Ash vs alder body tele

[esandes]

What's the difference?

 

[Mincer]

Some would say that alder has slightly more mids, and it is slightly heavier. Ash looks nicer with clear finishes. All of this depends on the particular piece of wood, though.

 

[Teleplayer]

IMO probably not a big difference. Both of them will be rugged and bright. The neck joint on a Telecaster is more rigid than on a strat style body, so they are a bit less sensitive to the properties of the wood used. I should add that its only my opinion, because I know a lot of people don't agree with me!

 

[Artie]

The neck joint on a Telecaster is more rigid than on a Strat style body . . .

I'm not disagreeing with you, but I am curious as to why this would be. The two joints look pretty similar to me. Just wondering.

 

[Mincer]

The Tele neck joint is a little squarer, but I don't know if that makes a measurable difference.

 

[devastone]

As a general rule ash is brighter with more scooped mids and slightly more percussive lows, alder has more mids. Swamp ash will usually be lighter than alder, hard ash with be heavier. Hard ash will be brighter than swamp ash, similar to hard maple. FWIW, the original Frankie was hard ash.

As I mentioned, everything I said is "general rules" wood is an organic material, there will always be exceptions.

 

[GuitarStv]

What's the difference?

The wood used in the body.

*End Thread*

As far as sonic differences . . . that totally depends on the piece of wood. The density and hardness of ash varies a huge amount. It's quite an inconsistent wood. After finishing an ash body, I can definitively say that it's a real bitch to pore fill.

 

[jeremy]

As a general rule ash is brighter with more scooped mids and slightly more percussive lows, alder has more mids. Swamp ash will usually be lighter than alder, hard ash with be heavier. Hard ash will be brighter than swamp ash, similar to hard maple.

As I mentioned, everything I said is "general rules" wood is an organic material, there will always be exceptions.

this is my experience too.

 

[muttznmongrelz]

As a general rule ash is brighter with more scooped mids and slightly more percussive lows, alder has more mids. Swamp ash will usually be lighter than alder, hard ash with be heavier. Hard ash will be brighter than swamp ash, similar to hard maple. FWIW, the original Frankie was hard ash.

As I mentioned, everything I said is "general rules" wood is an organic material, there will always be exceptions.

Ash...specifically Northern Ash. Very well described above by devastone...particularly awesome with a Maple Fretboard neck as evidence by the example of the Original EVH Frankie. Plus it looks awesome with a trans/clear finish. I've built a few Ash Bodied SuperTeles....

 

[Teleplayer]

I'm not disagreeing with you, but I am curious as to why this would be. The two joints look pretty similar to me. Just wondering.

My logic is based on "Double cut" vs "Single cut". The additional material on the upper bout of the Telecaster is serving to support the neck joint and increase the rigidity.

Anecdotally, I have tried neck humbuckers and strat sized pickups in strats and tele bodies with identical spec necks. An Alder Tele body has high chance of being brighter than an Ash Strat body. So IMO its actually the shape of the body that contributes to the difference in tone between Strats and Teles. Fairly obviously the lack of tremolo will make a difference as well. Such small differences are probably not noticeable in a lot of real life situations.

 

[devastone]

Ash...specifically Northern Ash. Very well described above by devastone...particularly awesome with a Maple Fretboard neck as evidence by the example of the Original EVH Frankie. Plus it looks awesome with a trans/clear finish. I've built a few Ash Bodied SuperTeles....

Dude, those teles seriously rock, especially #2, I may have to drive down to Littleton sometime.

 

[GreatOz]

I don't know what the differences are, I just know that the Butterscotch Blonde ones are the ones that always sound the best.

hehe

 

[Adieu]

Alder is cheap and widely available, ash is becoming rare and has some ecological problems lately

I like alder, even without taking into account the environmental factor or the price. Nice and bright and resonant. Always fairly lightweight.

 

[Mincer]

I have an alder guitar, and one of northern ash, and one of swamp ash. To me, the tone of the alder is the best. But that is just one component in a system.

 

[muttznmongrelz]

Dude, those teles seriously rock, especially #2, I may have to drive down to Littleton sometime.

Thank you! Appreciate it. Hey; if you're down the way sometime hit me up. I only have the first one in the pics now but I'm building out a 2013 Charvel Pro Mod So Cal Maple Neck with a Two Piece Center Joined Maple Single Angled Humbucker Telecaster Body at current. Toying with a 5150 finish on it.

 

[treyhaislip]

As a general rule ash is brighter with more scooped mids and slightly more percussive lows, alder has more mids. Swamp ash will usually be lighter than alder, hard ash with be heavier. Hard ash will be brighter than swamp ash, similar to hard maple. FWIW, the original Frankie was hard ash.

As I mentioned, everything I said is "general rules" wood is an organic material, there will always be exceptions.

This parallels my experience with multiple examples.

Between Alder and Ash, I typically go for Ash because I like to show the wood grain. Granted, we are talking organic material so not every cut of Ash is going to have amazing grain to show.

The best sounding Strat I’ve ever played was Northern Ash (I’ve used the same pickups and all with multiple strats, nothing were special like that one.)

Swamp Ash is becoming harder to acquire, I hope it doesn’t go the way of the dinos.

 

[Mincer]

Northern ash is considerably heavier than swamp ash, probably 1 or even 2 lbs for a Strat body. It is a great sounding wood, but too heavy for me to use a whole lot.

 

[treyhaislip]

Northern ash is considerably heavier than swamp ash, probably 1 or even 2 lbs for a Strat body. It is a great sounding wood, but too heavy for me to use a whole lot.

I can understand that—I didn’t think my strat was as heavy as some Les Paul’s. But compared to my Roasted Swamp Ash with Roasted Maple neck Tele that came in under 5lbs finished...Northern Ash is on the heavy side.

About to start a semi-hollow Jazzmaster/Surfcaster with Northern Ash that is around 4-5lbs, hopefully being semi-hollow will make it easier on the back!

 

[esandes]

Does a heavier alder body for the same guitar sound fuller with more sustain than a lighter alder body?

 

[alex1fly]

In 2020 I compared 9 guitars with weight and sustain in mind.... 4 mahogany, 5 alder. Weight was not directly correlated with anything tone-wise. Granted I didn't install identical components on each guitar for an "eliminate the variables" approach, but I was surprised that the most sustain came from two of the lightest guitars from both wood camps. So I FEEL (another very scientific approach) that you're kind of shooting in the dark to guess what the tonal effects are going to be based on a single variable like weight. YMMV