Alder Maple question

[12monkeys]

New member here but long time follower! I've had trouble finding an answer to this seemingly simple question - is there a good reason to not combine a maple board with an alder body?? I have a few guitars, all with rosewood boards, and would like a maple board guitar after playing one occasionally at my local shop. But rather than get a new guitar, I thought I'd switch out the neck of my MIM tele (which doesn't have the prettiest board anyway) - only I've found that almost no one describes this combo on any forum. Based on what I've read about alder bodies and maple necks separately, I'm guessing there might be a risk of too much upper mid emphasis (perhaps a problem through my AC15). Or are we talking barely noticeable differences? Am I making too big a deal of this? Thanks in advance!

 

[boris bubbanov]

Welcome!

No good reason. Unless you're "in the business". Or are super conscious of not hurting the tender feelings of some people.

People who assemble guitars often have stashes of one piece maple necks, and of rosewood board maple necks.

And they have stashes of ash bodies and stashes of "all other types" of bodies.

And usually these stashes are of the same size, all four basic "classes".

If you pair a lot of alder bodies with one piece maple necks then you end up with a residue or surplus of ash bodies and rosewood boarded maple necks. Which by tradition only do not belong together. They probably were OK at one time but we've gotten used to it not being a proper match, like no white shoes or accessories before Easter.

I've got to line up the project necks and bodies and I have an inventory issue if I put alder with a maple neck, but you probably don't.

I guess there are also people whose hair bursts into flame when we do something different. Maybe I would put the ash with the maple and the alder with the rosewood just to be polite to them. Not much of a reason.

 

[JD0x0]

is there a good reason to not combine a maple board with an alder body

Yes. Here's my reason. It's an extremely common combination so do something different.

 

[12monkeys]

Ha! This is great - just what I needed. Thank you!

 

[oldfish]

try it you can always change back if you don't like it.welcome to the forum

 

[boris bubbanov]

I just realized I have a lot more alder/maple builds than I thought I did:

I think what happened was, a lot started with rosewood boards necks, then those necks migrated over to bodies with mahogany and other exotic woods, maple caps and so on, as more batches of "Bone" maple necks arrived from Tommy Rosamond (USACG).

Btw the rosewood board doesn't sound different so much as it feels different. Open pores provide someplace for Southern Sweat to go; maple does not. But a finished maple 1 piece neck gets less fret sprout IMO and is more user friendly late in a long cold winter.

 

[hellopike]

Am I missing something? I thought alder body with maple neck was a pretty common combination that Fender utilized often...?

 

[BryMelvin]

I have several oem fender and squier strats with this combo. There's nothing wrong with it.

 

[sjtalon]

Oh man, that's a hornet nest to kick !


Anyway, first off, don't think of sonics, or tone, or any of that.

It's like a guy spec'ing out options with a new car purchase.Ya get it, how you want it.


NECK- pick one of two, in whatever order floats your boat:

1) The one that looks the best with whatever body color you are using. Rosewood board is killer with some things.
2) What plays the best in YOUR HANDS.

BODY-

Electric geetar.............ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, wood don't matter.

1) If it ain't painted so that you can see the wood, then use whatever you want or can get a hold of species wise, or budget wise.
2) If you are going to have it where you can see the grain, ash is awesome, but some alder can be a good looker too................YOUR GEETAR, YOUR CHOICE.

Other than how much talent the person playing an electrified geetar has, the pickups and amp are 99.99999999% of the tone anyway.


.02 and such as.

 

[12monkeys]

Am I missing something? I thought alder body with maple neck was a pretty common combination that Fender utilized often...?

It appears you are right on with that thought. On other forums (and google!) you'll mostly find info about alder/rosewood and ash/maple teles. This is why I came here - has been an enlightening thread and I am grateful for all of the feedback. Thanks!

 

[Jimmy Owen]

My strat is alder/maple. Works just fine for me.

 

[teleamp]

Wood reacts like we do... one mans trash is another mans treasure... you will have to try it to find out for sure...

 

[teleamp]

I just realized I have a lot more alder/maple builds than I thought I did:

Just realized this was bb, I'm sure you have more boris, just open a few more cases...

 

[jvin248]

.

I find maple necks more stable during temperature and humidity swings than maple-rosewood necks.

You are really asking about 'tone wood' which makes some people's "hair bursts into flame" as noted previously. Go on youtube and search for 'cement guitar' and listen to the videos, then find the 'cardboard guitar' that Fender did out of shipping boxes. Then slap your guitar parts together and get playin'.

.

 

[Owenmoney]

My desert sand Baja is alder/maple and so is my surf green/maple strat.
My Baja is my number one and I love it. Just rock it, it's a great combination !

 

[Owenmoney]

Boris has a bunch of desert sand and maple Baja I believe

 

[Archtop Bill]

The Tele in my avatar is maple/alder. I thought this was fairly common.

 

[boris bubbanov]

My desert sand Baja is alder/maple and so is my surf green/maple strat.
My Baja is my number one and I love it. Just rock it, it's a great combination !

Your Desert Sand is a manufacturer goof if it is truly alder. Those are supposed to be ash. Every one of the 7 I have is ash and to the best of my knowledge all the many ones I test drove were also ash.

Not that alder would be bad. They could've made the finish thinner - that would be good.

 

[Owenmoney]

Your Desert Sand is a manufacturer goof if it is truly alder. Those are supposed to be ash. Every one of the 7 I have is ash and to the best of my knowledge all the many ones I test drove were also ash.

Not that alder would be bad. They could've made the finish thinner - that would be good.

I thought all painted bodies were alder, I defer to your superior knowledge on this !

 

[boris bubbanov]

I thought all painted bodies were alder, I defer to your superior knowledge on this !

That's true on some models, and not true on others.

The strongest pattern I know of, is other than sunbursts, Fender has done "trans" finishes on alder bodies only once (Eric Jackson) and never ever does clear or toner finishes over alder bodies.

What FMIC has is two inconsistent or competing "preferences" for how to arrange body woods and body finishes:

a) they like to save the ash for clear and toner and trans finishes; but

b) they like to do every single example of certain models (Highway One Basic, Highway One Texas Tele, 50s Baja, 60s Baja, Classic 50s Esquire/Tele, Classic 60s Tele) in one and only one body wood species.

But these "veneer" bodies (Jimmie Vaughan, MIM Standards) they did were sometimes all alder, sometimes mostly poplar, and sometimes MIM Stds had maple veneers applied to them.

So, basically, one chaotic mess. :^)