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Someone in another forum was asking me what I thought of this Squier Strat. I notice that its made of agathis. I seem to recall that agathis isn't that great of a tone wood, but I'm not sure.

Can someone tell me about agathis, and if you think this would be a decent Squier or not?

Thanks;
Artie

Ive played a number of squier strats that sound so dull to me, but then ive heard of people liking the sound of their agathis axes. My warlock is a bit dull, but i think thats largely due to the pickups.

Personally I dont care much for the tone of it. To me it doesnt have much personality. Which to some people may be good. Its always used on lower line axes... if that says anything.

my squier strat 2000 affinity is lovely, has a really sparkly sound, brighter and more crisp than my ash fender strat and my alder ibanez jem, probably the best clean sounding guitar ive ever heard, also great distorted (with a duckbucker at neck and jb jr at bridge). as far as i have guessed its made from agathis, so if thats the case i dont think its bad at all, and considering it has a price in a shop here of about £100 it proves the point that it doesnt matter how cheap or expensive a guitar is no one should automatically class it as good or bad untill its been tried and tested, that said there isnt a very likely chance that the quality of a cheap guitar is going to surpass an expensive one, but it is quite possible. every guitar is different regardless of the make/model or wood its made of because no peice of wood is the same, and most guitars are made of multiple pieces of wood glued together rather than one peice.
though generally agathis is cheaper and generally not as good a sounding wood as say alder, basswood, mahogany, ash, maple etc..

hope this helps

Edit: i just realised who asked the question and that you probably knew all this anyway, and probably more


Originally Posted by BigBazzEdit: i just realised who asked the question and that you probably knew all this anyway, and probably more

No . . . actually, I know electrons and protons and stuff. Not so much wood.

I appreciate the indepth answer. Thats what I needed to know. Oddly enough, not much showed up in a Google search, except that it said that agathis was sorta, the Asian version of alder. Which would explain why its used on Asian made guitars.

Thanks for all the replies, everyone.

personally, IMHO
agathis is latin for dull and lifeless
i think of it this way
limba is mahogany plus
mahogany is mahogany (duh)
basswood is budget mahogany (yes i know that the peaveys use em)
agathis i budget basswood

again - just my observations -don't hate me

i like basswood more than mahogany, i disagree with it being budget mahogany, also i find agathis to be closer in tone too alder or maybe even ash

I love my basswood Genny. It sounds great . . . now that its Duncanized.

I don't think I've heard agathis though.


Originally Posted by BigBazzmy squier strat 2000 affinity is lovely, has a really sparkly sound, brighter and more crisp than my ash fender strat and my alder ibanez jem, probably the best clean sounding guitar ive ever heard, also great distorted (with a duckbucker at neck and jb jr at bridge). as far as i have guessed its made from agathis, so if thats the case i dont think its bad at all, and considering it has a price in a shop here of about £100 it proves the point that it doesnt matter how cheap or expensive a guitar is no one should automatically class it as good or bad untill its been tried and tested, that said there isnt a very likely chance that the quality of a cheap guitar is going to surpass an expensive one, but it is quite possible. every guitar is different regardless of the make/model or wood its made of because no peice of wood is the same, and most guitars are made of multiple pieces of wood glued together rather than one peice.
though generally agathis is cheaper and generally not as good a sounding wood as say alder, basswood, mahogany, ash, maple etc..The last I knew affinity squires were alder. To double check I looked it up on their website and it says alder.

from : localhost/will agree that you need to evaluate each instrument on their own as you can find some real gems. Thats why I said if the fact that its used on cheaper guitars means anything. But on the flip side its not often you hear of agathis being heralded as a superb tonewood.

as a side note IIRC its actually and asian species of pine. It certaintly looks like it.

As far as I'm concerned, agathis is about the same as balsa wood. When I needed to enlarge the hole between the jack cavity and the control cavity on my daughters Squier Strat, I was able to do it by turning a drill bit in my fingers! There are quot;hardwoodsquot;, quot;softwoodsquot;, and agathis IMHO.

Not that her guitar sounds bad at all given the cost. The polyurethane finish on it is so thick it might as well be wrapped around styrofoam.

The only problem with the guitar is that getting the truss rod tight enough to flatten the neck for a decent action requires some extreme, heroic measures involving c-clamps...

YMMV, etc.

Chip

see - opinions differ
but basswood is very soft

My sg is agathis I believe. It sounds pretty good I think, but it does have emg's... didn't sound terrible before though. The balsawood description doesn't sound accurate at all. I drilled a bit in mine to get the jack to fit through when I was replacing pups and it was rather hard. It's also been really resistant to dings and stuff over the years. I read somewhere that it's a relative of mahagony but it sounds nothing like it as far as I can tell. Bigbazz seems to have the description that most fits mine- crisp and bright. It sounds like an sg(which it is) but a little snappier, which could be good or bad depending on what you like. Either way it sounds good enough to keep and I certainly never worry about hurting that guitar :P

Agathis is a poor man's basswood and basswood is a poor man's mahogany so its really not great

i prefer basswood to mahogany
asian basswood though, big difference

and nato is budget mahogany FYI

but i'd take an asian basswood guitar over a mahogany guitar anyday

I also prefere basswood to mahogany but thats just personal opinion, Blueline is certainly right about it being soft, breath near it and it dents.

As for agathis, like other have said ive only ever seen it used in budget guitars and to me its always sounded a bit sterile, not excelling in any department particually, but this is just as likely to be cheap pickups as poor wood. With a squire I'm guessing that you will be able to try one out and see for yourself anyway, if buying i would definately go through a few and pick out the best, with budget guitars such as squire its probably more important to get a well built, good quality one than worry too much about the tonal characteristics of its wood.

Thanks again for all the great info. This isn't a guitar that I'm thinking about buying, (although, it does look nice), but I believe that fellow ZONE fan might be.

I guess I'll send them this link, and let them read for themselves.