Tonewood Poll

What wood your guitar is made of has an effect on the sound

  • Agree

    Votes: 85 87.6%

  • Disagree

    Votes: 12 12.4%
  • Total voters
    97
I really would love to take a LP standard, strip it of every part and put those parts in a LP made of total shit wood and see what the actual difference is, I’m guessing not enough to make a bad song sound good lol
 
rsm said:
Well there's the Fender Custom Shop cardboard strat... or this one made from concrete, probably still weighs less than a Norllin LP Custom...

https://www.guitarworld.com/news/this-guitar-is-built-out-of-concrete-and-the-results-are-well-heavy
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and he says it sounds no different :ROFLMAO: i think im one that leans on how much humidity is in the air that day probably effects tone more than what wood is being used if you switched all switchable parts but as others have said, if they think they can hear it thats all that matters.
 
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Well it's part of the signal chain eh? Hands, Guitar, ,pedals(or not) Amp. Hard to understand this in such a broad spectrum of valid and considerable points being made. Is it fair to say if your pedal board is the size of a surfboard its gonna help represent the tone? In today's world and all the technology I doubt it would be hard to get a convincing blind ear test with plastic, fiberglass or mineral spirits jug guitar and hear the difference. When you get down to a slightly overdriven amp does a LP sound like a Strat? And has it ever? If you have IRs, modeling, etc... its gonna sound how you want to make it sound. So I guess you could say " No it doesn't in those cases. But the overall quality sound of electric guitar wood does matter. Korina or Mahogany? Now that's getting tough, Alder or Ash, tough again. A plastic guitar wont sound like a 10 pound 59 les paul thru a pig nose with a pick and a cable. Guaranteed!
 
Racerxrated said:
I had a vintage Schecter (1983; one of the last made in Van Nuys) and the main Schecter Dream Machine forum guy uses the phrase 'Wood cells opening up over time' to describe why vintage guitars tend to have better/more complex tone than newer builds.
Dave's Guitar Shop in LaCrosse has probably 1 mil or more in vintage guitars/amps on the second floor...many 50s/60s strats/LPs/Teles/Explorers etc...I plugged a few in to some old Mesas and Vox(no Marshalls) and there is some special sauce in those 50k guitars.
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does he have any of those old schecters?
 
Make 2 Les Pauls: one with the classic maple/mahogany combination body and the other made with a basswood body. Of course they'll sound different.
 
GOHOINC said:
Just because a guitar made of composite materials sounds good, that doesn't mean wood type doesn't affect the tone of guitars not made of composite materials.

I know two guitars that are "Identical", meaning same model, construction, made of the same woods, same pickups, strings, setup etc. can and likely will sound different. Perhaps it is only a subtle difference, but I don't believe any two of my guitars sound the same, even when they are the "identical". If I can hear a difference between two guitars that are "identical", I'm willing to bet that two guitars that are "different" will sound different too, even when the wood type is the only difference and yes I do have two guitars that are "identical" except for wood choice, and yes they sound different...
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THIS. I worked at an Ibanez dealer in the early 80's. We had 2 new AR300 guitars in stock. One had a one piece body and the other had a two piece body. The difference was night and day. The guitar with the one piece body smoked the other guitar tonewise.
 
I gotta go with those who believe wood makes a huge difference. Too many anecdotal experiences have led me to the conclusion that wood is very big deal.
• About ~20 years ago a buddy of mine was looking for a good Les Paul, money wasn't an object. He played bunch then and so did I. Custom shops, Standards, '58, '59, '60 reissues, just a bunch. One day I went into a local consignment shop and picked up a late '80's early reissue. Medium weight. But I strummed it acoustically, and it was really lively for some reason. I plugged it in and it was one of those 'magical' Les Pauls. Not sure what pickups were in it; probably whatever came from the factory in '86-'88.
• I've owned several Sen bodies Destroyers. I've only kept one.
• I have a similar story about helping a friend find a Taylor 614 in the '90's. He had me turn my back while he tried 6 of them. I knew the moment I heard 'the one'.
One more thing: I never buy new guitars, EVER. I want to hear the personality a guitar has after it's been played awhile to see what it really sounds like. Wood ages, dries, and its cellular structure does change somewhat.
Sidebar: I really, really want to play a GIl Yaron guitar sometime. The guy doesn't use a kiln to dry his wood. He just leaves it out in the Israeli desert sun. I'm thinking that must do something sweet to the mahogany.
 
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