Hi guys,

I've read about this myth many times, where people have claimed that removing the back plate improves the tone of their guitar, and others would reply saying that it was a load of rubbish.

Well, I must admit that I too doubted whether it could possibly make any difference, but I decided to give it a try anyway.

So, last night I removed the rear cover from my 1999 USA Standard Stratocaster and to my amazement, it actually does make quite a difference to the acoustic tone and volume of the guitar.

It almost seems to free the sound of the guitar, a little bit like covering and uncovering the sound hole on an acoustic (all be it to a bit of a lesser degree). I haven't really had chance to try it through the amp yet, but unplugged, there is definitely a difference! The guitar seems to have more volume and a stronger tone and really seems to resonate more just from simply removing this little plate.

For those of you that still think that this can't be true, try this; remove the back plate from your guitar and sit with it on your knee, but instead of leaning the guitar against you, tilt it slightly forwards so that you can see the open cavity. Now place a magazine (or something similar) over the cavity to completely cover it and then strum a chord or something. Now remove the magazine and do the same again. There is a definite increase in tone and volume. In fact, the guitar almost sounds a bit muffled now to me if I refit the cover!

Anyway, I just thought I'd share my experiment with you all.

I'd be interested to know if anyone else has given this a try and found similar results?

Russ

Well this is the thing, your guitar is an electric guitar, not an acoustic. What you have to understand is that not matter how different is sounds unplugged, once the guitar is amplified you will not here the difference at all.

Allot of guitar players would play there guitars with no backplate on stage because if they ever broke a string it would be quick and easy to replace, some guitar players even do so when there guitar never leaves the bedroom. Personally I feel that a myth was created whereby removing the backplate changes the sound when the real reason why players did this was long forgotten

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Fender Highway One HSS Stratocaster '09
Modified Fender Champ600
Honer Special20 Harmonica

You should see how much of a difference in tone there is when you remove the felt washers from the strap buttons! Tone city baby!

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

I KNOW it's a load of rubbish. I did the Pespi challenge on that issue a few years ago ... plugged in, which is the only thing that counts. No difference in the guitar's tone one little iota but it did make my clothes get pinched in the spring coils near the block and that changed MY tone significantly.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Maybe you are right Strat0Blues, as I have said, I've not had chance to try it plugged in as yet and so can't really comment on that!

I often play my strat unplugged though for practice etc, and so even if it only enhances the guitars acoustic tone, that is still good enough reason in its self for me to leave the cover off!

Russ

Whoa! Baby! I can dig it but hey, I've got the best idea yet. Let's remove the windings on the bass strings. I bet THAT will make a difference.

We're just messin' with ya, T/S...

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

LOL I'll give it a try!!

I have to dissagree with you there. I, as I am sure do many others, enjoy playing electric guitars unplugged from time to time, even if just for practice reasons.

If this improves the guitars sound just for that purpose alone, for me, it is worth leaving off!

Thanks

Russ

And they say we products of the '60s are toast!

You've totally missed the true deciding factors in your experiment: The muting effect the front of the player's body has against the back of the guitar's body and, most of the player's right arm being in contact with the front of the guitar's body. Both these conditions are completely eliminated by merely seating the guitar forward on your knee which I may add, has less surface contact than seating it on your leg nearest your lap.

Don't you think said muting magazine vs. the absence of that thin, little sliver of perforated plastic is a bit ridiculous now?

Here's a PROVEN FACT which is INDISPUTABLE: If you close up a dinosaur bone in your brand new guitar's brand new case, you will IN FACT, have a RELIC inside when you reopen it. What does this have to do with anything? Relevance, of course.

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You dig?

Good one Martian!!

That does not compute for me. Bad command at line 2105. System failure.

If I picked up an electric guitar and began to play it unplugged it would only make me start looking for an amp and a cable. They are not even the same genus unplugged let alone the same animal. They behave COMPLETELY differently. There would be no point to the exercise. If I want unplugged I'll reach for one of my acoustics. That's why when you see all those "Unplugged" albums, they're using acoustic guitars, not unplugged electric guitars.

That's just ... weird.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Hi Tube Screamer,
If the guitar sounds better to you with the back plate off, thats all that counts!
Rock On!

Bill

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Hey, Boy Blue is back!

What on earth does that mean?

Anyway, I do seem to have put myself in the line of fire here with this topic.



When I play the guitar unplugged and seated, I do not have the body of the guitar clamped against my body, blocking the rear cavity, and so having the cover removed still leaves the cavity pretty open.

I only said to use a magazine or something similar for the test instead of keep replacing the cover for ease. There is a difference either way and also a difference with the guitar in a normal playing position.

I think that BMW-KTM values his own opinions very highly.

It is quite obvious that my playing the guitar unplugged is for personal practice and that I am not stupid enough to wish to play to an audience that way!

Here is a quote I just came across made by Eric Johnson about his signature Stratocaster:


Not a fan of the tricky-to-negotiate Strat back-plate with its fiddly string-loading holes, Johnson decided it would be omitted from his signature guitar.

But there's more to it than that. "Actually the backplates are removed from all my guitars because I think they sound better with them off," he says.

At least I'm not on my own anyway!

HA! Right on, baby!

You know I never thought of that before, I bet any advantage I gain tone wise by removing the trem cover is completely ruined when my beer belly clogs the cavity. Maybe I should put the cover back on!

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!