Woods Similar to Alder and Swamp Ash from the Color Chart?

[Evan38109]

I'm considering finishing a body using Rubio Monocoat. Their color chart includes white oak, red oak, cedar, hard maple, hickory, pine, and walnut.

In terms of how they react to finishing, which of those is most similar to Alder? Which is closest to swamp ash?

I'll definitely do a few color tests before jumping into the project itself. I'd just like to get in the general neighborhood from the color chart.

Thanks in advance. If it's not clear from asking about the "just put one coat on it" product, I'm very much a beginner at this kind of thing.

 

[Beej]

What wood are you using?

 

[Evan38109]

Likely swamp ash, but possibly alder. I'm curious about both, since they seem to be two of the most common woods for bass bodies.

 

[Gary_M]

Just use the natural.

 

[Evan38109]

Just use the natural.

Ha! I actually don't want a natural looking instrument this time around. I'm considering "midnight indigo" or "cherry coral," maybe "sapphire" or "ruby." Might even get adventurous and experiment with their pre-aging products.

I'm just trying to get a sense of which page on the color chart I should start with. Then I'll grab a couple samples and some scraps, try it out, and make a decision.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

I'd probably figure white oak as being most similar to ash, and hard maple being most similar to alder from that list.

 

[Evan38109]

Perfect! Thank you so much.

 

[Gary_M]

Ha! I actually don't want a natural looking instrument this time around. I'm considering "midnight indigo" or "cherry coral," maybe "sapphire" or "ruby." Might even get adventurous and experiment with their pre-aging products.

I'm just trying to get a sense of which page on the color chart I should start with. Then I'll grab a couple samples and some scraps, try it out, and make a decision.

Sorry, I completely mis-read your question and the color chart... a double-whammy.

I'd agree with T Bone, white oak being the most similar to ash. But I do think that alder is going to be a shade darker in natural tone, plus the color will saturate more than on maple... maybe even a little closer to the cedar examples in that regard.

Post your progress here!

 

[P. Aaron]

From past thread pics & ads of stripped Fender basses, ash has a much better natural showing grain than alder. Hence more ash finishes tend to leave a factory as natural. One can get lucky w/alder here & there but it's a duller, clay-looking grain when left natural.

 

[Grinderman]

I'm not sure what the objective is but here they are side-by-side.

Alder

Swamp Ash

"The colors shown are for reference only and are not binding."

 

[Evan38109]

Well this'll be fun. The maple examples are about the furthest from what I'd like for this particular instrument, and the cedar ones are about the closest. Let's do some testing and see what happens. Regardless, I think I have what I need for now.

Any requests? I think I have enough space for one or two samples beyond what I want to try. I'll order in the next day or so and we can see how things shake out.

 

[Beej]

I've used Rubio along with others here, and I have a few small tips. Coloured rubio acts kind of like a stain, in that it will highlight any scratches, dents, marks, roughness, etc. To get a smooth, uniform surface, I steamed the entire surface of the wood and sanded it back up to 400 grit. 220 is fine for a floor but rubio's pretty thin and I like a smoother surface. It also does not fully fill the grain, but can colour it well. An ash body has deep open pores, so they will be felt after application of the rubio. The alder is more likely to remain smooth to the touch after applying rubio. It's pretty easy to apply IME. @BTL did a run of bodies with it a while back and may also have comments.

 

[Gervais Cote]

I use to prefer natural as although it has no teint, it will "darken" the look a bit.

Below is an alder body and you can clearly see the difference by looking at the top of the body and the pockets what I mean by getting darker :



The final result was good enough for me though :

pic upload

 

[BTL]

Here are my results with swamp ash, and the colors I felt looked best for guitar use: Cinnamon Brown, Charcoal, Peacock Green, and Midnight Indigo.

 

[Gervais Cote]

Here are my results with swamp ash, and the colors I felt looked best for guitar use: Cinnamon Brown, Charcoal, Peacock Green, and Midnight Indigo.

Peacock green looks blue to me but definitely very nice for a jazz bass.

 

[Evan38109]

Here are my results with swamp ash, and the colors I felt looked best for guitar use: Cinnamon Brown, Charcoal, Peacock Green, and Midnight Indigo.

Very nice. Thank you for sharing. Midnight Indigo and Cinnamon Brown are two of the colors I was curious about. It helps confirm that swamp ash shows up similarly to the white oak color chart.

Beautiful work!

 

[Dark Horse]

Here are my results with swamp ash, and the colors I felt looked best for guitar use: Cinnamon Brown, Charcoal, Peacock Green, and Midnight Indigo.

i definitely liked the charcoal and peacock green. And I agree , the peacock green definitely leans more toward blue, but it’sa very nice color.

thanks for posting these pics, Brad !

 

[BTL]

I'm glad you guys find this helpful. Although it did not prove to be popular with my clients, I think RMC is a great product! From what I read and also my own experience, I do recommend using the Oil Plus 2C - Part B accelerator.

Here is a collage of the four bodies in slightly different light:

 

[P. Aaron]

I use to prefer natural as although it has no teint, it will "darken" the look a bit.

Below is an alder body and you can clearly see the difference by looking at the top of the body and the pockets what I mean by getting darker :



The final result was good enough for me though :

pic upload

That's an unusually nicely matched body for alder. Works well as natural.

A typical stock Fender product would be just to build a body for paint or sunburst if the matching body pieces took the base coats well. It's a lot of time & labor to match alder pieces for a fine natural finish. Fender isn't, has not historically been a 'wood-matching for the finest look' type of company for even their burst or transparent finishes tho' they did make a bit more effort to make it as nice as they could. Their Custom Shop likely excepted.

 

[Evan38109]

I started posting my first results here, then decided on a new thread when it got long. (Let me know if that's the wrong way to go about these things.)

My own TL;DR answer to my question is that yeah, you are pretty much right.

• Swamp ash is similar to white oak, but a little more muted and less saturated.
• Alder looks to me like it's similar to cedar but less saturated. Alternately, I could just call it a bit more saturated than the white oak by comparison.

Thank you, everyone!