Ha! But poplar also varies a lot in weight. I've played a 7.5lb Steve Morse Music Man, but my poplar Music Man (with the same body size) was just at 9lbs.
Basswood as a Stratwood
- Thread starter Sam SG
- Start date
Yeah man, I've done that. exactly that. I had 3 necks and 3 bodies, same pickups for all, same bridge. Rosewood neck ebony board, maple neck ebony board, maple neck and maple board; mahogany body, ash, black korina.
The differences were immense. It's 9 combinations, after all. It's so funny to me how people think they know, but have never tested or tried anything.
The thing is, the sound doesn't change all that much but the feel, the response, the directness: that all changes dramatically. Pickups and body thickness matter way more. Neck shape matters too ,thickness mostly, but body thickness, that's where it's at.
I'm my opinion (for what it's worth?), the greatest effect of the physical electric guitar comes with mechanical coupling. The tighter, sturdier, denser, etc. that the guitar is, the less string vibration is absorbed into the guitar, and thus, diminished less. I have an odd, imperfect, analogy using a car's suspension system. If the road surface is the vibrating string, and your butt in the driver's seat equates to your guitar's electronics, and your guitar is the shock absorbers, you want to have the worst possible shock absorbers so that every vibration possible from that road surface transfers to your butt. The less your guitar is allowed to absorb the string vibration, the longer your sustain, the more harmonic overtones are available to your pickups. When I hear people talk about how resonant their guitar is unplugged, I just cringe a little, because, unless your pickups are highly microphonic, that's just lost signal.
Warmoth has a video with body wood swaps with other parts the same.
marcello252
Well-known member
I have no knowledge about but it seems to me this collides with the semiacoustic type of electric guitar tone, where you clearly ear the difference compared to solid body, even if the pickup are not microphonic
Juanhanglo
Active member
This is not always true.
You are looking at a ~2012-14 rg921.
American basswood.
They came in red and blue first, then a gray color with a dark wood neck in later versions.
These were 900 bucks when introduced, but didn't sell well due to the first year premiums having qc issues, and it being hardtail.
I got it for 4 bills on closeout as a 2nd.
One of my favorites
Chistopher
malapterurus electricus tonewood instigator
All acoustic guitar pickup systems that I know of have at least one microphonic pickup. Be it a piezoelectric pickup or a literal microphone. Unrelated, the LR Baggs Anthem SL, my favorite acoustic pickup, is on sale for quite a bit off on Sweetwater for Black Friday today
Chistopher
malapterurus electricus tonewood instigator
I've got an ad hoc experiment on this going right now as we speak. I'm trying to start up a wood shop. In order to not waste my efforts on expensive wood, I am reclaiming some of the treated pine from my old porch. Each body is made of six boards. The first body blank I made has two errors based around the fact I have never used a hand planer. As such the first body blank has less than stellar wood to wood contact. The second body blank is a lot better.
Provided I don't destroy one of them in the building process, it should be an alright comparison
marcello252
Well-known member
Ok, but I was talking about 335s or semi hollow telecasters, things like that, the pickups might be potted but the difference is clearly audible
Christopher, I'll be really interested to hear how that turns out! One of my more stunning/enlightening science experiments involved a double process. Updated a fairly crappy (Johnson, I think?) strat-type body, the heel cup was really rough and gouged, so I put a thin layer of epoxy in the cup, covered my neck heel in Saran wrap, and clamped it up for a day or so. It dramatically improved the surface contact between the neck and the body and made a serious improvement in tone and sustain. The second part involved using threaded inserts in the neck and machine screws to attach the neck to the body, again improving contact and minimizing potential vibration loss...
Chistopher
malapterurus electricus tonewood instigator
I think when I get brave enough to start making necks, threaded inserts are going to be a permanent part of my process. Not because I think you should constantly be taking the neck off, but because it's always bothered me how weak a connection point that is.
I don't understand how this isn't the standard these days.
marcello252
Well-known member
That would be a great improvement over cheap models, I don't know why builders don't use it as a feature
'Tradition' is part of it, but also inserts cost time and money. And the number of people that takes the neck off of a guitar is pretty small. But, I'm with you. If you do this a lot, inserts are fantastic.
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