What I would like to witness would be 2-guitars of the exact same specs (I mean everything) but of different wood bodies. Preferably 2 species that are claimed to have vastly different tonal properties from each other. If they sound the same through an amp, I'd be more inclined to come closer to a conclusion.

Can't really do that myself. Within my herd, no 2 guitars are alike in specs.

Until that actually happens, I have to still believe that different wood bodies and species do tweak the tonal properties to some degree.

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Ok.. I did find this on youtube for the time being.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-kSt3vth2Y

I've gotta say, keeping an open mind and unbiased, I don't hear a significant difference between these 2 guitars. But still in fairness, it only shows a comparison between different "caps". Still not quite enough to form a conclusion for me, but closer I guess.

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Ooops.. double post.

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I'd still like to hear from Niki and the rest. Confirmation that they feel wood has no affect.

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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.

I can't comment on what or if any the number of pieces of wood affects tone because I have no idea. I do believe some wood types are of better tonal quality than others to some degree. To how much degree, I don't know.

I had owned my Am Standard Strat several months when I noticed it has 4 pieces of body wood.(Its Blizzard of Pearl color so It's hard to tell) I was a little disappointed when I first noticed it. But hell, the thing sounds amazing so I'm not so disappointed after considering the fact.

I'm not absolutely sure but I think my AVRI '57 has a 2 piece body. There appears to be a line in the finish right in the middle of the body.. It's Transparent Blonde ash bodied. I can see all the wood grain but it's matched so well you can't tell by looking at the grain.
Anyway, what I'm getting at is. The AVRI is much louder acoustically than the Am Standard. I don't know if it's the number of pieces of wood, or type of woods or one is poly and one is laquer or what. ??????
I don't know what my point really is, I geuss I don't have one . Just trying to participate. NOT in the debate, I mean participate in the thread. As I said I really have no idea what or if any how many pieces of wood affect tone. So there's my 2cents.
PS. If it sounds GOOD to YOU< Play the crap out of it.

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It's my unscientific opinion that wood has a minimal effect and the pickups and amp are the biggest factors in tone....the amp being the deciding factor.
I've owned and played many Strats both vintage and post '70s,and currently own 5,of which 2 are American Standards with the "swimming pool route" and possible poplar bodies and thick poly finish...the others are Vintage RI Strats...with nitro "thin skin" alder bodies,advertised to be able to "breathe" and "resonate" and have tone out the ying-yang.....but they don't make breakfast.
In all of those Strats I've mentioned,I've changed all the stock pickups and tried several Fender and "boo=teek" pickups.
I have swapped pickups between several of the guitars,and firmly believe that the pickups in any body sound the same....I leave my favorites in the guitars that play the best,and have settled on that configuration.
That's my experience,as usual....yours may vary.

I try to keep an open mind. But if I didn't run into what I consider to be dud bodies (fairly recently) it would be an easier sell. I've swapped bodies before and heard big differences. There are 2 that I have right now that I just don't want to mess with just for that reason. No matter what I tried, they never really sounded good to me. And believe me I wanted them to. I wouldn't have gone through so much trouble if I didn't.

On both occasions I ended up putting High output pickups in them to try to override what I was hearing. And it did seem to work. But then I felt like I wasn't getting a good representation of what those pickups could do. So I dismantled both, put the pickups in other guitars, and I'm happier with the way the pickups respond.

One of them is a Basswood body. So out of the 4 Strat styles I have, 1 seems to react with the pickups clearly differently. I can't really explain it. It just ended up being the only conclusion I could come up with anymore. The other 3 have been pretty consistent with each other.

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See Shredd,we all seem to have different experiences,that's why there's no definitive answer and these threads never are settled....but I guess unless it's scientifically proven in a lab setting and the results are consistent,we will all have our own opinions and experiences.
The results of that are a lot of great music,played by a lot of musicians with different tones....the spice of life.

I agree totally. After this last run of guitars I've put together, I've been very happy with what I use live. I'm sporting 5-Basswood body and 2-Alder bodied guitars. They sound great, I love them.

To some degree I'm still interested in this kind of topic. Especially in a discussion with such pro minded people. I wouldn't expect any major definitive conclusion to this type of thing. It's been a circular discussion many times over for years.

I will say this though. We're recording an EP in a couple of weeks. Can't wait to use a couple of these guitars in the recording. What I'm bringing to the studio would be guitars people would typically call cheap. And they would probably be right. But cheap doesn't always mean bad in my opinion. In about 6-weeks, I'll post some recordings with guitars I didn't pay more than $300 for. A couple of them, under $200.

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I hear ya, Rebel and I tend to agree that wood selection is a very minor contribution to the tone of a guitar but I find it extremely difficult to accept some people's assertions that Alder is no different than polycarbonate or recycled aluminium pop cans. The wood does affect the tone to some degree. It has to. The laws of physics do not allow for it to be otherwise.

Here's one of my problems among many. We are all agreed that niether wood nor air are magnetic so they therefore have no affect on magnetic pickups, right? We all know that magnetic pickups only pick up changes in the magnetic field they are exposed to. (Google Faraday's Law or current induction) Physical vibrations from wood or air may have an effect on the longevity of the windings and magnets in a pickup but they don't produce a signal so if wood or air is to affect tone then the only way they can do that is by affecting the strings and how they vibrate.

Let's look at the Telecaster. We will assume two Teles are equally equipped with the same pickups, same pots, same hardware. We can even assume the same wood if we want to but since so many have asserted there's no difference between woods it should not even matter. So the two Teles are exactly alike except for one thing. One of the Teles is a typical solid body guitar but the other is constructed in a similar fashion to the Merle Haggard tele. A Thinline but without the F-hole and also without the different shaped pickguard and routing. They both have bolt on maple necks with 4 hole plates. Why does the Thinline sound distinctly different from the solid body?

If anyone can answer that without admitting that the wood affected the tone I'd sure like to hear it. In this particular case it is the mass of the wood that creates the change rather than the species but a change is nevertheless created and the only difference has to do with the wood. Somebody please explain this to me using the the example I have set forth.

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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.

I've experimented with a lot of different guitars. Wood types, neck joints, and number of pieces do have some noticeable effect on tone, but not nearly as much as a lot of guitarists like to think. Pickups make a bigger difference, and your amp makes the most difference in tone.

Some have commented that glued in necks (set neck) doesn't allow for transfer of vibrations & resonance, but I have to disagree with this. Most acoustic guitars have set necks as do Les Pauls & PRS. Very resonant. I'm sure there are quite a few on here who have more technical knowledge than I do, but I have a decent ear for tone and enjoy trying out different guitars.

Hmmm.. Interesting. So if I were to take the same exact body of a guitar and re-saw 1/2 inch off the back, would it sound different? Or is it more because an airspace cavern was created for vibrations to bounce around in?

Am I understanding correctly that a cavity is routed, but the f-hole capped. Like a chambered body?

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Let´s see the Gibson line of guitars (sorry for that).
Let´s take a Flying V, Les Paul, SG and Explorer.
All made from mahogany body and neck, same pickups (the 57).
They all sound different.
The reversed Flying V still sounds like a Flying V.
So is it a combination of shape(?) and mass of the wood ?

Mass of the wood to sound more fat ?
No, the SG has less wood and sounds fatter than a Flying V.
The Explorer sounds brighter than the Flying V.

Shape ?
C´mon, I don´t believe it. On the other hand what is left shaping the sound ?

Cheers,
Robin

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I don't think BMW-KTM ever said that one would sound fatter than the other. Just different. In which case.. You would be more on his side of things. What BMW-KTM is trying to explain is that he believes wood does matter to some degree in the scope of a guitar's tone. That differences can be created even though wood doesn't by DNA directly affect a magnetic field. But rather that it affects tonal properties through vibrations through the strings which is what the magnetic field picks up.

If I'm understanding BMW-KTM's last post. Creating a cavern in the wood and more airspace affects the vibrational qualities of the strings differently and creates a difference in sound. That being said, is it possible that wood does in fact affect tone?

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i dunno if this has anything to do with this argument just wanna throw it out there see what you guys think of this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFyQXy74 ... re=related