Re: Does wood matter?
I'm with the wood maters but doesn't guarantee anything crowd.
I've got 4 of the exact same USA made guitars in my house currently. The brand is not important, but they are all double cut, two piece mahogany bodies, 3/4" carved maple tops, mahogany necks with ebony fretboards....not named PRS by the way, 24 3/4"scale. All have Grover tuners, ABR Tone Pro's locking bridge stock from the factory and the same stoptail. Each is strung with Curt Mangan pure nickel 9-46 strings. Also, each was built within the 2002 to 2004 timeframe, so a short window as far as wood stocks go and these guitars were not made by the thousands each year.
One of these guitars has a very unique, ringing, sustaining tone played acoustically, almost 3D sounding. One has a very good tone. It's also ringing and sustaining acoustically, but the tone is just slightly flatter. Not as many different frequencies can be heard. I'd say it's approximately 90% as nice sounding, maybe slightly less. The third still sounds very nice, with many of the same qualities of number two, but it does not ring out acoustically like the other two. The tone is good, just on a quieter level. The 4th guitar might as well be an explorer or a Gibson Custom. It's very dark sounding by comparison, acoustically dead sounding and no real ring out or sustain at all. It might as well not even have a maple top.
What does this tell me? At least for this type of guitar, made with these specific choice of tonewoods, that are finished and outfitted as identically as possible, there is a wide variance in tone. Each is beautifully made and pleasing to look at. The one with the most beautiful flame maple top? Number 4. And one has the tightest, straightest, most well seamed two piece back I've seen. I'm told these were not made with one piece backs except in the exotic custom series.... the back on this guitar looks one piece, the seam and grain are that perfect.
Which one is it? Yep you guessed it. Number 4. Or did you guess?
Now, does this carry over to every type of guitar wood? I tend to believe it does, at least within the type of wood and it's general tone qualities. I think if you were allowed to select 100 Alder Hardtail Strats made over the course of 3 years, all finished in say Inca Silver and outfitted with identical hardware and string type and gauge, you'd have similar results. A handful would sound very good acoustically, distinguishing themselves from the others. A handful would distinguish themselves in the opposite regard, having generally poor acoustic tone. The rest would be somewhere in the middle, sounding very acceptable to a wide range of players. It would probably look like a standard bell curve.
For me, within the strict subset of guitars that I prefer, there is a difference in the either the pieces of wood selected, or the way in which these specific choices interact with each other. YMMV, IMHO, IIRC and all of the other internet acronyms apply. I'm not asking you to believe or change your opinion. I'm simply telling you how I formed mine.... right or wrong.
