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What kind of wood is a Fender electric guitar made of?
What are tone woods on a Fender guitar?
Are Fender guitars made of basswood?
What Wood is used in acoustic guitars?
What wood does Fender use?
Are Fender guitars made from ash?
When you’re looking over the specs of a Fender electric guitar or bass, one of the first things you’ll see listed is the kind of wood the body is made of. And with few exceptions, two mainstay woods have been used throughout Fender history for fashioning electric instrument bodies — alder and ash.
- Maple Neck
- Ash and Alder as The Main Woods For Guitar Bodies
- Properties of Ash
- Properties of Alder
- End of Mass Production of Ash Guitars
- Adapting to The Situation and Finding New Woods
Almost all models, with a few exceptions, have maple necks. In the first decade of production, the necks were all maple. In 1958, a change came about, and Brazilian rosewood was used for the fretboard of the Jazzmaster. A year later, this change would affect the remaining models. Brazilian rosewood was used until 1966 when it was replaced by Indian...
In the early years of their production, from 1950 to 1956, Fender made the guitar bodies exclusively from ash. From 1956 onwards, alder became the primary choice of wood for guitar bodies. It is not clear why Fender decided to include alder wood among the materials used, but the most likely option is that alder was just broadly available at the tim...
Since the beginning of production, Fender has used American ash. It’s a North American tree that grows throughout the eastern half of the continent. It’s commonly used for furniture, baseball bats, and flooring. For guitars is used northern ash or, more commonly, southern ash, which is called swamp ash. It grows in wetter areas, is brighter and lig...
As I have already mentioned, the choice for this wood was probably pragmatic, as alder, which grows throughout the world in temperate zones, was readily available in quantity, geographically accessible, and affordable. There are two main alder species, each geographically available for a different continent. Black alder is found in Europe and Asia....
In 2020, Fender announced that it would no longer use ash for mass production. For sustainability reasons, it will only be used for selected models. Justin Norvell, Fender’s Executive Vice President for Fender products, commented on the topic in an interviewwith Guitarworld, detailing the reasons why Fender is discontinuing mass production of instr...
Fender is currently looking for new species of wood to be used. Pine is being tested and has appeared on several models, being quite popular. And other woods are being looked at.The company continues to approach it pragmatically as Leo Fender used to do—he simply took what was available. Today, Fender still uses woods that grow fast and are quickly...
- Jeff Owens
- Mahogany. As a guitar top, dense mahogany has a solid, punchy tone with low overtone content and good high-end response. Mahogany back and sides often emphasize bass and treble, with more overtone coloration and a “woody” sound (as opposed to the more metallic sound of, say, rosewood back and sides).
- Maple. A heavier, flat-sounding and often beautiful wood of which there are several species, maple is used in acoustic guitars because of its sonically “transparent” qualities, which let the tonal character of the top ring through without significant tone coloration from the back and sides.
- Sitka Spruce. One of the most popular woods for acoustic guitar tops. Sturdy and lightweight, it’s known for imparting clear, powerful tone.
- Red Spruce. Highly desirable for steel-string acoustic tops because of its rich, full, clear and loud tonal quality.
- What types of woods are used for guitars? Not all woods are suitable for use in all parts of a guitar. Spruce, for example, is often used for tops in acoustic guitars (“spruce top”) but is not an ideal material for electric instruments.
- Maple. Maple is a very hard type of wood with good tonal qualities and good sustain. Guitar necks are traditionally made from the dense wood of maple, in part because of its strength, and in part, because the material can highlight and amplify the wood in the body.
- Mahogany. Many guitar and bass bodies are made from Mahogany. There are 49 types of Mahogany, but many are practically extinct because of the wood’s popularity for furniture and musical instruments, and the types used today are not the same as the Mahogany used in guitars in the 1940s or 1950s.
- Basswood. Basswood comes from Linden trees, and it is soft and easy to work with. A side effect of being soft is that it also dents easily. Because it doesn’t have much of a grain or color, it’s most commonly used on instruments that have an opaque paint-job, though this isn’t always the case (as in the photo above).
Alder: full and rich, with fat low-end, nice cutting mids, and good overall warmth and sustain. Alder is generally considered to be one of the "traditional" Stratocaster body woods. Ash: exhibits a "snappier" tone with a bright edge, but with a warm bass and long sustain.
Today we will be having a look at two of the most popular, specifically for the bodies of Fender guitars; ash and alder. ASH. In the formative years of Fender, specifically from 1950 to 1956, the tone wood of choice for most (if not all) of the instruments produced by Leo Fender was ash.
Maple is a hardwood and is usually lacquered, creating a hard, slick surface to fret on, which many players prefer. Rosewood is softer to the touch with a warmer tone. Ebony is a premium wood found on high-end guitars, and is preferred by some players for its silky, fast feel.
