Re: Finally found out how to end the tonewood debate.
Just a quick poll. All of you seem to have come across your opinion through your own personal experience, so I won't bother asking that. But how many of you have attempted to replicate my personal experience. Because if wood pressed against the back of a guitar makes a difference acoustically, but not electrically; but wood built into the guitar makes a difference both electrically and acoustically, either there some different effect at play or physics isn't working today. Please help he find out which.
You are likely making that piece of wood resonate acoustically. Same if you press your neck against a table or wall.
Will it translate into the amplified tone? Probably not, because you aren't changing the acoustic properties of the guitar. You are adding an acoustic output from the piece of wood.
Now on the other hand, clamp a weight to the headstock or screw that piece of wood solidly to the body. Will that make a difference? Probably.
But you have not changed the wood the body and neck are made from. You just added mass.
To hear a real difference you need a different piece of wood.
And this is also why two otherwise identical guitars might sound different. Wood is very variable.
Here's another example. These two basses are identical except one has a birdseye maple top, and the other is zebrawood. Both have cherry bodies made from the same board. Both have 7 piece maple/purpleheart necks with dual truss rods and carbon rods, and phenolic fretboards.
In this photo they have different bridges. But I have them both outfitted with the same Hipshot aluminum bridges and my own pickups.
They sound very different from each other. Th maple top bass is brighter. The zebrawood bass is very mellow. The only difference is the tops!
Do this enough times and you become very familiar with the tone of different woods. And different combinations too.
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