how much effect does wood have?

[greedo]

so how much effect does the body and neck woods really have on a solidbody electric guitar's tone? I mean we're talking about an electric instrument, right? not acoustic...no f-holes for sounds.

doesn't most of the "tone" come from the pickups, fretboard wood, strings, bridge material, even the kind of pick we use?

I'm not looking to start arguments! :yourock: just some opinions and educated viewpoints to set me straight :smokin:

 

[WhoFan]

Re: how much effect does wood have?

Wood is the most important factor....

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: how much effect does wood have?

It's hard to say. Obviously, a strat pickup doesn't give the same sound as a Gibson style humbucker, in the same guitar, and it takes a tele pickup to get the signature tele sound. Nonetheless, a strat made from swamp ash sounds diffrent from a strat made from mahogony, even if one swaps everything else but the body over.

The better pickups seem to be the most transparent, so they allow the sound of the guitar (ie..the wood, the hardware, the player) to come through. This would be a good thing if the guitar is a good guitar, but it would make a crappy guitar even worse. I seem to recall in a magzine interview, that Seymour Duncan once told somebody that; even the best pickups possible, can't salvage some guitars.

 

[Zerberus]

Re: how much effect does wood have?

Wood is the most important factor....

+1

All guitars are acoustic. Some use a big air filled box to become louder, and others use a "mic" and amp

 

[shogunlegend]

Re: how much effect does wood have?

to me good wood is extremely important. not just the body, but the neck and fingerboard. it's combination of these and your musical style which determine what kind of pickups you will use.

 

[Davey]

Re: how much effect does wood have?

wood is the most important acoustically (and plugged in too somewhat.. since the guitar WILL have a nicer sound, when it's resonant)

BUT plugged into an amp, and especially under a bit of gain, the pickups and amp/speakers become more prevalent.
pickups, when they have a signature sound to them (well... which one doesn't, really?) and are a bit higher output, will have an even larger impact on overall sound

what is also important (IMO, i haven't spent enough time with this, so it's not totally confirmed), but the thickness of the neck has quite a role in the resonance of the guitar and therefore tone.

 

[Marinblues]

Re: how much effect does wood have?

Pickups pickup how the strings resonate.

How the guitar strings resonate depends on the guitar construction and materials i.e. the wood.

M.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: how much effect does wood have?

I don't think wood is as important as pickups.

A Strat with Strat single coils and an alder body sounds like a Strat...until EVH came a long and put a Gibson humbucker in one. Then it didn't sound like a Strat anymore...it sounded like some kind of Gibson SG or Les Paul.

So pickups are #1 in terms of a guitar's tone...that's if you don't consider the player himself, who is actually the most important in producing tone.

#2 would be the amp...plug a Strat into a Fender Twin and then plug it into a Marshall Plexi. BIG BIG diff in tone...much bigger than the diff between alder and swamp ash.

#3 would be the speakers...JBL's, Celestions, Jensens: all very differant sounding and the diff between a Celestion G12H30 and a JBL would be a bigger diff than the diff between two differant types of wood in the guitars neck or body.

#4 would be the type of wood, weight of wood, and resonance of wood the guitar is made from...IMO.

 

[fingerace]

Re: how much effect does wood have?

Pickups pickup how the strings resonate.

How the guitar strings resonate depends on the guitar construction and materials i.e. the wood.

M.

That's how I see it too.

 

[Rand-O-Monium]

Re: how much effect does wood have?

Steinberger(sp)
:biglaugh:

 

[I_M_Ken]

Re: how much effect does wood have?

#2 would be the amp...plug a Strat into a Fender Twin and then plug it into a Marshall Plexi. BIG BIG diff in tone...much bigger than the diff between alder and swamp ash.

#3 would be the speakers...JBL's, Celestions, Jensens: all very differant sounding and the diff between a Celestion G12H30 and a JBL would be a bigger diff than the diff between two differant types of wood in the guitars neck or body.

#4 would be the type of wood, weight of wood, and resonance of wood the guitar is made from...IMO.

i agree on this

+1

 

[RockAngel519]

Re: how much effect does wood have?

to me good wood is extremely important. not just the body, but the neck and fingerboard. it's combination of these and your musical style which determine what kind of pickups you will use.

+1

 

[Davey]

Re: how much effect does wood have?

Lew said it much better than i did