Thoughts on the poplar body strat

[X2203xman]

Just something I was thinking about this morning.Although it seems it would be a substandard wood,To my ears my two best sounding strats had old Mexican poplar bodys.

 

[Vinsanitizer]

Scott Grove says basswood's the best. He says so right here on the Internets:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU06GH1hxGg]Basswood Guitar Bodies Are GREAT! By Scott Grove - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Biddlin]

Sugar pine has the sweetest name, though.
;>)/

 

[TheSunShinesThrough]

Wood honestly never appeals to me. I buy what I want. At the lowest price possible.

 

[Salsg]

I've heard (and owned) some good guitars with poplar bodies. Works well.

Dan Smith had said even Leo used poplar, so it must be okay, right?

 

[dsn716]

I prefer poplar for strat style bodies. You have to finish it with solid colors because it sometimes has nasty looking mineral streaks in it. But, it has tightly closed grain that is easy to finish with very little, sometimes no filler required.
Plus, it's a bit heavier than alder, which I also like a lot.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

Scott Grove says basswood's the best. He says so right here on the Internets

I used to like basswood, but given Scott says it's a good tonewood, I now have to burn every Ibanez or EBMM I see.

I don't mind the tone of poplar or basswood, but I hate how soft and fragile both are.

 

[poeman33]

It's soft...so that is how it will sound. If that is what you want, then it would be fine. It will dent easy, just like basswood.

There is no way someone can say a certain type of wood is the "best". It comes down to personal preference, plus even bodies of the same type of wood can sound vastly difference. You can only give a general description of them.

 

[Biddlin]

"It's soft...so that is how it will sound."
Maybe, if you put a microphone very close to the body. Plugged in, it makes no difference, because the pickups can't hear. They just react to interruptions of their magnetic field.
;>)/

 

[dreyn77]

personally I've found stuff like bridge mount screws tend to slowly bend over in the timber over time.

I enjoy the sound and the light weight etc...
I've seen raw poplar at the timber yard and it's alright, nothing impressive. I just think they use it cause it's at the lumber yard for sale.

I've had the basswood fender for years and the alder models too but now I've just got a ash bodied strat, and it's accousticly really impressive. I can see why buddy guy has this wood on one of his signature guitars.
you can enjoy it when it's not plugged in. all the other strats are way down in volume and have a dull tone when not amped.

I've notice a unique string vibration comes from the wood type which is amplified by the amp.

personally I recommend you play 20 strats and then choose the perfect strat which suits you.

It's the most mass produced item so you actually have a chance to find the right perfect guitar out of all those models they make.

If you buy an okay strat you'll endup buying more and they'll be okay too and you'll have a bunch of them which you'll notice all their faults and that will annoy you and you'll buy another.

so don't do that, just wait until you find the one that plays great,feels great, has the right hardware and you can accept the finish.

fender doesn't just cheapen the wood on a guitar, the whole thing is cheapened. avoid them you'll end up with a house full of Okay stuff which actually annoys you.

 

[X2203xman]

Some very cool thoughts here.Poplar is soft,it can be ugly,with purple and greenish streaks in the grain.I've had to repair some screw holes,but on the two that I really like,the tone was anything but soft.They both are rowdy and very mid honky in a good way.I still don't think it's the perfect guitar wood,but I'll probably always jump on a cheap poplar body for my strat builds when I see 'em.The emerald ash bore is devastating the ash trees in the eastern US,and here in the MT. state,it seems 75% are already dead.

 

[poeman33]

"It's soft...so that is how it will sound."
Maybe, if you put a microphone very close to the body. Plugged in, it makes no difference, because the pickups can't hear. They just react to interruptions of their magnetic field.
;>)/

Discussion on this subject number 3,253.

 

[blues_n_cues]

poplar like basswood will be light & airey like a warm summer breeze.

 

[anitoli]

Poplar is complete and utter shit. Low density, soft, easily cracked, junk wood. The ONLY reason it is used is because it cheap. You cant even give this shit away to lumber companies or paper companies, they dont want it.
The tree is an oversized weed. It wont even last a year on the ground and it completely rots away.

My question is, if poplar is so good for bodies, why dont they use it for necks?

 

[SG~GUY]

once again you have crystalized my thoughts exactly anitoli!!

but then again we live in a state where these over grown weeds aren't even suitable for fire wood!!

and as far as bass wood goes,.. the Ibanez jem series I believe are bass wood,...I have no idea of the appeal of these guitars,..bass wood reminds me of that jungle wood that all the wood items at pier one imports are made of

Poplar is complete and utter shit. Low density, soft, easily cracked, junk wood. The ONLY reason it is used is because it cheap. You cant even give this shit away to lumber companies or paper companies, they dont want it.
The tree is an oversized weed. It wont even last a year on the ground and it completely rots away.

My question is, if poplar is so good for bodies, why dont they use it for necks?

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

Because when you have a proper species/cut of basswood, it isn't shit?

You see alder in cheap Strats like the Squier Affinities. Why aren't we hating on alder?

 

[66 galaxie]

Poplar is complete and utter shit. Low density, soft, easily cracked, junk wood. The ONLY reason it is used is because it cheap. You cant even give this shit away to lumber companies or paper companies, they dont want it.
The tree is an oversized weed. It wont even last a year on the ground and it completely rots away.

My question is, if poplar is so good for bodies, why dont they use it for necks?

You answered it yourself. Its too soft.
Personally, I think its fine for a body. Its very similar to basswood.

 

[Ghostman]

Poplar is complete and utter shit. Low density, soft, easily cracked, junk wood. The ONLY reason it is used is because it cheap. You cant even give this shit away to lumber companies or paper companies, they dont want it.
The tree is an oversized weed. It wont even last a year on the ground and it completely rots away.

Um please explain the giant Poplar Logging industry we have in the Northwest. I have a hundred acquaintances that would beg to differ with your assessment of Poplar.

 

[anitoli]

Um please explain the giant Poplar Logging industry we have in the Northwest. I have a hundred acquaintances that would beg to differ with your assessment of Poplar.

Gladly. It is due to the fact that you are running out of the more desired varieties due to over cutting. I worked in the lumber industry 20 years ago and poplar was crap wood then as it is now. The only reason places like lowes sell these poplar boards for more than oak is to give the "impression" of quality and make huge profit margins. There is so little fiborus content that they cant use it for paper, only for cerain mixtures otherwise its spruce and fir. They dont even use it for framing and it does grow large enough to cut 2 x 4's, 6's, and 8,s from.

I have dealt with this crap wood and it aint a guitar tone wood by any means. And basswood can come up and share second place. Junk.

 

[Jaymz E]

On a Strat I prefer Alder and Ash on a Tele. I like one piece body's, but it's hard to find them. Fender uses three piece body's on most of their USA Deluxe and Standard series guitars now. In the early 90s Fender was even using Poplar and Bass wood on some Custom Shop models (Sparkle Tele's) and USA standard series. I personally like the Strat as it was in the 50s & early 60s except with a flatter radius and bigger frets.