How DOES neck/body wood impact on the tone of a guitar?

[geetarmikey]

Can't really work it out, or am i being stupid? If the string vibration is getting amplified through the pickups through a magnet how is the tone of the body/neck wood contributing to that? Is the pickup "hearing" the tone of the woods?

Thanks, just thought I'd ask!

Mike

 

[stanbog]

The density of the components is making all the parts resonate in a specific way and having an influense on the string vibration. Apparently this influence on the vibration of the string results in amplifying some frequencies and filtering others. Both vibrations and frequencies are waves, so there might be your missing connection point.
I am also told that neck wood is responsible for the attack whereas the body wood impacts the decay.

Disclaimer: None of this is science. It is what I think it is.

 

[severinsteel]

It matters a lot less than people think, and even to a lesser degree than guitar companies make you believe.

 

[glassjaw7]

It's really a difficult thing to explain or measure. Two guitars of the exact same model and wood, specs, etc could sound a tiny bit different when amplified and it might be due to the body or not. Obviously the thickness, porousness and density of the wood makes a huge difference when unplugged. Lean a few different electrics up against a wall, a wooden table, cardboard box and strum a chord to hear the difference in how it resonates, or better yet play some acoustics made from different woods or laminate.

When amplified there are so many other factors that the exact differences aren't really isn't measurable to a definitive degree IMO. I trust that it makes a difference whether it be big or small. Companies that build thousands of guitars like Carvin probably have some benchmark or point of reference and can say Alder generally sounds like ____ and Basswood sounds like____ but there's no clear cut answer. Just my .02

 

[jsp]

When you hit a note, the string doesn't just vibrate at one single frequency, the sound is made up of a fundamental frequency that determines the note and many other frequencies that make up the tone. The frequencies at which the strings vibrate the strongest are determined by what resonates most with the mass it's attached to, which are determined by the material, size, density, and mass of the guitar's body and neck. So, yes, the pickup doesn't "hear" the body/neck, but the body/neck affect what tones resonate the loudest when the string is vibrating. Hope that makes sense...

 

[reverymike]

The impact the wood has on the tone also will vary depending on the amount of gain and distortion you're using. If you have a really high gain tone, then the wood isn't nearly as important, compared to as if you were plugging directly into a clean amp.

 

[rottingcorpse]

I use a lot of gain. But my all mahogany guitar sounds way different than my maple quilt top(much brighter)or my flamed redwood(much darker). All of my guitars have the same pickup(81). The cracked mirror top is even brighter than the maple top guitars. This does not change no matter what amp I plug into. All of my guitars are the same build,so there is not a body shape difference.

All of that indicates the density of the material used to make the guitar has an effect on the tone,regardless of the amount of gain used.

Note...the old growth mahogany guitars tone crushes the rest of them.

 

[paulyc]

I have a neck through Rhoads with a string through the body tailpiece and that guitar sounds MUCH more massive than anything else I own, and I own A LOT of guitars...and I use STUPID levels of gain with it.

 

[sg guy]

-all's I know is I don't like bass wood guitars-

 

[Mr. Willy]

I think string scale makes a bigger difference in tone than the wood when it comes to electric guitars. We're also running electrics through amps with EQ's to cut or boost frequencies which can make inherent tonal properties in the wood a moot point. Wood matters more in terms of tone in relation to acoustic guitars, IMHO.

 

[adrianb]

This has been the subject of many debates and flamewars online. A youtube search for "tonewood" should yield a ton of videos from both the "toanwoodz is teh reals!" and the "there's no such thing as tonewood" camps.

Personally, i'm in the "there's no such thing as tonewood" camp. Tis all in the fingers, strings, pickups, pickup positioning, and bridge material.

 

[garey77]

-all's I know is I don't like bass wood guitars-

so I'm guessing you're not an Ibanez fan...

 

[sg guy]

-pretty much, especially the JEM series, though I had a destroyer & iceman in my youth-(don't know what they where made of,.... But I played through a CRATE AMP-(rember when they actually looked like wooded crates)-so it probably wouldn't matter,)- maybe the wood on the crate amp is what made it sound so good!!... or so I thought at 13

-all's I know is I don't like bass wood guitars-

so I'm guessing you're not an Ibanez fan...

 

[garey77]

-pretty much, especially the JEM series, though I had a destroyer & iceman in my youth-(don't know what they where made of,.... But I played through a CRATE AMP-(rember when they actually looked like wooded crates)-so it probably wouldn't matter,)- maybe the wood on the crate amp is what made it sound so good!!... or so I thought at 13

-all's I know is I don't like bass wood guitars-

so I'm guessing you're not an Ibanez fan...

The white Jems were alder bodied. Probably why you liked it. That combo of alder body/ebony fretboard is probably my fave to date.