Alder

[DingusMaximus]

I have one alder body guitar (my jackson ps-2 with the nut that cant be aligned properly WHY IS EVERYTHING DIFFERENT), and so does my flatmate (a dkmg I think), and those are the only such bodied guitars I've ever played, and they both sound the absolute best. Is that a coincidence or is alder just really really good? Keen to get some opinions on this one

[lespauled]

It's a personal choice. My preference is Maple, and I absolutely hate Alder.

[Budda]

I like alder in my F style guitars.

[Mike]

I own several alder guitars. It just works.

[playstopause]

Absolutely love alder. I've owned many alder bodied guitars and currently, my Charvel DK24 sounds sooo good.

[DingusMaximus]

It's a personal choice. My preference is Maple, and I absolutely hate Alder.

Reason for the disinclination? And I've never seen a maple guitar, ever

[Lozek]

I've got two Alder, one Maple and one Northern White Ash. I tend to use the Alder in lower tunings because it's snappier and keep the Ash in standard because it sounds huge, the maple can be quite thin sounding dependant on pickup choice.

That's another thing I've found, Ash sounds how it sounds and doesn't respond well to pickup changes, Alder responds more and Maple is very changeable.

[playstopause]

It's a personal choice. My preference is Maple, and I absolutely hate Alder.

Very few choices for you out there, no?

[Markus]

I’ve had two alder guitars, a Tokai strat copy which sounded like a good strat and an ESP Horizon, which sounded pretty good for metal but totally dead for everything else (it sort of only had a very focused midrange but no lows or highs that you need for a good clean tone). The ESP was a maple neckthrough though, if that had anything to do with it.

[Drew]

My Strat - THE Strat - is Alder, so naturally I love it. It's the only alder guitar I own, though, oddly - my Suhr 7 is swamp ash (which also sounds great) and my other strat is ash, as well.

[RevDrucifer]

My JEM is alder and after playing 100’s of basswood RG’s over the years, I actually prefer basswood. Just feels like they resonate more, maybe it’s a density thing. From my experience with the stuff I own/owned; alder, swamp ash, mahogany, basswood, poplar, mahogany and swamp ash have been my favorites. It could 100% be a psychological thing with no effect on the actual tone, but I just feel like those woods resonate and breath more. At the very least, I can feel it in my gut more when I play.

[lespauled]

Reason for the disinclination? And I've never seen a maple guitar, ever

For the record, I am talking about super strats, not regular strats. Single coil pickups sound pretty good in Alder body guitars.

A few years ago, I never thought about body woods. I had my favorites, and I had guitars that I just didn't like the sound of. I had one guitar that I loved the feel of, but no matter what pickup I put in, I just didn't like the sound.

One day I went to Music Zoo to play the new Kramer SM-1. I began playing it acoustically, and absolutely loved it. I eventually plugged it in, and I hated it. The salesman told me that I was definitely not the first person to tell him that exact thing. I started wondering why I hated the sound.

I looked up the specs of the guitar, and nothing popped out as a main cause right away. The only thing was that it had an alder body. I then looked up the wood of all my guitars. It turned out that my favorite guitars were Maple, and the ones that I liked the least (or even disliked) all had Alder bodies.

There are plenty of Maple body guitars. I have 2 Maple Barettas, and 2 Maple ESPs.

As of today, I have zero Alder body guitars.

[playstopause]

^

What ESP models? The only ones I can think of are the Lynch ones.

[Darren]

My 442R is alder, and to me, alder body, maple neck and fretboard, humbucker at the bridge, nails the sound of ’80s metal. It’s crisp, punchy, and “hairy,” for lack of a better term.

[DingusMaximus]

Although I only have those 2 to test, I got my performer going again (goodness me, the screw holes for the nut are offset, and the trem cavity is short, what a pain in the ass) I reckon I can hear some common traits and I can see both sides here.
For articulation I think they absolutely rule, but they are a bit "fizzy" in some ways and some might say weak. It's something I'd recommend to have 100% but not as ones only option.

but looking on reverb lately, I've been priced out of the guitar market anyway used ESPs are literally going for over their brand new price, I cant believe it