TelePaul said:
Hey guys. I was wondering how form affects tone with guitars...i.e, do things like fret inlays affect tone, body inlays (like that PRS Dragon) bolt-neck vs set neck (though I think we've covered that), bosy size and shape (especially those pointy guitars) finish, extra routing....
Basically how much do looks effect tone?
Geeze! you must want me to write a book or something!
Fret inlays - not a damn bit of difference, sound wise.
Body inlays - on a solid body electric, nothing, on a hollow or semi-hollow, not much (probably not perceptible), and on a flat top acoustic, HUGE. I've played the 1,000,000th Martin, and the thing is dead as a doornail. Too much pearl in the body. (of course, that is a rather extreme version of the issue).
I think we've covered the neck thing, but I restate my opinion - I think that on an acoustic the difference is minimal to non-existanct, because so much of the energy of the string is used up moving the top of the guitar. With an electric, I think that what you get is a change in the shape of the note (what synth guys call ADSR - Attack, Decay, Sustain, and Release, though the Release part isn't effected much). The attack bit stays pretty much the same, but the decay and sustain parts can be quite different. Bolt-on necks have a faster decay, and less sustain (on the whole). It also makes bolt-on's SOUND like they have more attack. The rise of the original slope is pretty much the same, but that quick decay emphasizes the beginning of the note. (It's kind of like using a compressor with a slow attack time to emphasize the attack of a kick drum). Set necks kind of fall in the middle, and neck-throughs have the longest decay and sustain. I've made some all mahogany neck-throughs where you almost couldn't make out the attack on the notes. It can be like you are playing legato while picking every note. I didn't like it much, but it made the customers happy. I usually use ash body wings to compensate for that a bit.
Body size matters, body shape doesn't (at least, I don't think it does). To be more specific, body VOLUME and MASS matter, but I've never seen much to suggest that the actual shape of the guitar is all that important. On an acoustic, the volume of the body is the resonant frequency of the guitar, and is also going to define the lowest note the guitar can really produce. On an electric, the volume of the body is kind of acting like a heat sink, sucking out various frequencies and smoothing out the output of the string. The truth is, a raw string sounds pretty unpleasant, and the guitar job is to make it better. You NEED to damp some things. That's what I see the body as doing.
Finish, well, that's a hard one to define. I think nitro sounds a bit more "open," but I'm not sure that it is that big a deal. The main reasons I still use nitro are that; 1) I like the look of it (after a bit of time, it kind of sinks into the pours of the wood, which looks really cool to me), 2) it is very traditional, and guitar players are the most hide bond bunch of..., 3)we run a large repair shop, and we NEED to be able to repair nitro finishes. The idea of spraying more than one kind of finish in our spray booth gives me (and dad, and everyone else in the shop) the heebie jeebies! It's simply not going to happen.
If by extra routing, you mean chambering an electric, I think it is mostly an issue of ADSR again. As you remove wood, you make the "plates" thiner, which means they vibrate more. Vibration sucks up energy much faster, but it can also setup a resonance which can add energy back. To be honest, my favorite guitars that I've made have all been solid, but I LOVE the extra money I get for chambering guitars, so I'm always happy to do it (plus, doing it well is kind of tricky - at least on my guitars - so it has a great deal of craftsmanship ego involved with it, which is the main reason most of us do this anyway, you know?)
Hey, next time, why don't you ask a nice general question so I can expound a bit, eh?
Light
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