Same guitar, all mahogany

W

WDeeGee

New member
Hi folks,

My favorte guitar is an Ibanez SZ that I loaded with Duncans. I have two actually, but sonically, they're just great. Mahogany with a maple cap.

I saw a white one passing by on a local used gear market, looked it up on IbanezWiki, this is the SZ320EX, which is all mahogany.

I love white guitars and it would be cool to have a white one, but I'm not sure what to expect. The two I have sound a bit different but have great resonance and clarity, as well as a full sound. But they have maple caps and the white one doesn't.

Would it sound vastly different?
 
Re: Same guitar, all mahogany

Nope

I have a swamp ash Gibson LP
A Basswood semihollow LP

And an Ibanez RG

All with JB/JAZZ pickups

They sound almost identical
 
Re: Same guitar, all mahogany

Body wood makes very little difference to the sound that comes out of your amp. Less than amp, speaker, pickups, strings, bridge . . .
 
Re: Same guitar, all mahogany

Well,

I once had the opportunity (I think they came from a failing store) to buy two Michael Harding Patriots, new and identical, at half the price.

Same wood, same pickups, and they sounded very differently. You can hear it when you tap them with your knuckle, the knock (natural resonance frequency) is at least two whole tones apart, they couldn't be more apart. One was very midrange heavy, the other has a really deep, dark sound. The big difference really baffled me. But then again, no two pieces of wood are the same.
 
Re: Same guitar, all mahogany

You will probably notice a difference but you might like it.
 
Re: Same guitar, all mahogany

I think the cap's just a veneer tbh

In which case there wouldn't be a difference at all

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk
 
Re: Same guitar, all mahogany

It will sound different, but how vast is really more about how good your ears are. 2 people can say things sound the same, while another comes along and accuses them of being deaf.
 
Re: Same guitar, all mahogany

I always can feel a softer/rounder low-end with a mahogany neck vs a maple neck. Not a big "sound" difference IMO.
 
Re: Same guitar, all mahogany

Some people's pickups/rig/processing just kills any of the more subtle aspects of the tone. They're the ones you typically hear saying there is no difference at all. Very high volume also shuts down your ear's sensitivity, so if you only ever compare at over 100db, then your ears are in no shape to make any comparison.
There could also be hearing damage for the more elderly members who have gigged for years to factor in.
If you have tried very few guitars in forming an opinion(another really common occurence in the no difference camp), then these are quite unreliable opinions to rely on as they are based on little to no statistical significance.

My experience is that there are indeed subtle but noticeable differences in chassis more often than not.....based on perhaps 80-100 guitars of all construction types and very varied woods used. Be it wood type, thickness of slab, shape of body, cutaway type etc. Sometimes it can be that you get a whole different vibe from the same guitar type with the same pickups fitted. Other times it might be that certain pickups just really do or don't suit at all in certain individual instruments where they work the opposite in another seemingly identical instrument.

I've had all of these scenarios.
I've also had guitars with seemingly opposite construction sound remarkably similar.

Its so varied that you cannot give any prediction on actual tone likely.....only a vague guesstimate on what could happen based on a rough average.
 
Re: Same guitar, all mahogany

Archer250 said:
I think the cap's just a veneer tbh

In which case there wouldn't be a difference at all

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I actually went to the trouble of stripping the 320SZ I owned; it's a full maple cap, although quite a few pieces:

uX3bCMS.jpg


3xaDhNe.jpg


Larry
 
Re: Same guitar, all mahogany

Here’s two identical basses I built. They both have cherry bodies. One has a maple top, and the other is zebrawood. The necks are 7 piece maple-purpleheart.

The tops are about a 1/2” thick. The maple top bass is noticeably brighter than the zebrawood bass, even unplugged.

So body wood does matter, but not as much as the neck. But in general harder denser woods are brighter.

Whether or not you will hear that on that guitar has a lot to do with how thick the top is, and the overall weight of the guitar.
This is why two of the same model can sound a bit different. Wood is not uniform.
And if you use a lot of distortion you won’t hear what the guitar sounds like

Try one out and see.

e76aa734b5b0d4b632799ec220734e65.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Re: Same guitar, all mahogany

Body wood makes very little difference to the sound that comes out of your amp. Less than amp, speaker, pickups, strings, bridge . . .
Click to expand...

I'm not going to start a tonewood argument with you, but I think it's obvious that all the gear works together to produce a certain sound. But some parts of the equation (like the wood), make a big difference because that's where the sound STARTS. If your guitar won't produce 650Hz, nothing - as in NOTHING - in the rest of your signal chain will add it back in. Wood counts, period. All you have to do is play guitars side by side UNPLUGGED to get the general idea. They do sound different.
 
Re: Same guitar, all mahogany

ICTGoober said:
I'm not going to start a tonewood argument with you, but I think it's obvious that all the gear works together to produce a certain sound. But some parts of the equation (like the wood), make a big difference because that's where the sound STARTS. If your guitar won't produce 650Hz, nothing - as in NOTHING - in the rest of your signal chain will add it back in. Wood counts, period. All you have to do is play guitars side by side UNPLUGGED to get the general idea. They do sound different.
Click to expand...

There are certainly differences between electric guitars when played unplugged. I'm concerned with how an electric sounds in an amp though. It's kinda rare to need to gig unplugged. :P

I've run across the occasional dog of a guitar where there was clearly something off about it - sure. I've never found that to particularly correlated with types of wood though. There's good mahogany, good maple, good rosewood, good ash, good alder, good basswood, good ebony, and even good particle board (danelectro) and plywood (335s). There are also bad examples of each. The brightest guitar I own is a mahogany slab bodied guitar. Does wood matter in a guitar? No, not the type of wood really. And yes, you probably don't want **** wood . . . but I'd place body wood pretty far down there on the list of important stuff on an electric guitar.

I've heard people get great tone out of shovels for christs sake. I don't think they were using 'tone shovels'. Or super concerned about their 650 Hz reproduction. :P
 
Re: Same guitar, all mahogany

I think it's important to remember, two guitars can have close to identical specs with one weighing a fraction than the other. I don't have the greatest ear but i feel like weight alone could influence resonance and tone.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Z
Help me create an unusual guitar
Replies
9
Views
174
GuitarDoc
G
80's_Metal
New Guitar Day
Replies
17
Views
2K
Aceman
Aceman
Ashurbanipal
Wishful NGD and ruminations - Yamaha FG9 and FS9
Replies
6
Views
344
Ashurbanipal
Ashurbanipal
G
A couple recent builds.
Replies
14
Views
528
GuitarDoc
G
IMENATOR
Should I get a 24 fret guitar?
2
Replies
36
Views
4K
Rex_Rocker
Rex_Rocker
Back
Top