Quality Of The Wood

[zanshin777]

How do you understand if the wood quality of the guitar is good playing in the guitar shop? There are other factors like amp and humbuckers which lead you misunderstanding. A bad or overall tone may originate from humbuckers and amp. I think you should play the guitar for couple of months maybe you should try another humbuckers to see different situations.

[astrozombie]

Re: Quality Of The Wood

I agree. When I play a guitar in a store, I keep in mind that I can probably set it up better or replace certain parts. I only observe overall quality and workmanship.

[John_L]

Re: Quality Of The Wood

Try and play unplugged and use an amp close to what you use at home. Most good shops are fine with this (with half a mind on selling an amp as well)

[phil_104]

Re: Quality Of The Wood

Try and play unplugged and use an amp close to what you use at home. Most good shops are fine with this (with half a mind on selling an amp as well)

When I shop for serious guitars, I bring an amp I know very well (blues deluxe) if they don't have on there. The shop from where I buy is more than OK with this, and sets it up in a sound proof booth when I shop (does the same for all customers).

A good guitar is a combination of different factors. In my opinion, you should be buying a guitar that impresses you stock. Not a guitar you buy thinking you can turn into a decent guitar. Mods should be improvements, not requirements.

[AlexR]

Re: Quality Of The Wood

Always, always, always play the guitar unplugged first. This will tell you almost all you need to know about its tone

[blueman335]

Re: Quality Of The Wood

PU's resonate and sound different in individual pieces of wood. What you hear acoustically may or may not come thru intact when you plug in. The PU/mag combination may or may not be the ideal one to bring out the best tones inherent in the wood. What matters is how a guitar sounds plugged in; priority number one. I've yet to see a band play live with unplugged electric guitars.

There was a post here a couple years ago from a well-respected member who bought two of the same guitar that both sounded identical acoustically. However, when he brought them home and plugged them in they sounded completely different, even with the same PU's. What comes thru the sound signal (coils, mag, toggle, pots, jack, cord, amp, tubes, speakers) isn't necessarily the tone that you hear acoustically. It's colored and modified by everything along the way. Some frequencies will be enhanced, others will be diminished. Playing an electrical guitar acoustically gives some guys a warm, fuzzy feeling, and sometimes those guitars also sound as good amplified. But somethimes they don't.

The 'best' sounding electric guitars in a music store usually happen to have a good set-up, strings in good condition, and PU's that work well with that piece of wood. The grimey ones with bad actions, poor intonation, & rusty strings may sound great after a half hour of basic maintenance. Maybe the string gauge is totally wrong for you. So the 'best' guitars are often the ones with the best set-ups; they sound and play better, but they're not necessarily the better guitars in the long run. At that exact point in time, they're the ones in the most playable condition for you.

I buy most of my guitars online, change PU's (regardless of what they have), set them up, and dial in the tones I want. I don't expect any guitar to sound or play 'perfect' when I buy it. Example: I bought an Ibanez AF105 hollowbody at a local music store. Well-made guitar. Looked great. Sounded good acoustically (but they only had one of them), and since it had 10's on it, I couldn't play it very well. I took it home, put on a set of 9's and installed a pair of Duncan '59's, with a mag swap on the bridge PU. Now it sounds great, and my fingers fly on it. I thought about going back to the store & showing them that I really can play guitar. Doesn't matter what it sounds like acoustically, as you don't hear that once you plug in. The sound of PU's thru an amp is what matters. With some guitars I may take a few months and swap PU's and/or mags several times to get the tones I want. Moral of the story: it was a very good guitar, but didn't quite sound or play like I wanted at the store. Some guys may have loved it as is, but guitars usually need to be tweaked & personalized to reach their full potential.