Body wood affects tone

Three-ColourSunburst · September 2017

Yup its science against the religion of 'tone-wood' alright!

Listen to this prophet, '80% of the sound of a guitar is down to the tone-wood, but it can't be explained as its a spiritual thing'.

It's like The Enlightenment never happened!

richardhomer · September 2017

Weather's been odd today, hasn't it? Quite warm - but light showers that seem to last only a few seconds. Experienced it most this afternoon when I was out in the Peak District. Saw a stunning rainbow - really lovely....

Bridgehouse · September 2017

richardhomer said:

Weather's been odd today, hasn't it? Quite warm - but light showers that seem to last only a few seconds. Experienced it most this afternoon when I was out in the Peak District. Saw a stunning rainbow - really lovely....

sun here, and then some isolated thunderstorms

getting a bit cold in the evenings - had to put the fire on for a bit tonight.

richardhomer · September 2017

Bridgehouse said:
sun here, and then some isolated thunderstorms

getting a bit cold in the evenings - had to put the fire on for a bit tonight.

Take it gas or electric then?

I love nothing more that a 'real' fire when it starts getting colder.

Mind you, times are hard here ooop North - I've only got my ash bodied Strat to burn. Still, I'm planning to replace it with a plywood Squier anyway - so I suppose I may as well put it to good use....

MartinB · September 2017

This is getting silly. Three-Colour-Sunburst, you are not Science. People who do not wholeheartedly agree with your every muddled assertion are not necessarily anti-science. You are trying to create divisions where none exist for the sake of framing yourself as some sort of authority. It all seems rather attention seeking.

Bridgehouse · September 2017

richardhomer said:

Bridgehouse said:
sun here, and then some isolated thunderstorms

getting a bit cold in the evenings - had to put the fire on for a bit tonight.

Take it gas or electric then?

I love nothing more that a 'real' fire when it starts getting colder.

Mind you, times are hard here ooop North - I've only got my ash bodied Strat to burn. Still, I'm planning to replace it with a plywood Squier anyway - so I suppose I may as well put it to good use....

Yeah gas fire.

I tried a real wood fire but it took too much time sifting through the wood pile trying to decide which type of wood would have the best scientifically proven make up to burn most efficiently.

Thought fuck it and switched to gas. Now I can spend more time heating the house rather than wasting my time choosing wood.

Rabs · September 2017

We need the Chewbacca defence to win this

Look at the monkey

richardhomer · September 2017

Bridgehouse said:
Yeah gas fire.

I tried a real wood fire but it took too much time sifting through the wood pile trying to decide which type of wood would have the best scientifically proven make up to burn most efficiently.

Thought fuck it and switched to gas. Now I can spend more time heating the house rather than wasting my time choosing wood.

Wise choice - though my worry is if gas from different suppliers burns equally well?

I need to do more research into this - I don't think subjectively feeling too hot or too cold is going to be enough to satisfy me - this needs some science....

Rabs · September 2017

richardhomer said:

Bridgehouse said:
Yeah gas fire.

I tried a real wood fire but it took too much time sifting through the wood pile trying to decide which type of wood would have the best scientifically proven make up to burn most efficiently.

Thought fuck it and switched to gas. Now I can spend more time heating the house rather than wasting my time choosing wood.

Wise choice - though my worry is if gas from different suppliers burns equally well?

I need to do more research into this - I don't think subjectively feeling too hot or too cold is going to be enough to satisfy me - this needs some science....

Hide glue sounds much better than gas when it burns..

richardhomer · September 2017

Rabs said:
Hide glue sounds much better than gas when it burns..

Could you cite the scientific source for this, please?

Bridgehouse · September 2017

richardhomer said:

Bridgehouse said:
Yeah gas fire.

I tried a real wood fire but it took too much time sifting through the wood pile trying to decide which type of wood would have the best scientifically proven make up to burn most efficiently.

Thought fuck it and switched to gas. Now I can spend more time heating the house rather than wasting my time choosing wood.

Wise choice - though my worry is if gas from different suppliers burns equally well?

I need to do more research into this - I don't think subjectively feeling too hot or too cold is going to be enough to satisfy me - this needs some science....

Gas is a big con.

It'a all the same stuff made in the same place, but modern manufacturing facilities let them make subtle changes depending on which supplier you get it from.

The boutique gas days are dead.

You are better off getting solid state gas.

bacchanalian · September 2017

bacchanalian said:

Certainly, in the topsy-turvy world of heavy rock, having a good solid piece of wood in your hand is often useful.

Excuse my narcissistic personality showing but does anybody get this?

Rabs · September 2017

richardhomer said:

Rabs said:
Hide glue sounds much better than gas when it burns..

Could you cite the scientific source for this, please?

Dude.. its like spiritual man.... you just have to feel it..

Plus.. don't all guitarists know hide glue is always just better.. Its a fact... Gibson says so.

Bridgehouse · September 2017

bacchanalian said:

bacchanalian said:

Certainly, in the topsy-turvy world of heavy rock, having a good solid piece of wood in your hand is often useful.

Excuse my narcissistic personality showing but does anybody get this?

I did, but I suspect your comment got lost in the pages of overly long quasi-scientific bullshit.

richardhomer · September 2017

Bridgehouse said:
You are better off getting solid state gas.

So you're saying I shouldn't have gas GAS?

'Solid state' gas sounds distinctly non-gaseous to me. I'm not convinced you know what you're talking about. I need to find a scientific research paper that will tell me what to think....

Bridgehouse · September 2017

richardhomer said:

Bridgehouse said:
You are better off getting solid state gas.

So you're saying I shouldn't have gas GAS?

'Solid state' gas sounds distinctly non-gaseous to me. I'm not convinced you know what you're talking about. I need to find a scientific research paper that will tell me what to think....

What? You'd rather trust a probably made up fake scientific paper off the internet rather than some random dudes made up fake scientific opinion also off the internet?

Well, that's your loss...

Bridgehouse · September 2017

Anyway, I can't stand around here gassing...

...I'm off to restring my coalcaster.

NelsonP · September 2017

Three-ColourSunburst said:

octatonic said:

TL:DR.

Main points just for the Twitter generation.

An electric guitar body is specifically designed not to 'resonate' (or rather be easily excited into a state of forced vibration) being solid with a high mass and, in the interests of maximising sustain, will be fitted with a heavy bridge with very high impedance and hence very low conductance.

Minimal conductance at the bridge causes minimum excitation of the body, which in turn means no string/body resonant system is created and the body can't work its Mojo magic on the harmonics of the string.

Secondly, it seems questionable just how the limited energy available on the string could set up any such 'resonances' in the substantial mass of the body of a solid body electric guitar, especially given that in a forced vibration system, the energy will be dissipated rapidly.

Have you ever put your ear on the guitar body and plucked a string. You can hear the vibration through the body.

Sure, it is less resonant than a hollow body or acoustic guitar but a solid body electric guitar still vibrates and will do so with greater amplitude at certain frequencies.

This may affect the 'tone of the guitar

Rabs · September 2017

It all make so much sense... Just like this.. Its on the internet, it must be true..

Just like the TRUTH behind Stonehenge

Three-ColourSunburst · September 2017

NelsonP said:

Have you ever put your ear on the guitar body and plucked a string. You can hear the vibration through the body.

Sure, it is less resonant than a hollow body or acoustic guitar but a solid body electric guitar still vibrates and will do so with greater amplitude at certain frequencies.

This may affect the 'tone of the guitar

Saying something 'may' have an effect is a long, long way from actually explaining how that effect would work, and not a single person on here has yet come up with any scientifically credible explanation of how 'tone wood' affects the sound of a solid body electric guitar to a degree that can be reliably perceived. Nor has anyone been able to provide any academic references for research demonstrating 'tone wood' has a real effect in electric guitars.

Instead we are expected to believe that such an explanation is beyond the realms of science, is something 'spiritual', or can only be understood if you tap and sniff raw wood, and that academic papers on the web undermining the myth of 'tone wood' (and I guess the people who wrote them, the universities they work in and so on) are all an elaborate fabrication.

On the other hand there is a whole raft of evidence showing why tone wood does not have an perceptible effect, ranging from the simple physics of a guitar body as a forced vibration system, through to the fact the 'tone wood' cannot be reliably identified even in acoustic instruments where any effect can be expected to be some magnitudes larger, through to rigorous experimental studies that have showed no 'tone wood' effect exists.

Sure, a guitar might vibrate slightly as a result of absorbing energy from the strings, but it is a massive leap to assume that this loss of energy in turn causes a consistent, perceptible change in the harmonics sounding on the string as sensed by the pickups, let alone that such a change is wood species dependent!

I have 'made up' nothing I have written here, simply drawing on the research of others, and it does amaze me that, despite all the debate, so few seem to actually want to understand better whether or not 'tone wood' does have an effect, exactly how it works if it does, and exactly why it does not work if it doesn't.

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Body wood affects tone

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