What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

[Zhaggy]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

So do you really think Steve Vai's guitar like the one below sound crappy cause it's made of acrylic not wood?

No-one has said that it will sound crappy if it's not made out of wood just that it will sound different. Besides acrylic has been around awhile and has been used on guitars for years so it's viable material for guitar. Heavy as hell, I've been told. Never played one but heard countless of times, including Steve Vai's one.

 

[AlexR]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

It would be hard to tell if the acrylic sounded crap when Vai plays.....a 17k pickup and lots of processing tend to make the guitar construction irrelevant.

 

[Jeremiah]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

How about fur? Does that affect tone?

I reckon it would if you covered the fretboard with fur.

 

[Dr. Vegetable]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

How about fur? Does that affect tone?

The fur on the guitar serves the vital function of transferring vibrations from the strings to the beard.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

Hmm, I have guitars out of carbon fiber, graphite and really expensive rainforest woods, and there are good ones in the bunch and bad ones. I look at sound and ergonomics (for my body) first. After that I might care about what it is made out of, but probably not.

This lucid comment will get lost in the ravings of the jakarta j.a. and those who fend off his troll attacks. Which is a pity cause isn't this what matters? I recently played a guitar with a resin fingerboard and I don't care what anyone says it was a fine sounding instrument.

 

[guitarrob]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

I tend to think any aspect of the major components to a guitar would affect tone to some degree but as to if those changes are large enough to notice or if they seem negative would be up the the individual.
Lucite, graphite and other materials have been used for construction on modern instruments but they don't seem very common in comparison to wood.
I don't think it is a case of good or bad rather different tones that some would like and other won't.

Another good point that was already mentioned, is that regardless of the material, there are instruments with great overall synergy - meaning they just sound great and other even from the same batch that just do not sound that good.

 

[Zhaggy]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

It would be hard to tell if the acrylic sounded crap when Vai plays.....a 17k pickup and lots of processing tend to make the guitar construction irrelevant.

But it's Steve Vai. He would probably make a rubber guitar sound good.

 

[FretFire]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

Paul Reed Smith said years ago that, "...an electric guitar is first and foremost, an acoustic guitar." And he's correct. A Telecaster unplugged sounds very much the same plugged in, same kind of spank, same kind of timbre, etc. Pickups are microphones. They vary in the same degree as in the difference between an SM58 and a KSM32. Everything is connected. ALL parts of the guitar matter.

I'm confused as to why this thread continued after this post. This pretty much sums it up.

 

[gvis]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

I think it matters, somewhat. I'm down to one guitar, a parker nitefly. It's been my favorite of all I've owned, but it has it's own sound, and I miss the usual, general sounds of non-parker guitars.

Every vid I've seen of parker guitars with carbon fiber fret boards returns a very rounded, kinda dark, unique to Parker tone; very similar to mine. Not much bite. Definitely not scientific, and it's also possible their typical limited use of body wood contributes to sounding different, but it seems to be the biggest deviation from standard electric guitars, and it may explain why all the different parkers I've heard with varying neck and body woods still have that overall tonal characteristic.

And I've used a lot of different pups in this thing and I've also still had that overall rounded tone and attack. Even the trebly invader neck still feels capped on the high end somehow, even in the bridge position. Definitely more treble, but just not as cutting as similar pups on other guitars I've had.

Of course my ears could be all wrong...lol.

 

[Zhaggy]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

I think Vai uses like 3 compressors in his chain.

Then maybe we should too.

 

[TheLivingDead]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

So do you really think Steve Vai's guitar like the one below sound crappy cause it's made of acrylic not wood?

Funny you'd bring up Vai when it comes to how important body and neck wood really is...

Go to 10:54

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

Troll thread makes me a sad panda.

 

[VHTJay]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

I think we have a couple trolls stirring up the pot here.

My Les Pauls are all made nominally the same way and they all sound different with the same pickups (I test all of them with reference setups).

The best part is that those wood-wouldnt-matter people still believe the guitar influences sustain (because it obviously does) but somehow think that sustain is even for all frequencies?

I have guitars like this as well man. I KNOW fretboard and neck wood make a big difference in a guitars tone. My example is: 2 PRS singlecuts. Both `hog bodies with maple caps. Same tuners, pickups, strings and scale length. one has a mahogany neck with a rosewood board, the other a rosewood neck and ebony board. Very substantial difference in tone....even through a gained up amp!

 

[G0lden]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

Strings vibrate back and forth. The make sound waves that our ears pick up. That same back and forth movement makes an electrical current that moves a speaker back and forth that our ears pick up.

I'm not sure how anyone would think that a guitar sounds any different acoustic as it does electric. (Assuming they aren't cranking up every effect know to man)

 

[jacksontrader]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

Fretboard wood doesn't matter if you are using a guitar as a weapon to fight off a zombie attack. I know, I sound like I'm flip flopping but I just wanted to stay neutral on this subject while posting something that would be true, albeit not very viable to the conversation. But true none the less. This add paid for by the people for ignorance.

 

[verbotenco]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

The fur on the guitar serves the vital function of transferring vibrations from the strings to the beard.

Billy Gibbons is a wimp with flaccid dick (0.08 string, WTF?!), so he is irrelevant.

 

[verbotenco]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

I'm confused as to why this thread continued after this post. This pretty much sums it up.

Paul is not even a professional guitarist, he is a guitar builder. That pretty much sums it up why we didn't care what he said.

 

[verbotenco]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

Funny you'd bring up Vai when it comes to how important body and neck wood really is...

Go to 10:54

Yeah I know he named his guitars Evo, Flo, cause they have distinct sound even though are materially the same.

My point is wood still matters but only 20 percent of the overall sound, given other factors like pickup, amps, effects, cables.

So there is no point to fret about the kind/ pattern/ cutting of wood when you are going to plug it in anyway. If the sound needs to be improved/ altered, better mess with the pickup than changing the neck or fretboard for instance.

It's a different story with acoustic guitars.

 

[DarkMatter]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

Billy Gibbons is a wimp with flaccid dick (0.08 string, WTF?!), so he is irrelevant.

Oh no you didn't?

And your arguments are all over the place. I consider 20% significant.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: What if fretboard wood doesn't matter?

Oh no you didn't?

And your arguments are all over the place. I consider 20% significant.

20%! I think your being very generous to the jakarta jackass