kramersteen
PowerMetalRaph
Found this today while researching alternate timbers. What do you guys think of the write up?
http://www.guitarnation.com/articles/calkin.htm
http://www.guitarnation.com/articles/calkin.htm
The Heretic's Guide to Alternative Lutherie Woods
- Thread starter kramersteen
- Start date
Chocklit_Thunda
New member
Re: The Heretic's Guide to Alternative Lutherie Woods
Meh.... I've seen this article time and time again.... Usually posted by someone who hasn't built a guitar before.... (I'm not saying you haven't, I'm just speaking of past experiences) having built a handful myself using a few different woods I can safely say that they have a major effect on the tone. The basic fact is because the strings effectively "end" where the bridge meets the wood (tremolo equipped guitars are an exception) and the vibrations are transferred to the wood and then bounce back to the strings which cause different additions and removals of frequency. Different woods vibrate differently.
This guys states that we don't need alternative woods and that mahogany, maple and rosewood are good enough and don't need to be changed? Wrong... Each has its drawbacks and plus sides while alternative woods could solve some "problems" found in these particular woods. Other woods offer different tonal varieties. Walnut offers a slightly less bright tone than maple, cedar changes the tone from the regular spruce for an acoustic top, alder, ash and poplar all vary slightly from one another for strat and Tele bodies.
That being said, wood is unpredictable and varies from board to board although for the most part, they tend to follow the general descriptions (mahogany = mids, maple = bright etc etc etc)
For the most part, wood selection is important.
Alternate timbers are incredibly important. As the regular woods are getting overused we need to find alternatives. Like I said they also offer different and new tone combinations. Think back 5 years ago people said you couldn't use pine or cedar or other softwoods for a guitar body.... Now the TDPRI is flooded with guys using softwoods to make Tele bodies.... Someone decided to try it and found that they give you some of the most resonant bodies possible.
This article is a load of bollocks.... Just try it for yourself. Go buy a strat or build a partscaster and get a replacement body of a different wood. Play it and then swap bodies and listen to the tonal differences. All the other parts remain constant, all that changes is the wood and with it the sound should be altered too.
Meh.... I've seen this article time and time again.... Usually posted by someone who hasn't built a guitar before.... (I'm not saying you haven't, I'm just speaking of past experiences) having built a handful myself using a few different woods I can safely say that they have a major effect on the tone. The basic fact is because the strings effectively "end" where the bridge meets the wood (tremolo equipped guitars are an exception) and the vibrations are transferred to the wood and then bounce back to the strings which cause different additions and removals of frequency. Different woods vibrate differently.
This guys states that we don't need alternative woods and that mahogany, maple and rosewood are good enough and don't need to be changed? Wrong... Each has its drawbacks and plus sides while alternative woods could solve some "problems" found in these particular woods. Other woods offer different tonal varieties. Walnut offers a slightly less bright tone than maple, cedar changes the tone from the regular spruce for an acoustic top, alder, ash and poplar all vary slightly from one another for strat and Tele bodies.
That being said, wood is unpredictable and varies from board to board although for the most part, they tend to follow the general descriptions (mahogany = mids, maple = bright etc etc etc)
For the most part, wood selection is important.
Alternate timbers are incredibly important. As the regular woods are getting overused we need to find alternatives. Like I said they also offer different and new tone combinations. Think back 5 years ago people said you couldn't use pine or cedar or other softwoods for a guitar body.... Now the TDPRI is flooded with guys using softwoods to make Tele bodies.... Someone decided to try it and found that they give you some of the most resonant bodies possible.
This article is a load of bollocks.... Just try it for yourself. Go buy a strat or build a partscaster and get a replacement body of a different wood. Play it and then swap bodies and listen to the tonal differences. All the other parts remain constant, all that changes is the wood and with it the sound should be altered too.
GuitarStv
Sock Market Trader
Re: The Heretic's Guide to Alternative Lutherie Woods
Well. To be fair . . . If you change a strat body with another body made of identical wood it can also dramatically change the sound of the guitar. There's so much variation between cuts of wood that it can be hard to do much more than speak in generalities when you're talking about how a guitar will sound.
Chocklit_Thunda said:
Well. To be fair . . . If you change a strat body with another body made of identical wood it can also dramatically change the sound of the guitar. There's so much variation between cuts of wood that it can be hard to do much more than speak in generalities when you're talking about how a guitar will sound.
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