Tonewoods....

Greg_L said:
That's pretty much along the lines of what I was thinking, especially with crunchy or higher gain tones. Pickups, amps, and speakers make the most significant differences IMO. Take Angus and Malcolm Young. They play drastically different guitars, but both use humbuckers through the same loud as fuck amps, and their basic tones are pretty damn similar. I use different guitars all the time on my own recordings. A Strat, SG, Les Paul, and my new Hallmark Mosrite clone, and I most often can't remember what I used for what. It all pretty much sounds like the same crap. Lol. :laughings:
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Just think about what you do with the chain when recording an electric and what the objectives are when recording an acoustic. Two diffent approaches. With an electric you want to tweak it with an acoustic you want to capture it. Neither is wrong. One thing is certain you struggle to get a good tone from any guitar that doesn't have the basics down unplugged.
 
muttley600 said:
Just think about what you do with the chain when recording an electric and what the objectives are when recording an acoustic. Two diffent approaches. With an electric you want to tweak it with an acoustic you want to capture it. Neither is wrong. One thing is certain you struggle to get a good tone from any guitar that doesn't have the basics down unplugged.
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Right, I agree with that.

My original intent with this thread was just electrics though.
 
guitaristic said:
Ehhh not really. I mean, mine feels a tad heavier than my SG, but it definitely is way lighter than a Les Paul.
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Sure, no doubt there. Nothing is as heavy as a LP. But whenever I grab a Tele off the rack I'm kind of surprised at how hefty they are relative to their appearance.
 
muttley600 said:
Goes to show that wifey is right more often than we give credit for..
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Yeah. I really should have listened to her on that one. She STILL pops off about me selling that custom...everytime we see someone playing a cherry burst LP on TV.

"There's a guitar like the one I loved...that you sold"

God forbid a vintage Kiss concert clip comes on....I switch that sucker to something else to keep from hearing it.
:D
 
ido1957 said:
There's a video on Fender's site - Custom Shop ?? - where they discuss wood. The guy taps on a couple of different bodies and states that "this body will be brighter than that one" and does neck stuff to compensate. Not sure but he is a builder so he might be right...
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If you lightly hold the "tonewood" in your left hand, and lightly strike it with your right hand fingernail, you can really tell the difference between species. Sometimes.

But, that is if ALL other factors are considered.....moisture content, exact same thickness, finish on each piece being the same, how hard you hold the piece, etc.

In other words, maybe.

Sound, is subjective/relative.;)
 
Consider the T-Necks on late 70's to early 80's Kramers. They had a bridge to headstock aluminum construction. The wood was only for show. They were rock-solid, almost indestrctible. My brother put one through the roof of a house and it barely went out of tune! (you should have seen it :laughings:)

Point is, there was very little wood (especially in the Duke Series), but these things played exceptionally, sounded amazing, and weighed in at about 9#. Talk about cutting off your circulation...
 
Having built 17 electric guitars, I can tell you that it is my opinion that 60%++ of the tonal quality of an electric comes from the neck, not the body wood.

I will also say I'm a big fan of light electrics. I think they tend to be very responsive, and don't hurt you at a gig.

My last observation has been that when they sound great acoustically, they sound all the better when plugged in.
 
Muddy T-Bone said:
Having built 17 electric guitars, I can tell you that it is my opinion that 60%++ of the tonal quality of an electric comes from the neck, not the body wood.

I will also say I'm a big fan of light electrics. I think they tend to be very responsive, and don't hurt you at a gig.

My last observation has been that when they sound great acoustically, they sound all the better when plugged in.
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I'm no guitar-builder (although I may take a course next summer), but from my experience with guitars, this is pretty much spot on.

I have a Jackson SL2H-MAH (mahogany body/maple top + mahogany neck), and a Jackson KE2 (alder body/maple veneer + maple neck). Apart from the shapes and the neck pickups, everything else is identical (hardware, electronics, construction-method). Set up the same, they sound very different, both acoustically and trough an amp (using the bridge pickup).

The differences in sound goes very much with the typical descriptions of the tone-woods: The mahogany-guitar sounds "warm and full" and the alder/maple-guitar sounds "snappy and midrangey". They respond quite differently too. Using the bridge pickups (same model on both guitars) through my overdriven amps, I could definitely tell them apart from sound clips recorded in the same fashion.

Don't know if the body-shape affects sound much, but I definitely feel that the wood-types play an important role in the shaping of the sound. The only way to really tell is to compare several x-wood-models and several identical y-wood-models side by side.
 
paw1 said:
I'm no guitar-builder (although I may take a course next summer), but from my experience with guitars, this is pretty much spot on.

I have a Jackson SL2H-MAH (mahogany body/maple top + mahogany neck), and a Jackson KE2 (alder body/maple veneer + maple neck). Apart from the shapes and the neck pickups, everything else is identical (hardware, electronics, construction-method). Set up the same, they sound very different, both acoustically and trough an amp (using the bridge pickup).

The differences in sound goes very much with the typical descriptions of the tone-woods: The mahogany-guitar sounds "warm and full" and the alder/maple-guitar sounds "snappy and midrangey". They respond quite differently too. Using the bridge pickups (same model on both guitars) through my overdriven amps, I could definitely tell them apart from sound clips recorded in the same fashion.

Don't know if the body-shape affects sound much, but I definitely feel that the wood-types play an important role in the shaping of the sound. The only way to really tell is to compare several x-wood-models and several identical y-wood-models side by side.
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Everything affects the tone. It aint just the neck. To pin down 60%ish of the tone to the neck alone is just plain wrong.

There is no way to compare even if guitars are made of the same timber. No two pieces are the same.
 
muttley600 said:
Everything affects the tone. It aint just the neck. To pin down 60%ish of the tone to the neck alone is just plain wrong.

There is no way to compare even if guitars are made of the same timber. No two pieces are the same.
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Yeah, my post didn't refer to that certain percentage he was suggesting, but his general observations.
 
Greg_L said:
Sure, no doubt there. Nothing is as heavy as a LP.
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I've got a Burns Bison (English - Muttley will know them - from the early 80s - presumably "Burns of London" rather than the original Burns) that I reckon is heavier than an LP... it's a monster.

Seeing I also have an unchambered LP of about 1990 vintage I think (second hand buy) I'm going to weigh them both to see... just out of interest... of course I'll have to get it down from the high shelf... could be dangerous :laughings:... hasn't been out of its case in years.
 
Armistice said:
I've got a Burns Bison (English - Muttley will know them - from the early 80s - presumably "Burns of London" rather than the original Burns) that I reckon is heavier than an LP... it's a monster.

Seeing I also have an unchambered LP of about 1990 vintage I think (second hand buy) I'm going to weigh them both to see... just out of interest... of course I'll have to get it down from the high shelf... could be dangerous :laughings:... hasn't been out of its case in years.
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I've heard of those. Never seen the "Bison" in person, but I've seen a few other Burns guitars before. They're still pretty popular vintage stuff with the indie hipsters and garage rock crowd..
 
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