Body wood: Alder vs Mahogany for hard rock & metal?

Body wood: Alder vs Mahogany for hard rock & metal?

  • Mahogany

    Votes: 31 46.3%

  • Alder

    Votes: 17 25.4%

  • I don't care / It doesn't matter

    Votes: 19 28.4%
  • Total voters
    67
Re: Body wood: Alder vs Mahogany for hard rock & metal?

Quencho092 said:
I simply promote this notion because tonal differences between solid bodies has been hyped so much to the point that people go on a proverbial tone chase for eternity when guitars with the same exact hardware and pickups but different bodies/necks (not hollows) could easily fool any listener. The quality of assembly is even more important than the quality difference between parts made of the same material.

If you put thought into your music and use your gear well, it isn't impossible to emulate many popular recorded sounds using a versatile strat/tele/lp and a good amp with some good quality pedals if needed. I doubt that any of those 3 guitars (if not a total POS runt anomaly from an assembly line) would fail at getting an appropriate rock/blues/jazz/r&b/funk/pop even metal tone with a good player behind the axe, tones in the ballpark of classic recordings when you're using the right gear and mixing it well.

It's not like Jimmy page's LP's and Teles were made from some legendary wood or what not, he just knew how to get the sounds he wanted and the ideas were contagious so they became legendary to us.
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What I infer from your long and laborious posting is that, there is no need to be too picky or too high almighty that one feels he or she can only be satisfied with Gibson LP or Suhr or any other pricey guitars out there. Rather, simply go for a decent guitar moderately priced and tweak the pickup, amp, pedal, every other factor in the sound chain basically, and voila...you are in tone heaven.
 
Re: Body wood: Alder vs Mahogany for hard rock & metal?

From my experience the volume of wood in the body (solid vs. semi hollow vs. hollow) affects tone more than the type of wood. I have an Epiphone LP and a Kramer LP both reportedly made of mahogany and maple concatenated, but the Kramer is thinner and lighter hence the wood volume is less than that of the Epiphone. Both are equipped with JB and 59 and same brand and string gauge. The Epi definitely elicits heavier tone, while the Kramer's is sharper.
 
Re: Body wood: Alder vs Mahogany for hard rock & metal?

I have to agree that to some degree solid body electric don't have as much wood dependency as others.

I am trying to buy an acoustic for my wife and even if you limit yourself to you Taylor 410s the differences between individual guitars are huge, I mean extremely easy to hear after you sharpen your ears on electrics.
 
Re: Body wood: Alder vs Mahogany for hard rock & metal?

It's mahogany for me ;) I can drop razor sharp L500XL in there without hesitation

Tried once with swamp ash/maple guitar and treble almost took my head off ;)
 
Re: Body wood: Alder vs Mahogany for hard rock & metal?

Although guitars made of stone might be a little too heavy, I believe that some manufactures make guitars out of different metals.

I'm not really a Metal player but I have a feeling that metal guitars should be the best for Metal. Enjoy!
 
Re: Body wood: Alder vs Mahogany for hard rock & metal?

St_Genesius said:
It's a shame there's no way to turn the treble down on a guitar, pedal board, or amp. Someone should really look into that.
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I'm turning knobs CONSTANTLY looking for sweet spots.

That said, there are slabs of wood that are so bright that you end up hating them.

I had an alder Strat body that the only pickup I could make work was a Tone Zone. (I tried at least 5 other bass heavy pickups.) I sold the Tone Zone and the body. I miss the Tone Zone. I don't miss that body. I painted one the same color last week and assembled the guitar again today. Sounds MUCH better this time around. (GFS VEH in that one.)

For the OP - Find a body style that's comfortable. Find a music style that you enjoy playing. Then balance the body wood with the pickup.

I just assembled a mahogany Strat last night with a GFS Power Rails Neck Pickup in the bridge. Absolutely perfect for speed metal.
 
Re: Body wood: Alder vs Mahogany for hard rock & metal?

It's all about matching your pickup to the wood and matching your guitar wheight to your spine conditions.
 
Re: Body wood: Alder vs Mahogany for hard rock & metal?

Why was this thread resurrected? I'm about to go all Chuck 'round here.
 
Re: Body wood: Alder vs Mahogany for hard rock & metal?

My alder Strat seems to have a more balanced sound than my mahogany SG. There may be more to it than just the body wood but I think the mahogany dampens the higher frequencies faster than the alder (or alder/maple). Or maybe the alder just dampens the entire frequency range more equally. I think this results in a more pleasing and accurate sound than the mahogany - both clean & dirty. The mahogany does have better bass characteristics but that's only of very limited use IMHO.

Then there's also the Swamp Ash flavor..........
 
Re: Body wood: Alder vs Mahogany for hard rock & metal?

rts99 said:
My alder Strat seems to have a more balanced sound than my mahogany SG. There may be more to it than just the body wood but I think the mahogany dampens the higher frequencies faster than the alder (or alder/maple). Or maybe the alder just dampens the entire frequency range more equally. I think this results in a more pleasing and accurate sound than the mahogany - both clean & dirty. The mahogany does have better bass characteristics but that's only of very limited use IMHO.

Then there's also the Swamp Ash flavor..........
Click to expand...

In the case of a SG what really matter is the thin body and the narrow neck joint.
 
Re: Body wood: Alder vs Mahogany for hard rock & metal?

It really depends on the type of metal. For my playing (influenced by industrial, death metal, black metal, and metalcore) I find mohogany to be a bit too full at times, which can lead to muddiness or boominess. I prefer alder with a maple centerpiece (neck through style) overall.
 
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