Basswood or Alder??

stephenshields2

Guys, I'm going to be building a project Telecaster and just wanted to know if anyone could recommend either Basswood or Alder?

Bearing in mind that I'll be buying a blank and doing the pickup routing, drilling of holes etc, etc!!

Any and all help appreciated.

BTW, this is gonna be a rockin' Tele, with two humbuckers and a modern bridge, not the auld ashtray type!

ham_n_mustard

to be honest, i'd be thinking alder, especially if you're thinking of any kind of see through finish... basswood can have greenish coloured patches/stripes that dont look all that great
best of luck with the build anyway

eoin5

+1 for alder, for the reasons above. Where are you getting the wood?

goblin59

i build my own from scratch. bass wood in ireland is incredibly hard to get and as far as i know bass wood is the american name for it.

look up tonewoods on wikipedia to help decide. i builb mine from mahogany though, nearly all guitars i own bar 1 are mahogany.

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/251373/118060.JPG

stephenshields2

eoin5 wrote: »

+1 for alder, for the reasons above. Where are you getting the wood?

Dont really know yet, any good recommendations?

Just seen a few on ebay, they are suspiciously cheap though...

stephenshields2

goblin59 wrote: »

i build my own from scratch. bass wood in ireland is incredibly hard to get and as far as i know bass wood is the american name for it.

look up tonewoods on wikipedia to help decide. i builb mine from mahogany though, nearly all guitars i own bar 1 are mahogany.

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/251373/118060.JPG

Guitar looks sweet man, I know who I'll be PM'ing for advice during my build!

stephenshields2

This looks good, but surely it has to be too good to be true at this price??

http://cgi.ebay.ie/NEW-TELECASTER-TELE-UNFINISHED-ALDER-GUITAR-BODY-17-/170485898190?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&hash=item27b1c05bce

eoin5

goblin59 wrote: »

i build my own from scratch. bass wood in ireland is incredibly hard to get and as far as i know bass wood is the american name for it.

look up tonewoods on wikipedia to help decide. i builb mine from mahogany though, nearly all guitars i own bar 1 are mahogany.

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/251373/118060.JPG

Yea mahogany is great, nothing wrong with the sapelle stuff. I got a 3 piece bass body blank pre-glued for 20 lids from a joinery in celbridge (I forget the name, its just across from the paint factory). Would be a bit different for a tele but one of the great things about guitar making is theres no rules, you make what you want .

Gaffneys I think it is.

stephenshields2

eoin5 wrote: »

Yea mahogany is great, nothing wrong with the sapelle stuff. I got a 3 piece bass body blank pre-glued for 20 lids from a joinery in celbridge (I forget the name, its just across from the paint factory). Would be a bit different for a tele but one of the great things about guitar making is theres no rules, you make what you want .

I have too many mahogany guitars, about 70% of them!

So I want something a bit different for this! But I will most certainly build a big heavy bastard mahogany guitar someday!!:D

goblin59

stephenshields2 wrote: »

Guitar looks sweet man, I know who I'll be PM'ing for advice during my build!

haha thanks, i just wish i had access to the same equipment now as i did then.

CCCP

I have a basswood body guitar with fantastic pickups and its still beaten in tone by any alder body Ive played.
Basswoods good, lightweight but the tone is THIN, nice but lacking warmth
ALDER!

stephenshields2

CCCP wrote: »

I have a basswood body guitar with fantastic pickups and its still beaten in tone by any alder body Ive played.
Basswoods good, lightweight but the tone is THIN, nice but lacking warmth
ALDER!

Cheers for the info man, its looking like its gonna be alder so far!

eoin5

stephenshields2 wrote: »

I have too many mahogany guitars, about 70% of them!

So I want something a bit different for this! But I will most certainly build a big heavy bastard mahogany guitar someday!!:D

Yeah alder and basswood are much lighter, for a tele I think alder suits very nicely as its light but rich sounding. I dont think it works on basses as it can't take the E vibration properly (imo), but an electric isn't going to give it that much strain. I donno where you'll get it though, the local joinery only has mahogany and ash.

Demeyes

I'd be going with alder. Some of my favourite guitars are alder, and I really haven't loved the tone out of any of the basswood guitars I have. Basswood isn't really that nice of a wood, it's very soft and doesn't have an interesting appearance.

stephenshields2

Demeyes wrote: »

I'd be going with alder. Some of my favourite guitars are alder, and I really haven't loved the tone out of any of the basswood guitars I have. Basswood isn't really that nice of a wood, it's very soft and doesn't have an interesting appearance.

Ive two basswood body guitars. A cheapo BC Rich Warlock, which is very average. And my Ibanez Prestige RG, but that thing really sings!! So Im guessing that there is different quality bits of basswood.

But it looks like its gonna be alder for this project anyway!

Mataguri

Definitely alder out of the two, but I'm really liking the sound of Ash these days and it can be a great looking wood:

wild turkey

I have basswood alder & ash Strats, i would go for ash on the basis that it sounds best of the 3 acoustically & plugged in & would be the best for a rockin tele but will be harder to work, Routing etc......my next choice would be alder for warmth & basswood at the bottom of the pile as it just lacks something to my ears !

population

Alder all the way baby!!!

Dord

PINE!

Coriolanus

goblin59 wrote: »

i build my own from scratch. bass wood in ireland is incredibly hard to get and as far as i know bass wood is the american name for it.

Basswood/linden is the american name for lime. There are some less than reputable suppliers that will get in expensive "basswood" after people looking online have been told that it's a good wood for starting to carve etc, but really, it's just lime, several species of which are availabe in Britain if not in Ireland.

Edit: And...... that's what I get for replying to a thread that google search threw up... Sorry about the necromancy!