Oh ok Drak, I lied. All those alder strats with the bridge buckers on countless records (I'm thinking mainly 80's metal, you know Lynch, Di Martini, Vito Bratta, etc) just didn't cut it for a meaty tone. Man were those guys dumb, considering a meaty tone is what everyone was going for.
Yeah, change the body wood, certainly easier than a pickup swap or adding effects.
Now, this is probably all too argumentative for ya, but from my side it's all about ' hold on, let's not get carried away '.
My main point is that if his rig doesn't have what it takes to make alder sound meaty, it doesn't have what it takes to make other woods sound meaty either.