i'm still looking forward to someone who can explain how a solid, non-magnetic material such as wood, that comes into NO contact with the strings or the magnetic field of the pickups...affects the sound. It doesn't. It can't. This is an ELECTRIC guitar, don't forget that, it seems that this is where most people lose their common sense skills of what creates the electronic signal that is transferred to the amp.

If someone can explain that, then I will bow down to you and name my first child in your honor.

Good luck.

Ryan,

Think of a guitar as a giant tuning fork. Everything about how the tuning fork is made , the kind of steel, density of the steel etc effects how it sounds and sustains. When you pluck a string on the stratocaster not only does the string vibrate but the whole guitar, even though it is a solid body it still resonates. for example turn your amp on and turn the volume up max and your guitar up max, now thump on the body of the guitar with you knuckle. the vibration will be transmitted all about the guitar but also your strings. The strings and wood of the guitar work in symphany to produce sound. Folks think because its a solid body that it does not resonate like an acoustic but it does. Just like the example of the rifle barrel I gave previously.

It's just basic physics. In studying aircraft manufacturing and construction we were taught that engineers must be careful not to build aircraft to rigid and must bear in mind vibration. Too rigid of a construction and the vibration of the aircraft will cause it to break up.

The wingtips on the B-47 flexed up to eight feet up or down for a total span of 16 feet of flex (if I recall correctly)

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I remember when we were free!

Okay! I have one-piece bodies and multi-piece bodies, so I know the sound of glue ...



Have you guys ever played a RainSong Guitar?? They sound pretty darn good.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Exactly

Everyone has offered suppositions and their unproven theories and marketing hype. No one has suggested a way to quantify the effect of tone wood on a electric signal. Or offered a explanation as to why a vibration caused a string That must because of simple distance, be out of sync with the vibration of the string itself not cause distortion of the signal. The same way adjusting pickup height too high, changes the vibration of the string and so alters the sound of the note producing wolf notes. Or more accurately a distortion of the original signal.
Also do 335s and Lespauls sound that different? You'd never spot the difference just listening to recordings. Yeah BB King and Larry Carlton sound incredibly different to Les Paul. Do BB King or Larry Carlton sound different to BB King or Larry Carlton playing a Les Paul though?

I'll send a postal order for £50 to the regular user who can tell me what model guitar was used to record Parisienne Walkways. It's a very distinct famous sound.

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No no and no

nikininja,

Let me understand your position.

Are you stating that the type of material, plastic , concrete, brass, wood, rubber and size of the electric guitar body etc. has absolutely nothing to do with the sound/tone etc?

Additionally are you stating that the if all 3 had the same type pickups a stratocaster, LP and 336 would produce the same sound, tone etc.

Please restate your position in brief.

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I remember when we were free!

One has to admit the wood does something, albeit, not as much as played in marketing strategies. I have a Gibson ES150DC that is hollow body with 2 humbuckers. The guitar resonates like crazy when plugged in. If turned up too much it feeds back. This means, despite the fact it is electric there is a harmonic-symbiotic relationship between the wood and the pickups. I can hold a note and the guitar will resonates and feedback for days. You can feel the whole guitar vibrating like crazy.

Then I pick up my Gibson ES335TD which is a semi-hollow body. Same size as the 150 but thinner with a piece of Mahogany running down through the center. It resonates, but not like the 150. The solid piece of wood running the length of the body cuts down on that and the feedback as well.

Then I pick up a Les Paul. It has a chambered body, as most of you know and is made from Mahogany. The guitar has a unique harmonics, more than most of my Strats and yet not the same as the 150 or 335. It has to have something to do wood, chambers, and pickups together. It can cause some note to do those cool squeallig sounds (ZZ Top harmonics tricks) really easy.

My Strats have that "spring ring" when you play them. Some notes create a cool harmonic sound in the springs. So there is a relationship there. All this said, there is some type of relationship between the wood, springs, and pickups.

Top be honest, I have never figured it out. I have seen endless arguments over this subject, just as this thread testifies too. I have a lot of guitars and have stood a bunch of Strats up in a line and strummed each and listened closely. Some will be acoustically louder that the others.But it was not so much the wood, Alder, Ash, etc, but just that guitar. Plugged in, some will have more harmonic characteristics. But the odd thing is, it really was not measurably consistent between the guitar's wood. And some would have Ash and the other Popular or Alder! I have come to realize, with a Strat, some have the magic and others don't. It always isn't just the wood or the pickups or the nut or springs. It is the special combo of all the elements that just make it happen!

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

Was that not Peter Green's '59 Les Paul with what is known as the Peter Green mod?

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Chet Feathers

Authorized TonePros Dealer
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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

Yes I'm stating that body wood has very little effect, if any on the sound of a guitar.

Now before anyone replies, all I ask is that I'm shown proof that can't be attributed to something else. Explain to me how the points raised in my previous posts are wrong. Explain to me how the tuning or wolf note issues don't happen. How wood effects a electrical circuit which is all you're hearing.

If you can't do that then I don't want to know. I don't care about opinion or statements made over the internet to in some way give creedence or validity to opinion. Theres far too much falsity and marketing hype in the guitar world. Lets have facts that we can learn from eh? If I'm proved wrong I'll admit it and be thankfull that I've been educated so to speak.

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No no and no

I'm no expert but thought I'd put this forward anyway, seen these threads before so tried a little test of my own, crude maybe but here goes, we've all at some point I'm supposing rested the headstock of our guitar against something and noticed how it resonates / vibrates through whatever it's rested on be it the headboard of the bed, doorframe, wardrobe etc etc, so set up my amp in a different room as far as the lead would allow and had my son strum the open string's while lifting it on and off, listened to the amp and heard no difference, couldn't tell whether it was resting on anything or not, ear only test, maybe someone out there with the equipment to measure accurately volume and sustain can either back this up or prove otherwise

That is exactly how I know body wood makes no difference at all. Late at night when all are asleep and I feel the creative juices flowing. The first thing I do is grab my guitar. The next is run into the kitchen, put the headstock against the door or the table and start playing.
The reason I prefer the kitchen is because the unamplified sound bounces back a lot off the tiles. Coupled with the added bass of the table or door it sounds nice.
It doesn't come through a amplifier though.

Chet
Sorry mate it wasn't the Greenie guitar or any other Gibson.

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No no and no

How much wood tone can come through the 1/2 volt signal a Strat pup sends to the amp?
I know different guitars resonate with the different types of wood,but I also know that with the flick of the switch I can get 5 tones of considerable difference....while the note is sustaining/decaying.
There's some good points raised here though.

nikininja,

If you do not mind me asking, what type guitars have you purchased in the past or currently own?

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I remember when we were free!

If type of wood mades no difference then all of a given model of stratocaster or telecaster,all other components being equal, would/should sound exactly the same?

If body material makes no difference at all, and all other compents being equal, then instead of wood: rubber, plastic, aluminum, brass, concrete, reinforced cardboard guitars would same as each other, and in turn the all would sound just like any other alder or ash stratocaster.

This is what you are assurting? If I am missing something please clarify, Thanks

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I remember when we were free!

Various ones of all price points.
The list goes
Avon Les Paul, (cheap bad Japanese late 70's) £50
Tokai Breezy Sound £125
Marlin Strat (utterly horrible Welsh cheapie) £30
Charvel Model4
Dean SuperStrat (From when Dean only built Customshop)
Lost all my gear at that point to a bad woman and a bad decision
Encore Strat copy (£80 rubbish but made me realize how much I like strats)
95MIM Squier Series (still own) £200
Jackson DK2
Jackson JS30(still own) £230
Jackson RR3 £439
Mosrite Johnny Ramone (storage)
76 LP Standard (storage)
Vintage LP (English design by Trev Wilkinson, Chinese built copy. overhyped garbage. Still own unfortunately)
04 Anniversary Deluxe (still own)
06 CustomShop Custom Classic (still own)
07 Baja Telecaster (still own)
07 57 Vintage Hotrod (Still own)

I've listed prices of some of the more obscure stuff. Oneal I know where you're going with this. My guitar buying has never been a price thing. I'm no gear snob. I simply buy what I think is a good guitar or one that can be made good. The stored guitars were bought to sell, I've played them both once.

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No no and no

All other components are not equal though are they?
The Telecaster is a completely different animal to the Strat. Bridge, pickups and wiring.
Go play a Shishkov Strat/Tele hybrid and tell me what it sounds like. Is that the Alder sound or the Ash sound?

Yeah anyways if you take a ash bodied telecaster blank. Put a American Deluxe Strat's hardware on it (all of it). Then show me the difference in sound.

Oh still no one has told me why body vibration doesn't distort a note or cause wolf notes?
Those vibrations have to be out of sync don't they.

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No no and no