Wood affects tone (Anderton's video content)

mudslide73 · November 2013

If being obsessive about the little things adds up to a better performance (sound better, play better right?) then that's good. The average punter will notice this but not the length of your tenon.

I'm happy to play covers because its a good way to get gigs and sadly my songwiting chops aren't up to the standards required

carlos · November 2013

Everybody's gone off-topic so are we all agreeing wood is pretty much irrelevant for tone?

Here's Dan Philips playing a composite body, graphite neck Steinberger with no headstock, EMG pickups (which are only for metal because they're too cold-sounding, right?) and a very small low mass body.

To my ears, sounds like a hollowbody.

digitalscream · November 2013

georgenadaintl said:

Everybody's gone off-topic so are we all agreeing wood is pretty much irrelevant for tone?

Not even remotely

I'd say it's one of many things which make a small difference to the tone, all of which add up. Having played lots of guitars identical but for the body/neck/fretboard wood and seen consistence between the tone of guitars with the same wood type, but differences in tone between guitars made from other woods, I know it makes a difference. No amount of Internet arguing will take precedence over actual experience

p90fool · November 2013

georgenadaintl said:

Everybody's gone off-topic so are we all agreeing wood is pretty much irrelevant for tone?
To my ears, sounds like a hollowbody.

Really?? It sounds more like an electric piano to me.

impmann · November 2013

georgenadaintl said:

To my ears, sounds like a hollowbody.

Hmmm - just sounds like he has the tone control turned down to me ;-). Very Fripp-a-like circa Larks Tongues in Aspic in tonality - and that isn't a bad place to be IMHO

streethawk · November 2013

OK what about hollowbodies vs solidbodies?

EdGrip · November 2013

Off topic is fine if it's causing us to have thoughts.

I think I was thinking of those times when you're waiting at the barrier, and the roadie comes out and strums a few power chords through the PA and you think, "...really? That's the guitar tone??"

And then the band that you paid to see come out and hit the first notes of the first song, and for a fleeting moment the guitarist geek in me thinks, "Ohhh, I get it....." and then I'm lost in the moment and the noise and the love. Most of the rest of the crowd never even had those thoughts. Things sounding the way you want them to which makes you play better and gives you your mojo, that's a valid point. But if that mojo comes from a cheap solid-state Fender amp and a distortion pedal, then all is right with the world. No-one out there is thinking, I would enjoy this more if he were playing through a boutique amp that sounded "better".

OOH! Interesting thought.

Johnny Greenwood (fine if you're not a fan, I'm just following on from the rig I had in mind when I wrote the above)

A) continually auditions every amp, both cheap and wildly expensive that he can find, to see if he sounds better through it, and always finds that he doesn't, and that he coincidentally sounds best through his old rig. He does this because he respects his audience and wants to make sure he gives them 110%

doesn't do that. He plays through his old rig because he knows it and it sounds like him.

I don't know which is true. Probably a bit of both. The point is, it seems that some would consider one of these more valid than the other?

koneguitarist · November 2013

Fretwired said:

There used to be a website with isolated guitar tones from famous recordings taken from master tapes. In isolation many of Jimmy Page's tones were horrid wasp in a bottle type tones, but stick them in a mix with the rest of the band and they stand out. The point is you need to listen to a tone in context - there's a difference between playing on your own in a bedroom and with a band where you don't want to clash sound wise with your band mates. So sometimes a 'bad' tone fits the bill.

Totally agree. First off the song dictates the tone. Lots of songs I like have what I think are horrible tones, but also songs I don't like with great tones. I used to play in a band with a guy who allways used a 335, my tele was able to cut through and compete, when I started to knock the bass down and use more mids and top end, like a tele needs more top ! He now plays with another guy who also goes for a big fat tone, and now watching them it's all mushy and they seem to cancel each other out. Sometimes a thin nasty tone works better for the mix.

carlos · November 2013

streethawk said:

OK what about hollowbodies vs solidbodies?

Would make a difference if the guitar was mic'ed up either w/ a mic inside the guitar body or a mic in front of the guitar. This could then be mixed with the sound coming from the pickups. Otherwise, zilch difference. I assume this is a hollowbody w/ electro-magnetic pickups of course. The prevalence of low-output humbuckers has more to do with the tone of a hollowbody than its hollowness. For example, the guitarist in Dillinger Escape Plan is playing a semi-hollow these days with EMGs and he sounds pretty much like always did with his solidbodies.

p90fool · November 2013

So a '61 SG sounds the same as a '61 175? Seriously?

I bought two sets of P90s at the same time, all the same brand, all measuring within a whisker of each other.
I stuck one set on an SG and another on a Washburn hollowbody, are you seriously suggesting that I'm imagining the (vast) difference in sound between them?

ICBM · November 2013

p90fool said:

So a '61 SG sounds the same as a '61 175? Seriously?

I bought two sets of P90s at the same time, all the same brand, all measuring within a whisker of each other.
I stuck one set on an SG and another on a Washburn hollowbody, are you seriously suggesting that I'm imagining the (vast) difference in sound between them?

Exactly. I said something very like that - "so an SG sounds the same as a 335 then..." about twenty years ago when some sales twit told me that the only thing that mattered to the tone of an electric guitar was the pickups.

Sure, you can *make* them sound quite similar if you turn the tone controls down, and set the amp to compensate, but that doesn't mean that they sound anything like the same normally.

dindude · November 2013

georgenadaintl said:

streethawk said:

OK what about hollowbodies vs solidbodies?

Otherwise, zilch difference.

Wow, really, that's remarkable. May I recommend....

http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n505/dindude/3f049a285fcb2379f392dee7552146a2_zpsb899b9b2.jpg

randomhandclaps · November 2013

georgenadaintl said:

streethawk said:

Otherwise, zilch difference..

No. Just no. I notice your reference wasn't from your own experience but your perception of someone else's whole rig. It can't be based on actual recording and analysing.

If a solid and hollow body sound the same then we might as well say all guitars sound the same. Let's use the Les Pauls and 335s for fire wood and buy ourselves a Pacifica.

monquixote · November 2013

It may only be a small thing, but small differences stacked up make a difference.

At work I've spent two hours at a stretch A/Bing ten seconds of audio listening for artifacts and tuning one parameter before and when you sum the results of tuning many of these tiny differences it can make a big difference that anyone can hear in a blind test.

An inexperienced listener might not know why what they are listening to sounds different, but they know what they like and possibly more important than that when my rig is doing what I want I feel more confident and when I do that I play and perform better which is the most important thing of all.

I've done the "have POD will travel thing", but my current rig absolutely sounds better.

carlos · November 2013

Pickups and the parts that come into contact w/ strings - bridge, frets, nut, tuners, etc. Woods, no. Not even fretboard woods.

Concrete guitar.... sounds like "wood".

As long as the body is stable enough to wrap under tension it's all the same. All else is hardware.

I'd say observing other people's sounds with instruments is a better indication than observing your own sound as you play since it's less loaded with "how it should sound" prejudgment. Also less loaded with "I paid lost of money for this rare exotic wood so it'd better sound great".

Until somebody breaks out the frequency analyzers this is all opinions. Been trying to find the finished study that Matthew Angove was doing but can't find it. Until then...

http://www.guitarsite.com/news/music_news_from_around_the_world/electric-guitar-wood-myth-busted/

randomhandclaps · November 2013

Woohoo! I can finally buy me a Perspex Strat.

GuitarMonkey · November 2013

georgenadaintl said:

Been trying to find the finished study that Matthew Angove was doing but can't find it. Until then...

I can't find the paper either, if he ever published one, just a lot of PR. Until then, Mr Angove has no more credibility than any of us.

koneguitarist · November 2013

years ago there was a company called modulus graphite that had carbon fibre necks and some stone/marble bodies.

had EMG`s and sounded like a regular guitar but with better sustain.

If someone had said whats it made of, I would have thought Wood, not Mahogany or ash or alder etc, but just wood.

ICBM · November 2013

georgenadaintl said:

Pickups and the parts that come into contact w/ strings - bridge, frets, nut, tuners, etc. Woods, no. Not even fretboard woods.

As long as the body is stable enough to wrap under tension it's all the same. All else is hardware.

lol

I honestly don't know if you're having a laugh, trolling, being deliberately challenging in order to get someone to prove you wrong, or you're just deaf.

You're seriously saying that two guitars which are completely different in construction - eg an SG and a 335 - but which use the same pickups and other hardware (which they do) sound the same?

If you are, it should take someone who owns both these guitars and can record a clip about two minutes to prove you wrong. (I don't.)

Unfortunately I sold my PRS Custom, or I could easily demonstrate that two guitars which are identical apart from half the body wood sound noticeably different, even in a recording through a distorted amp and at Youtube (lack of) sound quality.

randomhandclaps · November 2013

koneguitarist said:

If someone had said whats it made of, I would have thought Wood, not Mahogany or ash or alder etc, but just wood.

We had a builder in with that attitude and he was shit.

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Wood affects tone (Anderton's video content)

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