Luthier Wood Review: Poplar for guitar body blank and unappreciated cheap wood tonewood
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- Опубликовано: 15 сен 2024
- Inside the Luthier's Shop with BigDGuitars.com. Poplar is the read-headed step child of woods. Its not the prettiest of woods but for the price the tone is great.
THE BEST WOOD FOR METAL GUITARS. I WONT EVEN DEBATE WITH ANYONE.
+erszebet Same here :)
what you got?
agree!! i have jackson jdr94 japan, and it sounds killer! POPLAR for Metal
Muhammad Yusuf Is not the Jackson JDR 94 guitar made of basswood? I think so.
91 rhoads pro with poplar body, maple neck thru.... best sounding guitar for metal i've ever played
I like the brightness good for metal head tones
It's a perfect wood for Teles. Also, poplar and laminated pine are great for speaker cabs.
In pine, I use poplar for bracing, because it takes screws well and wont wear down like pine. And they glue together well.
Dont stain pine, just clear coat with a semi gloss and on poplar, use a stain with a reddish tint in it. Makes the greens, look brown.
why for teles? I am looking at a poplar tele right now..trying to find some info...
I have three guitars made from poplar. The telli is stained butter scotch and looks fine , it has just a few small darker spots but nothing really unplesent. The others are like a strat shape with a thin stain and clear coat in a Tabaco burst. For myself, they look just fine and as I mentioned , they do have some darker areas but nothing that glares out . The bonus for me is the weight , after having major back surgery holding a heavy guitar now is out of the question ,and I like the sound. Their Is one thing that is more important to me, they will dint if you don't take care of them , apart from that, I like the timber.
Eddie Van Halens 5150 guitar the one on 1984 was poplar.
*Fender use it for the Classic Series Mustang 65 Reissue. In my opinion is a nice wood with a really nice and marked tone, also durable.*
I am actually a BIG FAN of poplar. The best guitar I have is a poplar strat, it resonates well, sustains well and sounds great. I think is like Alder + a compressor pedal because it is definitely heavier than any alder guitar I have played.
This is what Danelectro used for their necks. It's soft, though. I was building a Danelectro type neck, but I decided to make it out of multiple pieces of wood glued together, with the grain going against itself multiple times.
Poplar is really pretty after it ages and is exposed to the sun. It’s a really pretty color and it los s a lot of green
Pop is great! It's cousin Aspen works well as a top over pop. It brings down the brightness a little, but still lets those bright highs sing. Neither of which are great for staining, but you can find some beautiful pop burl. Just look at some of the ibanez guitars with pop burl tops.
cool... my 1990 US Peavey Destiny is made of poplar (Rock maple neck-through) A great 80's super-strat. Still in perfect shape all these years later.
Tone is in the fingers dood. along with your pick (or fingers) strings and the capacitor on your tone control.... then your amp tubes... or mofsets...
Is it true that poplar gets harder when ages?
The blues Hawk didn't sell because it cost more than most people were willing to pay for it, ( mostly because its not a Les Paul.Having such a popular model as the LP cuts 2 ways)......not because it was made of Poplar..I really, really doubt if many people were/are even aware that the "blues hawk" is made of poplar. Poplar makes really great Fender or Jackson style guitars . And BTW if its not in writing somewhere that your Fender or Jackson guitar body is made of Alder or whatever, it could just as easily be made of Basswood, or Poplar. They source the wood for bodies based on cost and availability as much as anything else and sometimes suitable Ash or Alder is just not available or its not available at a viable price .Do you think Fender is going to stop making guitars ? And considering that they have to buy Maple and Rosewood for necks at whatever the price goes to, it makes sense that they will try to get a deal on body woods .
It did darken not as much I would have thought but did knock down the green a bit. The white wood went a little yellow. I would say it mellowed out poplar. A lot warmer than the fresh cut green before.
Hello Sir, I am a big fan of this series. it is extremely informative and helps me out alot. I was wondering though if can you do an episode on Paulonia (emperess wood, phoenix wood)? I've seen this entire series several times but seem to find or remember this wood being covered.
Thanks,
JL
Thank you for this series. Pam
I just picked up some Thermally Modified Poplar for my first build. Love that smell.
I just won a bid on a poplar guitar body. It is brighter tone. I have a seymour Duncan 78 I am going to drop in it. I will let you know
hello guys
i think there is a big misunderstanding in the guitar builders community and im not blame any one , with so many myths out there its hard to know
there is no any sound to any wood , there is only the sound that a given material , lets say poplar wood , produce when its in a given size. poplar is a very soft hard wood but by definition is still a hard wood , like pine ....
poplar janka hardness is: 540LBf but have an elastic modulus of 1,580,000 LBf/in
hard maple from the other side have janka hardness of 1450 and elastic of 1,830,000,,,
so the poplar is almost 3 time softer but very close from the elastic measurement
when u tap tone a wood most of what you here is how elastic it is and thats why poplar is bright
in average if you will multiple the thickens of your poplar guitar body by 16% youll get a brighter body almost like maple but with an hollowness sound because the poplar is 1.5 times lighter and will be more responsive to the string vibrations
its amazing wood for electric guitar and if you know how to stain it it can be beautiful like mahogany or walnut
physics is the only perspective you need , dont believe to any myth like combine wood (laminating) to get the best sound from all worlds , if you like your neck laminate from mahogany for the mid and rosewood for the lows ist fine but understand that those 2 woods now act like one unit witch is now stiffer then the mahogany and the rosewood and it will be bright
eladtall Pine, along with spruce, yew, cedar, and fir, is actually a softwood. It comes from a deciduous tree.
Put poplar out in the sun for a few hours and buh bye green tint.
"Suntanning" will get you a nice brown tone in the green areas of the
heartwood.
I too have used poplar in the past. I used Behlens Solar Lux straight from the bottle and got pretty good results.
Love poplar when it ages becomes very hard
Got a Tele with Poplar body. My CS 51 Nocatser pups sound on it like a tin can! Throwing away the poplar body and looking to buy an Alder body. No more poplar for me. Thank you.
In Europe Poplar refers to the Populus genus of tree (Aspens, 'real' poplars...). The wood of those is in wide use for pulp, making matches, cheese boxes, pallets, chopsticks, vegetable crates etc.., but not for luthery as it is not strong nor resonnant.
The 'poplar' (Tulip Tree in fact, but also known as Yellow Poplar in the USA where it grows, as adult trees resemble to true poplar in shape ) you are refering to is not a Populus tree but a Liriodendron one, more akin to Magnolia family of trees.
Perhaps this ambiguity in the naming is one of the reasons for the prejudice against it, but there is others: no fancy colors or grain or figure, and Fender and Gibson have not used it (to my limited knowledge) in the Golden Era...
As others have state earlier, it may be very good for bodies with a painting or a veneer.
Fender has used at times, Poplar from the beginning .Fender even used to make bodies out of Pine.
Thanks for this video :) I wonder how many guitarists have paid 1000's of dollars on a guitar, then decided to strip them back to see what wood is under the paint ? if it feels and sounds right, does it really matter :)
Because the pickup doesn't give two sh!ts about the wood it is mounted in. If wood at all.
a three step stain would be good with poplar wood, a light coat of sealer in between each coat of stain maybe even darkening the stain as you get to the third step, with a brush out with a glazing brush, That would look hot
BigDGuitars - can you do a video of Locust as a tonewood and Sumac?
Yeah, give it a shot. Works like mad with Cherry as well.
Am I the only one who thinks the coloration on poplar looks cool, especially with some burl? Ive seen some at a local home depot, and a big ass piece of red oak for $45 at a Lowes, and I was thinking about using the red oak for the center of the body and the figured poplar for the sides, as the oak is very bright and heavy while the poplar is a lot more dark and bland, while ordering a neck off of Warmoth, something like roasted maple or padouk with a wenge or rosewood fretboard. How would this sound? still thinking about pickups.
burled poplar is gorgeous. Ibanez has several burl poplar basses. really nice.
That greenish tint would make a nice burst almost luke old silverburst (green burst) ive never seen that faked or reliced
I have a few late 90's Fender Strats that are Poplar. Does not dent as easy as Alder.
Alder is 590 on the Janka Harness Scale, Poplar is 540 on the Janka Harness Scale....so Alder is harder.
I do like Poplar just fine though. Poplar is also slightly heavier than Alder.
Poplar is harder than Basswood which is used widely in guitar bodies. If someone is willing to settle for basswood then poplar should not throw them off. Douglas Fir is stronger than both and has a tonal advantage of acoustic amplification due to the thick uniformed resin pockets despite this advantage people generally shy away when shaping it because of its tendency to split and splinter and its plain boring look.
I can get the 1 1/2" by 1 1/2" by 3' pieces of poplar at Home Depot. It's great for cigar box guitar necks!👍😎🎸🎶
BigDGuitars -
How do you think Locust and Sumac would sound? Sumac wood in general not used allot I know Sumac is soft Locust is a hard wood.
Where do you buy this kind of wood?
I read once that when CBS bought Fender they started making guitar bodies out of Poplar instead of Alder . That's when the tone changed dramatically in a very bad way. I had a 72 strat that didn't even come close to the original Strats. Not to mention the cheap die cast hardware that CBS used instead of steel.
Thats myth and tall tales...And guitar lore is full of that kind of nonsense. The reason the sound of Fender guitars changed after CBS bought them is because of corporate cost cutting .They started winding pickups with about half the wire..and thats not fairy tales about trees you can measure it with an ohm meter..They also started using hardware that people didn't like, such as tuners with plastic buttons and 3 bolt necks..the combined effect was to really piss Fender customers off .. By the 1970's the pickups were hot again, and they sound great and people got used to the hardware and the 3 bolt necks, but the shitty guitar mythology is still around..that said, you will find that no one is selling CBS era Fenders cheap and players like Jimi Hendrix Ritchie Blackmore and Eric Clapton all played CBS Stratocasters LOL!!!
In 1972 CBS went with die cast bridge/ blocks and tuners on their strats. I never liked the bland tone of my 72 strat vs the pre cbs 1965 strat I owned; huge tone difference. That said, I'll take a 65 over a 72 any day.
I just did a refinishing job on a '65 Mustang and it was a 4-piece poplar body. It had 3 coats of different colored paint. The color of the wood varied from white to yellow to green. I just stained it dark brown and applied a penetrating oil finish. The tone is snappy and bright, it sounded more dull with the thick paint layers. Fender put a 0.050uf tone cap; it can sound dark if the tone is rolled all the way down.
I have a '79 Ash Strat that sounded bright and shrill. I changed the soft die cast bridge and tremolo block to a steel one, removed the thick poly finish from the neck and body with a heat gun, applied just an oil finish, blocked the tremolo cavity with a maple block, put a wooden shim in the neck pocket side gap. It now sounds lovely - good sustain and long decay to the notes, without the ear-piercing shrilly tone.
its generally a balanced wood not as balanced as basswood but a lot more durable
Looks like one big marketing voodoo when it comes to solid body guitars .
There are at least 5 other more imporatnt factors
: scale , frets ,bridge ,saddles , pickups
i'm building an explorer using white poplar for the body. i'll let you know how it goes
i just bought it in a local wood shop around my block.
@@xurxo12 Interesting. Results?
Hi BigDGuitars, great video.
I hear that Poplar is a very soft hardwood but in this video you say that it is harder than Alder when others say it is more softer and like Basswood.
I am a bit confused as there are people who say one thing then there are those who say something completely different and I just need some clarification on Poplar.
The new Indonesian made Squier Classic Vibe series (Strats, Mustangs, Jaguars, Jazzmasters and Basses) are going to be made from Poplar rather than Alder.
I am tempted to get the Squier Classic Vibe 70s Strat but am kinda put off from doing so as the body is Poplar and not Alder.
I don't know what species of Poplar there is in Indonesia or elsewhere in that part of Asia and whether it will be similar to North American Poplar in terms of looks and hardness.
How does the hardware of a guitar made out of Poplar hold out against a guitar body made from Alder.
And tonally, how do the two woods compare to each other.
Any reply will be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks in advance
Pine and basswood is the softest. Alder then poplar. Maple after that. There is a book out there showing the hardness of various woods.
Alder and poplar are similar. Basswood is softer and has a different resonance.
@@bigdguitars OMG this was a big revelation, as I've watched some videos, the top 4 is said to be Alder, Mahogany, Ash and Basswood
I'm interested recently in guitar woods hardiness. Now I searched for poplar because I saw a lot of guitars that cost affordable poplar made. Thanks for this.
Anyway can this withstand cold and hot temperatures?
Thanks for the info
Hallo John, which wood type is the most white ?
I need it for woodcarving, I am considering Beech, Poplar and Birch, thanks for any help !!
where do you get your poplar? i can't find any bargains like i keep hearing about. great videos. keep 'em coming.
I buy from Owl hardwood and lumber based out of Chicago.
search ebay for lots. I have bought alder this way
*****
thanks, do you buy it kiln dried or do you dry it yourself
@@davelogeman either by way it's best to check it with a moisture meter. Kiln dried is no guaranty!
This video was requested by POPLAR demand
thanks for the tip!
I have a poplar body. I have water based orange stain. If I use wood bleach first, will it be ok, or will it still blotch?
Hi! Folk your body blank is planned yet?
If Poplar is dense so how about a poplar top on Mahogany?
So, whats the difference between "Yellow Poplar" and "regular" Poplar? Enjoying your videos a lot, very insightful. Keep em coming!
yellow poplar is actually not poplar at all!!it is Liriodendron tulipifera aka the tulip tree because of the flower that looks like a tulip!!it is close to the magnolias!!real poplar is in the salicacae family with the willows,aspen and cottonwood!!
The Jackson js guitar bodies are poplar
So I'm new at this stuff what type of wood, would you recommend, for a beginner?
Hunter Paulin probably this, since it’s cheap. More room to make mistakes
hi,would it be posible to use a very solf and lightweight wood such as balsa wood for top
Basswood is cheaper and is still lightweight enough to work with while maintaining at least some level of hardness.
Doesnt poplar shrink alot?
Opaque paint FTW.
How did this work?
Use Oxalic acid to get the green out
...and Maple:)
Poplar or basswood?
Both suck. They are tone killers.
1971SuperLead you got no idea at all mate. poplar is great for metal
letissier7 I've been playing metal for 40 years. Give me a good piece of mahogany.
yeah man, of course mahogany is better, just saying Poplar is not a bad choice at all.
letissier7 Poplar lacks sustain and clarity. It's too soft, and so it absorbs too much of the lower and higher frequencies. It sounds soft.
Choose your wood for looks and workability, cause wood does absolutely NOTHING for tone of a solidbody guitar. What generates tone is the steel strings vibrating in and out of an electromagnetic field. That field is not affected by wood because the vibrations of the wood create air waves which do not affect electromagnetic fields. If you want to test this, put some nylon strings on your electric guitar, or take all of the strings off and yell at your pickups. You'll get nothing. I can see it minutely affecting sustain by allowing the steel strings to vibrate longer, but not tone.
string and the guitar body vibrate together. Vibration from the string travels to the body and then travels back to the string, that's how you get sustain. Different woods have different resonant frequency and this frequency would dictate on how the string vibrate and affect overall tone.
"What generates tone is the steel strings vibrating in and out of an electromagnetic field."
Dont look now but the wood is whats holding the strings and the pickups together.....my father used to try to tell me that electric guitar wood is all the same...he never picked up a guitar in his life..He didn't even like music. He had one record his whole life..the movie soundtrack to "The Godfather "..LOL!
You're forgetting phase cancellation, which will affect the magnetic field and what information the pickups pick up. All the variables, including wood type, density, etc. play in to this...
No mechanical engineer would agree with the assertion that wood has no effect. As an electro-mechanical assembly, every component in a guitar will contribute to the vibrations that ultimately produce the sound. The effects of wood on tone may be overstated by some, but asserting that it has zero effect is preposterous bullshit.
The strings never contact the wood and the pickups don't either. Does the wood have a force field?
My adventure with woodworking started with Stodoys.
No such thing as tonewood.