I have thoroughly enjoyed reading all of the info you guys have given for strats and guitars in general and has helped me learn alot.

How big of a difference can the body of wood make with a strat? This is one of many things I'm unfamiliar with. Do they make a body with one piece of wood or is this even possible?

Thanks for all of the knowledge you guys share with those like me who want to learn more?

Smiledoc

More expertise answers will come - but its to do with the mass, weight, and hardness of the wood. Most guitars will come in 3 pieces or more, the more expensive strats for example will be one piece, but generally not a commodity.

The more dense woods like mahogany will give a deep bassy sound, yet a wood such as ash - known to be light etc will give a brighter more snappy tone to it.

There's also a difference of course in expense. Cheaper guitars will be made from plywood, or basswood - the cost goes up with mahogany and things like select alder - specially chosen for its quality.

I once played a pine (soft wood) guitar, and it was shocking. Sustain, simply did not exist

Hope it helps man,

Ed

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This is subjective, but from my experience and with my ears i find that the biggest single influence on a guitar's voice is the neck. The body is too, tho not as much. I think of it this way....the neck is the guitar's voice. You know how each person you know has a voice that you can instantly recognise without seeing them? same thing. I look at the body as the microphone and mixing desk. It affects the frequency range....more bass, less bass, more mids, less, etc etc etc. But the difference is that no matter what body you use, as long as it's the same neck it will have that same voice and the different bodies would be the same as EQ'ing a persons voice as they speak thru a mic....you can change thier voice's EQ a lot, but it always still sounds like them.

thats my take anyways, and i came to that conclusion from a lot of body and neck swapping over the years. The short answer is YES, the wood IS the guitar. Everything else just tweaks it, but nothing, not even pickups will change it's inherent voice. thats why it's often said you can't make a bad sounding guitar sound good with great pickups, and you can't make a great sounding one sound bad with bad pickups. (well, you potentially could do the latter with horrible or defective pickups) And as for one piece bodies, they can be had but rarely. however, they aren't going to sound better. The individual piece of wood's character will make any 2 bodies sound a lot more different than a one piece will verses a 2 or 3 piece. It's also true that a 1 piece can warp much easier.

now you've gone and done it.

I don't know mate, I think the pups have more of an effect than the neck. If you look at my youtube you'll see a demo I did, and while there is a difference, it's not much. Soon I'll be posting vids up of my strat with CS Fat 50s in it.

Cos, I mean, put squire pickups in a custom shop strat, and compare that to the stock CS's, the difference would be huge. Think about it. Buzz, interference, output, clarity, all of that.

The pickups, I would say, are the guitar's voice, and the strings, are the vocal chords

The neck does affect the sound, but more the feel, playability and shiznit. IMO.

Ed

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I think I'd have to agree. I put custom shop Texas Specials in my Squier and if you did some sort of blind test with it and a Fender, you couldn't tell which was the Squier.

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Body wood resonance does affect the sound of an electric guitar... sustain and response to picking attack even more so

The mistake comes in trying to predict the affect by species. The truth is, one piece of mahogany will sound bassy and another will sound bright, depending on resonance. You really can't predict how a body and neck combination will sound based on specs: you really just have to play it and find out.

The general prejudices were formed, i think, based ont he guitar that the woods are most closely associated with... Les Pauls are mahogany, Fender are ash and alder, so we have based our predictions on our familiarity with those guitars.

The greatest factor in determining the sound of any guitar is the style and intent of the person playing it. I think pickups come next.

Here here! That's interesting about the Les Pauls etc, never thought of that.

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Hi smiledoc, take a look at this site.
http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Bodies/Op ... tions.aspx
Claude.

You're entitled to your opinion. But i assure you there are some respected builders that will tell you the same thing i did. I didn't just take thier word for it tho, i found out by putting many different bodys and necks together. And i have necks that literally have thier own voice that follows them to whatever body, pups and hardware i attach them too. If you haven't done a lot of that i can understand why you'd consider pickups to be as important as you do. But i would wager you any amount of money that if you ask the top 10 builders whether pickups or wood determine a guitar's basic voice and whether pickups can change that they'd all tell you what i did. I know that because i've heard several say as much and it become pretty obvious after decades of building and modding fenders.

The same pickups sound different depending on how the are wired and what caps are use in the circut or if theres a resistor in the circut and what pots are used. Body wood makes a difference to the sound but different necks can reaily change the sound there self and even when the necks are the same wood the qualities will differ. I have a Les Paiul Custom of Mahog body Flame Maple cap and a Maple neck and it sounds much diifferent then the Mahogony LP with Mahogony Neck. It all depends on the combination of things in woods and electronics.

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I appreciate all the responses you guys haven given me and, Claude, that was very interesting info you gave me. The different types of wood do have somewhat of a connection to the sounds.
Smiledoc

Just passing along something I saw here. Glad you appreciate.
Claude.

Personally I like alder a lot!! but I wonder about other types of wood like rosewood bodies and those exotic kinds of woods I have seen on some websites ...

I would still bet that in blind listening (not playing) tests virtually nobody could tell the difference. Different guitars sound different but differences in wood would be dwarfed by differences in pickups and other components.

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