Wood affects tone (Anderton's video content)

Jaden

ChrisMusic said:

Thought I would post this here for your consideration.

Its a couple of responses to the GuitarSite article referenced by georgenadaintl on the previous page.

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No man-made device can equal the human hearing, and, I remind you, a musically trained ear is an absolute reference.

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As Paul Smith likes to say, "Every affects everything!" Scale length, design, wood density, hardware, pickups, and build quality all factor into the equation. While it is true that the sound produced by an electric guitar is the result of ferromagnetic strings passing through a magnetic field, the signal that is produced in the magnetic field is a collection of frequency components that mirror string vibrations (fundamental and harmonic components); therefore, anything that affects string vibration affects the tone of an electric guitar.

Our friend in the video (Scott Grove) conveniently forgot to discuss the transfer function-related aspects of an electric guitar (i.e., it's response curve). Different guitar designs have different response curves. While it is true that a large part of the response curve of any given electric is bounded by the frequency response and operational characteristics of its pickups (a.k.a. magnetic transducers), a Strat with a rosewood fingerboard does in fact have a different response curve than a Strat with a maple board. The difference can be felt and heard. The difference is due to the fact that a maple fingerboard attenuates high frequencies less than a rosewood board. As the alternating current signal that is produced by a guitar is a reflection of the frequencies at which the strings are vibrating and their associated amplitudes, anything that affects the amplitude of a frequency component affects the tone of an instrument when plugged into an amplification device.

Q.E.D.

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yes this, I often describe this as the "drive" of any particular guitar because players seem to instinctively understand that and it takes less time to say