It is a very light and fairly soft wood, and it’s light in color, too, with minimal grain. That said, Id much rather have a good poplar body of few pieces, than an alder body made up of mega pieces and veneers. That's exactly what I believe too. Ya 50 Esquires were made from Pine. If you want to make a classic strat with three single coils and clean tone is important for you go with alder. You will receive a verification email shortly. American Tulipwood (Poplar), Wenge, Phoenix, Paulownia, and Agathis are other woods often used in guitar bodies, each with its own specific tonal qualities. For instance, the body and neck both contribute to the sound, and luthiers achieve certain tonal goals by carefully matching body and neck woods. Add a rosewood fretboard, and a maple neck’s tonal character becomes a little warmer and sweeter, with more sparkle in the highs and thicker lows (tending towards looser). The difference in price is pretty big poplar vs. pine (the pine being close to 1/2 the price, with the added benefit of coming pre-primed). Maple is often used as an ingredient in a multi-wood body, where it is generally partnered with a second, lighter wood. ft. 5-1/4-in. Walnut’s rich brown color and often pleasing grain patterns means it looks good under a simple coat of translucent lacquer. A popular upmarket pairing, the ebony fretboard contributes to a little more tightness, clarity, and definition, as compared to the mahogany/rosewood neck. In simple terms, rosewood’s contribution to a maple neck smooths and “furs up” the solid-maple sound. Rosewood makes for a very heavy and overly bright-sounding guitar—and an expensive one, too—that is typically more of interest for looks and novelty factor than for tone. '.webs.com' : 'none'; --> Before I go any further let's take a look at pine and see how "soft" it is. I'm going to pick up wood from Home Depot today to build my new telecaster guitar. Although well-balanced sonically, poplar bodies aren’t particularly resonant or sustaining, and they generally don’t seem to enhance any particular frequency range or overtones. Whether in the form of a solid, one-piece neck with integral fretboard, or a neck with an added fretboard of a second type of wood (usually rosewood), maple is easily the most common type of neck wood used in solidbody guitars. The actual Janka hardness rating is 410. It is now surfacing more and more as a body wood used in affordable, Asian-made electrics, and it displays a rather bland, characterless quality. It’s a fairly light hardwood with a fine grain that’s usually enhanced in the finishing process to appear as an attractive array of long, thin streaks. Although pine is sturdy and heavy, it’s not as heavy as oak. Nato is a term for several species of Asian hardwood that often used as a substitute for Mahogany in less expensive imported guitars. Multiple woods vs… Poplar generally will come in various shades: white, a darker yellow or almost grey tone, and then something much more green. It is now surfacing more and more as a body wood used in affordable, Asian-made electrics, and it displays a rather bland, characterless quality. Woods such as purple heart, wenge, koa, bubinga, and muira piranga are used by custom guitar-makers, but don’t feature highly in mass-production guitars. So, Im looking at buying a cheap strat copy then modding it with new pickups, new electrics, tuners etc and i was wondering which wood is better. IronSchef, Aug 12, 2019 #3. One of my all-time favorite strats was a poplar-bodied Wayne's World model. Like alder, poplar is a type of wood that’s commonly used to manufacture many things. A one-piece, solid maple neck contributes tightness and cut to a guitar, with an edge of sizzle in the highs, and firm lows. A “hardwood” by definition, poplar is actually relatively soft when compared with a range of hardwoods. Several owners returned them with big chunks chipped out of the wood so Leo went to Ash which was more durable. White limba—as used by Gibson and Hamer—has a light appearance in its natural state, and black limba has a more pronounced grain. So the sonic variables exist not only between woods, but, in subtler degrees, between different guitars made from the “same” wood—which is part of the magic in searching for your dream guitar amid ten of the same model hanging on the guitar store wall. Wood is another thing I don't get too worked up over - I have guitars w/ Alder, Ash, Poplar, Agathis, Pine, Mahogony, Maple, Basswood ... they all do the job just fine (although Ash is the nicest for showing the grain, IMHO) IronSchef, Aug 12, 2019. It offers excellent clarity and definition, but has more complex highs than maple, with chunky lows, muscular lower-mids, and an airy, open midrange. colonial casing: $1.20 to $2.30 3-5/8-in. 's://ssl':'://www')+'.google-analytics.com'+'/siteopt.js?v=1&utmxkey='+k+'&utmx='+(x?x:'')+'&utmxx='+(xx?xx:'')+'&utmxtime='+new Date().valueOf()+(h? It's got H-S-H, but the H's, i.e. New York, When it comes to tonewoods used in the construction of guitars, there are many points that need to be considered. Used on its own, mahogany’s characteristic tone is warm and somewhat soft, but well balanced with good grind and bite. '&utmxhash='+escape(h.substr(1)):'')+'" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">')})(); Due to its softness, you’ll either have to go through a long pre-stain process or … Poplar tonewoods are understated and minimalistic in appearance. Please note that in this “All About” we’re talking about tonewoods in solidbody and semi-acoustic electrics. base: 95¢ to $2.20 3-1/2-in. Alder, Soft Maple and Cherry are unacceptably soft as well. Poplar and alder are very similar tonally. pine is also a little more prone to warping then most hard woods however I solve this problem with my 4 piece construction method. Pine is a softwood however poplar is a soft hardwood. NY 10036. You can ruin it with your fingernail. The Effects of Different Stains on Poplar Wood: A few weeks ago I wanted to see the effects of different stains on White Pine, well this time I used common Poplar that you can buy at Lowes or Home Depot. Its weight generally runs about one half pound more than Alder. All-maple bodies aren’t unheard of—although the weight is usually off-putting—and, on its own, a maple body produces an extremely bright, precise tone with tight lows. The species is known generically as limba—an African wood related to mahogany, but imported under the trade name Korina. It’s made from resin-infused paper – yes, paper! There is usually good depth to the sound, with full but not especially tight lows, and appealing if unpronounced highs. to be 540, so Bass. Leo only used Pine for 1 reason it was cheaper than Ash. The relative disadvantages of poplar are that it is not well suited to use with transparent colours, and that on average a guitar body will weigh about 1/2 lb more. Well as we can see by the chart that "Hard Wood" is just a relative term as the numbers very quite a bit, and according to the numbers when compared to Mahogany both Poplar and Bass wood are way to soft to build a guitar body from and forget about Paulownia that stuff is a Bad joke some one played on guitar … It also yields great clarity, definition, and sustain. Best known as the wood of classic ’50s Fender guitars, ash is most desirable in the form of swamp ash—wood taken from the lower portions of southern-grown wetland trees that have root systems growing below water level. OK maybe those numbers are a little high but you get the point. Harvested in Africa and Central America, mahogany is a fairly dense, medium-to-heavy wood that yields a wide range of guitar-body weights, depending upon stock sources. Basswood: the principal wood used on many Japanese made instruments. Poplar is the most expensive sauna wood to buy of all the woods that saunas are made from. Alongside maple, mahogany is a classic ingredient in both slab and multi-wood (or laminated) bodies, and is a common neck wood, too. I imagine Leo used pine simply because it was cheap, common and lightweight. Wood Density Chart in (103 kg/m3) / (lb/ft3) We would require to evaluate the hardness of wood, as wood is used in various uses such as furnitures and other industrial uses. Then poplar is better painted. , Leo was a business man and used whatever he had on hand, nothing went to waste. A “hardwood” by definition, poplar is actually relatively soft when compared with a range of hardwoods. I have played two (different) guitars with a poplar body and there were great with drive. Note also that a player’s choice of an all-maple or maple/rosewood neck might come down to feel (or even appearance) as much as sound. We use poplar for one important reason: it is and always has been the wood of choice for health clinics world-wide. (function(){var k='2264601223',d=document,l=d.location,c=d.cookie;function f(n){if(c){var i=c.indexOf(n+'=');if(i>-1){var j=c.indexOf(';',i);return escape(c.substring(i+n.length+1,j<0?c.length:j))}}}var x=f('__utmx'),xx=f('__utmxx'),h=l.hash; It's not as common as pine so more expensive than pine in the wood store. Like ash, alder is most often used on its own as a body wood. On a scale of 1 to 10, it doesn't even register. But, Poplar's the harder of the two. Get the latest news, reviews and product advice straight to your inbox. _udn = "none"; Usually Nato wood is used for the neck in acoustic guitars. There was a decent amount of that stuff back in the day - we made some pine guitars and have even used it recently. Poplar is another standard body wood having been used by many companies over the years. It’s also used in single-wood bodies. You can dent it with a stern look. As with ash, it’s impossible to discuss alder without making reference to Fender, which first used alder prominently in the late ’50s and early ’60s. Pine is quite strong, glues well and holds screws well , the only real problem with pine is it dose not take stain or dye well and it can look blotchy if the wood is not prepared properly. Due to the grey/green color, this wood is used mostly when solid color finishes are to be applied. dave Either way I think you'll take home a winner. Spruce and cedar—the two most common woods for the tops of acoustic guitars—will very rarely come into the picture regarding electric-guitar construction, although makers have occasionally offered semi-hollow electrics with thin spruce tops. It’s a medium-weight wood, although quality cuts of alder used for guitar bodies will often weigh less than denser cuts of ash. US Poplar is a bit heavier than Northern pine, and harder. the Burstbucker 1 & 2 humboogies, don't sound nearly as good in that poplar guitar as they do in a mahogany guitar. Mids tend to have a snappy attack, with a punchy, slightly gnarly edge when the strings are hit hard, but excellent clarity with light to medium picking. Re: Poplar vs Basswood 03-19-2008, 02:21 PM Hi Paul; the Janka scale which is a relative measure of a wood's hardness shows Bass. It is a light to medium weight hardwood, which means that it blends durability with mobility. A very dense, hard wood, ebony makes for a fast attack from the instrument—all else being equal—and it offers a muscular, controlled bass, and snappy, sizzling highs. Re: Body wood: Poplar vs. Alder Not too many years ago I called and spoke to one of the Fender guys about the alder vs poplar issue....I was told that Fender went back to alder on the MIMs because poplar was costlier at that time over the alder...I don't own a poplar body and so can't opinion on alder vs poplar.My strats/Teles are either alder,ash,or basswood(MIJ) model.. Also, the mids tend to have a little more openness. The mahogany/rosewood pairing contributes to complex highs, thick and creamy lows, and an appealing midrange that isn’t honky or excessively punchy. Summary: Poplar vs. Oak So there you have it: poplar may be a decently tough wood, but it can have ugly greenish or yellowish streaks, and unless you pre-condition it, it won’t take stain well. There is really not much difference in the strength between pine and poplar. Summary: synthetic, durable material with a balanced tone and consistent feel that doesn’t wear out. Poplar. This is the most popular laminated body type of all time. There was a problem. Bear in mind that woods of the same species cut from different trees (or grown in different regions) will sound slightly different, and have different weights, different densities, and so on. As for Fender switching over to using alder instead of poplar etc. d.write(' 0) ? These are mostly hard, dense woods with distinctive grain patterns. Most importantly, the tonewoods we offer include many species that are tonally superior to the standard guitar wood species utilized in decades past. the Rio Grande tallboy pickups produced the perfect 'grind' to the guitar as well. Unfortunately, the whiter the wood, the softer it usually is–and the softer it is, the more blotchy the stain will look. You can find poplar in many furniture projects, toys, and wood turnings because it is inexpensive, fairly easy to work, and takes nails, screws, and glue well.It works best with paint as a finish, but it can be successfully used to simulate finer woods, provided the proper steps are taken in the finishing process. I already know what your thinking that I've lost my mind, half of the guitars that where made in the 80's where made from Bass Wood and about 75% of all guitars ever made are made from alder. Alder has a strong, clear, full-bodied sound, with beefy mids and excellent lows. Ash from the upper portions of the tree has also been used, as has harder northern ash. Visit our corporate site. colonial crown: $1.40 to $1.75. It offers firm lows, pleasant highs, a slightly scooped midrange, and good sustain. I hope this helps somebody before the… Most often, finger-jointed pine is used for door jambs and for door and window casing. Back in my SRV-wanna-be days! On the wood hardness scale, the only thing squishier is Balsa. They're both pretty squishy, as hardwoods go. It’s much lighter than pine, so furniture made from poplar will be easier to move around if you decide to rearrange your home. Longleaf Pine is more than twice as hard as Bass wood and almost as hard as soft maple. It tends to be warm and full, but usually with a firmer low end, and more overall tightness. Affordable and abundant, basswood is particularly associated with mid-level or budget guitars. I have a Gibson Nighthawk with a maple cap and poplar body. But basswood is a good tonewood by any standards, and it has been used by many high-end makers with excellent results. is somewhat softer.

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