Tonewoods myth

[Rocksoff]

Just hit the open strings while holding the headstock with the left hand and even try to spread out the left hand as much as possible to dampen as much as possible.

I'll try that. Are you saying that has a noticeable affect on the sustain & tone of the string when it's played?

Not any noticeable effect IMO.

The vibrations go right through the body and the neck and a bit of hand/body damping doesn't seem to matter that much.

Another thing to do is to put your ear right up against the body and then hit the open strings.

 

[JimmyBlind]

Just hit the open strings while holding the headstock with the left hand and even try to spread out the left hand as much as possible to dampen as much as possible.

I'll try that. Are you saying that has a noticeable affect on the sustain & tone of the string when it's played?

Not any noticeable effect IMO.

The vibrations go right through the body and the neck and a bit of hand/body damping doesn't seem to matter that much.

All that leads me to believe is that the wood is barely vibrating in the first place & not that it's vibrating so much that any attempt at dampening the vibration has no effect.

 

[Rocksoff]

Just hit the open strings while holding the headstock with the left hand and even try to spread out the left hand as much as possible to dampen as much as possible.

I'll try that. Are you saying that has a noticeable affect on the sustain & tone of the string when it's played?

Not any noticeable effect IMO.

The vibrations go right through the body and the neck and a bit of hand/body damping doesn't seem to matter that much.

All that leads me to believe is that the wood is barely vibrating in the first place & not that it's vibrating so much that any attempt at dampening the vibration has no effect.

It's pretty hard to dampen Acoustic guitar vibrations and a hand or some body contact doesn't alter much but the Acoustic has other things going on besides body vibrations but they do still have an influence on how the string ends up vibrating.

With the Electric, someone can try dampening the vibrations with their hands or whatever and the vibrations can still be felt.

If the guitar was made out of hard plastic then the vibrations would be smaller and contribute less to how the string vibrates.

The vibrations are there, it's just a matter of how much they affect the string vibrations.

Various woods and their different tendencies to vibrate will affect the string vibrations X amount, whatever X actually is depends on quite a few things and a bit of possible body damping doesn't matter that much.

 

[Rocksoff]

A Banjo has a neck and a body and strings, so why does it sound like a Banjo.

It's mostly because of the way the body (circular membrane) and the neck are vibrating and influencing the string vibrations and vice versa.

Change the body material and replace the circular membrane with plastic or wood and who knows how it would sound but the plastic or wood is still vibrating and would affect the string vibrations X amount, and basically the circular membrane is used because it just happens to sound good.

http://www.acoustics.org/press/159th/dickey.htm

The “simplified” banjo is basically composed of two interacting vibrating systems: a plucked string and a circular membrane. The five-string banjo is a little more complicated, as it has six interacting systems -- five strings and one membrane. By “interacting” we mean that waves in the string generate waves in the membrane, and visa versa, so that the whole instrument vibrates.

 

[Rocksoff]

 

[Vrad]

In my limited experience of assembling guitars I have found that an electric guitar is a system and it's greater than the sum of it's parts. That said, I feel tone woods do make an impact on the sound but not nearly to the extent I would have previously thought. Electronics aside, I have found that the neck and bridge seem to make more of an impact on the overall tone than the body does. I have guitars that I have assembled that have premium necks and bodies and guitars that have premium necks and run-of-the-mill bodies and both sound equally good. In short, I wouldn't skimp on the neck and the bridge but I would get a "regular" quality body.

That's my 2 cents.

I hear a pretty big difference with necks as well, especially maple vs rosewood fretboards.
My favorite sounding strat that I've played is a '92 MIM. It has a rosewood fretboard and a light weight poplar body. Is poplar a tonewood? Sounds great to me.

Yup. I've noticed the same thing. I hear differences between between flat-sawn and quarter-sawn.

And I REALLY hear a difference between different bridges. Even crazier I hear a difference between chrome and black Floyd Roses as well as different saddles for vintage trems. I hear all that more than whether the body is alder, ash or basswood etc...

Damn, I don't doubt you, but that's a good ear you've got there.
I have a hard time believing my ears sometimes. You know when you really like the tone you have one evening and the next day you think....meh it's ok.

And the wife says I'm deaf... lol

Honestly, I think the latter has to do with ear fatigue more than the actual tone.

 

[Meathead]

In my limited experience of assembling guitars I have found that an electric guitar is a system and it's greater than the sum of it's parts. That said, I feel tone woods do make an impact on the sound but not nearly to the extent I would have previously thought. Electronics aside, I have found that the neck and bridge seem to make more of an impact on the overall tone than the body does. I have guitars that I have assembled that have premium necks and bodies and guitars that have premium necks and run-of-the-mill bodies and both sound equally good. In short, I wouldn't skimp on the neck and the bridge but I would get a "regular" quality body.

That's my 2 cents.

I hear a pretty big difference with necks as well, especially maple vs rosewood fretboards.
My favorite sounding strat that I've played is a '92 MIM. It has a rosewood fretboard and a light weight poplar body. Is poplar a tonewood? Sounds great to me.

Yup. I've noticed the same thing. I hear differences between between flat-sawn and quarter-sawn.

And I REALLY hear a difference between different bridges. Even crazier I hear a difference between chrome and black Floyd Roses as well as different saddles for vintage trems. I hear all that more than whether the body is alder, ash or basswood etc...

Damn, I don't doubt you, but that's a good ear you've got there.
I have a hard time believing my ears sometimes. You know when you really like the tone you have one evening and the next day you think....meh it's ok.

And the wife says I'm deaf... lol

Honestly, I think the latter has to do with ear fatigue more than the actual tone.

Don't pay her no mind. Who's the man anyway?
You sometimes need to pick on her cooking (even if you really like it). It lets her know that you know that she can do better. She'll seem upset at first, but she'll thank you later, for believing that she can do better.

 

[Vrad]

In my limited experience of assembling guitars I have found that an electric guitar is a system and it's greater than the sum of it's parts. That said, I feel tone woods do make an impact on the sound but not nearly to the extent I would have previously thought. Electronics aside, I have found that the neck and bridge seem to make more of an impact on the overall tone than the body does. I have guitars that I have assembled that have premium necks and bodies and guitars that have premium necks and run-of-the-mill bodies and both sound equally good. In short, I wouldn't skimp on the neck and the bridge but I would get a "regular" quality body.

That's my 2 cents.

I hear a pretty big difference with necks as well, especially maple vs rosewood fretboards.
My favorite sounding strat that I've played is a '92 MIM. It has a rosewood fretboard and a light weight poplar body. Is poplar a tonewood? Sounds great to me.

Yup. I've noticed the same thing. I hear differences between between flat-sawn and quarter-sawn.

And I REALLY hear a difference between different bridges. Even crazier I hear a difference between chrome and black Floyd Roses as well as different saddles for vintage trems. I hear all that more than whether the body is alder, ash or basswood etc...

Damn, I don't doubt you, but that's a good ear you've got there.
I have a hard time believing my ears sometimes. You know when you really like the tone you have one evening and the next day you think....meh it's ok.

And the wife says I'm deaf... lol

Honestly, I think the latter has to do with ear fatigue more than the actual tone.

Don't pay her no mind. Who's the man anyway?
You sometimes need to pick on her cooking (even if you really like it). It lets her know that you know that she can do better. She'll seem upset at first, but she'll thank you later, for believing that she can do better.

I can assure you, there is little to no upside to critiquing her... LOL

 

[Rogue]

How does a chrome Floyd Rose compare to a black one?

The chrome one is brighter and closer to a traditional Strat bridge. The black one is a good deal darker-sounding.

So, are you serious here? Did you swap out trems or something?

I'm genuinely curious.

 

[Meathead]

In my limited experience of assembling guitars I have found that an electric guitar is a system and it's greater than the sum of it's parts. That said, I feel tone woods do make an impact on the sound but not nearly to the extent I would have previously thought. Electronics aside, I have found that the neck and bridge seem to make more of an impact on the overall tone than the body does. I have guitars that I have assembled that have premium necks and bodies and guitars that have premium necks and run-of-the-mill bodies and both sound equally good. In short, I wouldn't skimp on the neck and the bridge but I would get a "regular" quality body.

That's my 2 cents.

I hear a pretty big difference with necks as well, especially maple vs rosewood fretboards.
My favorite sounding strat that I've played is a '92 MIM. It has a rosewood fretboard and a light weight poplar body. Is poplar a tonewood? Sounds great to me.

Yup. I've noticed the same thing. I hear differences between between flat-sawn and quarter-sawn.

And I REALLY hear a difference between different bridges. Even crazier I hear a difference between chrome and black Floyd Roses as well as different saddles for vintage trems. I hear all that more than whether the body is alder, ash or basswood etc...

Damn, I don't doubt you, but that's a good ear you've got there.
I have a hard time believing my ears sometimes. You know when you really like the tone you have one evening and the next day you think....meh it's ok.

And the wife says I'm deaf... lol

Honestly, I think the latter has to do with ear fatigue more than the actual tone.

Don't pay her no mind. Who's the man anyway?
You sometimes need to pick on her cooking (even if you really like it). It lets her know that you know that she can do better. She'll seem upset at first, but she'll thank you later, for believing that she can do better.

I can assure you, there is little to no upside to critiquing her... LOL

Sure there is...she gets mad, but just wait awhile, then hug her and tell her everything is ok, then you get makeup sex.

 

[C1-ocaster]

I thought it was all in the fingers ?

+1

The problem with that saying is that we must first agree on what "tone" means, and which aspect of the definition of "tone" are we ascribing.

tone
noun \ˈtōn\

: the quality of a person's voice

: the quality of a sound produced by a musical instrument or singing voice

: a quality, feeling, or attitude expressed by the words that someone uses in speaking or writing

Those who say "tone is in the fingers", may be ascribing the quality, feeling, or attitude expressed by the player, just as a writer, or poem, or movie may have a "tone".

When discussing gear, I prefer to think of "tone" as that second aspect, the quality of a sound produced by the instrument, or gear.
The reason why I prefer to use that definition is because it's not based on quality of the players style, but more a clinical comparative.
If I'm comparing the tone of pup's, then I'm removing my playing style and simply comparing tonal changes and/or differences among the different pup's.

So for me, TONE is in the gear. Style-Tone or Tone-Style, is in the fingers.

Example:
Play an open E string or E chord. Have any guitar player play an open E and/or the same E Chord on the same guitar and gear setup, and I'll bet you couldn't tell me whether that open E or chord was struck by EVH or Billy Gibbons, or Carlos Santana or anyone you want to name.
That TONE will be the same.
Now have each of them play the same guitar and same gear, and all of a sudden you WILL hear the differences in STYLE-Tone.
Some will call that "tone".
Well then, we are defining "tone" differently.

As for the tone wood thing, I do accept and believe the wood DOES make a difference.
But, I have a caveat to that.
Wood makes a difference much more so when playing with cleaner amp tones, and of course on acoustic guitars.
Once you crank up the gain, put in high output pup's, tune down 2 steps and grind, the difference then between alder or basswood or mahogany gets mostly lost.
Not saying it's all gone, but mostly.

That's my view, and I'm sticking to it.

 

[Valtyr]

I plug it in, if the experience isn't inspiring then it goes back on the rack. There are enough variables that I don't make many assumptions before I hear it through an amp.