Just in case there aren’t enough Striped guitars in the world…

[harddriver]

Not arguing at all here - observation only. I owned a beautiful mahogany partscaster body and no matter what pickup was in it, it sounded really tubby and undefined down low. Maybe that’s why LPs have that full carved maple top?? My ears tell me the same thing with basswood. I do have an EVH stripe partscaster that sounds pretty darned good, but I think it’s that thick, hard, glossy lacquer finish that helps. FWIW the mahogany partscaster i mentioned above just had an oil finish. Maybe several coats of clear penetrating into the outer grain of the mahogany would have tightened it up?

The only Basswood bodies that I have liked is the EBMM Axis basswood with the thick Maple caps to give the guitar tone some snap. I picked up a 5150 Kramer style all basswood bodied guitar and no matter what pickup in threw in that thing it was just dead, hardly any resonance to it. That soured me on basswood as a tone wood. Now I have heard the poplar that Kramer used in the early 80's was supposed to be similar to basswood but I don't really hear the same tonal qualities. My 83 Kramer Pacers Imperials which are both poplar have a snap similar to alder/ash but a little warmer IMHO which offset the brittleness of the Floyd Rose nicely IMHO. I have owned a vintage Kramer all Maple bodied Pacer and I did not like it as much as the poplar to be honest, tone was ok but it was a heavy mother. I also feel this plays into Les Pauls as well without the maple caps.

I had a Sand Dimas Charvel Alder bodied guitar and even with the 1000 Floyd it was an extremely resonant guitar which surprised me and I liked it but I traded it for an amp that I wanted. I had also traded for an EVH striped series Red/white /black striped which was basswood and it reminded me of the other all basswood guitar that I didn't like, it didn't suck but to me it wasn't a good player, I gave it to a friend as a wall hanger gift, that's how much of a non-player I felt it was as a guitar. Everyone has their preferences and without a thick maple cap basswood is a no go for me...YMMV.

My Franky is Northern Ash and my Jake E Lee Whitey is Maple bodied, the brightness of the maple is offset by Charvel Brass Hardtail and it'sa fairly resonant Warmoth body. My musikraft Northern ash is quite resonant.

 

[Kyrpajyra]

Yeah in certain situations maple can be a bit over kill, but if you're looking for that pissed off superstrat sound it sure work wonders.

I personally prefer alder as it is just right to me in every aspect.

Also asian basswood feels and sounds vastly different to its american counterpart.

 

[Fiesta Red]

I can understand cost and availability of an endless run in northern ash, but alder can’t be that much more expensive and ‘generally’ speaking has better and more consistent tonal qualities. I’d also think those small diameter trem screws would live a longer life in alder than balsa - I mean basswood.

Overall, I’m a bit surprised there’s a market for this considering how many exceptionally well built replicas are already in circulation using legit hard ash and AAA Birdseye necks.

My understanding was the EVH was a basswood fan as time went along, but for this guitar northern ash would be more correct. I'm sure they will sell thousands, however. I had a Japanese basswood Model 3 Charvel I bought new when they moved production overseas. I hated sound. I have 2 guitars now that are basswood and they sound great. The Suhr with the maple top is the better sounding of the two. It must be the top.

 

[Fiesta Red]

I had also traded for an EVH striped series Red/white /black striped which was basswood and it reminded me of the other all basswood guitar that I didn't like, it didn't suck but to me it wasn't a good player, I gave it to a friend as a wall hanger gift, that's how much of a non-player I felt it was as a guitar. Everyone has their preferences and without a thick maple cap basswood is a no go for me...YMMV.

The EVH Striped Series notoriously suffer from a shallow neck pocket. It makes setting them up correctly with a decked Floyd a bitch, especially with the D-tuna. I've had a few, and kept the one that set up and played the best. Interestingly enough it had the fattest neck out of all of them. The necks are supposed to be all the same specs, but if you check around online you'll find the ones that are actually measured are all over the place.

 

[harddriver]

It's been debated for a long time on whether or not Ed's 5150 Kramer was Poplar or Basswood. I read somewhere one of Ed's tech stated the 5150 was indeed poplar and judging from my experiences I would tend to agree that it was poplar but I am sure some believe it was basswood.

I'm not saying that a basswood bodied guitar can't sound great or resonate like the best of them but I have not come across one yet that resonates and snaps like a maple capped basswood. Both basswood and poplar are softer woods but IMHO the poplar has better tonewood qualities at least the guitars that I have played over the years, both of my Kramers had to have the tremelo post reset in harder wood after about 30 years of trem abuse.

On one guitar my luthier used hard rock maple the other he actually used a hard rosewood to reset the posts, he routed out the poplar and insert an entire rectangular block of wood the width of the trem, he did a great job on them both, thankfully as they are my #1 and #2 fiddles. Hopefully I'll never have to do it again.