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Post subject: What gives your guitar it's tone?
Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 6:03 pm
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Ok all night i've been testing my 2 guitars (both fender stratocasters, 1997 mexi standard and a 2003 american standard).

Both have alder body maple neck. but the mexi has rosewood fingerboard.
They both have identical pickups.

I've been going through each pickups strumming the same couple of chords with my sound knob turned to 7 and i gotta say, they're identical. not a single difference.
So the argument that "the maple gloss fingerboard gives a beautiful glassy tone to the guitar) seems to be a pile of knackers! lol. I think im being had.

I also did an experiment, everyone says that the wood of the body, the neck, the fingerboard, the pickups, the bridge type, the distance to the string from the pickups, the height of the action ALL have an effect on the tone. But how come noone every mentions the cheap plastic pick guards? because they're cheap i presume, and money can't be made from them so it's better to say that the more expensive parts effect the tone to make more money from it.

I actually removed the pickguard from my mexican strat (took me an hour and a half to set it up after i removed it). and the guitar just sounds beautiful. It's got a fuller sound. It's like removing that cheapo piece of plastic has brought my guitar alive.
Has anyone else noticed this?


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Post subject: Re: What gives your guitar it's tone?
Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 6:07 pm
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tobougg wrote:
I actually removed the pickguard from my mexican strat (took me an hour and a half to set it up after i removed it). and the guitar just sounds beautiful. It's got a fuller sound. It's like removing that cheapo piece of plastic has brought my guitar alive.
Has anyone else noticed this?


As a matter of fact, no.

:roll:

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: What gives your guitar it's tone?
Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 6:20 pm
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I won't get into the rosewood vs. maple neck debate for the simple reason that there are bright and also mellow sounding examples in both types which debunks the maple fretboard is brighter rosewood is mellower myth.No matter what guitar I'm playing I find that the biggest variations in tone can be made with the attack I use on my pick or fingers of the right hand and how I handle the strings with my fretting hand.

There are so many dynamics involved in the overall tone of two guitars of the same model sounding different that it would be practically impossible to narrow it down to just one or two components.It's the sum of the whole that gives a guitar its unique tone and each little piece of the guitar whether a cap,potentiometer,bridge density,wood weight and density etc. has its own contribution to the end tone of the guitar.

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Post subject: Re: What gives your guitar it's tone?
Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 6:25 pm
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Post subject: Re: What gives your guitar it's tone?
Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 6:27 pm
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Retroverbial wrote:
tobougg wrote:
I actually removed the pickguard from my mexican strat (took me an hour and a half to set it up after i removed it). and the guitar just sounds beautiful. It's got a fuller sound. It's like removing that cheapo piece of plastic has brought my guitar alive.
Has anyone else noticed this?


As a matter of fact, no.

:roll:

Arjay

Yeah Arjay, obviously everyone says that there's tone bursting out of the ears of the guitar, but noone every mentoins the largest surface underneath the string bar the fretboard is the pickgaurd as effecting the tone.
So i logically thought well surely a piece of plastic is gonna give a crappy sound. I must admit though, you don't get kind of twangy sound or after tase of the strat without it, so maybe the cheap plastic bit is central to the strat sound (not saying it's a bad thing).
U should try though if possible, your guitar basically is transformed. i think it sounds more like im using humbuckers, more les paul like


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Post subject: Re: What gives your guitar it's tone?
Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 6:31 pm
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If I want a Les Paul sound I'll just play one of my Les Paul's......

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Post subject: Re: What gives your guitar it's tone?
Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 6:38 pm
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guitslinger wrote:
I won't get into the rosewood vs. maple neck debate for the simple reason that there are bright and also mellow sounding examples in both types which debunks the maple fretboard is brighter rosewood is mellower myth.No matter what guitar I'm playing I find that the biggest variations in tone can be made with the attack I use on my pick or fingers of the right hand and how I handle the strings with my fretting hand.

There are so many dynamics involved in the overall tone of two guitars of the same model sounding different that it would be practically impossible to narrow it down to just one or two components.It's the sum of the whole that gives a guitar its unique tone and each little piece of the guitar whether a cap,potentiometer,bridge density,wood weight and density etc. has its own contribution to the end tone of the guitar.


Judging by the amount of strats i've played, they all sound so similar that the only difference i've noticed in sound is the pickups. but guitars with the same pickups sound the same, no matter what would is used.
I'm starting to believe that it's basically a myth about the wood giving tone etc. In an acoustic guitar yeah, of course it does, but in an electric guitar, i think it's basically the pickups and the amp and of course the style of the player, what type of pick/finger's are used etc.

The fact that the pickups are in "wood" and the string's are over various materials like plastic etc gives a specific sound. Les paul's giving a deeper richer sound because they're alot denser and heavier is micky mouse, as i've played some prs's that are basically paper thin but they have the same pickups as the les paul and the guitars sound just rich and deep.

Pickups in wood gives a sound through an amp.
Once you put the same pickups in the same amount of wood of any type and play it through the same amp, i don't think there's any difference. i honestly believe now that the whole resonance and tone thing from wood and bridge etc is a placebo effect.
From what i've heard (prevciously worked in a big guitar shop in london). The only things that effect the sound are the Nut material, the pickups amd the amp. and then of course the string gague and the player.


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Post subject: Re: What gives your guitar it's tone?
Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 6:39 pm
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Retroverbial wrote:
If I want a Les Paul sound I'll just play one of my Les Paul's......

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Arjay


Beautiful line up. Do any of your strats have identical pickups to one another?


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Post subject: Re: What gives your guitar it's tone?
Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 6:46 pm
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SKcoppertele wrote:
I'd say the way I play it. I think (personally) I get a very distinct tone that is all my own out of my gear. No matter what guitar I'm playing. So I give my guitar its tone.


Do you have more than 1 of any particular type of guitar with similar pickups? and yes i agree with you, alot of the sound comes from you


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Post subject: Re: What gives your guitar it's tone?
Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 7:08 pm
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I have two teles with wide range humbuckers, one with a pickguard and one without. I honestly don't think it can affect the tone enough to measure, because it's on the surface of the guitar, while the pickups are set much deeper into the wood, and the bridge is set against the wood where there is no pickguard.
It may be different on those Strats where the pickups are attached to the pickguard, but on most Teles, I think it's going to be purely cosmetic.

I'm about to change the pickguard on one of my guitars to a wooden one, but that's for the looks only. Of course, it may have an impact on the sound if I like the guitar better after the change.

But, do any mods you like - if you think it sounds better, it doesn't hurt, right?

A friend of mine used to place a quarter under each of the amp's feet. He swore that gave better reverb. And it cost him exactly one dollar. :D
Another cheap mod sometimes seen in earlier times was cigarette butts on the strings above the nut. It allegedly reduced unwanted harmonics.


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Post subject: Re: What gives your guitar it's tone?
Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 7:17 pm
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Retroverbial wrote:
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Hey, Arjay, do me a favor? Can you take a close-up shot of the bridge of your 12-string?
I'm curious!


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Post subject: Re: What gives your guitar it's tone?
Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 7:19 pm
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ok so going on what you said about that then the fretboard and the wood in the fretboard and neck wouldn't really add/take away anything from the sounds when plugged in?

these guitars are all mass produced, yet everyone swears they have their own unique sound because of micro differences in wood density and graind etc.
but my argument is how come different ipods don't sound different, as of course they're all made out of different pieces of metal/plastic etc.

if you get my meaning. how come all car speakers don't have their own unique sound, they're all made out of the same matierial's as eachother but cut from different pieces of those material's and i don't think they take into account any quality in the materials. and the speaker's with wood cabs, not of them apparently add or subtract a unique tone to every single speaker, so why would it do so on a guitar?

cheers


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Post subject: Re: What gives your guitar it's tone?
Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 7:29 pm
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tobougg wrote:
I actually removed the pickguard from my mexican strat (took me an hour and a half to set it up after i removed it). and the guitar just sounds beautiful. It's got a fuller sound. It's like removing that cheapo piece of plastic has brought my guitar alive.
Has anyone else noticed this?


Maybe the fact that you spent an hour and a half setting it up had more to do with the fuller sound than removing the pickguard...... :idea:

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Post subject: Re: What gives your guitar it's tone?
Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 7:31 pm
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An interesting fact i can note. i love the Andertons.co.uk video's they put up comparing guitars. and there's one video where they had 4 tele's. they played them all for about 40 mins, and then did a blind test.

the funny thing is the tele classic vibe had the same pickups as the £1600 custom shop tele with birdseye mapleneck etc. and neither of the 2 of the guys reveiwing the guitars could tell the difference between the £250 guitar and the £1600 one. they basically said they're identical.

They both use completely different woods, completely different build processes, built in completely different factorys in completely different countries. yet because they had the same pickups they couldn't tell the difference between them.

thats a big signifier to me that we're being bamboozled or something ! :)


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Post subject: Re: What gives your guitar it's tone?
Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 7:36 pm
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tobougg wrote:
but my argument is how come different ipods don't sound different, as of course they're all made out of different pieces of metal/plastic etc.


An iPod is electronic. No moving parts. An electric guitar is mechanical. The strings vibrate, and unless you have a marble slab guitar, so do the pickups. Part of the string vibration comes through the bridge and nut, from the body and neck, respectively. It's minor compared to the string itself, but it's definitely measurable. Crank up your amp, then tap on the body of the guitar, and you'll hear your tapping transmogrified into sound.

tobougg wrote:
if you get my meaning. how come all car speakers don't have their own unique sound, they're all made out of the same matierial's as eachother but cut from different pieces of those material's and i don't think they take into account any quality in the materials. and the speaker's with wood cabs, not of them apparently add or subtract a unique tone to every single speaker, so why would it do so on a guitar?


Here, your premises are wrong. Car speakers do sound differently. And the wood in speaker cabinets matters quite a bit too.

Even so, those have minor effects on the sound compared to a guitar, because it's already amplified sound. You need a much smaller change before amplification to make a difference. If you add a decibel of color to an amplified output that's already 90 dB, it's not going to make as much of a difference as if you add it to the pre-amplified sound, and then amp it up so it becomes ten times stronger.


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