Alder vs Swamp Ash vs Mahogany - Telecaster Guitar Body Wood Tone Test

Voxman

I've always been curious as to the difference in tone between ash, alder & mahogany bodies on a Telecaster, but I've never heard a proper test before that keeps everything exactly the same apart from the body wood - until now!  Very impressed by the effort taken to make this video and really interesting & educational to hear the tonal differences. 

Based on what I hear, I think I preferred the ash and alder - on clean tones I think the ash sounded slightly sweeter but on distortion tones I preferred the slightly tighter alder tone. The mahogany was nice too, fuller but a fair bit darker - I could see this being preferred by folk who want a heavier tone but for me I think for classic rock and blues, country, jazz etc I prefer the alder or ash. Your tastes might differ - see what you think.

My only Telecaster is alder, but once the Vintera prices drop a bit and/or some good second-hand ones come available, I'm after an ash bodied 70's thinline with the two humbuckers.  

Bork

Mahogany doesn't make any sense and he forgot to include pine.

mrkb

I’ve got a mahogany bodied Fender telecaster, and it makes sense.

stimpsonslostson

I made a walnut one, it's great. 

stickyfiddle

I thought the amp tones he was using made them all sound awful, tbh. Differences between each wood were pretty much as I'd expect though. Mahogany more mellow, ash more attacky

crunchman

I'll listen to it later as I'm supposed to be working at the moment.  The danger with this kind of thing is that you can get significant variation between 2 pieces of wood of the same species.

The body wood definitely makes a significant difference to the sound, and different species do have certain characteristics, but ideally you would want a larger sample size.  If you could go to Fender's factory, and take 50 of each off of the production line, then you would have decent sample size.

Ultimately, the best thing to do is try a guitar and see if it sounds good.

Dominic

I couldn't tell the difference between any of them

Kittyfrisk

mrkb said:

I’ve got a mahogany bodied Fender telecaster, and it makes sense.

+1  

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

stickyfiddle said:

I thought the amp tones he was using made them all sound awful, tbh. Differences between each wood were pretty much as I'd expect though. Mahogany more mellow, ash more attacky

Didn't mind the clean tones so much, but the drive/crunchy tones were horrible to my ears!

Differences between them were subtle but noticeable. Chances of actually noticing the difference in a full band live or recorded context is probably zero though. 

ravirajani

crunchman said:

I'll listen to it later as I'm supposed to be working at the moment.  The danger with this kind of thing is that you can get significant variation between 2 pieces of wood of the same species.

Ultimately, the best thing to do is try a guitar and see if it sounds good.

I agree. Every piece of wood - even of the same species - sounds different. I've found this to be particularly true for the neck wood: different pieces of maple all flat sawn. That's why I believe you always have to try a guitar before buying it. I've never liked any of the guitars I bought without trying (although you can of course get lucky, I just haven't). 

crunchman

ravirajani said:

crunchman said:

I'll listen to it later as I'm supposed to be working at the moment.  The danger with this kind of thing is that you can get significant variation between 2 pieces of wood of the same species.

Ultimately, the best thing to do is try a guitar and see if it sounds good.

I agree. Every piece of wood - even of the same species - sounds different. I've found this to be particularly true for the neck wood: different pieces of maple all flat sawn. That's why I believe you always have to try a guitar before buying it. I've never liked any of the guitars I bought without trying (although you can of course get lucky, I just haven't). 

I've got lucky on a couple I bought without trying, but most of them have been sold on.  I've ended up selling some that I've tried first, but I'm two or three times as likely to keep one I've tried first.