How different tonally is ash to alder? When the time comes I'm gonna consider a VHII in my strat copy, which is most likely to be alder apparently.
It depends on the cut of ash. There is the open pored swamp ash and there is northern ash or hard ash.
Swamp ash has clear highs, and good lows and the mids vary the most depending on the slide of wood. A good slice of swamp ash will be very balanced and resonant in all frequency and be maybe a little bit mid heavy... it falls somewhere between mahogany and alder typically. A good piece of swamp ash will make a great sounding guitar, but a bad piece will make a bad sounding guitar.
I've played a strat made from hard ash too, which is a very heavy wood but maintains most the characteristics of swamp ash but will sustain forever. It sounded absolutely wonderful... if I could have came up with $800, I would have bought it... but it was as heavy as a Les Paul too.... I'm not kidding when I say hard ash is heavy.
But basically you never know what to expect when comparing ash and alder. James's guitar is most likely swamp ash cause it's a strat, but you never know how much the mids will be pronounced with swamp ash.
