Mahogany or Ash? (Strat body)?

[JohnSykes]

Just curious, whats your favorite when it comes to a hard rock Strat, between those two? (Not going into "which one is better", just what do you like )

Also, do you prefer maple or rosewood fretboard with either? S-S-S or H-S-S? Floyd Rose or vintage trem?

 

[Stealthtastic]

Mahogany for sure. Ash is more of a wood I would use for a metal oriented guitar.

 

[snowdog]

Mahogany for sure. Ash is more of a wood I would use for a metal oriented guitar.

Fender made plenty of Strat's and Tele's long before Metal came around. Any combination of the above would work.

Here's Warmoth's assement of the woods.

http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Bodies/Op ... tions.aspx


I have 2 of their Strat bodies in Alder and Walnut, both play metal with no complaints.

 

[shgshg]

If the requirement was "hard rock strat" then I'd probably go with ash, rosewood board, S-S-S (with a small bucker in the bridge), decked two-point vibrato bridge - Gotoh 510TS, Fender Am Std, something like that.

 

[Shark Diver]

I like Mahogany, but I use a bright amp. Pickups matched with wood are more important to me than just wood.

 

[C1-ocaster]

Just curious, whats your favorite when it comes to a hard rock Strat, between those two? (Not going into "which one is better", just what do you like )

Also, do you prefer maple or rosewood fretboard with either? S-S-S or H-S-S? Floyd Rose or vintage trem?

I prefer ebony fret boards, but Strats are typically rosewood fretboards or maple. I find the maple boards to feel kinda "sticky" and slow. Rosewood feels great, and ebony feels slickest and fastest to me.

As for the body it depends on what model Strat and what year.
In the late 80's up to the mid 90's Fender highest end/best Strat were the "Strat Plus" guitars.
But they came with different woods depending on construction year.
Up until around 1990 they were made of Alder for the solid colors. There were also natural Ash bodies for the clear/natural finishes.
The "burst" colors were Alder bodies with Ash caps as they were see through burst colors, for better grain for appearance.

Around 1990 there was controversy about cutting down Alder trees so Fender went with Poplar for most regular Strats and even some Strat Plus guitars. Leo Fender had previously used Poplar in past guitars, and they never considered Poplar a "lesser" wood, but most people/customers felt Alder to be a better wood. Fender employees found no tonal differences between Alder and Poplar. You can tell if the body is Poplar by looking in the large routed hole under the back cover. Poplar doesn't route out as smoothly as Alder so you can see raised grain areas or a grainy/stringy surface, if it's Poplar.
Then around '93-94 when the controversy ended Fender went back to Alder.

I LOVE real American Strats. They have their own iconic tone and playability, just like Les Paul's have their unique tones and playability.
My Strat Plus works excellent for metal, hard rock, blues, clean, whatever you want. It's more dependent on amp and settings, and how much of that Strat tone you want to express and hear. That's pretty much how it goes for any great tonally versatile guitar.
My Schecter C1 is NOT tonally versatile. It pretty much lives at 10 or "11", and that's where it likes it.