Baswood VS Alder Body for Metal ...

[Mr. B]

Re: Baswood VS Alder Body for Metal ...

Decades ago, when I started playing guitar on Alder Strats and Mahogany/Maple Les Pauls, if someone had told me that my favorite guitars would end up being Basswood Ibanez RG 7 strings, I would have called them crazy. If I could keep only one 6-string, it would also be a Basswood RG. I just like the tonal balance of that wood. My least favorite guitar, which I keep only because I like the locking trem on it, is an alder bodied Jackson. Liked to never found a set of pickups I was satisfied with in it, and I tried dozens. Ended up with the Breed set, and I don't really even like the neck pickup on that one.

[Mincer]

Re: Baswood VS Alder Body for Metal ...

This vid right here proves the tonal differences between swamp ash, alder & mahogany... mainly the mids (lower mids, mids, hi mids).

It's not blatant, but neither is it subtle.

If you had tons of distortion (too much) on any of them, it would definitely blur the differences... this is why some people can't hear the difference.

Warmoth also has a neck wood tone test.

I certainly heard a difference, but it got less and less when distortion was added. There was nothing really 'metal' played, but I'd bet the differences would be even less with more gain.

[vinta9e]

Re: Baswood VS Alder Body for Metal ...

Baswood VS Alder Body for Metal ... which one do you feel its better ?? I was thinking about exchanging my Jackson JDR 94 (Japanese) for an Alder equipped Jackson model

Both are fine but "better" depends on what you do and do not want, what particular pieces can deliver, your amp, playing style, etc. A random chance that you will exchange your JDR for something of similar shape and purpose, equal value and better playability is looking slim.

[Archer250]

Re: Baswood VS Alder Body for Metal ...

IMO the guitar itself matters more than the type of wood it's made of.

The construction, the quality of woods, quality of parts, how well the neck is mated to the body...

But in general alder and basswood sound close to each other. Basswood sounds warmer and alder has a bit more bass and highs.

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[astrozombie]

Re: Baswood VS Alder Body for Metal ...

I prefer alder for sharper attack


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[GuitarDoc]

Re: Baswood VS Alder Body for Metal ...

Those were the first mass produced guitars with basswood bodies.

I worked at American Showster in the mid 80s, and they were using basswood since about ‘83 for this guitar. It’s a nice sounding wood.




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You sure that guitar isn't from 1957?

('57 = my favorite Chevy except for the '63 Vette with the split rear window).

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Baswood VS Alder Body for Metal ...

This type of question is actually ridiculous.

It's like asking...which car is faster, a red one or a green one? Or, which car will better suit my needs for driving to the grocery store...a blue one or a yellow one?

It SO depends upon many other much more important factors.

[Mincer]

Re: Baswood VS Alder Body for Metal ...

Watching the Warmoth video (and the one on neck wood), I was actually surprised at how little difference there was. Sure I heard differences (sorta), but man, they were a lot closer than I thought they'd be.

[solspirit]

Re: Baswood VS Alder Body for Metal ...

Hmmm... The tonewood discussion again?

[Sirion]

Re: Baswood VS Alder Body for Metal ...

I don't think it is possible to make a blanket statement on the topic. Wood does make a difference, and anybody who denies it is a fool, but whereas one can probably generalize about which sound is typical of different types of wood, you may well find greater differences within a particular species (which of course may contain a number of sub-species to boot) than between two specimina of different woods. If I got a guitar custom made I would have some preferences for wood, but in the real world the question as stated doesn't really have an answer (even if nobody asks the further complicating question "what type of metal?").

[DavidRavenMoon]

Baswood VS Alder Body for Metal ...

Watching the Warmoth video (and the one on neck wood), I was actually surprised at how little difference there was. Sure I heard differences (sorta), but man, they were a lot closer than I thought they'd be.

I have a problem with the way they do those videos. It’s the way the guy plays. He strums some chords and stuff, but he’s not in the area on the neck where you might hear a difference, like playing single notes around the 14th fret.

He’s kind of playing in a way to make them sound the same.

But recently he said in an interview on YouTube how he was surprised how much of a difference something like fretboard wood makes.

I’m a luthier. I don’t pick the type of wood I’m using just based on how it will sound, but I’m aware of it based on my experience, both building and playing guitars.

Here’s a good example. These two basses were built around the same time. Both have cherry bodies from the same board. The necks are 7 piece maple/purpleheart, also from the same boards. One bass has some additional figured maple in the neck. The fretboards are black paper phenolic (ebonol). They have dual truss rods and carbon fiber reinforcement.

Between the back and top is a 1/4” layer of purpleheart.

The bass on the left has a zebrawood and the bass on the right is birdseye maple.

At one point they had identical EMG pickups and Gotoh bridges.

The zebrawood top bass is very mellow sounding, while the maple top bass is brighter and louder acoustically.

So that leaves the top wood as the only differentiator.


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[Mincer]

Re: Baswood VS Alder Body for Metal ...

Wow, those are some awesome looking basses. What is your experience with purpleheart?

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: Baswood VS Alder Body for Metal ...

This description has been around for long time. Still pretty good.

http://www.jemsite.com/jem/wood.htm