I know that each piece of wood is different and two similar pieces of a same essence will have different weight.
But in general, for the same body shape and size which wood essence will tend to give a lighter body ? Mahogany or alder ?
I know that each piece of wood is different and two similar pieces of a same essence will have different weight.
But in general, for the same body shape and size which wood essence will tend to give a lighter body ? Mahogany or alder ?
Mahogany guitars are generally heavier, with alder being quite light. Because of this, alder gives a light bright sound, and Mahogany gives a deeper Les-Paulier sound.
Of course it depends what sort of guitar the wood is used in. Semi-hollowbodies and semi-acoustics are generally a bit lighter than solid-body guitars.
Warmoth has pretty great description of different woods' characteristics.
Go to: https://warmoth.com/guitar-body-woods. There's a ton of info about tone, weight and color.
It doesn't much matter whether you're talking about guitars, xylophones, or coffee tables. Here is a chart of densities of hardwoods: Wood Density Chart | Workshop
Alder is listed at 400 - 700 kg/m³ (26 - 42 lb/ft³)
The various species of Mahogany range from 500 - 850 kg/m³ (31 – 53 lb/ft³)
There is substantial overlap between 500 - 700 kg/m³ (31 - 42 lb/ft³), so it's quite possible to have a particular piece of alder that's more dense than a particular piece of mahogany, but alder is on average less dense than mahogany.