Alder vs. Mahogany?

[Anonymous]

Just wondering what you think the tonal differences between alder and mahogany are. I've got a Jackson made of alder, and I'm wondering if it would be good to get something made of mahogany. I'm actually searching for pickups because I want something tight and heavy and PASSIVE, but without too much bass. So far I'm thinking about a D Activator, Full Shred, or Duncan Distortion. Thoughts?

Thanks

 

[MusicManJP6]

I don't really like Mahogany guitars - call me crazy. They seem to have a muddy bottom end for some reason. There's a thickness that just gets to me when using a Mahogany guitar. I know basswood can feel a little lifeless, but I think it has a nice tight and focused sound. I don't get on with the Les Paul sound as you might have guessed. I don't know that I've heard/played an Alder guitar - I'd love to though!

 

[DRG14]

I'm not a fan of mahogany bodies either due to a personal experience... had a custom built ESP guitar made out of mahogany w/ a maple top. Rhythm-wise it had a very unpronounced sound which could best be described as loose as opposed to tight...

However, when playing leads, the guitar sang and sustained for days... weird... :?

I've got a Fender Strat, Kramer Baretta, and a Charvel Fusion that (I think!) have alder bodies, and they all sound great. Tight as opposed to loose... soundwise that is! :mrgreen:

 

[Anonymous]

I think that's what I might do, get a decent guitar made of basswood. Right now, I've got a Jackson made of alder and a Les Paul made of mahogany, I think. It's a Japanese lawsuit Les Paul so I'm not positive.

Figure I can get a guitar with a basswood body, get a tight passive pickup, and then it'll give me a great tone through my Recto....

 

[dmcguitar]

If your adventurous.. and dont go crazy you can build a guitar via warmoth (and other places) and test out all the differnt woods. Say get a maple neck, or whatever you like... and like strat / soloist body shape in one of the woods and then hook it all up... and then save up another 200 and get a differnt body wood and port it all over. do that with a few and not only will you learn what wood you like the most, but you'll learn how to set up guitar even better than you do now.

(it is more expensive than buying a 300 guitar though.. its better quality, and you'll know for the one day you got to buy a really expensive guitar what you really really like / need.

 

[MusicManJP6]

Well, my wish came true! I played an Alder body Charvel So-Cal today at a friend's house. My next guitar will be one of these! The tone was absolutely PERFECT. I'm in love!

 

[MetalMatt]

I used to play a mahogany body/maple top ESP with EMG's (89/81) alongside my Recto. It didn't produce a tight enough sound for me. Always had a loose/thick/scooped sound to it and Rectos are already handicapped in this area. So in a pinch I picked up an old Kramer Focus 6000. Alder body with Maple neck. Original Hardware (Floyd Rose) and pickups (JB). It is just a monster! Tight, focused, plays well. Walks all over the more expensive ESP for Metal. I have yet to find a mahogany bodied guitar that sounds great with my amps.

 

[Nitrobattery]

Just wondering what you think the tonal differences between alder and mahogany are. I've got a Jackson made of alder, and I'm wondering if it would be good to get something made of mahogany. I'm actually searching for pickups because I want something tight and heavy and PASSIVE, but without too much bass. So far I'm thinking about a D Activator, Full Shred, or Duncan Distortion. Thoughts?

Thanks

The main thing to keep in mind is that throwing pickups that sound great in an alder bodied guitar into a mahogany bodied guitar will probably sound muddy and loose, and pickups that sound great in a mahogany guitar will probably sound shrill in an alder guitar. I own several guitars (some mahogany/maple, some basswood/maple, some alder/maple) and they all sound VERY different. I have to say though that my 'tightest' guitar is by far and away my Caparison Angelus with a mahogany body/neck and a maple top.

With mahogany you really have to take into account what other woods are used with the guitar. I can't stand all mahogany guitars (too dark for my taste) but throw a thick maple cap on and I'm in heaven. It's like maple. I tend to gravitate towards guitars with maple necks and tops....but I think guitars entirely made out of maple sound like poo. Then again, with darkly voiced pickups they may sound great.

If you want tight with little low end, basswood or alder is definitely the way to go for you. If you want tight and beefy, a mahogany bodied guitar with a maple neck and preferably a maple top would be a great candidate. If you want a super warm tone, all mahogany or mahogany with a maple top would work great.

 

[fatoni]

Well, my wish came true! I played an Alder body Charvel So-Cal today at a friend's house. My next guitar will be one of these! The tone was absolutely PERFECT. I'm in love!

how does it hold up to the jp6?

 

[flieger67]

If you want to see what some professional builders think about woods, try these:

http://www.groshguitars.com/info/tone.htm

http://www.suhrguitars.com/wood.aspx

http://www.andersonguitars.com/toneLibInfo.html

And as Warmoth was mentioned, here's their body wood assessment:

http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Bodies/Options/BodyWoodOptions.aspx

As others have mentioned, the neck wood and even the fingerboard can affect the overall tone, so consider that as you read about the body woods.

 

[MrMason]

I prefer the tone of mahogany over alder, but both sound good. I think the neck construction makes a bigger difference than the type of wood. My preference in neck construction is neck-through, although set neck is great too. Bolt on is good for a certain sound, but I do find myself wanting to play my neck-throughs more.

 

[JOEY B.]

I have two Jackson soloist models, the SL2-MAH (mahogany back and neck with a maple top) and the SL1 (alder body with maple neck). They both have ebony fretboards and neck-thru construction with Floyd Rose tremelo bridge. Both have very similar bridge pickups (JB with an alnico 8 magnet in the SL2 and the SD Alternative 8 in the SL1). From what I can tell, the maple cap on the mahogany body is a bit brighter than the alder. This is very evident when they are played unplugged and a little less when plugged into an amp. YMMV 8)

 

[MusicManJP6]

Well, my wish came true! I played an Alder body Charvel So-Cal today at a friend's house. My next guitar will be one of these! The tone was absolutely PERFECT. I'm in love!

how does it hold up to the jp6?

The JP is inherently more scooped sounding. The SoCal is more lively and open with a slight hollow sound thanks to the pickguard and routing underneath. The pickups both sound great and are very natural like Andy Timmons tone almost. There's a slight strat vibe too since it's pretty much a 'fat strat' design. The neck is even more comfortable than my JP's neck! It blew me away. It's one piece unfinished maple with a compound radius. It feels perfect. It really is a sick guitar!

I can't afford one right now so I took my maple necked strat copy Peavey and replaced the pups with the same pups as the SoCal. It should sound similar (hopefully). My tech back in TN has it right now doing some mods to it for me. Can't wait to get her back!

 

[fatoni]

let me know how that goes. ive got a predator that just sits cause it had some ugly pickguard and junk pups so im lookin for something to do with it

 

[stadidas]

So far I'm thinking about a D Activator, Full Shred, or Duncan Distortion. Thoughts?

The D Activators sound like ****. If you want the active sound get actives. If not get passives. The D Activators are the worst of both worlds. Horrible.