Alder vs Swamp Ash, Maple vs Rosewood and a Neck Swap AUDIO

[Pete Lacis]

A while back I wrote a post concerning the differences between alder and swamp ash when used in a strat-style guitar and what tones/genres of music those combinations suited best. I originally wrote that post to satisfy my own curiosity, but also to share with others and participate in discussion. Three years later it is still the most searched topic on my blog http://www.petelacis.com and continues to bring in a steady stream of traffic. Apparently I'm not the only one curious about these things....

Since I wrote the original post, I realized that I was missing a big chunk of the puzzle: how the wood the neck and fingerboard were made from influence the tone of the instrument. I realized the only way to truly see this was by comparing the two most popular neck wood combinations for a strat-style guitar (maple neck with rosewood fingerboard and one piece maple neck & fingerboard) on the same guitar.

To conduct this comparison I used two Suhr Classic guitars with identical electronics (V60LP pickups and the Silent Single Coil system). One was alder with a one piece maple neck and the other, swamp ash with a maple neck and Brazilian rosewood fingerboard. I recorded both clean and dirty passages utilizing every pickup combination on each guitar, then swapped the necks and repeated the process.

note: swapping necks on a Suhr guitar will void your warranty if the factory doesn't perform the work.

What follows below are the audio clips organized by pickup position so that you can really compare the sounds of the different wood combinations. Enjoy.

http://www.petelacis.com/2010/07/08...p-the-definitive-comparison-with-audio-clips/

 

[sebby123]

Thanks for this! I was suprised at how much warmer the alder+maple was to everything else

 

[Pete Lacis]

Thanks for this! I was suprised at how much warmer the alder+maple was to everything else

Its wild how even though that's a warmer sound, it will cut through the mix better because of its upper mids focus. Maple is definitely not the bright wood that I would have expected. If anything, the Brazilian rosewood adds a little more high end bite and note bloom.

 

[sebby123]

Thanks for this! I was suprised at how much warmer the alder+maple was to everything else

Its wild how even though that's a warmer sound, it will cut through the mix better because of its upper mids focus. Maple is definitely not the bright wood that I would have expected. If anything, the Brazilian rosewood adds a little more high end bite and note bloom.

Yea, It added a crisp quality to the notes, I was not a fan of the ash rosewood combo which i thought i would love.

 

[Pete Lacis]

Thanks for this! I was suprised at how much warmer the alder+maple was to everything else

Its wild how even though that's a warmer sound, it will cut through the mix better because of its upper mids focus. Maple is definitely not the bright wood that I would have expected. If anything, the Brazilian rosewood adds a little more high end bite and note bloom.

Yea, It added a crisp quality to the notes, I was not a fan of the ash rosewood combo which i thought i would love.

It works in certain situations, but you need to roll back the highs (on bot the guitar and amp) to get the goods. Its like that combo is super punch and has nice grit, but can put out a little too much treble information which can come across as harsh. When I use that guitar normally (not during this test) I would turn off the bright switch on the amp and roll the tone control down to at least 7 for the bridge.

 

[sebby123]

Thanks for this! I was suprised at how much warmer the alder+maple was to everything else

Its wild how even though that's a warmer sound, it will cut through the mix better because of its upper mids focus. Maple is definitely not the bright wood that I would have expected. If anything, the Brazilian rosewood adds a little more high end bite and note bloom.

Yea, It added a crisp quality to the notes, I was not a fan of the ash rosewood combo which i thought i would love.

It works in certain situations, but you need to roll back the highs (on bot the guitar and amp) to get the goods. Its like that combo is super punch and has nice grit, but can put out a little too much treble information which can come across as harsh. When I use that guitar normally (not during this test) I would turn off the bright switch on the amp and roll the tone control down to at least 7 for the bridge.

I do that on most amps regardless i like a dark EJ/JB tone