Check out this "tonewood" statement . . .

[ArtieToo]

. . . from www.globaltrees.org. Scroll down to where it says "Electric Guitars" and read the first paragraph.

Or, to save clicking, I copy and paste . . .

The electric guitar is generally a solid bodied instrument with no sound box. Sound is produced by vibrations of the string being converted into electrical energy through electromagnetic pick-ups. Varying the frequency of the string (during playing) varies the current induced. The electrical energy is then converted into sound through a loud speaker. Consequently the timber has no effect on the tone, 95% of the electric guitar body is aesthetic.

Emphasis mine. I'm trying to bite my tongue to prevent this from being a political thread.

[ArtieToo]

Re: Check out this "tonewood" statement . . .

And even more from The Guild of American Luthiers.

First of all (and speaking from a steel string guitar perspective), let's discard the notion that some species of wood make good instruments and that others don't. The concept of tonewood is a hoax. Of the few things that we can do to a guitar and still call it a guitar, changing the wood it is made of will have the least impact upon the quality of the sound that it produces. The tonal difference between a mahogany guitar and a rosewood guitar is exactly the same as the difference between two mahogany guitars or two rosewood guitars.

[casblah]

Re: Check out this "tonewood" statement . . .

Now why did they have to go and ruin our party?.....That's ok, they're on the outside looking in....

[Mr 9finger]

Re: Check out this "tonewood" statement . . .

I hope Gibson doesn't see that. We'll have people paying 2 or 3 grand for plywood Les Pauls.

[El Dunco]

Re: Check out this "tonewood" statement . . .

Science doesn't prove jack.... it can only suggest.

[ArtieToo]

Re: Check out this "tonewood" statement . . .

The guy from the "Guild" article is starting to convince me:

White pine. No, I'm not kidding. I've played with pine because it's cheap and always around. I've never attempted a pine guitar, but I'd like to some day. Bob Benedetto made his fabled knotty pine archtop that sounds just like his other guitars. This is the best evidence I can offer that the sound of an instrument is in the hands of the maker, not in the wood. The only photo I have of my own work in pine is Little Blue, my camping dulcimer. Blue is 100% white pine sprayed a transparent blue. He's dusty, worn, and covered in insect repellent spots, but he keeps on truckin'. He's also twelve years old and counting, and sound as the day he was glued together.

Now, I'm not sure what to think.

Edit: And the last paragraph:

So, that's my life in the alternative wood fast lane. I hope that you find it useful and not too frightening. All this wood has taught me a lot. I don't believe that unquartered wood is a handicap. I don't think the species of wood contributes to the tone of a guitar. I don't concern myself with with tap tones or tap tuning. I believe that good work and experience is everything. None of this will sway a mind that is already drenched in traditional guitar mythology, but so be it. Most of those folks never made an instrument.

The thing is, I believe there's quite a few on here that have built instruments who would disagree.

[Surgeon]

Re: Check out this "tonewood" statement . . .

I honestly don't know what to make of this... the guitarist in me feels like this is ridiculous. However, the guy in me who thinks that a lot of guitarists are pointlessly snobs regarding tube brand X, wood this, good piece of wood that, etc., thinks that there may be "some" truth in there...

[scottish]

Re: Check out this "tonewood" statement . . .

that pretty much echoes what the guys at USACG have told me. basically that the pickups, bridge and electronics of an electric guitar will define about 75% of the sound. everything else is a combo of so much that changing from mahogany to alder for example will have almost no audible difference

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Check out this "tonewood" statement . . .

I'm gonna go with what my ears have told me. The best example I can think of is various Ibanez RGs. The basswood guitars do not sound like the mahogany guitars. Furthermore, a Strat or Tele with a rosewood board does not sound like one with a maple board.

I have a funny feeling that the guys who said those quotes pay more attention to what their oscilloscope tells them than what their ears do.

[YJM_Rocks]

Re: Check out this "tonewood" statement . . .

**** liberals!!! Just kidding guys. I don't believe it. With the same strings, pickups, body shape, everything...A guitar made out of maple is going to sound, feel, and sustain differently than a guitar made out of poop.

[theboatcandream]

Re: Check out this "tonewood" statement . . .

Seems like snobbery to me. They're essentially saying "My ears are so good that I can hear as much difference between two specimens of the same wood as between two different species."

[idsnowdog]

Re: Check out this "tonewood" statement . . .

I kind of wonder if there isn't a certain anti-electric sentiment going on here?

[jmh151]

Re: Check out this "tonewood" statement . . .

Well I have 8 guitars, each made out of different tonewood combinations, and each sounds distinctly different unplugged. Plugged in each of them has a distintcly different character. I wish the above statements that all tone woods sound the same was true, but it simply isn't

[tubeman87]

Re: Check out this "tonewood" statement . . .

I'm up in the air about things like this, but I just say it's a matter of opinion. I like believeing that the wood plays some part in the tone, and I'm sticking to that!

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Check out this "tonewood" statement . . .

Well I have 8 guitars, each made out of different tonewood combinations, and each sounds distinctly different unplugged. Plugged in each of them has a distintcly different character. I wish the above statements that all tone woods sound the same was true, but it simply isn't

Exactly. Our only misconception is to label some good and some bad. Depending on the design of the guitar, any wood can be made to sound good.
Ideally, it should have that one property that a guitar of it's type can benefit from.

Artie, I know you were researching sycamore, and it does stump me that more guitars aren't made out of it.