Mahogany or alder Les Paul

[Mr. Air]

I'm very close to buying a Les Paul clone and I have the choice between two different models.

First one has mahogany body plus neck and flamed maple top. The other has alder body, maple neck and flamed maple top. Both guitars have rosewood fingerboard.

I don't know much about how the different woods affect the tone, so hopefuly someone can give me an idea of the tonal differences between the two guitars.

And by the way. Which BKPs would fit these guitars when I'm going for an all rock axe (classic rock, rock n roll, hard rock)?

[badgermark]

This page is full of wood options, learn and love it

[GuiTony]

1.  Alder will be lighter than mahogany, so if weight is important, Alder might be better - LPs can feel rather heavy when your back is old and you're stood on a stage for a couple of hours.
2.  Mahogany is a more typical LP wood, so if sound/tone authenticity is important, the Mahogany option is likely to give you a better "LP sound", particularly when you add in ...
3.  A maple neck would give a harder/brighter edge to the sound than the warmer Mahogany, so again the Mahogany option should be a truer representation of the LP sound.

LP p'ups tend to be pretty standard in terms of size (don't often find LPs with wide-spaced bridge units or 7-string versions, etc), so you have a pretty full choice of BKP replacements - ie any standard HB size.

(that's a great linky to the Warmoth site too - I hadn't seen that before).

[Jonny]

Les Paul with Mahogany for Rock. Definately.

I think alder is a good sounding wood, it's just in the size of a Les Paul it might sound.. for lack of a better word, weird.

[Fikealox]

I've actually had some very heavy alder guitars and some very light mahogany ones, so I'm not sure alder would make for a more ergonomic choice. Personally, I'd go mahogany for an LP, just 'cause it's a tried and true formula ;)

[indysmith]

Yeah Mahogany/Maple body with Mahogany/Rosewood neck is usually the way to go if you want your Les Paul to sound like a Les Paul.
I assume the alder one is a lower-end Tokai?

[_tom_]

I'm no expert, but one of my LPs has a mahogany body/neck with rosewood board and the other is mahogany/alder body+neck with rosewood board. The all mahogany one sounds so much better. One with alder is allright but its a much thinner twangier sound. Could just be the pickups though, the alder one has Mules whilst the all mahogany one has a Pig 90 bridge/MQ neck :twisted:

[Mr. Air]

Thanks for all the answers. I think I'll go for the mahogany model because I want the closest think to a Les Paul.

I assume the alder one is a lower-end Tokai?

It's a small local dealer here in Denmark who has his own brand (called Bryan Watts) made by two taiwanese companies, which produces guitars for Gibson, Ibanez, Washburn, and others as well. The guitars are quite similar to J&D Brothers guitars.

In the following link you can check out the shop's guitar range

http://www.heimdale.dk/index.php?ssid=11

[indysmith]

Love the quirk-factor of that LS-1!

[AndyR]

Love the quirk-factor of that LS-1!

+1, that's a pretty one :D

[FernandoDuarte]

LP = Mahoganybody with Maple top + Mahogany neck with Rosewood fingerboard

very simple

[Crazy_Joe]

Mahogany for the classic Les Paul tone.