Ash or Alder for Tele Body

[Cactus Jack]

Any opinions on which Tele body wood [Ash or Alder] is the best choice for classic Tele crunch through a Tweed Deluxe
[Clark Beaufort].

By Crunch I mean a nice crispy breakup that has that scratchy yet silky overdrive tone.

I know the 52 reissue is Ash and I have seen some with one piece body's.

Does it make a big difference in tone?

Would Alder give similar tones?

I would like to get a high end Tele one of these days,
I'm mainly a Les Paul / Strat player who recently bought a cheap Tele copy and put a Fender neck on it and I cannot put it down!

So,It looks like a Good American Tele is in my future.

[Don]

There are so many factors that contribute to a guitar's tone that you can't narrow it down to one thing. Any good Tele through a good tweed Deluxe is incredible!

Having said that, you can't go wrong with ash for a Tele. It's the "correct" wood for a traditional Tele. It looks great and probably contributes something to the sound!

[stratcat62]

+1 Couldn't have said it better.

[Gris]

+2 ... what Don said

[Cactus Jack]

I wonder why Leo didn't use traditional tone woods?
Maybe just to be different?
Either way, he was a genius.

[Kap'n]

I wonder why Leo didn't use traditional tone woods?
Maybe just to be different?
Either way, he was a genius.

At the time there was no "traditional tone wood" for solidbody electrics. Hollowbody guitars were made of maple, birch, rosewood and mahogany for the backs and sides, and spruce for the tops. Of those, only mahogany was suitable for guitar bodies, and probably fairly expensive for him. He might also not have had a good source for it at the time.

Leo's solidbody electrics grew out of his lap steels, which were made of various hardwoods. I suspect his choice of ash and then alder was directed related to his ability to get boards of appropriate size and ease of finishing.

[curtisstetka]

Ash can be kind of heavy. I had a really nice American ash Tele for a while but had to part ways with it because it just wrecked my back.

[Kap'n]

Ash can be kind of heavy. I had a really nice American ash Tele for a while but had to part ways with it because it just wrecked my back.

It can be. Southern swamp ash can be light, and Northern "baseball bat" ash can vary.

My (probably northern) ash strat is somewhere in the 8.5 pound range. I don't think it feels particularly heavy. My ash Baja tele is probably around 8 lbs. I've heard of some ash guitars in the 10 +plus LP range, mostly from the late 70's.

[Don]

My swamp ash USACG T-Style weighs about 6-1/2 pounds!

[stratcat62]

My 53RI ash bodied tele is just over 7lbs, the ash bodied Am. Deluxe is right on 7lbs. My Les Paul double cut is just under 7lbs with a mahogney body, it is chambered of course.

[clayville]

Depends.... maple or rosewood fingerboard?

[Gravity Jim]

Ash is purtier.

[NeoFauve]

At the time there was no "traditional tone wood" for solidbody electrics. Hollowbody guitars were made of maple, birch, rosewood and mahogany for the backs and sides, and spruce for the tops. Of those, only mahogany was suitable for guitar bodies, and probably fairly expensive for him. He might also not have had a good source for it at the time.

Leo's solidbody electrics grew out of his lap steels, which were made of various hardwoods. I suspect his choice of ash and then alder was directed related to his ability to get boards of appropriate size and ease of finishing.

This can't be true!

Surely, Leo was just busying himself with lap steels, biding his time, while the tonally calibrated ash forest, which, I like to believe, he planted himself, grew to the proper maturity and log size to build Teles with.

Right?

[Kap'n]

This can't be true!

Surely, Leo was just busying himself with lap steels, biding his time, while the tonally calibrated ash forest, which, I like to believe, he planted himself, grew to the proper maturity and log size to build Teles with.

Right?

Unfortunately, they were more popular than he hand anticipating, turning over forest stewardship to Don Randall, who literally ran it into the ground, while trying to shift as many units as possible. It was only the passing of super salesman Charlie Hayes that allowed the great tone ash forest to persist into 1956.

Once the magic tone ash grove had given up it's last timber, and the switch to alder was made, Fender Electric Instruments faded into obscurity.

[Cygnus X1]

What about pine?

[Kap'n]

Pine was only used while Leo was waiting for the ash to reach maturity. Sell no wine before it's time, and all that.

[NeoFauve]

Pine was only used while Leo was waiting for the ash to reach maturity. Sell no wine before it's time, and all that.

Who's idea was it to make the ridiculously great MIJ Tele I had out of basswood, or so I was told?

Actually, there were 2, a 50's and a 62 Custom.
The 50's Tele was really something.

[Kap'n]

I had a red sparkle '62 custom that I played a lot, but sold it off. A guy I know has a sunburst version that I played recently. I couldn't get along with the small neck on that thing at all. Tastes change, I guess.

[Don]

When I first finished my swamp ash, blackguard style USACG T-Style, I had a '95 American Standard Tele that I had bought new. It had a poplar (I believe) body with a laminated top and back, rosewood fretboard, brass bridge plate with 6 stainless saddles and stock pickups (w/o a steel plate on the bridge pickup).

I loved both of them! They sounded completely different. The USACG T-Style was brighter, yet fatter and more articulate while the Am. Std. was smoother and mellower. You could hide behind the AM. Std., there's no hiding behind the USAGC T-Style.

Pretty much all of the specs of both of these guitars suggested these results.

[NeoFauve]

Yeah, the '62 neck was slimmer. To me, it felt like a slightly chubbier version of what they call a "Modern C" now.

The soft V on the 50's Tele, was just about perfect.

[Cogs]

You need to use ash. If you don't, well then you just don't care & you might as well make it out of drywall.

[NeoFauve]

And you don't want to gypsum yourself.

[toxpert]

What about pine?

I was reading numerous threads about the Classic Vibe 50s Tele with pine body....

I stopped by 'big box' store yesterday and was blown away by the tone and build of the one they had on display. Prior to trying this guitar, I might have dismissed pine. I learned my lesson yesterday.

That guitar followed me home. The build quality is remarkable. Neck is quarter sawn piece of beautiful maple... rock solid, straight, fret and nut work is impeccable. Neck pocket is tight. Body build is very nice. Tuners work well. Acoustically, this guitar is loud and resonant, no dead spots. Pickups are pretty good..but I swapped out a set of Gatton Joe Barden pickups and new electronics.

Overall, this thing is incredible and for $300 ... I'm blown away. I thought my Eric Johnson Strat was really nice...this thing blows that away. I bought this for playing out ... and I have not put it down or picked up my other guitars since.

Aside...the build quality of this was better IMHO than the Fender reissues, american standards, the MIMs, etc. When I read that build quality was equal to/better than USA .. I was doubtful until I saw it.

I am curious what pine species they use for this ??

[rudutch]

besides you will get board with it rather quickly

[Kap'n]

I am curious what pine species they use for this ??

Seriously, though. Lots of folks dig pine teles. They're just a bit more fragile than ash or alder.

[melody]

A fine pice of ash is hard to find nowadays with the boring ash beetle...

[NeoFauve]

besides you will get board with it rather quickly

Makes it that much more tempting to get plastered before you play.

[NeoFauve]

A fine pice of ash is hard to find nowadays with the boring ash beetle...

Didn't George Martin refer to Pete Best as "the boring ash beetle?"
So he was replaced by Ringo.

[frpax]

Both Ash & Alder have different tonal qualities. Not to mention that each individual piece of wood will have it's own tonal quality...

Myself, I prefer Ash over Alder. But that's just me.

[JM3]

In my experience Ash takes a good 10 years to mature and sound warm

Some swamp ash tends to be a lot more resonant, out of the box