and hear somewhat of a difference in tone. I could lazily attribute the difference to the pickups (humbucker vs. SC), but there's a whole bunch of data missing as well there cuz the "amp" just plain sucks.
Far too many people put too much emphasis on the guitar and pickups for determining their tone and completely leave out the amp and speaker. Well, if you're running your cool geetar through an amp/speaker that sucks tone or hides it, there ya go.
The formula for tone =
Guitar
|
Anything between the guitar & the speaker
|
Speaker
That's the easy part. Finding the right combination of the above is the trick.
uOpt said:
Whoa whoa, chill out man. No need to guard anything, we're friends here, but just saying "some people" is not very satisfying. Above description is fine for me. I certainly don't remember every site I visit, but Firefox has a very useful history function that can be helpful (I use it constantly).
I am unclear as to how you could possibly "notice a difference" unless you had one of each. A difference between what, and what? :icon_scratch:
You're simply going to have to build one of each, and let us know.....
(Gregg, send the neck to the usual place) :blob7:
D
dwayneed
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Well, I can honestly say that I have a guitar that is made of plywood and it isn't my worst sounding guitar by a long shot. However, FEEL is affected by a wood's response to your playing and that aspect is very important to me. I don't use my plywood guitar for anything but recording when it is needed. I would say that neck wood has a more noticeable effect on tone unplugged or plugged in. Having said that, Poplar to me is much less musical to play than Alder in a very general way..... it really depends...... To suggest other players are less than intelligent because of what sounds good, plays, etc... for them is kinda rude in my opinion.
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