Why Wood Matters | Rules of Tone: Episode 1 | PRS Guitars

[Fart Ripper]

My understanding of the existing literature is that the construction of the neck does matter for a guitar's tone, which is why I've been careful to specify that I'm talking about body wood.

Perhaps I’m misunderstanding your view on guitar body density and mass as related to damping and resonance. What is your take on chambered vs non-chambered guitar body related to the sound?

 

[VonBonfire]

What convinces you of that? Specifically for the body.

It can't be specifically the body because neck and fretboard wood selection will also factor into the finished sound.

Indeed, context is key. My understanding of the evidence is that the answer is "The body wood does not affect the outcome in any playing context."

Anything the guitar is connected to will impart some character to one degree or another including your string brand/gauge, fingertip shape, callous thickness, and choice of pick. Even the way you attack the strings. Does body wood play a lesser role than most of those things? Likely, but it isn't irrelevant.

 

[7704A]

What is your take on chambered vs non-chambered guitar body related to the sound?

By chambered do you mean something like this?
https://www.schecterguitars.com/C-1-E-A-classic

It can't be specifically the body because neck and fretboard wood selection will also factor into the finished sound.

I mean if neck and fretboard are the same and only the body is different.

Anything the guitar is connected to will impart some character to one degree or another including your string brand/gauge, fingertip shape, callous thickness, and choice of pick. Even the way you attack the strings. Does body wood play a lesser role than most of those things?

I agree so far.

Likely, but it isn't irrelevant.

This is the bit that needs proof. What forms the basis of your position that it's a big enough effect to be relevant?

 

[Fart Ripper]

By chambered do you mean something like this?
https://www.schecterguitars.com/C-1-E-A-classic

No I mean something more like a Gibson Cloud 9 or other similarly constructed guitars where they look solid on the outside, but have a chamber internally without the external holes.

 

[VonBonfire]

I mean if neck and fretboard are the same and only the body is different.

My conclusion for a long time is that neck woods impart more to the tone than the body, but the body still imparts tone.

This is the bit that needs proof. What forms the basis of your position that it's a big enough effect to be relevant?

Again, it will depend on the other gear choices of the player but you can try two of the same guitar plugged in and each will have a slightly different voice. How much of that will be "relevant" depends on the user's goals.

 

[sytharnia1560]

I'm surprised that people still in 2025 believe in the fairy tales that the wood type used in the electric guitar has any effect on the tone of the guitar. To share some light into that confusion, I'll share this video here so you can get a better understanding what makes a difference for the electric guitar sound:

funny because I could hear the difference between each one of the "bodies" he did .. in fact it was very obvious .. pretty much proving that the body wood makes a difference

 

[Greazygeo]

So many claims and yet they are never backed up


"in my experience" the last three words in fatal epidemiology

and there we go

And some of you need to actually hear enough guitars instead of making baseless claims about them

You read too many books about things without any experience is my observation. Prove me wrong….

 

[Greazygeo]

What is your take on chambered vs non-chambered guitar body related to the sound?

I have two identical Anderson Cobras. One is hollow and one is solid. Same pickups etc. They sound quite different. The solid has more lows and highs. The Hollow has more midrange and a softer attack. When I play more metal/rock stuff I use the solid. My fusiony /classic rock the hollow.

 

[Fart Ripper]

I have two identical Anderson Cobras. One is hollow and one is solid. Same pickups etc. They sound quite different. The solid has more lows and highs. The Hollow has more midrange and a softer attack. When I play more metal/rock stuff I use the solid. My fusiony /classic rock the hollow.

Anderson makes great guitars. I’ve been thinking about a Cobra T lately.

 

[rstites]

Why don’t you swap the pickups out of a Les Paul into a neck made out of balsa wood and a body in whatever shape you prefer made out of a 1x4 piece of plywood, and let me know how you fare.

I’m not saying certain alternative materials to wood can’t produce good results, however their characteristics do matter.

Heck, there's a noticeable difference in the sound of a Les Paul and an Explorer with the same pickups in them. It's subtle enough that nobody will notice in the live mix or post processing in a recording*, but in the same room through the same amp at breakup it's noticeable. (We tried this once with several of each too, and were actually surprised at how noticeable it was. I'll grant that 30 years of loud music later I may not be able to hear it now!)

* This is why I've generally selected guitar for comfort/playability. The subtle sound differences are there, in isolation, but the difference in my comfort playing them will still make the better playing one sound better in practice. Sometimes I have swapped a dozen pickups in an afternoon to figure out which worked best with the individual guitar, so there is a price to pay I suppose.

 

[rstites]

Aluminum neck pedal steels generally sound different than wood necked pedal steels so there's my wild card I'm throwing into the convo. You won't find a stringed instrument player more anal about their clean tone than a steeler.

Anyone here ever play one of those aluminum necked Kramers from the early days? I'm curious about them. I always understood they had issues with stability through seasonal changes, but never heard anything talk about their sound. I've only seen a couple of them in person, and both before I was remotely discerning or aware of guitar build differences.

 

[pipelineaudio]

You read too many books about things without any experience is my observation. Prove me wrong….

Ad hominem it is
As a human alive today on this planet, it is almost a surety that a not insignificant chunk of the audio you have heard has gone thru at least one product I have worked on. I'd say that's experience enough.

A few decades of lectures and workshops on audio. I'd say that's enough

A few decades of doing nothing but working with audio, on significantly consumed media, I'd say that's enough

But hey, feel free to shoot the messenger as you run away when asked to back up faith based claims

 

[pipelineaudio]

Aluminum neck pedal steels generally sound different than wood necked pedal steels so there's my wild card I'm throwing into the convo. You won't find a stringed instrument player more anal about their clean tone than a steeler.

And yet here in the undisputed home of the pedal steel, none of the big players seem to care, as long as one is provided. With the absolute micro level demands on some of these riders, about whether their spam musubis have furikake on it or not, if they thought there was a difference, they'd definitely be demanding it

 

[Kraku]

Since this is mentioned in the comments.

I don't trust that guy very much. In the beginning of the video when he lists the test parameters, he leaves out one of the most important ones: string height from the pickups. That was a huge red flag immediately for me. Only AFTER doing the tests he mentions that the height is important. But how do we know he had even measured the pickup heights properly if he forgot the whole thing from his list of "the important things to keep in mind while testing this thing"?

I'm not convinced by that video.

 

[VonBonfire]

And yet here in the undisputed home of the pedal steel, none of the big players seem to care, as long as one is provided. With the absolute micro level demands on some of these riders, about whether their spam musubis have furikake on it or not, if they thought there was a difference, they'd definitely be demanding it

I have never actually seen anyone from Hawaii playing anything but a lap or console non-pedal steel aside from Sol Hoopii playing steel on a National tricone and a few others who use the weissenborns. Got any links? I am a big fan of non pedal and pedal steel both.

 

[pipelineaudio]

I'll look. Usually though you are right the pedals are less common to travel and tend to be at the venue already. Trying to find some Nakana Wong or Bobby Ingano videos. The one I just did has only the concert flyer as the pic

 

[tallcoolone]

Why is that relevant?

Experience matters

Ad hominem it is
As a human alive today on this planet, it is almost a surety that a not insignificant chunk of the audio you have heard has gone thru at least one product I have worked on. I'd say that's experience enough.

As a guitar player?

 

[JohnnyGtar]

Experience matters

As a guitar player?

Nailed it! 2 for 2. Hell yeah.

 

[7704A]

Experience matters

You know what matters even more? Evidence. Without that you're just a high priest demanding faith of an acolyte. What, in your experience, is the evidence for why the alternate explanation I provided to your example is wrong? Or evidence definitively showing that the body absorbs non-trivial energy from the strings? Or evidence for whatever other mechanism you're proposing the body effects the tone by.

No I mean something more like a Gibson Cloud 9 or other similarly constructed guitars where they look solid on the outside, but have a chamber internally without the external holes.

From the pictures I've been able to find online, that seems to significantly change the structure of the body. I would not be too surprised if there was a measurable difference between something like this and a solid body, but I don't know for sure. I suspect it's going to depend on whether it frees up the area around the bridge significantly, or allows a part of the body to vibrate like it's part of the neck. If I find any related investigations in the literature I'll let you know.

Again, it will depend on the other gear choices of the player but you can try two of the same guitar plugged in and each will have a slightly different voice. How much of that will be "relevant" depends on the user's goals.

Ok, so we agree on that much. But, how do you know body wood is responsible for that and not something else?

Then they did it wrong because the difference will be clear with a decent spec-a and a reasonable setup. I've run something fairly similar for university students in audio engineering before and even first years can manage this level.

Forgot to include this in my late night post... Are you saying that because the people pipeline mentioned didn't get the results you wanted they're wrong and incapable? That seems backwards. What experiment did you run with the first-years?

As an aside, if you're into audio engineering and measurement related to guitars, you really should check out the book I've been mentioning: https://gitec-forum-eng.de/the-book/. There's oodles of real-word experiments and accompanying data described there. A good chunk of it is relevant to this discussion.

 

[VonBonfire]

Ok, so we agree on that much. But, how do you know body wood is responsible for that and not something else?

What other variable would provide additional resonance in a scenario where both models are otherwise identical? Body and/or neck/fingerboard wood. Those are the main resonating pieces.