Ash / Alder tonal differences

[everton_fc]

What are the tonal differences in an Ash and Alder body, mainly in a Strat  - does one have a "brighter" tone than the other?

Cheers

[Twinfan]

I would imagine ash to be brighter.  Alder is quite smooth sounding.

Ash will generally be heavier too, unless you get swamp ash.

[Philly Q]

+1 to the above.

Hard ash can be very heavy, but sounds good - bright but with great sustain.  Swamp ash, on the other hand, is lightweight, still quite bright but very "lively" and resonant.

And they both look great - a nice grainy ash body looks a lot nicer than boring old flame or quilt maple, IMO.

[Pierre]

In my experience, swamp Ash compared to Alder will be smoother, or at least rounder sounding if you see what I mean. A slightly more musical tone to my ears, really lovely in the right circumstances. Not that much brighter since the treble will be a little less hash.

[TwilightOdyssey]

Hard ash is very bright, brighter than maple to my ears.

Maple has a similar treble to hard ash, but a more organic integration between the lower mids/upper bass on guitar.

Swamp ash is comparable to alder; darker overall (compared against hard ash) with a very 'closed' upper midrange.

[Prawnik]

As others have said, Northern Ash is very bright.  Think of a natural-finish 1970's Strats (natural and blonde Fenders had ash bodies, and in the 1970s Fender often used cheaper Northern Ash.)  Real bright, thin, OK sound if you like that "chic le freak" disco tone or play in a band where you need to cut through a synth to be heard.  

Swamp Ash is warmer and has more bass than Northern Ash.  Kind of "scooped" mids

Alder is more balanced than Swamp Ash and has more mids, but less highs and lows.

[Mr Ed]

http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/options/options_bodywoods.cfm

[Dane]

Well to me Swamp Ash does not have that Mid of an Alder. Its hard to pull a Clapton strat tone on Ash but still possible.
Here is a guide from John Suhr
http://www.suhrguitars.com/wood.aspx
Apparently John Suhr himself thinks that  Rosewood is brighter then Maple. Beats me.

[Bob Johnson]

There are a lot of things that contribute to a guitars sound; the type of bridge you use can have more effect than the type of wood you use for the body. If you had two hardtail guitars that were identical in every respect except for one having an alder body and the other mid to low density swamp ash then the swamp ash guitar would give a more balanced blend of mid and top with more attack and sustain. If you want to get deeper into it trying reading the Tone Treatise at http://www.jetguitars.com/

This is one of the most analytical pieces of work on what contributes to the tone of a guitar and as you can see Jeff T has rated swamp ash as being lower density than alder. The big difference between the two is that swamp ash has hard grain strata between the layers of softer wood as evidenced by it's distinctive grain pattern. It's this harder strata that provides the good top end response and the sustain and attack that is often less obvious alder guitars.

For those of you that believe that swamp ash is all top with no mid response ask MDV or Chrisola what their swamp ash guitars sound like  :)