Look up Jim Lill's video "Tested: Where Does The Tone Come From In An Electric Guitar?" All the guitar builders are full of BS. Now sustain is another topic.
I played in a counry rock band and I played a tele . The other guitarist played a Gibson 335. We switched guitars one gig for one set. A few songs into the set we all couldn't believe he had that tele sounding like his 335 just by adjusting the tone ,volume knobs . I'll never forget that.
@@smokenfire teles are magical, if you've never owned one, buy one. I have yet to know someone with a decent tele who didn't love it or doesn't miss having it.
@@death32815 never played one, actually. Teles are everywhere, but somehow neither me nor any of my friends ever owned one. I suddenly find it really weird.
@@guyfromnj Yes, and I can always hear a difference on my own comparisons too. I just preach that it isn't something worth fretting over :) The "wrong" type of wood will not ruin your tone, and likewise, the "right" type of wood will not make you sound magically amazing - only practise does that! Comfort, balance, neck profile, and overall playability are much more important in an Instrument. With a good amp, and knowledge of EQ, any tone is available to a player regardless of what type of wood is on the guitar!
I agree also, it's not huge but the differences are there. I watch all your vids Darrell. I wasn't being accusatory or anything like that. I was just curious of your thoughts because I've heard you laugh about tonewood before and the heated debates are laughable. It's not that big a deal people. I stick with the tonewoods are subtractive idea. Alder eats up low frequencies making it sound bright. Mahogany can do the opposite. The real test is taking different density wood of the same species and showing the difference that can make. A really light piece of alder is going to sound different than a heavy dense piece also. But again, it's not huge differences but as you play and train your ear it becomes very apparent.
The differences were very subtle but they are there. Mahogany seemed a tad more focused or midrangey and the ash seemed a tad brighter and louder. At least to me. yep, just watched your conclusions and I agree. Even tho they are slight, it's there and so.... thx!
INDEED spot on to be honest, also depends alot on your current sound system/headphones but im using a cheap ass flat EQed headphone. still I hear the same as you. the mahogany seems punchy and a bit more midrange. swamp ashp certainly plays well with the single coils.
@@adzbox Different pieces of wood WILL sound different. You'd have to be scientifically illiterate to deny it. People say "tonewood is a myth" and then dumb people blindly repeat it. The original "Tonewood is a myth" was in reference to the ads in guitar magazines. I don't recall which company coined the term "tonewood", but the spiel was about them using species of tree that sound better...for some reason. Which IS utter bollocks. The tone is affected by the stiffness, density, etc of the wood. NOT the species of the tree. If a guitar string is attached at each end to an infinite, immoveable mass, then you will be hearing just the sound of a string vibrating in air. Putting anything else between those points, will attenuate energy from the vibrating strings, and it will do so differently at different frequencies, depending on the properties of whatever is holding the ends of the string in place. So yes, "tonewood" is a myth. But yes, the wood does affect the tone. Even the amplified tone. There just isn't a rule that beautiful wood from a 5000 year old tree in a tribal graveyard in Bongo-bongo land, has to sound better or worse than a slab of ash or a couple of sheets of plywood glued together
Difference to me was negligible, especially when you consider how many other factors contribute to the end sound in a real-world scenario. But I give you MASSIVE respect for having gone through so much trouble to give us as honest a side-by-side comparison as could ever be possible. Seriously, setting this up must have been so much work, and I really appreciate it 🙂
Every discussion & demonstration I've ever seen on the subject convinces me that "tonewood" is a ridiculous concept. It _is_ the perfect youtube content though - guaranteed to be controversial, with no real stakes or problematic opinions. Guitar players are a superstitious bunch, and tone is a strange sorcery arising from arcane incantations and mystical spell components.
Most of them are subtle differences indeed. The crowd wont notice and even the best ear wont notice on a blind test. Still there are part of the character, response and overall DNA of every instrument. You might notice how certain tracks on a daw might sound "better" to you with one instrument over the other. Another thing to notice is that this type of videos get compressed and eq by youtube. This is something that you really have to test by yourself with your own setup.
@@mallninja9805 This actually is one of the things I greatly appreciate about TH-cam. It removes the sorcery aspect for those of us that are willing to be objective. That has been useful for me on numerous occasions, and I laugh at some of the stuff I used to believe just because some musician I respect said it. On the other hand, this niche comparison is helpful for those of us that are building a tele and need to first choose the body wood. Sorcery.or no sorcery, I still have to make that decision, along with a number of other decisions. I'm sure Warmoth gets asked for advice on body wood choices every day they are open!
@@juankyman8404 Well said. Ultimately it is only the Player that need be inspired by the instrument they are playing. Be it color, age, scale length or whatever, whatever works to inspire the player is what is important.
Bro, that had to be so much work, but it made an very high quality, accurate comparison! Thank you for taking the time to make this, first vid of yours I've seen. Subbed for your dedication to quality content!
Done as it should be, a controlled experiment with minimal variables - great job!! I'd love to see this done again to include all of the core wood choices you offer: Basswood, Maple, Walnut, Roasted Swamp Ash, Roasted Alder, Poplar, Black Korina, and again Mahogany, Ash and Alder - it'd be the go video for choosing a tone wood :-)
Thanks for this video. I have a trebly tone naturally from my hands. I became a believer in body tone wood differences years ago. I had a very thick Alder bodied guitar with a rosewood fretboard that has always had fat thick tone even under my hands. I bought a new very thin super strat guitar that had the same pickups as my thick alder guitar but a swamp ash body. That night I brought along my new baby to my gig and noticed my solos in particular sounded very very bright compared to my other alder guitar and convinced myself it was in my head until my bass player came over and said that my new guitar was like a buzz saw. I eventually set up different profiles for the different tones. Years later, I switched the swamp ash body out for mahogany body I got in trade and "bam" the tone changed to a more mid bass heavy thick tone with all of the same electronics. Several years after that, I learned about the "tonewood" debate and went "Oh yeah!".. Having said that most of the differences can be compensated for with the amp or pickup selections., For teles and country, I lean towards swamp ash, for hard rock and humbuckers I am a mahogany, limba or alder guy.
great video. this this the kind of comparisons worth watching. 3 of the most popular wood types for guitar and exact conditions to test sound. most people just don't/can't do that type of testing. great stuff. for me, on the swamp and alder i didn't hear much difference on the clean but once distortion was added, the swamp was more warm and creamy. the alder had more mid with distortion. the mahogany was brighter and brittle clean and had more crunch when distorted. anyway, that's how it sounded to me. this video was very useful and anyone considering these wood options for their next build should watch this.
I was happy that your editing made the swaps quite seemless... it's the first time I've seen this in comparison videos. Because of this I was able to hear those subtle differences, just like you heard. Thanks
That’s the best and most accurate comparison I’ve ever seen or heard. Excellent job. I preferred the ash. I was pleasantly surprised on the mahogany. The Alder was thinner and third place, even though I liked it. For my taste, the ash took the sonic qualities of the other two and gives you the best of both worlds.
Agreed! The snob in me wanted the Alder to win. The Ash surprised me. What also surprised me was the bodies of original sort-after Fender Teles. They are made from ‘humble’ Pine. Now then!
This is one of THE BEST demos of how the wood of a body effect tone. Massive differences. I love the Swamp Ash for cleans, but the Alder for the dirtier overdriven tones.
"Massive" differences? Ever heard of the term "confirmation-bias"? If you don't actualy _look_ at the video and just go by ears; your verdict would've turned out quite differently.
@@dildojizzbaggins6969 I did do this blind and the difference is pretty obvious to me when all three are played in rapid succession. My wife who was across the room could also easily identify the differences as well. The point is, just because you can't differentiate the tones doesn't mean the differences don't exist. Different people have different levels of sensory perception. For instance, women have more rods and cones in their eyes than men do so they simply see colors more accurately than I do. It's not a knock on you that you can't hear a difference -- quite a lot can't either. But, you should try to accept the idea that your perception levels aren't the only ones in the world.
@@dildojizzbaggins6969 "massive" is a bit of an exaggeration as the differences represent relatively small EQ changes. The point is that the differences are noticeable to the untrained listener
@@maciejduda5257 Not all ears are the same. I've consistently been astonished in situations like this or testing out different guitars at music stores when tonal differences that were very obvious and pronounced to me went unoticed by friends and bystanders. They would often argue with me and insist there was no difference.
I'm going to have to echo the same sentiments others have shared. This is probably the best tone comparison video out there. This is a good starting point for deciding what you want your sound to be like.
Slight differences, but differences nonetheless. Mahogany is chunkier in the low mids, alder has the most articulate high end and clarity, whereas the swamp ash was direct and immediate. Thanks for making the video as thoughtfully as you guys did
@@Hornet135 Everything else was identical. Even the neck with the frets, tuners, nut and the pickups, pots and bridge. So what besides the body changed between the guitars?
@@221b-l3t Even using the same neck, there’s no guarantee the neck pockets are cut the same. Differences there affect neck angle and thus string height over the pickups.
@@Hornet135 Not by much unless the guitars were very badly made. But what is your argument, wood makes no difference but microscopic differences in shape do? That's in the margin of error once you play the neck bends and the pickup height is not fixed perfectly anymore, plus the strings vibrate so really it's a range of pickup heights the size of the amplitude of the note being played. So even if there is a tiny neck angle difference it's way less than normal flexing during playing, which constantly changes so there wouldn't be a consistent difference between the guitars just each take sounding slightly different. Which is the case anyway because a human can't play the same thing twice exactly perfectly the same.
The mahogany body sounded just slightly warmer and the alder body had a balanced sound but I could barely hear the differences. I'm saving up money for a Stratocaster build, picking Swamp Ash just for the grain really. Thanks for the video!
thanks for the careful, balanced comparison with clear, repeated musical phrases for each setting on each wood type! this answered a lot of questions I had about how these woods contribute to tone. mahogany definitely sounded warmer, something resonant about that in the low/mid frequencies. the alder had an interesting almost flangey sound when distorter, and swamp ash (which I thought would be muddled) seemed just a bit brighter and snappier in tone, especially with the clean sounds.
@@franknstein4340 Absolutely not. If you use a pair of decent studio monitors, you can easily ear the difference (and note that I don't use the verb "feel") in a blind-eyed test. Also, if you analyze the spectrums, mahogany has clearly a more compact spectrum which translates, indeed, in a warmer sound.
This is the first time I have seen and heard a legitimate test of woods compared side by side. I think it definitely revealed noticeable differences between the different woods used. The most distinctive difference that I noticed was with the mahogany body. For my playing style, I prefer the mahogany, than the alder and swamp ash. The differences between the latter woods was not as pronounced, but much more subtle than it was with the mahogany. It would be interesting to see and hear a similar test with additional woods and some exotic woods as well. Thank you very much for the demonstration! Please have an excellent and awesome day! 🙂
I'm wearing good headphones and wow, I was really surprised at how much I could tell the difference! I liked the mahogany with the distortion, The alder had a more mellow, almost muted tone that sounded great with clean arpeggios. While the swamp was more sharp. Great job!
To me, Mahogany separates itself the most. Also, it seems to improve all aspects of the tone. Warmth, separation, almost eliminates harshness. But does not diminish the highs. It just seems to add low miss and bass. I’d love to hear it with older fender staggered pole piece pickups and electronics.
@Memu And You’re not listening at all. Each time it went from brighter to darker . Mahogany sounded best with distorted bridge . Idk if you’re listening on your phone, laptop or have undeveloped ears for frequencies as many guitarists do. But the Differences are obvious t
well there *is* a tiny difference, but anyone who thinks it's significant enough, or completely insignificant enough to start arguments are just no bueno. end of the day just go with what makes you happiest, any tone difference can be dialed in or out with EQ, it ain't magic.
I built a Strat with a mahogany body back in '89. As a performing musician using mostly a Gibson SG, I really loved mahogany. Having said that I will say that it is really tough to hear the difference in tone between the same guitar of different woods when the guitar is highly overdriven ... and if there is a chance to hear a difference ... it will most likely be heard with the guitar being played clean. On the clean clip with the neck pickup, I heard the most difference between the mahogany tele and the other two. Nice video ... thank you.
Now THIS is how you do a tone test. I hear a difference - but it is extremely small. I'll describe what I hear but these are very very minor differences - I'm writing this after listening to the samples the first time through and before hearing his opinion in the what I heard section or reading any of the other comments. The swamp ash clips all have a beefier low end and a pretty bright top end, and less midrange. The Ash was all top end and high mids, less low end. The mahogany had a midrange component I didn't hear in the other two. That surprised my because I expected the mahogany body to have a beefier low end than the other two.
I don’t think I hear any difference. Sometimes I think I can but then I wonder if it’s psychological, I.e the changing of the body on screen triggers a response in my brain. I’m quite dismayed by this as I feel I have ok ears but now doubting this. With pitch I’ve done tests and my hearing there seems about average for a musician, according to the literature on the matter.
Nice video, thanks for the shootout. I’m a luthier. My honest opinion? I heard subtle differences. They may make a difference to some people, but to me they were inconsequential. Maybe 5-10% of the sound was affected by the use of the wood. I’d say 90% of tone is pickup selection. Building guitars, I use wood choice more for weight. Swamp ash and mahogany are great. I love pawlonia. I see no problem with resin! My hu,blue opinion.
Agreed. And I think ash is good at distinguishing the note of each string. The more gain is used, the more it will become noticeable. To my understanding, that's because ash is solid and dense, so less transient attacks are "absorbed".
@@PJSOFTagreed, the swamp ash really has clarity in the highs and minds mid cuts through and also mains great bottom end... I have a sungkai body solar guitar and from what i have read online (which unfortunately is hard to find info on) - but Sungkai is some form of Indonesian swamp ash I believe. Anyway, whatever it is, it's the best guitar for metal that I have, especially for getting those highs and mids to seemlessly cut through the lows and the bass, giving great distinction between notes and chords. Does anyone have any info on Sungkai for electric guitars as I prefer it's metal tone and clarity even when heavily, heavily distorted, even compared to my esp which is solid mahogany. Anyway thanks for reading.
Definitely heard the differences and my observations were very close to yours. I was a skpetic to a point - I didn't think the differences would be that noticeable. Great video!
Without question the mahogany sounded more resonant. Very deep full bodied sound. My pick of the three. Update: I have since purchased a mahogany body. It should pair well with the humbuckers and i hope it will sound half as good as this.
2 videos later and it explains why "I've always wanted an Alder Tele with a Rosewood board (instead of or in addition to my longtime '52 RI Butterscotch Tele) , and explains why I just built one - from parts including a very very old Warmoth body - and I knew from the moment I strung it up that it was going to be the best Tele I've ever had, and it is.
Honestly, they were very subtle, 1 thing I really noticed, Telecaster and Stratacaster - Body doesn't mean much unless you are a pro master level player with higher level equipment to make the nuances more pronounced to make a difference, Now partial hollow body or LP style guitars the wood actually seems to make a pronounced difference from the get go. From what I gather its due to the shape and amount of wood used, obviously ANY hollow instrument wood will matter 100% more for the reverberations through the chamber.
Yeah, I hear a very subtle difference. Emphasize the word subtle. I’m listening using AKG k712’s. I’m sure playing in person the difference would be more noticeable. But the takeaway is that the differences aren’t as pronounced as most would believe…
To me, the alder body had an overall compressed sound, without any kind of mid scoop. After decades of playing Fender and Fender-style basses with swamp ash bodies and alder bodies, I’ve come to prefer alder bodies for just this reason. Swamp ash to me has fat lows and crisp sounding highs, but there’s typically a bit of a mid scoop, which doesn’t work for me in live playing. But for recording, the more lively tone of swamp ash is great. The mahogany body’s tone blows my mind. It wasn’t at all what I expected. I only own one bass with a mahogany body, which is an Alembic. Alembic’s electronics are very versatile and responsive. I’ve always assumed the pickups and electronics outweighed the body wood’s contribution to tone. Now I’m thinking differently. To my ears on the video, the mahogany body had a little more of everything. Very impressive.
If I take ash as the base, alder had more 'twang' but was more limited in range - must work great in a band context- , and mahogany had the best lows, more pronounced and warm, at the cost of some of the high-end. That being said, I agree that the difference was quite subtle, and I required a couple of takes to denote each wood. Maybe the neck's wood have a more dramatic effect.
This test reaffirms the stereotypes of each wood to me - swamp ash scooped, alder more upper mids, mahogany more lower mids (I'm oversimplifying as I heard other different nuances). They all sound great, can all just be EQ'd to personal taste. I personally loved the distorted bridge pickup on swamp ash, great classic hard rock tone. Made me want to bash out some big Malcolm Young chords.
@Leon thecat "Immune"? Nope. A DiMarzio Tone Zone, for example, will retain most of its qualities going from body wood to body wood but will sound tighter in Swamp Ash vs Mahogany, muddier in Mahogany vs Swamp Ash, more compressed in Maple versus Alder etc when all other variables gave been taken out of the equation (shape, construction, neck material, pickup height, string guage/action, room acoustics etc). I can attest to "immunity" not even being the case with ACTIVE pickups (an 85 sounds clearer in Ash vs Mahogany etc). There's a fair bit of bullshit in the instrument world and it's good to call it out, but you can clearly hear differences in this video.
@Leon thecat Preconceived TERMS, yes. It's how the English language works. How else would I be able to describe subjective experiences of sound to somebody else without a (largely) uniformly-understood glossary of terms to base it off of? It's far easier to say "muddy" than "too much in the 200-350hz range". I've done plenty of blind A/B/X testing my life (guitars, amps, mp3 vs WAV...), presicely to get rid of the confirmation bias aspect. I've had friends test me while I wasn't looking etc. When watching THIS EXACT VIDEO, I didn't look at the screen. I'd be deeply concerned if you failed to hear any differences in this video and that the differences weren't consistent across examples. Maybe Aaron had the door closed every time he played the mahogany guitar?
@Leon thecat You seem to be avoiding all of the pertinent questions. Did you hear a difference in this video? If so, how do you explain them- in particular the consistency of tone change from wood to wood? (I actually know, but I'll assume you've studied both sides of the argument). As I said earlier, I conducted this test blind. You can choose to disbelieve me, of course, but it's the truth. If you do the same and still can't hear differences then I'll be surprised.
@Leon thecat Negligible, yet you heard a difference nevertheless. Good. Did you do the test blind, write down notes as to the qualities of each example (riff example, not wood example obviously) and what was your listening setup? (Smart phone; PC w/desktop speakers; run through a hifi setup etc).
That swamp ash looks amazing unpainted. With just a little clear coat to seal it it’d be gorgeous. Also. Thanks for making this video! Difference is very subtle but definitely the mahogany has a little something in the mids.
Fascinating! I could clearly hear the differences. The way I'd describe the sounds are; Swamp Ash - well-rounded, strong Basses, clear but not overpowering tops. Alder - thinner generally, with weaker Basses, scooped mids, very bright tops. Mahogany - generally fatter sound, strong Basses & mids, clear but mellower tops.
100% agree. I prefer Alder bodies for bass guitars, especially P bass as it's a bit more "woody" sounding and the bass end doesn't get as "tubby" as Swamp Ash and generally seems to sit better in the mix. That's what I was expecting to hear and that's what I heard. The Mahogany - I wasn't sure what to expect, but being a denser wood it made sense that it had a fatter sound, but really clear as well.
@@Cpmnk yeah but nobody argues that woods don't feel different. The debate is that there are still tons of people who think that woods make an amplified electric sound significantly different. Plus these are completely unfinished wood, so even these slight differences are exaggerated compared to one that's finished.
Another really cool comparison. I agree with trevordeke. So many noodle crazy players. That was really straight ahead and clear. I loved that Alder body tone. It did seem to have a brighter sound to me. As you mentioned in the video you did comparing the F hole, vs chambered vs solid Tele's - it's so true that it's really difficult to discern what you're feeling and hearing, especially when you're playing a guitar unplugged, just to see how it feels, snaps, etc. And no 2 teles play/feel the same way. I recently tried a Tele parts-caster at a local guitar shop in my city, and it had a 51' thick U shaped MIM neck. The guitar played so well. It was snappy, bright, immediate, focused and acoustically loud. Very easy under the fingers. I don't know if the tone could be attributed to the thicker neck, or just that particular piece of maple that it was made from - on that body. But it felt really good to play, and I think that's really important to most of us.
The reason you hear differences in tone is because you’re in the room with the guitar hearing the acoustic properties of the bodies. We’re hearing the recorded pickup sound. There was zero difference between the various bodies. Tonewood applies to acoustic instruments but has little impact on an electric guitar when played through an amp or recorded.
@@LukeEsther Electric guitarists should not be fiddling with EQ. Too many pedals, too many gain stages, too much EQ, and what you’re left with is an abomination of synthetic tone that hardly resembles a guitar. Turn all that shit off any enjoy the differences in wood. If you still can’t hear it, maybe music isn’t for you.
Wow, that's what I was waiting for! Very interesting, thanx a lot, Aaron. Actually no big surprises, except that the difference in sound of the three bodies was smaller than I had expected. Mahogany is my favorite tone wood for guitar bodies. That unique 'bite' in higain sounds simply makes the difference for a great rock'n'roll tone for me.
This is a really great comparison thank you so much for creating it for us all. I noticed the differences very clearly between all 3 guitars. The Mahogany body was the most phat and solid sounding to me, and the Alder seemed more thin and less character. Overall I would go with the Swamp ash as I think it was the most unique and interesting sounding with its own distinct character to the tones.
I'll bite. Here's my take. Ash: Defined low end, soft high cut. Elder: Contoured low end, warmer high end. Mahogany: Beefy low end, clear and crisp high end. They all sound great. What a great demo too because the player was so consistent. I would say after reading some comments that the mahogany was more resonant for sure. You can hear the same behaviour in a slinky tube amp reverb tank. After countless hours of EQ'ing guitars you discover that these frequencies, while desireable, can get in the way if too present. This is why I prefer the Swamp Ash. To me it's just the perfect blend.
@@cbinsyd Just from the video I can tell that the Swamp Ash has a relatively neutral response across the spectrum, the Alder has slight midboost around the 1.5k hz region and the mahogany has something funny going on in the 250hz to 500 hz region. If you can't tell a difference, good for you. I'm anal about it.
Putting on headphones makes a world of difference. Also confirms that I love swamp ash. It sounded the most open and full to my ears, similar to what you said. EQ could get them all sounding very similar, but it's still cool to hear a good example of what the differences are. The tone wood opinion wars will rage on, but I'm sure many will find this helpful when thinking about their next instrument.
The expected: in electric instruments, the sound changes a little, but not enough to worry about it. I think there are things that we give less importance to, and yet they make bigger differences, such as the strings, the adjustment of the guitar, the way of playing, the pot levels, etc ...
Outstanding! I have been looking for a comparison like this for a while. What I heard was the Mahogany was as expected more pronounced at the low and mid-range frequencies with the high frequency tones sounding a bit attenuated. The Alder body left much to be desired in the low frequency range, seemingly flat frequency response in the mid-range frequencies, but twangy at the high-frequency tones. The Swamp Ash was the more "metal sounding" body wood with accentuated low-frequency response and flat high-frequency tones, but it sounds like the mid-range frequencies were naturally scooped. In conclusion, if you're going for the rock n' roll classic tone then definitely mahogany; whereas, the Alder body seems best for more lead style tones, and the swamp ash is best for chunky modern metal (especially drop-tuned tones), but definitely lacks the tonal character needed for articulation for lead tones heavily reliant upon mid-range frequencies. Great video dude, and extremely helpful. I'm 41 years old, and I've owned more guitars than I can count, but I've never been able to purchase a pre-built guitar that had EVERYTHING I wanted for MY TONE. So, I decided to spend the cash to get my custom build, and while I was already leaning toward swamp ash, this video made it clear that is the best choice for me.
Absolutely. I agree. It was like performing a 1dB frequency sweep across the spectrum while mixing to find the frequencies you want to accentuate or diminish. The funny thing is that I thought each sounded better than the others while in its element. Depending on what you were playing, I tended to prefect a different wood. Now I’m going to have to buy even more guitars. Lol Thanks for doing the comparison.
Ha ha, but don't fall for all that pickup hype. You can dunk the pickups in snake oil by the light of a full moon, but they all are designed to sound the same, with moderate high-end cutoff.
Not fair cause you changed clothes, and that affects the vibration and density of different materials..... hahaha just kidding Sounds same if not it’s pretty close
Ha! It's true: I did change shirts. I also took a shower between days two and three. I'm pretty certain I used the same hair-care products all three days, but I will have to check my scientific journals...
@@hannahpumpkins4359 there are differences, of course : For my taste i don't like the trebly and in a certain sense thinner tone of Alder, the Swamp Ash seems to be a middle way, good , and i prefer the enhanced mid basses response of mahogany, in fact in addition to the old Yamaha SG800 i bought another les paul-like model, Ibanez artist ar 2619 prestige that has mohagany body + maple (top and neck) ebony fretboard... a nice tone balance for what i need and long sustain.
Thank you. Your test was a lot work and analysis. I’m also sorry to say that my loss of hearing over my 74 years couldn’t hear an appreciable difference in the woods.
Agreed with you 100% Aaron! I could hear it all thru my iPhone X. Interesting how mahogany was the fattest sounding one. Thanks for the demo! Well done
Swamp ash: Bright clean Alder: Bright, tight, pronounced Mahogny: Darker, richer but not as pronunced Thats what I hear - VERY nice test - thank you ;)
@@smokinjoe4709 I record music 3 days a week. I listen and mix a lot. I play the piano and sing myself. If you seriously CANNOT hear the difference you should not even be debating it. A lot of people can easily hear the difference. If thats not enough for you then play the sounds in a music program and compare the EQ. At that moment you will realise your ears are being fooled and science has won through recorded waves. Simple really........when sound waves travel through material - that material will affect the waves - imagine sound going through solid steel, glass, water, really soft wood and extremely hard wood.
@@AdjecantHero Run it through an analyzer and view the out put wave - they are identical. A non conductive material cannot affect an electromagnetic wave.
Absolutely agree with all of the sound differences you pointed out, great comparison! I definitely hear the lower mid "mud" in one of my guitars which is made from mahogany!
After reading an article in Guitar player magazine years ago,about an artist who only played Strats in the neck position.I tried it,along with laying down the pick,and going knofler/buckingham mode. My playing improved DRASTICALLY!Finger picking/plucking(also claw hammer)changes everything!
IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT WOOD, IF YOU JUST MOVE THE AMP EQ KNOB A BIT, OR CHANGE THE GUITAR POTS TO A DIFFERENT OHM VALUE IT WILL HAVE A BIGGER DIFFERENCE. Those LITTLE difference can be easily negated by your Amps EQ .... so You can make your Alder sound like mahogany, vice versa 1
Finally, there is a video that shows the difference, well done! Surprisingly, the Alder has pretty obviously less bass resonance than swamp ash and mahogany. I thought it may be similar to Ash but not even close... the difference is too obvious And the mahogany is not that "dark" or muddy in our stereotype but actually has a fair amount of clear high-end. To my ear, Swamp Ash won.
Your company is awesome and I love your comparison videos. I've designed and built some of my own guitars from wood blanks etc. and I've found that there are subtle differences in tone woods but the bigger difference in tone is what woods you use with what type of pickups. This is probably why Gibson uses humbuckers with mahogany and Fender uses single coils with alder and ash on Strats and Tele's. In my opinion people that say there's no difference in tone woods are not listening through good enough speakers or headphones ( not ear buds) or just don't have great hearing to begin with.
Great test, thank you! The difference was small, but noticable and identifiable. Some argue that pickups and amps matter, not those small differences. Let’s remember that pickups pick up those small differences and amplifiers amplify them...
Thank you. As with the companion video which compared chambered and solid bodies, the difference between these woods is negligible and appears to be more noticeable with overdrive because the overtones are amplified somewhat and there’s some sort of compounding going around. I think the good news is you can make guitars with just about any good quality of a certain type of wood.
Wait...there IS a video comparing chambered and solid bodies? YES!!!! I (and others in here) were commenting that he should do that video hahaha! Going to find it now.
Minor differences, but...... only minor. To me, they aren't so different that I would absolutely have to have one over the other, especially when you consider different pickups, pots, amp, strings, neck, etc etc etc. But yeah... they do sound different. But I liked all of them.
Its subtle. Extremely subtle. The wood isn't going to make the guitar not sound like what it was built to be. IE, A Tele is going to sound like a Tele. A strat will sound like a Strat. An LP will sound like an LP. Design and electronics will always make a bigger difference. That said, for driven sounds I prefer the Mahogany. The added lower mids and the fact that it seems to add to the same harmonic range as the OD from the amp makes it seem a little more muscular than the others. The Alder would probably be best all around and sounds clearer. But I feel like the Mahogany would push through a mix a little easier without the extra low or high frequencies of the other woods.
The swamp ash sounded consistently superior to my ear and taste with good dynamics, round bottom and clear highs, and nice sustain. Followed by the mahogany which sounded a bit louder, chonkier, and aggressive. Alder just sounded flat and lifeless vs the other two. Great controlled shootout, thanks for doing it.
Mahogany definitely has more attitude in the tone regarding Volume. I will say however, i feel the difference is more felt than heard however. Mahogany feels so much more resonant to me personally.
The problem with statements such as "Mahogany definitely has more attitude in the tone regarding Volume", is that woods are like humans, everyone is different. Mahogany and sub species of it, are grown virtually all over the world in vastly different climates and ground conditions. Are we talking old growth Cuban mahogany or plantation mahogany grown in Indonesia? An acoustic guitar builder will tell you that two trees of the same species growing next to each other will sound different when chopped up and made into guitars, even wood from the same tree will have different sound characteristics. If nothing else the variation in trees of the same species makes the whole tonewood thing just plain silly. Ask a cork sniffing Gibson Les Paul aficionado whether his $100K late fifties guitar is made from Honduran or Cuban mahogany and he won't be able to tell you because Gibson bought both types in that era and never kept records of which guitar used which mahogany. Ash or Fraxinus has up to 65 different species, grown all over the world, any ash tree that is dragged out of, or growing near a swamp is called 'swamp ash' regardless of which species of ash it belongs to, or where it's grown, they're all probably going to sound a little different, how does one identify, 'true' swamp ash? Here's a story about Alder, when Leo Fender built proper paint facilities in his factory, he looked around for a cheaper wood than Ash, because he was going to start painting all his guitars, and didn't need a nice looking wood anymore because no one was going to see it, he went to Alder because it was CHEAP, no other reason.
I really appreciate how you play simply, rather than burn through a load of cheesy licks. Makes it much easier to hear the guitar. Awesome!
Every demo ever needs very rarely are they done though. Thanks
HEY! The 80s were entirely built on cheesy licks and even cheesier lyrical hooks!
This is the best tone wood comparison video I've seen .
Thanks bro it was my 💡
Oak has a nice resonance to it too. It reverberates well.
th-cam.com/video/n02tImce3AE/w-d-xo.html Check this one out if you haven't already.
Look up Jim Lill's video "Tested: Where Does The Tone Come From In An Electric Guitar?"
All the guitar builders are full of BS.
Now sustain is another topic.
True, and l am a guitar builder.
Body wood has no influence on electric guitar.
I played in a counry rock band and I played a tele . The other guitarist played a Gibson 335. We switched guitars one gig for one set. A few songs into the set we all couldn't believe he had that tele sounding like his 335 just by adjusting the tone ,volume knobs .
I'll never forget that.
Tele magic.
@@death32815pretty-much-any-guitar "magic" 😂
@@smokenfire teles are magical, if you've never owned one, buy one. I have yet to know someone with a decent tele who didn't love it or doesn't miss having it.
@@death32815 never played one, actually. Teles are everywhere, but somehow neither me nor any of my friends ever owned one. I suddenly find it really weird.
John 5 is a testament to what the Tele can and will do. 😂
Superb job Aaron!
Just like your nickel vs stainless test, you knocked it out of the park!
Hey Darrell, did you hear a difference?
Thanks Darrell. It feels good to finally have this debate settled. ;)
@@guyfromnj Yes, and I can always hear a difference on my own comparisons too. I just preach that it isn't something worth fretting over :)
The "wrong" type of wood will not ruin your tone, and likewise, the "right" type of wood will not make you sound magically amazing - only practise does that!
Comfort, balance, neck profile, and overall playability are much more important in an Instrument.
With a good amp, and knowledge of EQ, any tone is available to a player regardless of what type of wood is on the guitar!
I agree also, it's not huge but the differences are there. I watch all your vids Darrell. I wasn't being accusatory or anything like that. I was just curious of your thoughts because I've heard you laugh about tonewood before and the heated debates are laughable. It's not that big a deal people. I stick with the tonewoods are subtractive idea. Alder eats up low frequencies making it sound bright. Mahogany can do the opposite. The real test is taking different density wood of the same species and showing the difference that can make. A really light piece of alder is going to sound different than a heavy dense piece also. But again, it's not huge differences but as you play and train your ear it becomes very apparent.
I personally prefered mahogany and alder tones. But yes you can notice a huge difference between them all.
what I learnt is that its better I spend more time on my playing abilities than worrying about the frequencies of wood.
You're right. Get practicing. :)
I wood agree.
absolutely right ...
"stop obsessing and just play"
Well good for you. For us looking to make an educated purchase this video is gold.
test setting PU time wood
1 clean bridge 1:24 swamp ash
1 clean bridge 1:33 alder
1 clean bridge 1:42 mahogany
2 clean middle 1:52 swamp ash
2 clean middle 2:05 alder
2 clean middle 2:18 mahogany
3 clean neck 2:34 swamp ash
3 clean neck 2:44 alder
3 clean neck 2:55 mahogany
4 gain bridge 3:07 swamp ash
4 gain bridge 3:24 alder
4 gain bridge 3:40 mahogany
5 gain neck 4:00 swamp ash
5 gain neck 4:12 alder
5 gain neck 4:23 mahogany
The differences were very subtle but they are there. Mahogany seemed a tad more focused or midrangey and the ash seemed a tad brighter and louder. At least to me. yep, just watched your conclusions and I agree. Even tho they are slight, it's there and so.... thx!
Yet people deny that there is any difference. He used the same neck and only swapped the body.
Subtle enough to be explained by the subtle differences when playing the same part may be?
INDEED spot on to be honest, also depends alot on your current sound system/headphones but im using a cheap ass flat EQed headphone. still I hear the same as you. the mahogany seems punchy and a bit more midrange. swamp ashp certainly plays well with the single coils.
@@adzbox Different pieces of wood WILL sound different. You'd have to be scientifically illiterate to deny it. People say "tonewood is a myth" and then dumb people blindly repeat it. The original "Tonewood is a myth" was in reference to the ads in guitar magazines. I don't recall which company coined the term "tonewood", but the spiel was about them using species of tree that sound better...for some reason. Which IS utter bollocks. The tone is affected by the stiffness, density, etc of the wood. NOT the species of the tree. If a guitar string is attached at each end to an infinite, immoveable mass, then you will be hearing just the sound of a string vibrating in air. Putting anything else between those points, will attenuate energy from the vibrating strings, and it will do so differently at different frequencies, depending on the properties of whatever is holding the ends of the string in place. So yes, "tonewood" is a myth. But yes, the wood does affect the tone. Even the amplified tone. There just isn't a rule that beautiful wood from a 5000 year old tree in a tribal graveyard in Bongo-bongo land, has to sound better or worse than a slab of ash or a couple of sheets of plywood glued together
@@ashscott6068 yet it's been scientifically proven that it doesn't make a difference. 🤦♂️
saying "swamp ash " sounds more rock n roll. therefore the winner!
Difference to me was negligible, especially when you consider how many other factors contribute to the end sound in a real-world scenario. But I give you MASSIVE respect for having gone through so much trouble to give us as honest a side-by-side comparison as could ever be possible. Seriously, setting this up must have been so much work, and I really appreciate it 🙂
Every discussion & demonstration I've ever seen on the subject convinces me that "tonewood" is a ridiculous concept. It _is_ the perfect youtube content though - guaranteed to be controversial, with no real stakes or problematic opinions. Guitar players are a superstitious bunch, and tone is a strange sorcery arising from arcane incantations and mystical spell components.
Most of them are subtle differences indeed. The crowd wont notice and even the best ear wont notice on a blind test. Still there are part of the character, response and overall DNA of every instrument. You might notice how certain tracks on a daw might sound "better" to you with one instrument over the other. Another thing to notice is that this type of videos get compressed and eq by youtube. This is something that you really have to test by yourself with your own setup.
@@erikwellerweller8623 I could definitely hear the differences also.
@@mallninja9805 This actually is one of the things I greatly appreciate about TH-cam. It removes the sorcery aspect for those of us that are willing to be objective. That has been useful for me on numerous occasions, and I laugh at some of the stuff I used to believe just because some musician I respect said it. On the other hand, this niche comparison is helpful for those of us that are building a tele and need to first choose the body wood. Sorcery.or no sorcery, I still have to make that decision, along with a number of other decisions. I'm sure Warmoth gets asked for advice on body wood choices every day they are open!
@@juankyman8404 Well said. Ultimately it is only the Player that need be inspired by the instrument they are playing. Be it color, age, scale length or whatever, whatever works to inspire the player is what is important.
Bro, that had to be so much work, but it made an very high quality, accurate comparison! Thank you for taking the time to make this, first vid of yours I've seen. Subbed for your dedication to quality content!
Aaron, that was STELLAR work. Best video on TH-cam covering this touchy subject.
to my ear Ash is the brightest, Alder is the warmest, and Mahogany sits somewhere in the middle.
Awesome job! Removed all variables except the tone woods. I don't think I've seen anyone be that precise. Excellent!
Done as it should be, a controlled experiment with minimal variables - great job!!
I'd love to see this done again to include all of the core wood choices you offer: Basswood, Maple, Walnut, Roasted Swamp Ash, Roasted Alder, Poplar, Black Korina, and again Mahogany, Ash and Alder - it'd be the go video for choosing a tone wood :-)
Thanks for this video. I have a trebly tone naturally from my hands. I became a believer in body tone wood differences years ago. I had a very thick Alder bodied guitar with a rosewood fretboard that has always had fat thick tone even under my hands. I bought a new very thin super strat guitar that had the same pickups as my thick alder guitar but a swamp ash body. That night I brought along my new baby to my gig and noticed my solos in particular sounded very very bright compared to my other alder guitar and convinced myself it was in my head until my bass player came over and said that my new guitar was like a buzz saw. I eventually set up different profiles for the different tones. Years later, I switched the swamp ash body out for mahogany body I got in trade and "bam" the tone changed to a more mid bass heavy thick tone with all of the same electronics. Several years after that, I learned about the "tonewood" debate and went "Oh yeah!".. Having said that most of the differences can be compensated for with the amp or pickup selections., For teles and country, I lean towards swamp ash, for hard rock and humbuckers I am a mahogany, limba or alder guy.
Literally one of the best videos on youtube. Thank you!
I have a pretty decent ear, and after watching this, I will be choosing ash over alder for all future teles. To each their own though! Thanks again!
great video. this this the kind of comparisons worth watching. 3 of the most popular wood types for guitar and exact conditions to test sound. most people just don't/can't do that type of testing. great stuff. for me, on the swamp and alder i didn't hear much difference on the clean but once distortion was added, the swamp was more warm and creamy. the alder had more mid with distortion. the mahogany was brighter and brittle clean and had more crunch when distorted.
anyway, that's how it sounded to me. this video was very useful and anyone considering these wood options for their next build should watch this.
I was happy that your editing made the swaps quite seemless... it's the first time I've seen this in comparison videos. Because of this I was able to hear those subtle differences, just like you heard. Thanks
As always a real useful and interesting vid, not only does Warmoth do parts properly, they do tests properly, thank Aaron!
That’s the best and most accurate comparison I’ve ever seen or heard. Excellent job. I preferred the ash. I was pleasantly surprised on the mahogany. The Alder was thinner and third place, even though I liked it. For my taste, the ash took the sonic qualities of the other two and gives you the best of both worlds.
Agreed!
The snob in me wanted the Alder to win. The Ash surprised me.
What also surprised me was the bodies of original sort-after Fender Teles. They are made from ‘humble’ Pine. Now then!
The ash was really musical to me. It really vibed with the Tele voice to me.
This is one of THE BEST demos of how the wood of a body effect tone. Massive differences. I love the Swamp Ash for cleans, but the Alder for the dirtier overdriven tones.
"Massive" differences? Ever heard of the term "confirmation-bias"?
If you don't actualy _look_ at the video and just go by ears; your verdict would've turned out quite differently.
@@dildojizzbaggins6969 I did do this blind and the difference is pretty obvious to me when all three are played in rapid succession. My wife who was across the room could also easily identify the differences as well. The point is, just because you can't differentiate the tones doesn't mean the differences don't exist. Different people have different levels of sensory perception. For instance, women have more rods and cones in their eyes than men do so they simply see colors more accurately than I do. It's not a knock on you that you can't hear a difference -- quite a lot can't either. But, you should try to accept the idea that your perception levels aren't the only ones in the world.
@@dildojizzbaggins6969 I'm sorry, but if you don't hear the differences then you're deaf.
@@dildojizzbaggins6969 "massive" is a bit of an exaggeration as the differences represent relatively small EQ changes. The point is that the differences are noticeable to the untrained listener
@@maciejduda5257
Not all ears are the same. I've consistently been astonished in situations like this or testing out different guitars at music stores when tonal differences that were very obvious and pronounced to me went unoticed by friends and bystanders. They would often argue with me and insist there was no difference.
I'm going to have to echo the same sentiments others have shared. This is probably the best tone comparison video out there. This is a good starting point for deciding what you want your sound to be like.
Slight differences, but differences nonetheless. Mahogany is chunkier in the low mids, alder has the most articulate high end and clarity, whereas the swamp ash was direct and immediate. Thanks for making the video as thoughtfully as you guys did
Differences not from wood.
@@Hornet135 Everything else was identical. Even the neck with the frets, tuners, nut and the pickups, pots and bridge. So what besides the body changed between the guitars?
@@221b-l3t Even using the same neck, there’s no guarantee the neck pockets are cut the same. Differences there affect neck angle and thus string height over the pickups.
@@Hornet135 Not by much unless the guitars were very badly made. But what is your argument, wood makes no difference but microscopic differences in shape do? That's in the margin of error once you play the neck bends and the pickup height is not fixed perfectly anymore, plus the strings vibrate so really it's a range of pickup heights the size of the amplitude of the note being played. So even if there is a tiny neck angle difference it's way less than normal flexing during playing, which constantly changes so there wouldn't be a consistent difference between the guitars just each take sounding slightly different. Which is the case anyway because a human can't play the same thing twice exactly perfectly the same.
@@Hornet135 Besides there's a few videos like this and this trend is consistent. It's a small difference but it's there.
The mahogany body sounded just slightly warmer and the alder body had a balanced sound but I could barely hear the differences. I'm saving up money for a Stratocaster build, picking Swamp Ash just for the grain really. Thanks for the video!
Once again...the difference is so subtle, it's not worth people still bothering to fuss over it. I like these videos that prove that.
thanks for the careful, balanced comparison with clear, repeated musical phrases for each setting on each wood type! this answered a lot of questions I had about how these woods contribute to tone. mahogany definitely sounded warmer, something resonant about that in the low/mid frequencies. the alder had an interesting almost flangey sound when distorter, and swamp ash (which I thought would be muddled) seemed just a bit brighter and snappier in tone, especially with the clean sounds.
It only sounded "warmer" because you imagined it did.
@@franknstein4340 or you're not listening enough
@@franknstein4340 Absolutely not. If you use a pair of decent studio monitors, you can easily ear the difference (and note that I don't use the verb "feel") in a blind-eyed test. Also, if you analyze the spectrums, mahogany has clearly a more compact spectrum which translates, indeed, in a warmer sound.
This does nothing but show me the tonal difference between a red, black and green t shirt.
Same same. With some eq settings you can obtain the same sound with the 3 guitars.
This is the first time I have seen and heard a legitimate test of woods compared side by side. I think it definitely revealed noticeable differences between the different woods used. The most distinctive difference that I noticed was with the mahogany body. For my playing style, I prefer the mahogany, than the alder and swamp ash. The differences between the latter woods was not as pronounced, but much more subtle than it was with the mahogany. It would be interesting to see and hear a similar test with additional woods and some exotic woods as well. Thank you very much for the demonstration! Please have an excellent and awesome day! 🙂
Yeah it showed differences that weren't because of the wood.
Fascinating, I liked the Ash body for the cleaner sounds and the Alder body for the distorted sounds!
Same here
Same, actually also liked ash distorted
I'm wearing good headphones and wow, I was really surprised at how much I could tell the difference! I liked the mahogany with the distortion, The alder had a more mellow, almost muted tone that sounded great with clean arpeggios. While the swamp was more sharp. Great job!
1:23 Swamp Ash Bridge 1:33 Alder Bridge 1:42 Mahogany Bridge
To me, Mahogany separates itself the most. Also, it seems to improve all aspects of the tone. Warmth, separation, almost eliminates harshness. But does not diminish the highs. It just seems to add low miss and bass. I’d love to hear it with older fender staggered pole piece pickups and electronics.
You're definitely listening with your eyes. There is just straight up no difference.
@Memu
And You’re not listening at all.
Each time it went from brighter to darker .
Mahogany sounded best with distorted bridge .
Idk if you’re listening on your phone, laptop or have undeveloped ears for frequencies as many guitarists do. But the Differences are obvious t
@@heythere6983 I am a musician and used good quality headphones. You are just listening with your eyes.
@@Memu_my guess he already owns a mahogany guitar. And he says what he believes to back that up
well there *is* a tiny difference, but anyone who thinks it's significant enough, or completely insignificant enough to start arguments are just no bueno.
end of the day just go with what makes you happiest, any tone difference can be dialed in or out with EQ, it ain't magic.
Before even hearing the test. The strict body only part change is awesome.
I built a Strat with a mahogany body back in '89. As a performing musician using mostly a Gibson SG, I really loved mahogany. Having said that I will say that it is really tough to hear the difference in tone between the same guitar of different woods when the guitar is highly overdriven ... and if there is a chance to hear a difference ... it will most likely be heard with the guitar being played clean. On the clean clip with the neck pickup, I heard the most difference between the mahogany tele and the other two. Nice video ... thank you.
Now THIS is how you do a tone test. I hear a difference - but it is extremely small. I'll describe what I hear but these are very very minor differences - I'm writing this after listening to the samples the first time through and before hearing his opinion in the what I heard section or reading any of the other comments. The swamp ash clips all have a beefier low end and a pretty bright top end, and less midrange. The Ash was all top end and high mids, less low end. The mahogany had a midrange component I didn't hear in the other two. That surprised my because I expected the mahogany body to have a beefier low end than the other two.
Interesting. His "what I heard section" pretty much mirrored exactly what I heard and wrote above.
I don’t think I hear any difference. Sometimes I think I can but then I wonder if it’s psychological, I.e the changing of the body on screen triggers a response in my brain.
I’m quite dismayed by this as I feel I have ok ears but now doubting this.
With pitch I’ve done tests and my hearing there seems about average for a musician, according to the literature on the matter.
Nice video, thanks for the shootout. I’m a luthier. My honest opinion? I heard subtle differences. They may make a difference to some people, but to me they were inconsequential. Maybe 5-10% of the sound was affected by the use of the wood. I’d say 90% of tone is pickup selection.
Building guitars, I use wood choice more for weight. Swamp ash and mahogany are great. I love pawlonia. I see no problem with resin!
My hu,blue opinion.
Ash has more of a transient attack on the high end and punches while alder softens those attacks. Mahogany brings out the low mids more.
Agreed. And I think ash is good at distinguishing the note of each string. The more gain is used, the more it will become noticeable. To my understanding, that's because ash is solid and dense, so less transient attacks are "absorbed".
Spot on
This is the best sumarisation I've found. Each would be best for specific use cases.
@@PJSOFTagreed, the swamp ash really has clarity in the highs and minds mid cuts through and also mains great bottom end... I have a sungkai body solar guitar and from what i have read online (which unfortunately is hard to find info on) - but Sungkai is some form of Indonesian swamp ash I believe. Anyway, whatever it is, it's the best guitar for metal that I have, especially for getting those highs and mids to seemlessly cut through the lows and the bass, giving great distinction between notes and chords.
Does anyone have any info on Sungkai for electric guitars as I prefer it's metal tone and clarity even when heavily, heavily distorted, even compared to my esp which is solid mahogany.
Anyway thanks for reading.
Exactly what I hear.
That was a good demonstration. There certainly were slight differences with each body materials, but they all sounded great. Keep on picking!
This is one of the best tonal wood comparison videos.. Loved it
Definitely heard the differences and my observations were very close to yours. I was a skpetic to a point - I didn't think the differences would be that noticeable. Great video!
This is crazy. From my ears, the mahogany body just sounded more resonant.
Without question the mahogany sounded more resonant. Very deep full bodied sound. My pick of the three.
Update: I have since purchased a mahogany body. It should pair well with the humbuckers and i hope it will sound half as good as this.
Uh, me too. Go to their neck shoot out. The mahogany with rosewood fretboard had the same sort of effect.
I’d have to ebony for the board
I liked the Mahogany best, too.
Not crazy. Each sounded unique and in this case the mahogany had more timbre and resonance.
I watched this video maybe 10 times already 😂. Keep coming back
2 videos later and it explains why "I've always wanted an Alder Tele with a Rosewood board (instead of or in addition to my longtime '52 RI Butterscotch Tele) , and explains why I just built one - from parts including a very very old Warmoth body - and I knew from the moment I strung it up that it was going to be the best Tele I've ever had, and it is.
I would like to see a comparison between the roasted bodies and the regular bodies. And would like to see a roasted mahogany body.
The dryer the wood the more open the mids & highs, & the more attack 2.
I have never seen a roasted body I will have to look that up I have seen roasted necks.
Roasted beef is good to what some carrots and potatoes 😋
Great experiment and video by the way. Congratulations!!
having my first guitar customized soon. this was very helpful!
Honestly, they were very subtle, 1 thing I really noticed, Telecaster and Stratacaster - Body doesn't mean much unless you are a pro master level player with higher level equipment to make the nuances more pronounced to make a difference, Now partial hollow body or LP style guitars the wood actually seems to make a pronounced difference from the get go. From what I gather its due to the shape and amount of wood used, obviously ANY hollow instrument wood will matter 100% more for the reverberations through the chamber.
Yeah, I hear a very subtle difference. Emphasize the word subtle. I’m listening using AKG k712’s. I’m sure playing in person the difference would be more noticeable. But the takeaway is that the differences aren’t as pronounced as most would believe…
To me, the alder body had an overall compressed sound, without any kind of mid scoop. After decades of playing Fender and Fender-style basses with swamp ash bodies and alder bodies, I’ve come to prefer alder bodies for just this reason.
Swamp ash to me has fat lows and crisp sounding highs, but there’s typically a bit of a mid scoop, which doesn’t work for me in live playing. But for recording, the more lively tone of swamp ash is great.
The mahogany body’s tone blows my mind. It wasn’t at all what I expected. I only own one bass with a mahogany body, which is an Alembic. Alembic’s electronics are very versatile and responsive. I’ve always assumed the pickups and electronics outweighed the body wood’s contribution to tone. Now I’m thinking differently.
To my ears on the video, the mahogany body had a little more of everything. Very impressive.
Interesting as I found the Alder had a scopped mid in this test.
If I take ash as the base, alder had more 'twang' but was more limited in range - must work great in a band context- , and mahogany had the best lows, more pronounced and warm, at the cost of some of the high-end.
That being said, I agree that the difference was quite subtle, and I required a couple of takes to denote each wood. Maybe the neck's wood have a more dramatic effect.
They’re all the exact same.
Tone wood is a myth.
Very well said... I couldn't agree more.
What an amazing job you've done here mate!
I really didn't think there would be much discernable difference but there was. I'm pleasantly surprised Thanks for the vid.
Great test. Honestly I can't tell enough of a difference to explain the obsession that people have about it.
Straight forward and well done! Best tonal wood comparison I've seen! Thanks so much in taking the time to do this! Well done! Liked and Subbed!
This test reaffirms the stereotypes of each wood to me - swamp ash scooped, alder more upper mids, mahogany more lower mids (I'm oversimplifying as I heard other different nuances). They all sound great, can all just be EQ'd to personal taste.
I personally loved the distorted bridge pickup on swamp ash, great classic hard rock tone. Made me want to bash out some big Malcolm Young chords.
I had the same takeaway as you did all all across the board.
@S JK eyes closed, the original comment seems precise, although Ash and Alder sound fairly similar
Ash sounded bigger to me, Alder seemed kinda thin and boring, mahogany I noticed more upper mids
Really appreciate the lengths you went to create this video! Definitely found my findings between the woods to be similar to yours
definitely heard differences but nothing that couldnt be shifted away with a slight adjustment in eq
I buy ash bodies because I like the way they look. That's it.
@Leon thecat "Immune"? Nope. A DiMarzio Tone Zone, for example, will retain most of its qualities going from body wood to body wood but will sound tighter in Swamp Ash vs Mahogany, muddier in Mahogany vs Swamp Ash, more compressed in Maple versus Alder etc when all other variables gave been taken out of the equation (shape, construction, neck material, pickup height, string guage/action, room acoustics etc). I can attest to "immunity" not even being the case with ACTIVE pickups (an 85 sounds clearer in Ash vs Mahogany etc). There's a fair bit of bullshit in the instrument world and it's good to call it out, but you can clearly hear differences in this video.
@Leon thecat Preconceived TERMS, yes. It's how the English language works. How else would I be able to describe subjective experiences of sound to somebody else without a (largely) uniformly-understood glossary of terms to base it off of? It's far easier to say "muddy" than "too much in the 200-350hz range". I've done plenty of blind A/B/X testing my life (guitars, amps, mp3 vs WAV...), presicely to get rid of the confirmation bias aspect. I've had friends test me while I wasn't looking etc. When watching THIS EXACT VIDEO, I didn't look at the screen. I'd be deeply concerned if you failed to hear any differences in this video and that the differences weren't consistent across examples. Maybe Aaron had the door closed every time he played the mahogany guitar?
@Leon thecat You seem to be avoiding all of the pertinent questions. Did you hear a difference in this video? If so, how do you explain them- in particular the consistency of tone change from wood to wood? (I actually know, but I'll assume you've studied both sides of the argument). As I said earlier, I conducted this test blind. You can choose to disbelieve me, of course, but it's the truth. If you do the same and still can't hear differences then I'll be surprised.
@Leon thecat Negligible, yet you heard a difference nevertheless. Good. Did you do the test blind, write down notes as to the qualities of each example (riff example, not wood example obviously) and what was your listening setup? (Smart phone; PC w/desktop speakers; run through a hifi setup etc).
That swamp ash looks amazing unpainted. With just a little clear coat to seal it it’d be gorgeous. Also. Thanks for making this video! Difference is very subtle but definitely the mahogany has a little something in the mids.
Fascinating! I could clearly hear the differences. The way I'd describe the sounds are;
Swamp Ash - well-rounded, strong Basses, clear but not overpowering tops.
Alder - thinner generally, with weaker Basses, scooped mids, very bright tops.
Mahogany - generally fatter sound, strong Basses & mids, clear but mellower tops.
100% agree. I prefer Alder bodies for bass guitars, especially P bass as it's a bit more "woody" sounding and the bass end doesn't get as "tubby" as Swamp Ash and generally seems to sit better in the mix. That's what I was expecting to hear and that's what I heard.
The Mahogany - I wasn't sure what to expect, but being a denser wood it made sense that it had a fatter sound, but really clear as well.
You are on point here. This is exactly how I would describe it.
I'd say Mahogany, as the hardest wood gets tastier higher pitch vibrations - seems logical.
But it's the heaviest wood too.
Basically the same, I'm glad this I came across this test.
Exactly. There are slight differences, but nothing that you couldn't compensate for with _small_ EQ adjustments on your amp/pedals lol.
@@niclastname its more about feel than tone, you can eq the highs in but they wont feel the same
@@Cpmnk yeah but nobody argues that woods don't feel different. The debate is that there are still tons of people who think that woods make an amplified electric sound significantly different.
Plus these are completely unfinished wood, so even these slight differences are exaggerated compared to one that's finished.
@@niclastname actually depending they can sound pretty different, depends on the ear
I thought alder sounded the most different. Swamp ash and mahogany sounded the best to me. All sounded good though. But I did hear a different
Another really cool comparison. I agree with trevordeke. So many noodle crazy players. That was really straight ahead and clear. I loved that Alder body tone. It did seem to have a brighter sound to me. As you mentioned in the video you did comparing the F hole, vs chambered vs solid Tele's - it's so true that it's really difficult to discern what you're feeling and hearing, especially when you're playing a guitar unplugged, just to see how it feels, snaps, etc.
And no 2 teles play/feel the same way. I recently tried a Tele parts-caster at a local guitar shop in my city, and it had a 51' thick U shaped MIM neck. The guitar played so well. It was snappy, bright, immediate, focused and acoustically loud. Very easy under the fingers. I don't know if the tone could be attributed to the thicker neck, or just that particular piece of maple that it was made from - on that body. But it felt really good to play, and I think that's really important to most of us.
The reason you hear differences in tone is because you’re in the room with the guitar hearing the acoustic properties of the bodies. We’re hearing the recorded pickup sound. There was zero difference between the various bodies. Tonewood applies to acoustic instruments but has little impact on an electric guitar when played through an amp or recorded.
the differences are so subtle that a small change in EQ would completely negate them.
Then you might need some ear training my friend :)
@@iggycardozo maybe you could use some unconscious bias training?
To be fair, I think it’s as much about EQ as it is about how the note decays.
@@LukeEsther Electric guitarists should not be fiddling with EQ. Too many pedals, too many gain stages, too much EQ, and what you’re left with is an abomination of synthetic tone that hardly resembles a guitar. Turn all that shit off any enjoy the differences in wood. If you still can’t hear it, maybe music isn’t for you.
if this difference can be heard just in the body, imagine the difference you will hear in the neck!!!
Many thanks for this video. The result surprised me. And therefore your "scientific" videos are very appreciated and very valuable.
Wow, that's what I was waiting for! Very interesting, thanx a lot, Aaron.
Actually no big surprises, except that the difference in sound of the three bodies was smaller than I had expected. Mahogany is my favorite tone wood for guitar bodies. That unique 'bite' in higain sounds simply makes the difference for a great rock'n'roll tone for me.
Thanks for going to the trouble of setting this up. Swamp ash was my favourite with mahogany a close second! A very useful test though.
I own a Warmoth strat body in Swamp Ash. I just love the grain in swamp ash so mine is finished in a clear gloss.
This is a really great comparison thank you so much for creating it for us all. I noticed the differences very clearly between all 3 guitars. The Mahogany body was the most phat and solid sounding to me, and the Alder seemed more thin and less character. Overall I would go with the Swamp ash as I think it was the most unique and interesting sounding with its own distinct character to the tones.
I'll bite. Here's my take.
Ash: Defined low end, soft high cut.
Elder: Contoured low end, warmer high end.
Mahogany: Beefy low end, clear and crisp high end.
They all sound great. What a great demo too because the player was so consistent. I would say after reading some comments that the mahogany was more resonant for sure. You can hear the same behaviour in a slinky tube amp reverb tank. After countless hours of EQ'ing guitars you discover that these frequencies, while desireable, can get in the way if too present. This is why I prefer the Swamp Ash. To me it's just the perfect blend.
Did you just hear the test???? LOLZ
Do you think swamp ash would pair well with a mahogany neck?
@@kamilkashaf2766 Do you think it will make any bit of difference? The tests confirms it really doesnt matter.
@@cbinsyd I'm an audio engineer and yes I can hear a difference.
@@cbinsyd Just from the video I can tell that the Swamp Ash has a relatively neutral response across the spectrum, the Alder has slight midboost around the 1.5k hz region and the mahogany has something funny going on in the 250hz to 500 hz region. If you can't tell a difference, good for you. I'm anal about it.
thanks for making the sacrifice for science! This is the best comparison video I've seen on TH-cam!
Putting on headphones makes a world of difference. Also confirms that I love swamp ash. It sounded the most open and full to my ears, similar to what you said. EQ could get them all sounding very similar, but it's still cool to hear a good example of what the differences are. The tone wood opinion wars will rage on, but I'm sure many will find this helpful when thinking about their next instrument.
The expected: in electric instruments, the sound changes a little, but not enough to worry about it. I think there are things that we give less importance to, and yet they make bigger differences, such as the strings, the adjustment of the guitar, the way of playing, the pot levels, etc ...
The speaker cabinet.
@@HCkev yeah! That makes a great difference too!
Outstanding! I have been looking for a comparison like this for a while. What I heard was the Mahogany was as expected more pronounced at the low and mid-range frequencies with the high frequency tones sounding a bit attenuated. The Alder body left much to be desired in the low frequency range, seemingly flat frequency response in the mid-range frequencies, but twangy at the high-frequency tones. The Swamp Ash was the more "metal sounding" body wood with accentuated low-frequency response and flat high-frequency tones, but it sounds like the mid-range frequencies were naturally scooped. In conclusion, if you're going for the rock n' roll classic tone then definitely mahogany; whereas, the Alder body seems best for more lead style tones, and the swamp ash is best for chunky modern metal (especially drop-tuned tones), but definitely lacks the tonal character needed for articulation for lead tones heavily reliant upon mid-range frequencies. Great video dude, and extremely helpful. I'm 41 years old, and I've owned more guitars than I can count, but I've never been able to purchase a pre-built guitar that had EVERYTHING I wanted for MY TONE. So, I decided to spend the cash to get my custom build, and while I was already leaning toward swamp ash, this video made it clear that is the best choice for me.
Absolutely. I agree. It was like performing a 1dB frequency sweep across the spectrum while mixing to find the frequencies you want to accentuate or diminish. The funny thing is that I thought each sounded better than the others while in its element. Depending on what you were playing, I tended to prefect a different wood. Now I’m going to have to buy even more guitars. Lol Thanks for doing the comparison.
This is all fine and good...but we’re missing some key details. Where was Venus in proximity to Jupiter for one. Come on!
Ha ha, but don't fall for all that pickup hype. You can dunk the pickups in snake oil by the light of a full moon, but they all are designed to sound the same, with moderate high-end cutoff.
12.5 °
definitely heard the differences, that was awesome. I like the swamp ash. Well done.
Not fair cause you changed clothes, and that affects the vibration and density of different materials..... hahaha just kidding
Sounds same if not it’s pretty close
Ha! It's true: I did change shirts. I also took a shower between days two and three. I'm pretty certain I used the same hair-care products all three days, but I will have to check my scientific journals...
Dude, listen through headphones - there are major differences in each type of wood!
@@hannahpumpkins4359 "...major differences..."... Come on...
@@hannahpumpkins4359 there are differences, of course :
For my taste i don't like the trebly and in a certain sense thinner tone of Alder, the Swamp Ash seems to be a middle way, good , and i prefer the enhanced mid basses response of mahogany, in fact in addition to the old Yamaha SG800 i bought another les paul-like model, Ibanez artist ar 2619 prestige that has mohagany body + maple (top and neck) ebony fretboard... a nice tone balance for what i need and long sustain.
Hannah Cwik If I need headphones ,there can’t be a MAJOR difference
A Good Review. I seem to think the Mahogany was warmer and the Swamp ash Brighter and the Alder was in the Middle.
Right on!
Good assessment. I thought the same thing
Thank you. Your test was a lot work and analysis. I’m also sorry to say that my loss of hearing over my 74 years couldn’t hear an appreciable difference in the woods.
Agreed with you 100% Aaron! I could hear it all thru my iPhone X. Interesting how mahogany was the fattest sounding one. Thanks for the demo! Well done
Swamp ash: Bright clean
Alder: Bright, tight, pronounced
Mahogny: Darker, richer but not as pronunced
Thats what I hear - VERY nice test - thank you ;)
nonsense... close your eyes next time.
@@smokinjoe4709 nonsense... open your ears next time.
@@AdjecantHero Sorry to burst your bubble but they sound identical. Close your eyes and do it again.
@@smokinjoe4709 I record music 3 days a week. I listen and mix a lot. I play the piano and sing myself. If you seriously CANNOT hear the difference you should not even be debating it. A lot of people can easily hear the difference. If thats not enough for you then play the sounds in a music program and compare the EQ. At that moment you will realise your ears are being fooled and science has won through recorded waves. Simple really........when sound waves travel through material - that material will affect the waves - imagine sound going through solid steel, glass, water, really soft wood and extremely hard wood.
@@AdjecantHero Run it through an analyzer and view the out put wave - they are identical. A non conductive material cannot affect an electromagnetic wave.
I heard the same thing and agree with your analysis of the sound. Such an excellent video.
Absolutely agree with all of the sound differences you pointed out, great comparison! I definitely hear the lower mid "mud" in one of my guitars which is made from mahogany!
Yeah, but it doesn't come from the wood.
Didn't know swamp ash could sound so good!
After reading an article in Guitar player magazine years ago,about an artist who only played Strats in the neck position.I tried it,along with laying down the pick,and going knofler/buckingham mode. My playing improved DRASTICALLY!Finger picking/plucking(also claw hammer)changes everything!
IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT WOOD, IF YOU JUST MOVE THE AMP EQ KNOB A BIT, OR CHANGE THE GUITAR POTS TO A DIFFERENT OHM VALUE IT WILL HAVE A BIGGER DIFFERENCE. Those LITTLE difference can be easily negated by your Amps EQ .... so You can make your Alder sound like mahogany, vice versa
1
The Mahogany definitely has more bottom and thickness. No question. The swamp 2nd and Alder brightest.
it's obvious even if you don't look at the video
Agree with Santella! Listened w Sony noise cancelling headphones..
Differences were definitely there but subtle. Great job
Finally, there is a video that shows the difference, well done!
Surprisingly, the Alder has pretty obviously less bass resonance than swamp ash and mahogany.
I thought it may be similar to Ash but not even close... the difference is too obvious
And the mahogany is not that "dark" or muddy in our stereotype but actually has a fair amount of clear high-end.
To my ear, Swamp Ash won.
Top comment!!!
Listening in studio monitors I could clearly hear a difference. Not insane amounts, but small differences.
Your company is awesome and I love your comparison videos. I've designed and built some of my own guitars from wood blanks etc. and I've found that there are subtle differences in tone woods but the bigger difference in tone is what woods you use with what type of pickups. This is probably why Gibson uses humbuckers with mahogany and Fender uses single coils with alder and ash on Strats and Tele's. In my opinion people that say there's no difference in tone woods are not listening through good enough speakers or headphones ( not ear buds) or just don't have great hearing to begin with.
Great test, thank you! The difference was small, but noticable and identifiable. Some argue that pickups and amps matter, not those small differences. Let’s remember that pickups pick up those small differences and amplifiers amplify them...
Yes, it's like the first pre-amp tube in your amplifier. It sets the character for the rest of the signal.
Thank you. As with the companion video which compared chambered and solid bodies, the difference between these woods is negligible and appears to be more noticeable with overdrive because the overtones are amplified somewhat and there’s some sort of compounding going around. I think the good news is you can make guitars with just about any good quality of a certain type of wood.
Wait...there IS a video comparing chambered and solid bodies? YES!!!! I (and others in here) were commenting that he should do that video hahaha! Going to find it now.
This is the video tha we have been waiting, perfect
Minor differences, but...... only minor. To me, they aren't so different that I would absolutely have to have one over the other, especially when you consider different pickups, pots, amp, strings, neck, etc etc etc. But yeah... they do sound different. But I liked all of them.
Its subtle. Extremely subtle. The wood isn't going to make the guitar not sound like what it was built to be. IE, A Tele is going to sound like a Tele. A strat will sound like a Strat. An LP will sound like an LP. Design and electronics will always make a bigger difference. That said, for driven sounds I prefer the Mahogany. The added lower mids and the fact that it seems to add to the same harmonic range as the OD from the amp makes it seem a little more muscular than the others. The Alder would probably be best all around and sounds clearer. But I feel like the Mahogany would push through a mix a little easier without the extra low or high frequencies of the other woods.
Exactly what I needed to know, presented very well!
The swamp ash sounded consistently superior to my ear and taste with good dynamics, round bottom and clear highs, and nice sustain.
Followed by the mahogany which sounded a bit louder, chonkier, and aggressive.
Alder just sounded flat and lifeless vs the other two.
Great controlled shootout, thanks for doing it.
Mahogany definitely has more attitude in the tone regarding Volume. I will say however, i feel the difference is more felt than heard however. Mahogany feels so much more resonant to me personally.
For real. My left hand on the neck of my Les Paul feels the same growl that's coming out of my amp.
@@MotivationAdonis OMG you sneaky little troll ! their is no such thing as a nonce ! they don't exist .
Anyways you don’t know that the sound difference is from the wood
The problem with statements such as "Mahogany definitely has more attitude in the tone regarding Volume", is that woods are like humans, everyone is different.
Mahogany and sub species of it, are grown virtually all over the world in vastly different climates and ground conditions.
Are we talking old growth Cuban mahogany or plantation mahogany grown in Indonesia?
An acoustic guitar builder will tell you that two trees of the same species growing next to each other will sound different when chopped up and made into guitars, even wood from the same tree will have different sound characteristics.
If nothing else the variation in trees of the same species makes the whole tonewood thing just plain silly.
Ask a cork sniffing Gibson Les Paul aficionado whether his $100K late fifties guitar is made from Honduran or Cuban mahogany and he won't be able to tell you because Gibson bought both types in that era and never kept records of which guitar used which mahogany.
Ash or Fraxinus has up to 65 different species, grown all over the world, any ash tree that is dragged out of, or growing near a swamp is called 'swamp ash' regardless of which species of ash it belongs to, or where it's grown, they're all probably going to sound a little different, how does one identify, 'true' swamp ash?
Here's a story about Alder, when Leo Fender built proper paint facilities in his factory, he looked around for a cheaper wood than Ash, because he was going to start painting all his guitars, and didn't need a nice looking wood anymore because no one was going to see it, he went to Alder because it was CHEAP, no other reason.
@Gevalt And the type of mahogany.