Your favorite body wood for a strat?

[Slobrain]

hey folks,

I wanted to get an idea of everyones favorite tone wood for a strat? Mine is basswood as it seems to have a really warm sound without the brightness I have heard from so many stock Fender strats. Alder is ok and ash too bright but others have used different wood like mahogany. whats your fav?

SLO

[daz]

if you had asked a couple years ago all the way back to the mid 80's i would have agreed with you. I always felt basswood worked great at gigs because at stage volumes it sort of rounded off the harshness in the top. And thats what i've been using for years till recent years. But alder to me has a more stratty sound and in the last few years i have come to prefer it. But the thing is, you gotta have a great amp that can handle the top end w/o getting thin or harsh. At least thats how i feel. In the past i just loved basswood because I didn't have to spend as much time trying to get a good usable top end tone onstage. On the other hand i feel alder can be more balanced and tonefull with a good alder strat and a great amp.

On a side note, i think basswood also lends itself more to heavy stuff while alder lends itself much more to classic rock and blues because it's dynamics are better to me. probably why most ibanez metal guitars are basswood. I have both by the way and i'd never want to be w/o either. But the alder is my main go to strat.

[Chuck H]

Basswood is an excellent choice for a rock 'n' roll strat. Big woody tone and lots of resonance without the biting top end. So much resonance with a strat sized body that with moderate gain and midrange settings you can get good sustain. High gain can give you howling leads. But... Alder is a better all around tone. For pretty cleans, reedy blues tones and gritty hard rock I'll vote for alder. And FWIW if you have the chance to spec your body, A light weight alder body will do all the above and outperform basswood even at it's own game. I've only built a couple of strats but I was fortunate to try a couple of unfinished bodies acoustically before I chose one. That was my second strat. And the one I use. FWIW Mike Lull uses the light weight alder. Good stuff but you will pay a premium for it.

Chuck

[Robert M. Martinelli]

It depends on what you're after, if you dig the sound of a good old vintage strat then alder is probably is your best choice; FWIW I own several strats, and I've built a basswood-body one too, this last one was intended to be a more versatile workhorse ( two SD little '59 in the neck and bridge position, Fender stock in the middle position and automatic coil splitting in positions 2 and 4 ). I also have an ash bodied strat, but, when it comes to "that vintage vibe" the alder one always has an edge.

I remember building a rosewood strat for a friend of mine, the sound was unbelievable, and so were attack and sustain, but the weight was unbelievable too, some 15 pounds.....so we ended up selling it to the unbelievable Hulk...

Hope this helps

Best regards

Bob

[jack briggs]

Basswood has it's perks. Plenty of mids is one of them. The weight is another. It's softness isn't one of them. Dents really easily.

I built a rosewood Strat from parts back in the '70's. Exactly as voxrules! states. Very piano-like bass notes with tremendous sustain, but weighed more than my Norlin-era LP!! Not user-friendly at all.

My current favorite Strat wood would be lightweight alder. The best of all worlds and the most "Stratty" sounding. Swamp ash ain't bad, either.



Cheers,

[Chuck H]

I have a swamp ash Warmoth "strat". It sounds like wood. In a good way. I use it alot because it's very well balanced in both weight and tonal character. Kind of a working mans guitar.

Chuck