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I'm late to the party on this one.
The discussion originates from the question "is this a good sounding electric guitar"? My whole playing life, I've owned bolt on guitars. If you asked me to pick a Strat or a Les Paul, I would always, 100% pick the strat, because its "bright" and "resonant". I have judged electric guitars sound quality on how resonant they are unplugged. If a guitar is making more noise acoustically when you play, it must be a better design, a more resonant piece of wood.
I recently got my first neck through (maple) and it has a different kind of sound. There isn't as much brightness or jangle. What you hear is smoother and there appears to be more fundamental tone. Its not as loud acoustically, however, plugged in the guitar is very alive sounding and has an airy top.
Google has the answer and it seems to be an open debate among guitarists. From what I gather, when a guitar is resonating acoustically, that represents energy from the strings translating into vibrating the body, which means that there is less energy in the strings. And of course, how much the body is resonating means nothing to the guitar pickups; only what the string is doing matters.
(If a guitar was made of titanium and you plucked the strings, it would sound much less resonant and appealing than a wood guitar, although we "know" that the strings are still vibrating with as much or more energy.)
Which is something I hadn't drilled down on before, but it makes sense. When you are playing a resonant guitar, you aren't hearing the strings, you are hearing the vibration of the body/neck/bridge.
As this applies to strats and bolt on guitars, while the guitar itself may be bright and jangly acoustically, the amplified sound is warm. When you think about it, is it any surprise that strats are equipped with bright single coil pickups? And Les Pauls are equipped with dark humbuckers? In my collection of bolt ons, the most acoustically resonant guitars also seem to be the "warmest".
Furthermore, so many strat players are known to shim their necks without adverse affect on the tone. If the wood is decoupled at the neck joint, you would think it would make the guitar less resonant, but this is never reported to be the case. People can shim their strats all day long without compromising the "strat sound".
My operating theory (from what I have read online) is that when a guitar is more acoustically resonant, that means the mid and high frequency energy is converting into the guitar body, essentially siphoning off from the strings. An acoustically resonant guitar may sound louder and brighter unplugged, but will be warmer sounding plugged in. This is obfuscated by the fact that strats are regarded as "bright" guitars, but this comes from the pickups and pots installed; the guitars themselves (the strings actually) are warm.
That said, there is alot of value in having a resonant guitar in your hands that you can feel acoustically. And there is nothing wrong with a guitar that is siphoning off the mid/high frequencies so that the signal to the pickups is warmer.
I had never before thought about the physics of what is happening. A loud/bright/resonant guitar, doesnt mean the strings are vibrating with more energy in the mid/upper frequencies, it just means that the body is picking up those frequencies. The energy has to come from somewhere; which means there is less of those frequencies in the strings.
Which of course means that a guitar that is not acoustically resonant will not necessarily sound bad when plugged in. The opposite may in fact be the case.
The discussion originates from the question "is this a good sounding electric guitar"? My whole playing life, I've owned bolt on guitars. If you asked me to pick a Strat or a Les Paul, I would always, 100% pick the strat, because its "bright" and "resonant". I have judged electric guitars sound quality on how resonant they are unplugged. If a guitar is making more noise acoustically when you play, it must be a better design, a more resonant piece of wood.
I recently got my first neck through (maple) and it has a different kind of sound. There isn't as much brightness or jangle. What you hear is smoother and there appears to be more fundamental tone. Its not as loud acoustically, however, plugged in the guitar is very alive sounding and has an airy top.
Google has the answer and it seems to be an open debate among guitarists. From what I gather, when a guitar is resonating acoustically, that represents energy from the strings translating into vibrating the body, which means that there is less energy in the strings. And of course, how much the body is resonating means nothing to the guitar pickups; only what the string is doing matters.
(If a guitar was made of titanium and you plucked the strings, it would sound much less resonant and appealing than a wood guitar, although we "know" that the strings are still vibrating with as much or more energy.)
Which is something I hadn't drilled down on before, but it makes sense. When you are playing a resonant guitar, you aren't hearing the strings, you are hearing the vibration of the body/neck/bridge.
As this applies to strats and bolt on guitars, while the guitar itself may be bright and jangly acoustically, the amplified sound is warm. When you think about it, is it any surprise that strats are equipped with bright single coil pickups? And Les Pauls are equipped with dark humbuckers? In my collection of bolt ons, the most acoustically resonant guitars also seem to be the "warmest".
Furthermore, so many strat players are known to shim their necks without adverse affect on the tone. If the wood is decoupled at the neck joint, you would think it would make the guitar less resonant, but this is never reported to be the case. People can shim their strats all day long without compromising the "strat sound".
My operating theory (from what I have read online) is that when a guitar is more acoustically resonant, that means the mid and high frequency energy is converting into the guitar body, essentially siphoning off from the strings. An acoustically resonant guitar may sound louder and brighter unplugged, but will be warmer sounding plugged in. This is obfuscated by the fact that strats are regarded as "bright" guitars, but this comes from the pickups and pots installed; the guitars themselves (the strings actually) are warm.
That said, there is alot of value in having a resonant guitar in your hands that you can feel acoustically. And there is nothing wrong with a guitar that is siphoning off the mid/high frequencies so that the signal to the pickups is warmer.
I had never before thought about the physics of what is happening. A loud/bright/resonant guitar, doesnt mean the strings are vibrating with more energy in the mid/upper frequencies, it just means that the body is picking up those frequencies. The energy has to come from somewhere; which means there is less of those frequencies in the strings.
Which of course means that a guitar that is not acoustically resonant will not necessarily sound bad when plugged in. The opposite may in fact be the case.
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