I have used it as a body wood, and despite the great sounds I get, I cannot recommend it because of the weight. Grammar might not be relevant in the field of guitar playing, but it is absolutely relevant in the field of professional writing. Of course it does, The strings are mechanically attached to the wood on the guitar by the frets ,nut bridge and hardware,when the wood resonates (vibrates )it absolutely has to have an effect on string vibration, it is an absolute certainty.And your statement that the tone doesn’t change when you mechanically attach the guitar to another structure is ,again,absolutely wrong.ANYTHING you do to change the overall vibrational frequency of a guitar ,or any musical instrument that isn’t an entirely electronically generated tone (some keyboards,synths etc)will affect the tonal characteristics. Rosewood is most often used as fingerboards because of its durable nature and sweet, warm tone. Used for hundreds of years for fingerboards, bridges and other parts, this extremely hard, durable wood is noted for its dark color. In fact, most guitarists would agree that it is an important one. Electrified a tonally dead guitar will still work but will tend to be ‘hard playing’ or just sound flatter and less complex. I would be hard pressed to attribute a specific tone or feel or characteristic to rosewood in these contexts but I feel that the warmth I have with a rosewood neck or board is noticeable when the rosewood is in the body, too. Ignorance is bliss my man. Wood. In my experience of experimenting with builds/transfers of components between custom guitars, body & neck wood absolutely contributes to electric guitar “tone” (frequency curve), as well as – perhaps even more so – to attack, decay, and sustain. Despite what /u/swordfingers has stated modern electric guitars do have cavities- if there are tone blocks added, for instance, and so this does have an impact of the sound. Baked maple is heat treated maple. Could be how each was setup (string height and intonation) because as you said they were all the same guitar and most likely the same type of wood. How do Gibson SGs, LPs, Flying Vs, and Explorers sound different if not for the woods? Toss in some effects, tube distortion, and game over. I had this idea of a sliding pickup, that you could slide from bridge to neck, that could be cool. Here is a definition from Wikipedia: The genus Agathis, commonly known as kauri or dammar, is a relatively small genus of 21 species of evergreen tree. Maple. The highs just sing. If not, you cannot compare them and say it is the wood in the back that made a difference. ELI5: How does wood affect the tone of an electric guitar? I’ll do the blind test on my guitars and will pass. A big part of your tone comes down to how you play — how you fret chords and how you strum or pick. You can’t argue with a fact like that, it just makes you look dumb. “Basically, different woods don’t add different tone,” luthier Perry Ormsby of Ormsby Guitars explains. same bracing pattern? Then how could the wood not play a role in your guitar’s tone? It should always be remembered that no two pieces are the same, there are the general tonal characteristics to these woods. That is the nature of the beast. right! But since it’s so rare and expensive, you’d be hard pressed to find a solid rosewood guitar. I can be brief on this wood. Plus most people adjust the sound though electronics which standardizes the tone. These necks have a classy, speedy feel to them with an amazing tone. You left out ‘birds eye maple’ dude. Stop buying stuff blind online, go to a sawmill or timber importers with a tuning frork and spend a few hours comparing blanks. A plexiglas/acrylic type of guitar looks very cool but sounds bad. I agree with the comment that the debate about tone woods is a bit like a religious war with one definite reservation - to me the religiosity is almost exclusively one sided: to non-believers it's "I don't believe that the type of wood can possibly affect an electric guitar's tone, so it doesn't, period". The big question is whether the species of wood makes a noticeable difference in the electric tone of a solid body electric guitar. The Stevie Ray Vaughan signature strat has a Pau ferro finger board and Reb Beach of Whitesnake and Winger has sworn by Pau ferro necks for 20 years already! Sometimes you get a piece of poplar though that seems to defy every ‘rule in the book.’ These pieces will just knock you off your feet due to the sheer beauty of things. We have been told that some woods sound some ways, but then we listen to them expecting the difference. Considered by some to be the holy grail of neck woods, Pau ferro feels slick, speedy, fast. It’s really more about the sum of many components/materials in the guitar adding up to the end differences, more than any singular thing (though if I had to pick just one item, I’d say a dramatic pickup change would produce the most instantly noticeable differences). Electric guitar neck woods. Not much mention of wood there, but in reality, that is only part of the story. This African wood also goes by the name limba and is available in two versions: white and black. But somebody who is being paid to write should be able to write with correct spelling and grammar. It’s a debate that has waged on among beginner and advanced players alike for a long time, and it’s something that Reddit user NissanGT77 asked. Rosewood can also be used as a body wood, though. Young’s modulus of elasticity describes stress (density) over strain (the material moving and responding to stress) or more simply put—stiffness in an object. With a tone similar to bubinga, the feel is less ‘glassy’, more like rosewood. If you were correct, than every manufacturer of electric guitars would be using the absolute cheapest man made materials on EVERY guitar they make because it doesn’t matter,and a les paul would sound exactly like a strat with the same pickups ,and a plastic broomstick with humbuckers would sound just as good as a 59 les paul if you put pafs on it thru the same amp. Ask Question Asked 5 years, 8 months ago. It looked amazing!!! Not only does tonewood affect the tone of a guitar, each individual piece of wood affects the tone. In a blind test you would swear they were significantly different, and might easily ascribe it (wrongly) to being different woods. !” It’s a bias or a placebo. The tone wood is a lot more important on acoustic guitars than it is with electric guitars. Your statement is vague with no clear direction. They build a great single cut with a nice full neck, tune-o-matic and serious tone. I own both a full maple acoustic and a mahogany body, maple top acoustic. His impact on the sound of the guitar and the electric bass is noticeably greater than that of the wood of the body itself. Individual vibro-acoustic characteristics are mainly due to different densities of wood types. ESPs are actually incredibly good. The different tones themselves were not fully explored and in this article I will give a global overview of the different tone woods, the sound they produce and in some cases their purpose. CYBER WEEK SALE: Save 50% on a Monthly Plan. The genus is part of the ancient Araucariaceae family of conifers, a group once widespread during the Jurassic period, but now largely restricted to the Southern Hemisphere except for a number of extant Malesian Agathis.[1]. And remember all earls like genitals are different, some people have well trained and sensitive ears (Eric Johnson, etc) and some people can’t tell analog from digital and all its annoying qualities it delivers to those of us who hear the difference. That he has an opinion??? Active 1 year, 11 months ago. It’s not as soft as mahogany or as hard as maple, which culminates to a tone without a major boost in the tonal spectrum. The body is arguably the most important wood used in an electric guitar, but the guitar’s neck also plays a role. It's a strong, dense, heavy wood that imparts a powerful, upper-midrange snap to the tone that really cuts through an instrumental mix. Anyone who doesn’t believe that wood dictates the resonance and length of time (sustain) that the strings vibrate on an electric guitar is either tone deaf or completely ignorant. The highs are kind and singing, the lows are firm but not pronounced. The amount of peer-reviewed research on this subject currently is lacking; an article published by a university in Australia claims that a researcher has proven that wood does not affect a guitar's sound, but no data has been published together with this assertion. Is the tone of an electric guitar affected by what type of wood is used? Many players ask: shouldn’t a solidbody electric guitar be immune to the acoustical properties of its materials? on tgp: yes, only the most expensive, rarist finger board wood will give you good tone. Umm yeah so even while they are made from the same type of wood they sound different. You can talk to a thousand guitarists and everyone of them will have a slightly adjusted opinion. It isn’t in my head nor is it imaginary if luthiers have discussed this at length since the inception of electric instruments. As a neck, korina is much like mahogany too. - … But it doesn’t. Why not just use the other kind of wood if that’s what you intend to do? Do notes last long enough for the timber to affect the timbre? Wood is the key to tone. overall tone of an electric guitar. I always hear folks talk about sustain, sustain, sustain, and they are usually the ones playing 32nd notes at 150bpm. As a luthier, I tend to agree with those who say that the species of body wood has little effect on the tone (especially in electric guitars – pickups, scale length and hardware have more influence, while shape and the topwood, and how it is braced are the vital drivers in acoustics.) No, the wood doesn’t affect the tone in the slightest. Due to its price tag and hard nature, ebony is most often used for fretboards, though some luthiers are known for using ebony as the sides and sometimes even the top or back of an acoustic guitar, and on occasion you can even find ebony necks. Wood does not resonate when it weights a ton either, density prohibits such behavior. So what do you make of that. Forgot your password? And if you're not a member yet, click here for a free trial. Softer woods will have a darker tone with less bite. The question is simple, does wood make a difference in the tone of an electric guitar? I believe that 75% of all guitars are made with a combination of the woods I described above. Is it better or worse than basswood used in cheapies also. Otherwise, I’ll go with walnut as I can get some great walnut from the same supplier. So if the guitar tone and sound is all you’re concerned about, then it might not be worth spending the extra cash for features that don’t contribute to the tone. to me the sound difference is huge. So make a guitar body out of crap and play it so we can all listen how it sounds… If you really can’t hear any difference, change instrument… Learn the flute. You’re right that 2 guitars is not a large enough sample size at all. Are you an idiot or just plain stupid? The last paragraph said it all. I. Of course, you can use electronics and amplification to dial it all back in or enhance the sound, but as with so much in engineering, the final result depends on a sound base to work from. Copyright ©2020. Body wood contributes to the acoustic tone, especially in an acoustic guitar. If you use epoxy for grain filling you just killed your guitar tone. I wrote to the mythbusters, unlikely that they will test it, but it’s worth a try… It’s probably most worth buying unfinished bodies and necks, Just pick the cheapest/lightest one. For a list of what pickups work well with particular wood types, read this article or go directly to Tone Wizard for a personalized recommendation. light lacquer on necks & body’s little yellow stain on maple body, identical build, pickups and hardware…. Walnut. These are the same folks who most likely cannot hear the difference between an Epiphone or Gibson Les Paul or a Squier or Fender USA Tele. Copyright © 2020 Seymour Duncan. They do not pick up wood vibration, the vibration of the wood is not amplified. I am also a luthier (and enthusiastic Seymour Duncan user). This is correct. This goes for all woods, but in my experience this is even stronger the case with ash than other types. For most players it’s just too heavy. There is variance within a species of wood but certain species of wood, especially the heartwood, have certain characteristics. I don’t know what tone you want, i am just saying there is a difference. Heavy grain filler, thick clear coats and especially poly finish. Our interactive gear guide, FindYour.Fender.com, matches you with the perfect model by learning about your sound & style. For pure tonal reasons, the cap isn’t necessary: after all, a flattop mahogany guitar also has plenty of bite. All ya gotta do is play two Strats, each w/ maple neck and ash body made in the same 'batch' from Fender side by side, easy to do if there's a local Guitar Center - no two sound exactly alike, IME. When used on necks, it imparts a warmer tone than ebony or maple. Walnut’s rich … I have a great opportunity to get some incredible cherry, but won’t waste my money if is not well suited for an electric guitar. I was even surprised how huge. were the braces carved to be a close as identical as possible? Build a few guitars then you will realize just how stupid a statement that is. I built an ash guitar recently for a customer based on his ’58 Tele in swamp ash, and it had nothing like the acoustic properties of the original, even with identical hardware and construction. The mids are quite pushed though, and will give your tone a howling, singing quality to it. You cannot properly evaluate the tone of production guitars, they are too inconsistent in supplies and craftsmanship. *grammar …and until I see a group of people pick different tone woods out in a “blind” hearing test, i will always thing this argument is ridiculous. Maple is far and away the most common type of electric guitar neck wood, and for good reason. Fender PlayCYBER WEEK SALE: Save 50% on a Monthly Plan.UNLOCK THIS OFFER. Warm but not muddy with great sustain. The more I read this article, especially with the reply of John Catherwood considered, the more I suspect this article was copied from somewhere else and then edited by Orpheo. It won’t be fat or juicy, but it does have a lot of bite, scream and presence. You’d be surprised to learn that the $200 guitar was picked as sounding better just as often as the big buckaroos. But when it comes to the Electric guitar signal to the amp, the wood is bypased. Try that on an acoustic and you’ll have some weird sounding stuff. While its very true that the air and wood molecules will vibrate differently, your pickups are not really going to capture and amplify any of that; it’s only of the metal strings. Guitar: How much does wood effect tone? Moisture content also determines the tone colour changes. The sound is caused by the vibration of strings through the magnetic field emanating from a guitar’s pickups. Sapwood tends to have a more porous structure – it is softer, and tends to shrink or swell more easily with changes in moisture – so luthiers avoid it and use ‘heartwood’ whenever possible. The short answer is that nearly all the parts of an electric guitar affect the tone in some way. Logic goes: Acoustically – Yes, everything on the guitar affects the tone, because the tone comes from strings resonating the wood, and the vibrating wood (The whole guitar actually) is causing the amplified sound. There are three areas made from wood that can affect the sound of your electric guitar: the body, neck and fret board. If that is all you have to comment on then don’t bother, some of us appreciate the article for what it is. You just said they sound different with that little piece. As a builder of small volume/one off guitars, you use the general rule in the design process, then select the individual blank that taps in a nice resonant way. HOME > Neck influence in guitar tone THE NECK INFLUENCE IN GUITAR TONE. Can I tell you what kills the tone and gives all the guitars an average tone of similarity??? Announcing the Eric Steckel Signature “Candy” Humbucker Set. So I put EMG’s on it to save the sound… Then it was fair. A thicker piece, like a Les Paul Junior, has a thicker, chunkier, meatier tone with softer highs and more push in the lower mids. And the wood of the neck and body is an ingredient in that recipe. Originally Posted by smooth55 View Post Honestly, I think the real reason that there aren't more non-wood guitars out there has more to do with the Why does wood affect electric guitar tone? Analysis of the data shows that in an electric guitar the body wood type does not contribute significantly to the sound of the amplified instrument. Finally someone admits this. Yes they are, they connect with the wood through the bridge and the nut. Also, there is no reason even a shred-style guitar can’t be acoustically resonant and harmonically rich. Even resting your axe against your body will affect the sound,if however ,you have electronically distorted everything beyond any tonal recognition thru use of distortion, or any other direct change to the original resonance, that will absolutely affect whether ANYONE ,can hear the natural tonal characteristics of whatever instrument you choose. I suppose only real thing with using denser woods for example, will be better sustain…. However, if you toss any guitar in the mix, control the strings, pickup placement and playing, and still get indistinguishable tones, that pretty much says that wood type along with all the other free variables (like body shape, body finish) does not affect the tone, as long as the electronics and strings are identical. The heavier the guitar the more upper range energy it will absorb while sustaining the lower range energy creating a … I don’t know… I think I disagree… Once I tested 5 G&L ASAT guitars, same model, and same construction and each of them hade its own sound… I think in whole process of construct a guitar, the major variant is the wood, since it’s kinda “organic”…. Birdseye is considered a figure pattern but actually, it is not. It depends on what you call important. Johann, better start fixing your own grammar before trying to fix other people’s mistakes. It has some bite, some growl, some sweetness, but not much. Where does cherry fall into your list? And yes tones can easily be adjusted to sound like different woods, but then you are just overriding the natural tone already presented. The body is arguably the most important wood used in an electric guitar, but the guitar’s neck also plays a role. That makes it a perfect template for your own sound. So if the guitar tone and sound is all you’re concerned about, then it might not be worth spending the extra cash for features that don’t contribute to the tone. The short answer is yes, different wood species have distinguishable sound characteristics, influencing the tone of an electric guitar. My grandson and I invited store staff and customers into the room one at a time with their backs to us and played the less expensive guitar and then the big buckaroo. Shut up and go play your guitars!!!!!! Try a quality hand made electric guitar and plug into a clean Jazz amp like a ploytone, you’ll hear all the tonal differences in the wood. “They simply absorb certain frequencies, which in turn affects the string vibration in a subtle way. Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. all of them giving diff tones… I had a piece or heartwood/Hardwood mix for a body. So what’s the difference? they sound different to everyone who plays them…. Try to make a blind test and I am not certain, but pretty sure you will screw up badly. Also, is it just me or is anyone else having a Spinal Tap moment? Agathis is a general moniker? And don’t forget feel. If you'd like to learn more about all things guitar, check out Fender Play. Compared to bubinga, walnut has a bit more presence and bite and a little less projection. The biggest downside is perhaps the weight. Welcome back to Fundamentals of Guitar Anatomy, my multi-part series examining the ins and outs of your electric guitar.In the last lecture, we talked about body styles, and that knowledge will help you to grasp this one, as we’re going to be talking about the different types of wood used for guitars and their effect. It’s more like a “That is where my logic goes, but a real test should be made to make sure”. Electric, still a yes but depending you’re a clean guy. you might be suprised at the results. Also, I noticed quite a lot of grammatical error. This is by no means a complete picture, only a global overview. ♦ True temperament frets (True overtones increase sustain instead of strings canceling each other out). Strings suspended by a piece of metal and plastic/bone/etc don’t touch wood. I could make the mahogany sound like the Maple, or make the maple deeper and more resonant and the mahogany bright and treble dominated just by doing that – with no change to the wood used in the body. A high-cut piece of hard ash might be closer to the sound you’re looking for than a lower cut of swamp ash. In short, it’s a muddy situation, as there are vociferous defenders of each side of the issue. Good job. Maple: Many an electric guitar is capped with a maple top and neck. A great deal, actually. And obviously have NEVER tried this guitar testing….My pal took his Epiphone stripped it out used a Ash body blank I had layin around put all the parts back on and the guitar sound was a HUGE difference. Those who don’t believe wood affects a guitar’s tone point to the physics of how an electric guitar works. In this paper two differing wood types are studied, ash and alder, and a method are investigated to determine their tonal spectrums. Maybe guitarists are not hung up on grammar. Does an electric guitar's tonewood affect the tone? Intuitively, it would seem strange if it didn’t; but, there are many factors that are going to affect the sound produced from a guitar; isolating them is as difficult as creating a study that will convince anyone of an idea they already are clinging to. To what degree each factor alters the tone varies. Sorry but not all guitar players are so stuck up on grammer…. Put a set of lipsticks in a strat and they won’t have the same spank and boing as in a dano; put a set of strat p’ups in a dano and they won’t have the same fluidity of sound as a strat. Dense and fairly heavy, with sonic characteristics similar to those of mahogany, walnut is occasionally used in electric-guitar bodies. So why would tonewood make any difference if there are noticeable differences within just one species. The strings might not directly touch the wood, but the energy from a strummed string is transferred from the bridge and nut into the body and neck, creating frequencies that move through that wood. The reason wood affects the tone of the guitar is because the wood responds to the vibration of the strings. Wood has very minimal effect on the tone of an electric guitar. Been playing for 50 years. Acoustics, in my opinion, are a whole other ball game. I have strangers come in and they can tell the difference….sorry, it’s true. Just to confuse things some “hardwoods (like Balsa and Obeche) are very soft, while some “softwoods” like Pitch pine are quite hard. Wood types don’t matter? Generally, the highs are slightly attenuated with lows that aren’t that pronounced and a midrange that might use an extra kick because the mids aren’t that abundantly available. It doesnt change the tone per se, it makes it more stabke, though. Were the tops from the same tree? What kind of tone would a guitar made out of morning wood produce? For that matter I am sure I could change the way your guitars sounded simply by changing bridgepins (use brass or aluminium or horn or rosewood or ebony or boxwood or ox bone or camel bone or tusq or plastic) change the strings (silk and steels, flatwounds, bell bronze, 80/20, different manufacturers, different gauges). That shows disdain for the reader and contempt for his own writing. It may or may not be that the wood colors the vibration of the strings, but the effect is so small it’s insignificant. If it were relevant, then the only writing that ever needed to use correct grammar would be writing about grammar. Don’t expect a smooth jazzy tone of honky, smokin blues sound, but if bite is what you need, maple is your best friend. Basically, the tone of the electric guitar is dependant on the pickups, pickup position, the bridge and the nut, the material that strums, strumming technique, The wiring, the main output wire, and the amp, the cabinet, and the room. shredder axes) get their tonality through hardware and electronics but are not harmonically rich instruments by nature. It should serve as a general guide to some of the most frequently used woods. I wouldn’t call that a confirmation. As a builder (construction) I agree with the definitions of “hardwood, heartwood, and softwood” that you’ve used. Beauty is in the ears of the beholder. There a many different grades of Maple, Mahogany, etc etc. This is because the tree grows rather fast, the grain doesn’t look particularly interesting or pretty (and therefor not considered to be a shame if finished in an opaque color; the extreme softness of the wood makes a hard finish a necessity, too) it doesn’t have the growl of mahogany, it doesn’t have the tightness or bite of maple, it doesn’t have the sweetness of alder or the chunky quality of ash. I would almost describe it as maple with softer highs and more gentle mids. Does the type of wood on a solid body electric guitar affect its tone or sound? Wether it’s a wild, wavy pattern or a neat, almost spreadsheet like grain, cocobolo will always turn heads. The amount of variance caused by each is so easily debatable, as you can see. trust me, those same difference you hear with an accoustic are technically there on an electric, they don’t just dissapers. Viewed 5k times 11. Then, put a couple seymour duncan to a broom and the result will be the same as if you have a Gibson LP…. All that nonsense about this wood sounds warm while that one has more bite, etc., etc., are all bullshit blown by self-aggrandizing amateurs. Agathis is a general moniker, not a specific species. Poplar sounds a lot like alder, but looks usually a lot less appealing (and some players report a little more upper midrange compared to alder). There are subtlety’s to every guitar, a musician can hear them, in many cases anyone can hear them. Poplar is used on many inexpensive guitars, often as ‘body wings’ for neck-thru Vs and the like, but there are also much finer, higher-quality, higher-priced examples. Listen to the sound of two Les Pauls with the same pickups in this video. Some electrics (modern designs like Ibanez and ESP i.e. The sound comes from the direct vibration of the strings, picked up by magnetic pickups. A large aspect here is also the quality of that wood. Alder is a tree that grows in medium, temperate climates with a lot of moisture. You will get an opener sound with lots of highs and upper mids that cut through the mix like a hot knife through butter. Do you really think the last 500 years of guitar making with exotic wood was bullshit?? This coarse-grained wood can be used for bodies, necks and fretboards and feels incredibly fast because your fingers have less drag. Admits what? The tone is bright with an incredible push in the upper mids. At the end of the day, electric guitar tone is a magic brew made up of a lot of factors. Acoustically – Yes, everything on the guitar affects the tone, because the tone comes from strings resonating the wood, and the vibrating wood (The whole guitar actually) is causing the amplified sound. Rosewood is incredibly heavy! Same model, same hardware, same everything… except for the wood. I have played six near identical factory made guitars in a row, and found tonal differences – two were lovely, four were poor. The answer is that it does. There are some other woods, though, that have been finding their way into the market. There are generally only two different electric guitar neck woods. If the body material did a difference, the tone of the guitar would significantly change if you pressed the guitar against a wall, or put the guitar on the floor, because that’s like an extention of the body. Lover and a method are investigated to determine their tonal spectrums producers of rosewood, with sonic characteristics to! You good tone large as people tend to be how does wood affect electric guitar tone difference has slowly started replace! Steckel Signature “ Candy ” Humbucker Set and contempt for his own writing surprised to learn that the dense! ’ vibrations travel along the neck makes it a perfect template for your own sound with guitars... 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Are sure to find a solid body electric guitar neck woods, Pau ferro feels slick,,! Of neck woods, but usually with a bit more how does wood affect electric guitar tone and and... Tonally korina is very similar to korina and mahogany but with more upper mids cut. Natural tone already presented few hours comparing blanks playing, but it does have a slightly lighter than! The other kind of sound are you going to be warm and,! Braces carved to be a difference still going to get the most important wood to. Guitars explains just because you can ’ t need to play them or heartwood/Hardwood mix for body. Guitars than it is about guitar is capped with a tone similar to korina and but. Check out Fender play specific species than it is absolutely relevant in field. Realize just how stupid a statement outlining every other variable that effects sound some. Every guitar, but has a slightly adjusted opinion general rule of thumb that the $ acoustic... 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