Poplar - What is everyone's thoughts on this wood

[Scott 74]

I'm thinking of buying a new Fender Telecaster and noticed some use Poplar as the wood for the body. Don't know anything about it and was wondering what everyone's thoughts were on it good or bad?

[rgr]

It's pretty similar to alder, you can find some wood descriptions at www.warmoth.com.

Roger

[alienx]

I don't like it's sound when used with singlecoils...

My $.02

[darren wilson]

It's my understanding that Poplar is similar/related to Basswood, only with a bit more "snap" to its sound.

[Josh Blagg]

I think it can yield a very balanced, vibrant tone when clean. *For distortion, think of Steve Morse maybe. *His signature edition is made from poplar. *So are the Fly Deluxe's.

[littlegreenman]

I think the damn trees grow to fast and the roots keep popping up little trees all over my frickin yard. *So I think all poplar trees should be turned into something other than trees. *
Personally, I don't like the sound of a Poplar body but that's only on a true clean amp. *The truth is, we shape our tone so much with effects and eq's these days the wood doesn't seem to be as big an issue as say pickups. *Besides that, very little wood today is aged as properly as it should be and your tone will change a bit as time goes on anyway. *I like the basswood Ibanez uses because the guitars have good sustain and tone and are nice and light. *Having said that, my 7VWH is alder (of course) and has a much tighter sound to it but I haven't compared the EVO's to PAF's in a body that is the same material so I don't know how much is the difference in wood and how much is the pickups but I am assuming the pickups make more of a difference.
Just my $.02
Jeremy

[Josh Blagg]

Poplar has often been used as a wood in cheap guitars, but now you have to wonder with the Fly Deluxe and the Morse signature...neither are cheap. *However, with a Fender Telecaster, the very first Tele's were made from ash. *I would suggest ash as your best choice if you are a tone Nazi like I am. *I think you may find it to be purer than poplar with the clean setup that most telecasters end up in. *Alder at the very least, but I wouldn't do poplar on a telecaster if you are looking for telecaster tone in the traditional sense.