Guitar tone question

Re: Guitar tone question

You can certainly compensate with different pickups. But its in no way a substitution. Just the same way that a different pickup is not going to be able to be mimicked by the adjustment of amp eq controls.
 
Re: Guitar tone question

I have a JB/Jazz set in
1. Ibanez RG2EX1
2. Ehdwuld branded Vanity guitar

The Ibanez is basswood with a maple neck and 25.5 inch scale hardtail
The Ehdwuld is mahogany body and neck. 24.75 inch scale and TOM bridge

They both sound remarkably similar
Great

While tone wood and scale may be parts of the equation
The pickups and amp are the majority
 
Re: Guitar tone question

I used to think that till I got an ebony fingerboard.
 
Re: Guitar tone question

I used to think that till I got an ebony fingerboard.

How did you come about this conclusion? I once spent a good amount of time with a Strat with an ebony fretboard and underwound single coils and it was indeed very bright. But I'm willing to bet if I switched to a rosewood fretboard and kept everything else the same, it would have still been crazy bright.

Fretboard wood can make a noticeable difference on an unfinished neck, and by unfinished I mean they haven't gotten around to putting the frets in yet.
 
Re: Guitar tone question

What is the reference here?

Mahogany SG sounds way different from a strat-style mahogany guitar. Not to mention sandwich-body LP.

Strat-shape with tremolo will be easy to mimic as there's far more things to shape tone than just body. LP is doable too, because it's stiffer and less "tone-coloring" construction.

I think SG is the most difficult: Thin body has resonance, that's incredibly difficult to mimic.
 
Re: Guitar tone question

SGs are fairly difficult to replicate for other reasons. The neck pickup is in the "wrong" place, the neck joint is thin, and the Gibson scale length is also important to the SG tone.

I think "resonance" has become a bit of a buzzword in the guitar community. Resonance has started to mean "good" when in reality it should mean "dark with dampened sustain". It only makes sense that if a guitar is resonating all this extra energy, it loses sustain. For this same reason a highly resonant guitar (like a hollowbody) would loose treebles.
 
Re: Guitar tone question

I've had a ton of guitars, and now have a few ranging from really old to fairly new. I've found that I prefer the tone and playability of the ones made from wood.
 
Re: Guitar tone question

Actually, I've played a few carbon fiber guitars (and my acoustic has a carbon fiber top) that sounds amazing. I am certainly not locked into wood- design is really everything here.
 
Re: Guitar tone question

Because the guitar is a maple capped mahogany guitar like the rest I have and its the only one that sounds so bright. Even unplugged. I still think there is more involved, but it does seem that the ebony has an effect. I still think the pups and scale etc. have way more effect than the wood its made of.
 
Re: Guitar tone question

Actually, I've played a few carbon fiber guitars (and my acoustic has a carbon fiber top) that sounds amazing. I am certainly not locked into wood- design is really everything here.

Once I try a sweet alternative material, I’ll amend my statement.

I did have a Danelectro reissue, but it wasn’t a favorite.
 
Re: Guitar tone question

Actually, I've played a few carbon fiber guitars (and my acoustic has a carbon fiber top) that sounds amazing. I am certainly not locked into wood- design is really everything here.

I’ve also played a few composite and non wooden guitars, carbon fibre acoustic, acrylic guitars, aluminium guitars and some of composite guitars such as Aristides
All of them had a unique tone to em
 
Re: Guitar tone question

SGs are fairly difficult to replicate for other reasons. The neck pickup is in the "wrong" place, the neck joint is thin, and the Gibson scale length is also important to the SG tone.

I think "resonance" has become a bit of a buzzword in the guitar community. Resonance has started to mean "good" when in reality it should mean "dark with dampened sustain". It only makes sense that if a guitar is resonating all this extra energy, it loses sustain. For this same reason a highly resonant guitar (like a hollowbody) would loose treebles.

By resonance I meant that the body is factually resonating with the strings more than almost any other solid body guitar. Nothing tonewise.
 
Re: Guitar tone question

You want resonance in any guitar. Thats the bit that causes your sustain. No resonance means all your string vibration is being immediately cancelled. The electric guitar was designed to stop standing waves in the body.....where they freely oscillate due to shape and space. But to say you don't want resonance is a wholesale misunderstanding of physical objects at a fundamental level.
If the energy you put in during plucking was the only energy in the whole guitar system it too would quickly fade out due to the low string mass and air damping effect. The mass of the guitar, the potential energy stored in the form of string tension and the 'stiff but flexible' nature of the wood all combine to add in momentum and overcome inertia more readily.
 
Re: Guitar tone question

If you could make a guitar so dense as to not absorb hardly any vibrations from the string, it would have little resonance, but it would have an almost comically long sustain.

The amount your guitar vibrates while you play it is no measure for the quality of the guitar or even the wood.
 
Re: Guitar tone question

I played a guitar made of tofu once. It was the equal of any guitar I’ve ever played.
 
Re: Guitar tone question

Not really a fair contest. The steel beam has a lacquer finish and the LP has a poly finish LOL
 
Re: Guitar tone question

change the fingerboard and or neck. Rosewood board is nice. You can even go mahogany for the neck wood too.
That will make a big difference acoustically.
Pickups etc are all down the line.
Also brass saddles will warm and smooth your tone if you are currently using steel.
 
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