I did the tabletop test and while your right it does nothing to the tone of the instrument, it does slightly change the pitch. I did it a 100 times over to make sure my hearing wasn't deceiving me, but that was my finding. And say that it in fact does alter the pitch once you introduce another source of resonance, it's fair to say that the wood does indeed effect the frequencies

Vallorus

How much did you find it changed pitch by? Any idea with out measuring it?

I measured it with strobosoft and found no variation that you wouldn't normaly find in a decaying string. I.e sharper on attack, slight variation as the string settles into it's vibrating pattern, flatter as it dies off. (yes I'm really that analy retentive.)

It didn't alter the timbre of the note though?

Makes sense, even a acoustic guitar doesn't alter the way the string vibrates, which is what causes the note. It simply takes that signal and amplifies it through the soundbox. In a electric guitar, that would be the amplifier.
Differences in the construction and size of that soundbox alters the signal note's sound. Just the same way Fender amps sound different to Marshall.

Curiouser and curiouser. Thankyou for your results.

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I didn't measure it, I coud only go by my ears. If you did measure it and it gave no (significant) variation, then it must by my ears who are deceiving me. I only have high school physics to rely on for expertise, but I'll try to give my input:

I read every post so far and I'm trying to understand the mechanics of it, so please correct me if I'm entirely wrong. The way it was explained here was that the pickups generate a magnetic field in conjuction with the string, in which the frequencies it receives are translated into electric signals. They way I'm seeing it now is like a sonogram: a sound (string pluck) is emitted into the body and every part of the body (bodywood/neckwood/bridge/tremoloblock) has a different resonance pattern and those patterns bounce back into the crystal receivers (magnetic field).

Whenever a string is plucked, the different resonance patterns can either (partially) cancel eachother out or amplify eachother. I have to say I'm not entirely convinced of the tonal importance of the type of wood, but it seems feasible to me that certain woods have such resonance pattersn that they tend to cancel out the treble and bass frequencies and amplify the mid frequencies and vice versa. And if you have an inconsistent type of wood, they would vary along the body and the neck, instead of being the same over the entire body.

That being said, I agree on materials having a lot of influence on sustain and other characteristics, but that the effect on tone is marginal

The magnetic field of the pickup is disturbed by the vibration of the string when plucked.

A more scientific description by eminent pickup maker Helmuth E. W. Lemme

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Have a look at wolf note on www.wikipedia.com.

So how does a batter hit a home run without touching the ball?

Answer, there is a mechanical connection between his muscles and the ball via bones/ligament/tendons and of course the bat.

Yes of course the strings don't touch the body, however, like the batter, there is a mechanical connection between the strings and the guitar
body via the nut / bridge / tail piece / tuners. This allows the vaibrations to move back and forth among all these parts.

The same mechanical connect exits with your left hand and the neck, your body and the guitar body and your right forearm and the guitar body. These don't touch the strings but you still feel the vibrations coming from them via the various mechanical connections.

Change you word "impeded" to altered. The vibrations moving back into the strings are relatively minute to the vibrations originating from the strings. So the impact of the tone wood on the sound is very, very subtle, to many people they can't detect it. Especially if sent through a long peddle chain, into a high gain, cranked amp, through a worn out, over heated driver into a hugh room full of screeming drunken fans. Now through a very clean amp, at low volume, no peddles, sitting in an anecoic chamber and listing very carefully, with ears that haven't been damaged by 30 years of gigs and 50 years of normal wear and tear, maybe you could hear the difference.

I have a 2000 USA Standard Strat with ash body and natural (clear) finish...an absolutely beautiful guitar! It is stone stock with white plastic pickguard and original pickups.

I also have a 1991 USA Standard Strat with a greenish pewter original finish (some of you have seen that thread). One must assume that since it is a solid color, it has an alder body. This one has a polished stainless pickguard and a Rio Grande bridge pickup.

My third is a MIM Strat in solid black (definitely alder), again with stock components.

Playing each of them UNPLUGGED is how I try to determine each guitar's resonance.

My seat-of-the-pants analysis tells me that the metal pickguard has more to do with resonance than the body wood. Yes, I feel that the ash sounds better than the alder MIM, but the alder USA with the stainless pickguard has an equally nice (but somewhat different) UNPLUGGED tone as the ash USA. In trying to analyze the physics and aesthetics of a guitar's tone, I feel you must do it unplugged. A guitar's natural (or modified) resonance will of course affect the string vibrations, so gains here are also translated to gains when plugged in.

Therefore, I think a metal or metal-backed pickguard (stainless or aluminum - nothing magnetic) is a very worthwhile upgrade to gain some more resonance and tone for any Strat.

PS - Remember that a USA Strat and a MIM Strat have different pickguard screw patterns...one won't fit the other!

CTC

But it would be a impediment of the strings vibration. If you have one thing vibrating, that causes something else to vibrate that is a distance away (not touching), there will be a conflict of movement. They two sets of vibration will be out of sync with eachother and act against each other. Or you will cause in this case for other underlying notes to sound by altering (note the use of altering and impeding) the vibration of the string. Which will then be picked up by the guitars pickups and amplified. Just like (the wholly inaccurate term) Stratitus.
That doesn't happen though does it. Why? Simply because a electric guitar body plays no part in the sound other than being a platform to place hardware on. The string affects the bodywood, not the bodywood affecting the string, pickup or electrical signal.

Never mind what you or I call wolf notes, its a term that means different things in different circles, obviously. We both understand the symptom I described.

The whole of the soundproofing industry has been based on these principles. The destruction of a soundwave by isolation of the source from adjoining solid objects or by passing it through multiple density materials. Much like the different density materials used to build a guitar. Metal, wood and bone.

A new open plan office suite I worked on had soundproofing by sound signal. A complex series of microphones and speakers built into the walls, floor and ceiling were set to play back the sounds inside the building. Completely open plan floors. You couldn't hear a person 20ft away from you shout at you, in a otherwise silent room.
The basic principle of it was that the soundwave caused by a person was projected back to the original source very very quickly thereby cancelling out the noise they had made. Not perfect, it could only operate at the speed of sound.
When the place was built as a experiment they focused all the speakers in one particular 10x10 area. People in there said it was the weirdest experience, they were speaking but no sound was coming out.

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Niki, Considering how a electromagnets works on a guitar, with the string vibration, how does one explain pickup micro-phonics? I remember in the 1970 we use to do the tune A Whole Lota Love by Zepplin and in part of the song I would "talk" into the guitar and my voice would come out of the amp. We were playing super loud and the guitars would also pick up taps on the headstock or parts of the body, voice, and the spring sounds when thumped on the back. As i said already, the idea of tone wood is minuscule, but I do believe wood density would and does affect sustain. Yet the whole guitar, when really cranked up, was like one big vibration sensitive microphone! just wonder what your take is...

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

I always thought that pickup microphonics was due to loose coils ...
unpotted or unepoxied pickups ...
yelling into the pickup vibrates the coils, which gets picked up and then amplified.

The "fix" is to pot (or repot) the pickups, which holds the coils together and stops the microphonics.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

I'd have to say that the shouting into the pickup thing is actually caused by a disturbance of the string. Your face has to be right ontop of the strings for it to work doesn't it. Soundpressure from your mouth vibrates the string.
Anyone ever tried that from the back of the body or without strings on?

Also nylon strings do affect guitar pickups although you do need a very hot singlecoil. They simply disturb the magnetic field. Not in the same as a steel string. Theres a few on the site that have done that in the past.

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The signal from the pups can only be caused by a metalic object moving within the magnetic field. Unless somebody invented a new law of nature.

Tapping the body, yelling at the pups(over the string), dropping the guitar all cause the string to vibrate and therefore generate an electric current.

Nylon strings is interesting. If the guitar only had nylon strings, no steel ones, there would be no electic current. My bet is the nylon strings when played are interacting with the steel ones. Either air currents move them, vibrations moving through the guitar from the nylon and into the steel strings, or harmonics

the low g is 330 hz, it's 4th harmonic is 1,320 hz, the a is 440hz, it's 3rd harmonic is also 1,320 hz. A plucked g can move an a string, but just a little bit.

I strongly urge you to try a nylon string on a very high output singlecoil rather than just going by what you read. Nylon bass strings more so than the treble strings. It does work I and plenty of others have done it. All I can do is urge you to try it for yourself. You do need a lot of signal for it to work, but it does work.

Ok so we've established that there are other frequencies behind the ones we hear. How do you suppose we keep a piece of wood from adding souring frequencies to all these carefully constructed notes? How do you stop the bad resonance but keep the good resonance?

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Something interesting must be going on with those nylon strings and I will take your word for it.

As for you question, don't use wood, but whatever material is used will add its own sonic flavour. You'd need the Star Ship Enterprise, the strings would have to be suspended in a vacum and not touching anything.

But look on the brite side, you can spend the rest of your life building or trying out different guitars trying to find that perfect one.

For me, I need to spend more time learning than worrying about the effect the wood has on my tone, a shiny cherry burst and I'm good to go.

I will be changing string on one of my Strats today, so i am going to remove the bridge and springs and then plug it in and tap on the body and see if I get any sounds at all through the amp.

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

Exactly, thats the important thing. A guitar you like, no matter what it's made from.

Xhefri

lots of gain mate, lots. Both Ceri and I have used nylons on a electric before now. When he gets back from round your way, he'll no doubt verify it.

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