The only difference that I can hear between the 2 is that a nitro finish crackles and fizzles louder when set on fire.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Amen. AMEN. AMEN! Enough already.

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

If there were no difference in the sound of different body materials, I should be able to take the neck pickup out of my Stratocaster and put it in the neck position of my (metal bodied) Dean Chrome G Resonator and it would sound exactly alike…and we all know that would change the sound.

Likewise, if I were to take an entire pickguard/pickup/electronics assembly off of my Strat, place it on my (wood-bodied) acoustic guitar, it would sound just like my Strat, right? Wrong.

If there were absolutely no difference in sound when one compares body wood, finish, fretboard material, construction technique, the type of bridge or nut, the type of frets, etc., a person would be able to put the pickguard/electronics assembly from a 1962 Strat (with a tremolo and a rosewood fretboard) onto a 1977 hardtail Strat (with a maple fretboard), they would sound exactly alike. Right?
I think not.
Different pieces of wood, with different densities, construction techniques. etc.

If there were no difference, you could take a Strat's electronics and put it on a Danelectro (Masonite & plywood), and it would sound exactly the same as a Strat...or put it on a solid plywood body (like some cheap Strat copies) and it would sound exactly the same.
...anybody agree with that jackassery?

The tonal differences between pine, basswood, mahogany, Masonite, plywood, alder and ash bodies are small.
The tonal differences between poly and nitro finishes are almost nill.
The tonal differences between ebony, pao ferro, maple or rosewood or painted, raw or finished fretboards (in a blind test) would be very hard to discern.
Fret material? Maybe there's a difference in sound...but it's small.

But if you take similarly constructed guitars (same builder & neck-to-body building technique) and were to put the exact same pickguard/electronic assembly on:
a guitar with a poly-finished mahogany body, rosewood fretboard, metal nut, and a hard tail bridge, or
a guitar with an oil-rubbed pine body, ebony fretboard, plastic nut, and Bigsby tremolo-equipped, or
a guitar with a nitro-finished alder body, maple fretboard, bone nut, and a vintage (six point) Fender tremolo...
…each of them would would sound a bit different. Maybe not a huge difference, but a difference nonetheless...and there would be an even bigger change if one of the bodies were to be chambered or hollowed-out.

Yes, each individual specification/change makes a miniscule difference, and the average guitarist won’t be able to tell the difference between those individual “little things”…but added all together, it makes for a pretty big sum of different sounds.

Ultimately, construction technique, pickups, electronics, effects and amplifier choice are going to make more difference than a poly or nitro finish, or a rosewood or maple fretboard.

The way the person plays the instrument (the tone is in the hands!) is more important still.

Greater than that is the matter of personal preference (whether it’s looks, feel or weight) and how it makes us view a particular axe.

But to say that there’s absolutely no difference between these little things is wrong…they do eventually add up.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

+1 Screamin' Armadillo

Now is when the argument usually takes a dramatic wrong turn, and becomes about how unimportant any of the differences are, even though no one claims that the differences are big.

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

Thank you!

I don't claim that any specific thing is a deal-breaker for me (look at my guitar collection and you'll see I'm all over the map), but to me, the guitar has to feel good and sound good. If it looks good, too, that's just the cherry on top of the sundae (although I hate the pointy-headed hair band/heavy metal axes of the 80's, no matter what they sound like, and that's based on looks alone).

I could not care less if it's poly or nitro or finished with the facial oil of a 100 year old maharishi...if it feels, sounds and looks good to me, I'm happy.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

Correction: I probably don't want an axe finished with the facial oil of a maharishi. That's just nasty.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

Hey man I wouldn´t mind a light buff of Old Maharishi.
I´d say if you designed a vintage-type label, nice green bottle and you are in buisiness!

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FIGHT!

no discernable difference to me, but by all means continue investigating for you may find a difference that is significant. Don't forget to let us know what ever that difference may be.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

My ears ring so bad after a gig,Gregg Allman sounds like Justin Beiber when I try to listen to a CD on the way home...so there's no way I can hear a difference in Strat "tone wood" or finish.
What I can hear while gigging are the pickup's signal through a vintage Fender amp turned up to around 8 and those tubes producing a fantastic,throaty distortion that rattles the stage floor and gets people's attention.
If you are in a bedroom strumming and stroking your instrument...well then...I don't want to know what you think you hear.

Alright.. I'm gonna have to be a buzz-kill and beat the Horse for a sec, and give my thoughts on the differences between the many facets of what makes up a guitar and it's sounds.

I pulled a set of active EMGs from a plywood bodied Epi special and dropped them in my new agathis bodied Cort MGM-1. The differences are extreme in sound. Both are short scale guitars, tune o matic.. Why do they sound so vastly different?

I don't care. They just are, and I roll with it when I like what I hear. I'm not in this business to be a scientist.

But after many experiments of putting same pickups in different guitars, I'm personally a believer that the wood and guitar design plays a bigger part than I originally thought. Finishes? maybe, but I have an extreme doubt that it can be heard by human ears. Can't rule anything out though.

I have an older Japanese Ibanez that I swear the FR trem block is from heaven. I freaking swear that I can hear a sound coming straight from that block that's like pure effing heaven to my ears like no other guitar I have and that it transfers to the amp. Why?? Who cares. I just love it. Body/wood/pickup/bridge/ nut/ tuners/block/saddles/pots/caps/scale length/ Etc.Etc.Etc.. It just is what it is, and I won't dare change it.

I quit asking why and just let them be what they are and use them for their strengths and individual character. I could care less anymore why they sound the way they do. Do what you gotta do with the sounds they have, and if you don't like it, change it. If you still don't like it, change it again and again until you do.

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Mind your manners, Reb.



Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Which is better, rosewood or maple; alder or ash; Fender or Gibson?

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You dig?

I'll try to be good...and Arjay and Martian and others know,way back when you had a Gibson sound or a Fender sound...I never had much of a debate over anything else with anyone,...that is until all the internet "egg-spurts",as Arjay calls them,came along....now everyone sits behind a keyboard and knows all there is to know....but still,I play music...and whatever sounds good is what I use...like Jah Soldier said....I don't worry about it,I'm not trying to be a scientist....

LMFAO I Know what I hear! ... ... .. ..