Still on a round-the-clock hospital round, so can only visualize the experiment while guitar less. I can picture the outcome to an extent - some of my Strats transmit vibration through the neck quite strongly (why not all of them?) and ought to be audible with another sounding board.

Perhaps I will try plucking a string and then listening to the body at different points with my stethoscope to try and see if there is any change in intensity on either side of glue joints. I'll try it on an Epiphone I have, which is a mahogany plywood body and has lots of glue on board.

Isn't this always one of the many $1,000,000 questions regarding guitars.

I wish I was more of a scientist with a bunch of gadgets to measure and visualize the sound travel through woods, pores, glue joints etc., but unfortunately, I'm not.

The biggest problem I have with a question like this, is that "affecting tone" implies a negative aspect to the question. Who's to say that the affecting property is always bad? I just consider all guitar bodies to sound different in their own way, so it's hard for me to really care too much about the glue joints or number of pieces used to make it.

I have a couple that have been dismantled because for whatever reason, I couldn't get a rich sound out of them no matter what I tried. I have 2 identical Squier Stagemasters (same year, same plant, same model, same wood types, same number of glue joints). Every pickup I've tried in the Blue one sounded nice, the Red one, they all sounded less colorful. I don't have a real scientific answer for that. I don't really feel like hurting my brain to that degree.

I've run across guitars that have sounded beautiful and are constructed with a center piece, 2 pieces of a different species attached to the sides of it, 2 more of the center species attached to those, and 2 other pieces of yet another species attached as the outside pieces. Matsumoku guitars come to mind.



7-pieces of wood and 6 glue joints make up that body. At one point I had something very similar to this one, and it was great in all aspects that were tone and sustain. I just couldn't take the balance issue with the body design anymore, and sold it. But it definitely wasn't sold for it's lack of tone or sustain.

It would be hard for me to say that technically it's a myth. But it's equally as hard for me to believe that glue joints matter to any significant degree as well. Different species of woods used are a different story and question altogether in my opinion.

Play it, listen, if you like it, it's good.

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I doubt anyone that spends a good part of the day signing autographs would care about how many pieces of wood their guitar would have to have to be used in their next recording.

So what you're saying is,famous musicians don't care about tone?
Or are you saying that famous musicians who record know that in a studio all sorts of sonic effects and nuances can be used to make them and their guitars sound their absolute best?

Ooo, I haven't bothered to take part in a thread on this particular topic for many moons. Let's dip a toe in this one, just for shucks.



I think Nick's test is to do with the role of magnetic pickups in sound reproduction. It wasn't about glue. It's a great test, by the way!



That is such a good point, well made. Thank you for that!

Regarding the glue thing. I always wait for someone to bring up Stradivarius violins in these tone debates - it usually doesn't take long! Totting it up in my head, a Strad (and any other violin) contains no less than 20 separate pieces of wood, all of which are glued together. Not counting the removable parts - bridge, sound post, etc. Or the purfling.

Since (on questionable evidence) people always cite Strads as a tone ultimate then I guess plenty of glue must be a good thing - right?

Likewise, a lot of people swear by the tone of '50s Les Pauls. Let's just count how many glue joints there are in those guitars...

Cheers - C

Edit: spelling (slaps forehead with palm of hand...)

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One thing that guitar builders say said about pieced bodies is that it added strength to the body itself. A one piece, with the grain running the length of the body, and depending on what part of the tree the wood is taken, can be more prone to warping. Having the pieces breaks up the grain pattern and makes the body more ridged, thus the concept of a laminated beam. Tone wise? not a zip difference on a solid body electric guitar. IMHO

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That's really important if you want to smash a guitar on stage.

Cheers

David

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So Ceri, why is it that the guitars that Mr. Stradivarius built have been described as sonic duds that do not match his violin accomplishments? Not near enough glue perhaps?

zero percent, makes absolutely no difference in the sound. same goes for the body wood.
sits back and waits for the silly argument the follow...

Is that what they say?

Anyhow, practice, wouldn't you think? To the best of my knowledge there are perhaps four surviving guitars attributed to Stradivarius. As against around 600 violins, 300 odd from the "golden period"; plus quite a few cellos.

The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford has both a Strad violin (the "Messiah") and a guitar attributed to him. They don't let anyone play them though, so we have no idea how they sound against one another.

Funny thing about old Strads. Not long ago I was at a concert given by cellist Yo Yo Ma. In the interval someone was raving on about the fabulous tone of his Stradivarius cello - except that he was actually playing his modern instrument that night (he mostly does).

Tone is sometimes in the eye of the beholder. Amongst other places.

Cheers - C

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I have to disagree. At least about the pickup part. The context of the original experiment suggestion was vibrational transfer between woods and it works acoustically on an electric guitar where neither pickups nor acoustic amplification chambers are in play. It clearly has nothing at all to do with pickups if it works that way.

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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.

When I read what is said by Mr C. the thought came about bolt on neck verse glued on neck, or as in the case of my old Firebird, one piece from end to end. I know from working with wood that when two pieces are pushed together, perhaps like when a glue joint breaks, vibrations do not go through the wood as well. In fact, it makes the wood really dead. But when glued, they are fused together and vibrations carry much better. On a thick plank, whether put together from sections or one piece, it seems to me that it does not make much difference. With thin pieces of wood that are designed to vibrate air to produce an acoustic tone, the glue becomes the binding element to cause the whole body to vibrate as one piece and thus move air as a unit. The glue is a big factor as much as the shape and the position of the braces. A plank does not vibrate the same way a thing piece of wood does, thus why when Strat is not plugged in it as not as loud as something as small as a violin or even a mandolin. Just some random thoughts.

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I think your both saying the same thing. I remember when Niki was posting this experiment, his point was that the tone (sound) of a guitar using electromagnetic pickups did not change by adding too or taking away wood—thus showing the wood itself has very little to do with the sound of the guitar.

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I think you miss the point of the test. It shows how you can affect the sound of a guitar unplugged to a great degree. But also shows that the sound of a electric guitars woods has nothing to do with what comes out the speaker as soon as the thing is amplified.

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No no and no