Fender MIM guitars, Poplar or Alder

[SARJ]

.........? How can you tell. I tried the Fender board, but they are not as knowledgable as us here. I have heard that they are all alder now, but some say only the 2 tone sunburst finishes are alder. I am looking a another MIM Strat in black. It doesn't seem as heavy as some of the others I have had in the past. How can you tell between the two. I'm thinking weight, but you never can tell.

[toejam]

Re: Fender MIM guitars, Poplar or Alder

I don't know how to really tell, but the tone of poplar and alder are very similar. The weight will also vary from guitar to guitar. Also, I don't know if it's just for the USA models or not, but Fender uses swamp ash for transparent colors.
My USA Fender Double Fat Strat is alder, and it sounds similar to my Jacksons and Charvel that are poplar and alder, plus my Carvin that is alder. I would just play it and go by what sounds good to you.

[SARJ]

Re: Fender MIM guitars, Poplar or Alder

I've become kind of anal about body woods now that I have a few alder guitars. I think alder sounds great, but never had any complaints about any poplar or basswood guitars I've owned. Your right, I'll just play it and figure it out for myself. I had a black MIM Strat up until last year and it was poplar. It had a very warm sound and it was very heavy. I should have never sold it, but you know how that goes. I played about 5 MIM Standard Strats in Tucson this past week and they all beat the snot out of the Highway 101 and US Strats. I like the vintagy feel and sound the cheap pickups give as well as the neck shape. It's a little better than the actual C shape that they are modeled after. I had a sunburst Strat that I got rid of a while back due to some money probs, but have missed it since. Can't beat a Strat for some things.

[toejam]

Re: Fender MIM guitars, Poplar or Alder

Yeah, the Strat sound is definitely cool for certain things.
The weight of the same woods can also be very strange. My one Jackson Dinky is poplar and is the lightest guitar I own. When I had my poplar Charvel Model 6, that thing was probably the heaviest, but the poplar Model 5A I have now is a little lighter. My alder Fender is a little heavier than my other Dinky that is alder. My second Carvin is swamp ash and around the same weight as the alder Dinky and alder Carvin, and I've played other swamp ash guitars that were even lighter.

[ March 31, 2003, 01:03 PM: Message edited by: toejam ]

[SARJ]

Re: Fender MIM guitars, Poplar or Alder

Since I got back into Jackson guitars last year around this time I have owned several other guitars of different woods. I had an Epiphone LP Standard that weighed less than my DK2 which is alder and the LP is supposedly mahogony. I had a Standard Strat that was poplar and weighed more than my DK2 and LP. I have a Strat now that is lighter than my DK2 and is made of alder as well. My Charvel Model 2 is the heaviest guitar I own at this point and I'm not sure what it's made of. I just found out that there are a few different grades of alder used in Fender guitars as well as Jacksons. Some are dense and weigh more and some are not as dense and weigh less. Some are a mixture of light and dense alder or something like that. All three of my guitars have their own unique sound so I'm pretty happy with what I got.

[Lordofgain]

Re: Fender MIM guitars, Poplar or Alder

The thing with the weight issue is this: it depends on how old, what part of the tree is used. Stuff from the top third of the tree is lighter and spngier. Wood from the bottom is denser and heavier.
I have had 4 or five strats in my lifetime. I have two now. I also prefer the MIM strats to the USA's and then customize them myself.
I believe that the MIM strats all went alder in 2002. Once again I think the MIM's sometimes use 2 or 3 piece bodies where as the USA's "generally" don't. Hope that helped a little Jon.

[SARJ]

Re: Fender MIM guitars, Poplar or Alder

Actually that helped me very much. I couldn't get a straight answer on the Fender board. It seems to be a war between the vintage collectors, American Fender owners and MIM Strat owners. They still think Fender is producing MIM Strats in poplar for solid finishes and alder for transparent finishes. I trust JCF guys first. I have moded all my MIM Strats that I have had. I bought a black Strat with maple board and put a black pickguard, knobs and pickup covers on in place of the white ones. It looked pretty cool. I ended up putting a black bridge, locking tuners, nut and input jack. I replaced the saddles with Graphtech's and put a Duncan Hotrails in the bridge and 2 black Lace Sensor singles in the neck and mid. It looked very cool and sounded great. I found most of this stuff on clearance or was given stuff. It took me about a month to get it together. I put DiMarzio Heavy Blues pickups in a sunburst MIM Strat and it was amazing. I bought a white Strat with a maple board and bought a black/white/black pickguard cut for one bucker and one volume. It was like a VH model without the stripes. I used a Duncan Design HB103B and it sounded pretty cool. I have just as much fun modding Strats as i do playing them. I love the necks too. I have been amazed to have heard that George Lynch uses an MIM Strat with a Lil Screamin Demon in the bridge to record with. That says alot. I played a few different MIM Strats at Guitar Center in Tucson last week and was blown away once again at how they sounded. The best sounding one was an ugly Agave Green Strat. I should have bought it in spite of the color. It sounded great. Thanks for the info.

[Lordofgain]

Re: Fender MIM guitars, Poplar or Alder

No problem Jon,
my favorite MIM is also black w/a maple board. I got a red tortoise H/S/S pickguard from WD and put a Duncan SH-6 in the bridge and left the stock single coils, it sounds bad a**.

[GWARGHOUL]

Re: Fender MIM guitars, Poplar or Alder

Poplar is REALLY soft, you could take the neck off and take a ball point pin and put it into the wood a bit...

[SARJ]

Re: Fender MIM guitars, Poplar or Alder

True, the same thing goes with basswood. I e-mailed Fender just for kicks about the wood issue and they said all the MIM Standard series are totaly alder. It's time to make the move. I'm getting one and tricking it out with a set of Fender Texas Customs. It should smoke pretty good. I don't think I'm going with any DiMarzio or Duncans. They make some good stuff, but I played a Strat with the Texas pups in it and it sounded killer. I'm buying it for blues stuff. If you guys have some pickup advice here I would appreciate it.

[Lordofgain]

Re: Fender MIM guitars, Poplar or Alder

Jon, I have two words for your bridge pup, "pearly gates". nuff said. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[ April 07, 2003, 04:04 PM: Message edited by: Lordofgain ]

[SARJ]

Re: Fender MIM guitars, Poplar or Alder

Good choice, but I'm going for the hot blues sound. I got a guy who is teaching me a thing or two about the blues. It's sinking in, but all my gear is too hot for it to sound good. I'm gonna stick with single coils that are slightly hotter than your usual single coil. The Pearly Gates is pretty good for blues though. I got to talk to an old, "for real" blues man who I noticed was playing a USA Fat Strat. He was playing through a Cyber twin. I asked him about his gear and he said he got the guitar from his grandson and he almost told him he didn't want it. He said he plugged it in and was pretty happy with the tone he was getting and traded in his other Fender and some cash for the Cyber Twin. He said he has a Pearly Gates humbucker in there and he wouldn't change it for the world. I'm talking an old TEXAS blues man. I'm a New Mexico wanna be blues man so I'll stick with a basic as close to it as I can get SRV setup and get Texas Customs or whatever they are called.

[Tezifon]

Re: Fender MIM guitars, Poplar or Alder

try the rio grande pickups if you can, the ppl told that they are very good

[toejam]

Re: Fender MIM guitars, Poplar or Alder

My alder Double Fat Strat has a '59 in the neck and a Pearly Gates Plus in the bridge. The PG Plus has an Alnico V magnet which gives it more gain and makes it a tiny bit brighter than the Alnico II of the original Pearly Gates. Both pups are great, though!

Also, like Mutant said, the Rio Grande pups get great reviews all over. I've got their catalog and am actually thinking of trying them in one of my guitars soon.

[Jack Buttler]

Re: Fender MIM guitars, Poplar or Alder

Use the Texas Specials. Great hot blues sound.