What's heavier (usually)? Alder or Ash?

[aarondavis]

I've got an Olympic White American Standard Tele. It's fairly heavy, which is fine. But I'm curious what I have (since I bought it used). I know it's not fool proof, but since I have a somewhat heavy tele, what wood do you think it is?

Thanks

[LaXu]

I'd guess ash but the difference in weight can be quite minor. Really depends on the piece of wood. Your best bet would be to take off the neck and see the bare wood in the neck joint.

[steven.rogers]

My guess is ash as well. I have an American Deluxe Ash Strat and it weighs just under 10 pounds on my bathroom scale. It sounds awesome but it's a beast to hold for a few hours.

[shoe]

Swamp Ash tends to be very light
Alder tends to be pretty light
Ash or Northern Ash tends to be pretty heavy

You can have heavy alder too, though its not that common.

[murkat]

bottom cut of the tree tends to be heavyer, thick, dense compared to top cut of the tree.

[googoobaby]

I had a ~10 lb G&L Comanche and have an <7 lb Suhr Classic. Both are solid swamp ash.

[gkoelling]

Since the guitar is an Am. Std. in an opaque finish, I'll say it's most likely alder. Ash often costs more and is used mainly on transparent finishes.

[Gibfenderson]

Originally Posted by shoe

Swamp Ash tends to be very light
Alder tends to be pretty light
Ash or Northern Ash tends to be pretty heavy

You can have heavy alder too, though its not that common.

What shoe said!!!!

Anderson swamp ash classic- 7.5 lb.

Ibabnez talon northern ash- 10.0 lb.

[aarondavis]

Well, I just weighed it and it's 8.6 lbs. I'm going to guess it's alder... but my son chipped it pretty good for me... looks like ash at that chip. But to me, alder and ash don't look strikingly different.

[lchyi]

Ash is very porous, you should see small dots in the grain. But yea, in between and all the color tones are pretty similar, especially when sealed. From building partscasters, people that have done a few tend to see ash as a lighter wood. You can find ash that's like 3.0lbs for a 1pc body but it's almost impossible to do that with alder.