wood vs wood??

[kramersteen]

Re: wood vs wood??

Recently i did some listening tests with my three Strats. I played them acoustically with my ear against the body. then i played them acoustically in the normal fashion. Then again through a (clean) valve amp. The qualities that i heard in each guitar seemed to remain under all listening conditions.

The surprise was that the weakest was the 2007 Fender Highway 1 Strat. It came nowhere near the resonance of the 1982 Tokai or the 1969 body of what i lovingly know as 'the 69 relic'. My main conclusion is that the age of the bodies is responsible for most of the differences that I heard/ felt. (The Fender bodies are Alder, the Tokai is Sen, also known as Sen Ash or Japanese Ash, although it is not a member of the Ash family).

Consequently i have decided the Highway 1 has no place here, and it will be sold. It simply can't come close to the resonance and sound of the older wood.

So perhaps tests like these could be the way forward .... disregard what the guitar is made of, and simply listen for resonance, or 'life', in the instrument. If they sing, keep them. If they don't, move them along.

MeCrusty how do you know its the age of the wood and not just different characteristic of each timber? After all no two slabs of wood will sound the same.

In saying that tho the 110+ yr old hoop pine timber i have is very resonate. Its actually considerably more resonate than a slab of mahogany tone wood i purchased. I almost have everything ready so i can make some strat style guitars with it..

 

[ExplorersRock]

Re: wood vs wood??

It has been my limited experience that different woods will follow some general charcteristics that can give the player an idea of what to expect. But there are always exceptions and its best to play it yourself for the final verdict. To the OP, I would say that the mahogany bodied guitar will sound warmer and darker but with a liitle more treble than if it didn't have the maple top. Also the thickness of the maple top will make a difference. The alder would sound more well rounded from my experience. That's just my opinion, I make no guarantee that it's infallible.

I'm just waiting for this thread to implode... may the trolls stay under their bridges.

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: wood vs wood??

MeCrusty how do you know its the age of the wood and not just different characteristic of each timber? After all no two slabs of wood will sound the same.

In saying that tho the 110+ yr old hoop pine timber i have is very resonate. Its actually considerably more resonate than a slab of mahogany tone wood i purchased. I almost have everything ready so i can make some strat style guitars with it..

I don't know for certain that it's the age of the wood. I'm old, i don't actually know anything, and there's plenty of people here who will either agree or point that out, just as in the real world.

My main point was to listen to the guitars and keep whatever has a resonant voice and get rid of those that don't, without worrying about what they are made of or what they look like. Guitars are kinda like people in that some are deep and some are bimbos/ himbos, regardless of looks or expectations.

 

[AlexR]

Re: wood vs wood??

I don't know for certain that it's the age of the wood. I'm old, i don't actually know anything, and there's plenty of people here who will either agree or point that out, just as in the real world.

My main point was to listen to the guitars and keep whatever has a resonant voice and get rid of those that don't, without worrying about what they are made of or what they look like. Guitars are kinda like people in that some are deep and some are bimbos/ himbos, regardless of looks or expectations.

There is a degree of extra depth (or something) you get from older wood. Acoustic guitar afficianados say that 20 years old is the point where the sap is fully crystallised or something and the full maturity is achieved.
Nonetheless, there are certainly better planks and worse planks for guitar applications. The biggest downside is that it is nigh on impossible to tell how to pridict this........will one bit work if it was cut into a tele shape rather than a strat, or if it was maple capped or not, or if you'd just cut the guitar from a few inches further on into the blank.
I feel those who say it makes no difference either haven't thought about the matter properly, or are listening to the wrong aspects. Until I knew better I didn't realize hotel california ouutro solo was 2 different guitars. Now the difference is obvious.

 

[KeeperOS]

Re: wood vs wood??

There's an old saying that you shouldn't put JB in mahog/maple body. It would sound like banshee. If you love JB, you should avoid it like ebola.

Huh, I guess no-one told Grover Jackson that when he designed this guitar:

Only guitar I ever LOVED the JB in. Go figure...

To answer your OP Bro, I am pretty sure there's a difference. As always it will depend on the two specific guitars since every piece of wood sounds different than the next but all other things being equal I would expect the Mahogany/Maple body to have a more scooped tone with plenty of bottom and high end whereas the Alder one wouldn't (shouldn't?) have a huge accentuation on any specific frequencies.

Just an FYI, when I bought my Michael Kelly Patriot I was given the opportunity to choose among 7 of them IIRC. I played them all side by side literally with eyes closed so that I wouldn't be able to recognize them on subsequent tries and when I was down to the last two they couldn't be any more different. The one was pretty heavy and hugely focused on the low-end with very minimal highs that sounded REALLY bad-@ss whereas the other one was fairly light and so open with a good chunk of bottom but plenty of highs. BTW I ultimately chose the latter as I felt was more versatile.
And that was the same everything, they even belonged to the same batch.
Wood IS a tricky thing to quantify...

 

[elelpe]

Re: wood vs wood??

Huh, I guess no-one told Grover Jackson that when he designed this guitar:

I was being sarcastic :fingersx:

Of course having opportunity to compare guitars is an ideal situation. But if I don't, I'd decide based on look. I mean like in this case: alder superstrat and mahog/maple superstrat, both are made from classic tonewood with proven durability construction wise. You can't go wrong with either. If later I found that the tone from a guitar I have picked is not my preference, I'd just put my fave pickups and start playing with necessary whole rig adjustment.