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Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 8:11 pm
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cool9 wrote:
Rosewood is denser and more expensive because it's supplied from overseas (Africa, South America). Rosewood and Maple most likely differ in heat expansion/contraction which is why the maker chooses one over the other. You're not going to hear any sound difference. The wood type doesn't do anything to the string length, etc. The string vibrates the same way no matter what type of fingerboard wood is used.


That said, with which I agree, the string is vibrated beyond just the initial vibratory impetus as well. This is known as 'sympathetic vibration' or feedback (in a looser sense). In general, it is the entire 'closed' system vibrating between its components. So, I'd say that the entire guitar imparts a certain amount of tonal quality back into the strings via this phenomenon (which alters the timbre) but that the minor percentage difference between a solid maple neck and one with a rosewood fretboard is insignificant to this overall tonal property.

Even with a well isolated system, it is difficult to have a perfectly closed system. A standard example here is the Earth as a closed system (which is used deliteriously by unscrupulous types like young-earth creationists) wherein they claim that Earth can't be that old or all of its resources would have been exhausted in the time-scales associated with evolutionary history (fallacious use of the Second Law of Thermodynamics). Ah, but the Earth isn't a closed system in itself - it has a continuous resupply from space 'dust', comets, asteroids, cosmic energies, and the energetic output of the sun (and even some exchange of material with the other planets via large body impacts). So, the so-called 'closed system' here includes the entire universe (or, at least, a large local portion thereof).

Same for music in general. The entire auditorium or playing environment has an effect on the tonal quality and general quality of the sound. We've all heard about crappy concerts where the micing, dynamics, or volume resulted in poor listening conditions. Basically, this includes the guitar, the guitarist, the amplifiers, the loud-speakers, the venue, the people in the venue, the environmental conditions.

For instance, the same (expensive and nice) classical guitar that I purchased sounded amazing when I tried it out. And it sounded amazing in other circumstances. But it also sounded a bit dead or less sustaining in others. This isn't the guitar's fault - it has to do with the conditions and environment. There are really no ways to get around these foibles.

As much as I like Eric Johnson's playing, one has to roll with the punches here (and not get caught up in the infinitesimals). Doing voodoo to your guitar won't make it sound better - in every situation. This is like the so-called magnets that you can attach to your gas line and tank to expect better gas mileage. It doesn't work because (even if the magnets did have some affect) it is so much noise with respect to the other more major influences (such as your driving practices and tuning of the whole system) that it isn't worth it. In other words, a bunch of well strategized minor enhancements can improve something but only as a whole - not in themselves. A rosewood vs. maple fretboard is one small component of many. Comprende?

The test is on Monday. No calculators allowed. ;P


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Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 6:32 am
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(Re previous post): WOW.

On this site and throughout the guitar press the timber debate rages. The wood of a fingerboard, the exact thickness of that wood, etc, etc.

I read an article about how Keith Richards started the whole relic thing when he went to Fender and asked them to make a copy of his 50s Tele, cos the original was too valuable to take on the road. When they'd done it he thought it was good, but didn't look and feel like the real thing. Could they bash it up a bit for him, please? And so the distressing of new instruments began.

In this article much was made of comparison of the grain in the body of the guitar - would it resonate and give the same tone as a 50 year old instrument? And how the Custom Shop offered a quarter-sawn neck, but Keef insisted on flat-sawn to stay close to the mojo of his original.

After all that, I went to see the Stones in a vast stadium, where the acoustic was worse than anything I've ever encountered. Let's face it, we all know every number the Stones ever do live, yet as each one started the audience were looking round at each other - "Is it Brown Sugar?" "No, surely it's Satisfaction." "No, it is Jumping Jack Flash; I just lip-read Mick Jagger on the giant screen..."

The idea that it mattered a tinker's cuss what the grain was like on Keef's guitar, or what the fingerboard is (given that he was probably so drunk he couldn't hit an open E) was nuts.

Of course the type of wood must make some kind of minute difference to the tone - infinitesimal compared to the pickups, amp and FX. But in real-life conditions, be sensible. Choose the guitar you think looks nice.

Endless respect to Eric Johnson, of course.


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Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 7:01 am
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Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2007 12:53 pm
Posts: 232
Kuroyume wrote:
cool9 wrote:
Rosewood is denser and more expensive because it's supplied from overseas (Africa, South America). Rosewood and Maple most likely differ in heat expansion/contraction which is why the maker chooses one over the other. You're not going to hear any sound difference. The wood type doesn't do anything to the string length, etc. The string vibrates the same way no matter what type of fingerboard wood is used.


That said, with which I agree, the string is vibrated beyond just the initial vibratory impetus as well. This is known as 'sympathetic vibration' or feedback (in a looser sense). In general, it is the entire 'closed' system vibrating between its components. So, I'd say that the entire guitar imparts a certain amount of tonal quality back into the strings via this phenomenon (which alters the timbre) but that the minor percentage difference between a solid maple neck and one with a rosewood fretboard is insignificant to this overall tonal property.

Even with a well isolated system, it is difficult to have a perfectly closed system. A standard example here is the Earth as a closed system (which is used deliteriously by unscrupulous types like young-earth creationists) wherein they claim that Earth can't be that old or all of its resources would have been exhausted in the time-scales associated with evolutionary history (fallacious use of the Second Law of Thermodynamics). Ah, but the Earth isn't a closed system in itself - it has a continuous resupply from space 'dust', comets, asteroids, cosmic energies, and the energetic output of the sun (and even some exchange of material with the other planets via large body impacts). So, the so-called 'closed system' here includes the entire universe (or, at least, a large local portion thereof).

Same for music in general. The entire auditorium or playing environment has an effect on the tonal quality and general quality of the sound. We've all heard about crappy concerts where the micing, dynamics, or volume resulted in poor listening conditions. Basically, this includes the guitar, the guitarist, the amplifiers, the loud-speakers, the venue, the people in the venue, the environmental conditions.

For instance, the same (expensive and nice) classical guitar that I purchased sounded amazing when I tried it out. And it sounded amazing in other circumstances. But it also sounded a bit dead or less sustaining in others. This isn't the guitar's fault - it has to do with the conditions and environment. There are really no ways to get around these foibles.

As much as I like Eric Johnson's playing, one has to roll with the punches here (and not get caught up in the infinitesimals). Doing voodoo to your guitar won't make it sound better - in every situation. This is like the so-called magnets that you can attach to your gas line and tank to expect better gas mileage. It doesn't work because (even if the magnets did have some affect) it is so much noise with respect to the other more major influences (such as your driving practices and tuning of the whole system) that it isn't worth it. In other words, a bunch of well strategized minor enhancements can improve something but only as a whole - not in themselves. A rosewood vs. maple fretboard is one small component of many. Comprende?

The test is on Monday. No calculators allowed. ;P


The answer is 4


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