Poplar is a crap tone wood? Replace my '97 MIM Strat's body with Alder or Ash?

[thecornman]

Higher prices of certain woods have nothing to do with them sounding better as a tone wood.

[grumphh]

 

Higher prices of certain woods have nothing to do with them sounding better as a tone wood.

 

 

You are canadian - that explains that attitude. Socialist!

 

The rest of the world (i.e. the US of A) knows that price is a measurement of quality.

[honeyiscool]

Poplar is a fine wood. It just doesn't look good because it has a weird color.

 

My favorite guitar in the world (Fender Mustang) is mainly poplar.

[garthman]

How wonderfully refreshing to have lots of people dismissing the "tonewood" bull{censored}.

 

I'm usually a lone voice in the wilderness bowing under the onslaught of the "woodies" and their nonsense.

[Belva]

 

There was a guy here once that had a plywood bodied guitar. He was perfectly happy with it and played the crap out of it. He made the mistake of posting about it here and received a hundred responses telling how plywood was terrible "tonewood" and how crappy his guitar was because of that. Keep in mind almost all of those that posted couldn't tell you what wood a guitar is made from by just listening to it, even if their life depended on it. I'm pretty sure they couldn't find their own ass either, even if they used both hands. The thing is, the guy was so turned off by his guitar now, that same one that played and sounded fantastic until he posted here, that he sold it. Never saw him on the forum again. I hope the neck snaps off the guitars of all those assholes that told him his guitar was crap because it was plywood.

 

I agree. However, with plycasters you'll see some that have voids under the top layers. This can cause dead spots. But let's face it. No 2 pieces of wood from the same species will be exactly the same. I have a poplar body "strat" that I stuck a mahogany/rw neck and GFS lil killers in. It's my #1 and has a nice warm sound with a bit of bite. Perfect classic rock guitar. At least for me.

[NinjaModder]

My Harmony disagrees....

At least I think its poplar...

[craigny]

IMO...there are about 5 other things that adversley affect tone more than the wood.....i dont think its makes as huge a difference as everyone thinks....mabye much more on cleaner tones but once you get into drive...its pickups and amp all the way..

[craigny]

Poplar is a fine wood. It just doesn't look good because it has a weird color.

 

Ahem i beg to differ..., shes purdy with a little stain lol

[honeyiscool]

So you stained it. That's cheating.

[thecornman]

 

You are canadian - that explains that attitude. Socialist! The rest of the world (i.e. the US of A) knows that price is a measurement of quality.

 

 

Lol i am about the furthest thing from a Socialist, but i have no shortage of friends that are!

[shoeless]

I used to look down on poplar too until I owned one. It's now one of my favorite guitars.

[billybilly]

How is that bridge working out for ya, with intonation and whatnot?

 

My Harmony disagrees.... At least I think its poplar...

[fretmonster]

 

MIM Standards were poplar from their inception up until 200 or 2001 when they started using Alder. Even back then they were made or up to 7 pieces, with an Alder veneer so the body material wasn't any better. Atleast now you are getting actual Alder under the Alder veneer. Even some American Standards in the 90s were poplar with an Alder veneer at one point.

 

 

Well I guess I just got lucky with the three 90's vintage MIM Fender Squier Series guitars I've owned as they've all had two and three piece bodies. The Tele I owned had a three piece Alder body, fantastic sound but traded it due to the hyper-thin neck. I actually recently traded a very nice custom 2006 MIM Fender for a 98 MIM Squier because the newer one had a six piece Alder body and the Fender Squier Series had a two piece Swamp Ash body and had a better tone. I can also only find one seam in my 93 Poplar Fender Squier Series Strat which also sounded richer and fuller than the "butcher block" one I traded.

[Belva]

It's not so much the type of wood, but the thickness and the density. At least that's what my GF tells me. and she's got a screamin toan.

SRS, wood matters, but it isn't the most important thing. And, just like wimmenz, it's not the wood, but how you use it.

[craigny]

 

So you stained it. That's cheating.

 

Guilty

[Bob411]

 

You have a body made of Poplar for 14 years and because you read a poll that said it is the tastes like chicken wood you are now freaking out. What if it said it was the best kept secret of tone woods, would you have let your mind play tricks on you. Well the onething I can say for sure about Poplar and Basswood is that they are ugly woods. But as for Poplar it is the tone wood choice of Steve Morse as all his guitars are made of them, and Basswood is the #1 choice for players like Vanhalen, Vai, Satch and Gilbert amongst many others. John Suhr calls Basswood with a Maple cap the Holy Grail of tone .

 

 

So that's why I like that First Act Shenna so much.

[Johnny Two Tone]

 

Lol i am about the furthest thing from a Socialist, but i have no shortage of friends that are!

 

 

Shhh, you're not suppose to allude to the fact that only Americans are the only people in the world who give a flying {censored} about the term socialist.

[Johnny Two Tone]

 

You have a body made of Poplar for 14 years and because you read a poll that said it is the tastes like chicken wood you are now freaking out. What if it said it was the best kept secret of tone woods, would you have let your mind play tricks on you. Well the onething I can say for sure about Poplar and Basswood is that they are ugly woods. But as for Poplar it is the tone wood choice of Steve Morse as all his guitars are made of them, and Basswood is the #1 choice for players like Vanhalen, Vai, Satch and Gilbert amongst many others. John Suhr calls Basswood with a Maple cap the Holy Grail of tone .

 

 

Phfft, what a bull{censored}ter. Do you think he'd even be able to tell what wood was what in a double blind test? What about the pickups? What about the amp, the strings, the EQ of anything in the chain?

 

Placebo, placebo, placebo.

[GilmourD]

Ahem i beg to differ..., shes purdy with a little stain lol

You got lucky. Poplar has a tendency to have green mineral streaks in it.

 

People also slag pine as a tonewood. I think it's {censored}ing boss.

[shoeless]

 

So that's why I like that First Act Shenna so much.

 

 

Funny you should mention Sheena, that's the poplar guitar I was referring to in my post (#86). It does have a maple cap though, so maybe that's cheating a little.

[Belva]

You got lucky. Poplar has a tendency to have green mineral streaks in it.

So you go with it. This is the one I later put a mahogany neck on. That made a bigger difference in tone than I thought it would.

[Roy Brooks]

Tone is in what days your garbageman comes. My garbageman comes on Monday and Thursday. I get the best tone on Mondays and Thursdays.

[Brian Krashpad]

Nothing wrong with poplar so far as I can tell. I previously had a '90's MIM Strat that was poplar, and currently have 3 poplar guitars that sound just fine to me (the Tele has an alder top I believe):

 

 

 

[JetCityMatt]

Wow this thread has hit a nerve!

 

Truth is my guitar sounds fantastic (and sustains fantastically too) ever since I covered my Vintage 30 with a t shirt so that it's high mids don't overpower my greenback (but my WGS Retro 30 should arrive in a couple days to replace the V30 for good).

 

Just thought I'd quickly check in here to see if poplar was good or bad "officially" since I know nothing about the tone of woods.

 

The post about electric guitars not vibrating was interesting to read!

 

With a strat I suppose much of the guitar's tone is dictated by the trem block- I currently have a callaham cold rolled steel, but my super vee bridge arrives in a couple days - they claim that their proprietary trem block is the perfect material and that Eric Johnson agrees.

 

Thanks for all the feedback!

[caveman]

 

Funny you should mention Sheena, that's the poplar guitar I was referring to in my post (#86). It does have a maple cap though, so maybe that's cheating a little.

 

 

Rather than cheating it's a great idea. I have 3 maple over poplar semi hollow body guitars. Light weight, resonant, great sustain and articulation. What's not to like?