Wood talk: Alder

Alder is a medium-weight wood which churns out a beefy midrange & an excellent low-end response. Its highs are rather bright, often masking the other frequencies when it comes to guitar amplification. This tone wood is synonymous to Fender's wood preferences because of the manufacturer's bold decision to make it a comprehensive substitute for ash in the early years of its production history. Much of the glorious Fender top end snap is attributable to this wood which enhances the single coil pickup performance.

We note Fender's use of solid colour finishes for their alder bodied instruments due to the grainy nature of the wood which are bland to say the least. Fender reserves majority of its transparent overcoat for the ash bodied models which are visually more attractive (but maple is the standard to beat when it comes to attarctive wood grains).