What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

[BloodRose]

I had an epi elitist and it sounded kind of plinky when played and not big throaty notes like my Burny LP or Dean Soltero.. Ive been lusting after a LP Traditional pro since they came out and I played one today and it sounded plinky too. Neither are fretting out. Ive had guitars fret out before that were set too low and were hitting the high frets and that was fixed by a slight raise of action or truss tweak. But these Lps arent fretting out. I told the sales dude at GC that the guitar jiggled the pickups and said they were loose (they were flopping abit) and causing vibration. Im not buying that tho. This one felt lighter to me than other trad pros and not as solid. Just a turd? Or is there something that could be adjusted?

 

[Guitar-Sam]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

I dunno I had one 1975 strat that was dog like that eventually I took it all apart and sold peaces on ebay.

 

[Jessie Sammler]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

• Light strings and/or super-low action.
• Thick poly finish.
• Bolt-on neck. (Good ones, no. Bad ones, yes.)
• Plastic nut.
• Bridge made of soft, cheap metal.
• Fret crowns that are flattened instead of round.
• Old or defective strings.
• Shallow break angle over the nut.

 

[Guitar-Sam]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

• Thick poly finish.

Come to think of it that strat had a sticky horrid finish on it.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

in the case of Les Pauls it's the set-up. You can be "plinky" and not be "fretting out".

If your GC guy was competent he would've taken two minutes to raise the bridge a milimeter.

 

[sosomething]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

^ Not always a fix.

Sometimes it is, and sometimes a dog is just a dog.

Any brand, any model, any tree can for one reason or another just turn out to be lumpwood.

In the case of a lumpwood guitar, no amount of adjustment, tweaking, or modding will resolve it.

What you have in those cases is wood that did not want to be a guitar. Maybe it wanted to be a rocking chair or a railroad tie or just a freaking tree.

Nothing to be done about it.

 

[Jessie Sammler]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

:haha:

 

[ibanezrocks]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

Action makes a huge difference.

 

[lp_junkie]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

definitely the setup......... raise the action a bit and the plinky sound goes away, you lose a bit of speed but the gains in tone more than make up for it.

A shredder would hate my guitars, I set mine up higher than factory specs, and use 11-52 strings.

 

[trevorus]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

What you have in those cases is wood that did not want to be a guitar. Maybe it wanted to be a rocking chair or a railroad tie or just a freaking tree.

Sigged.

 

[Guitar-Sam]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

In the case of a lumpwood guitar,

New term for me:scratchch I've been calling them planks,as in "That POS strat is a Plank!"

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

Or firewood

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

Of course, when the guitar is a Fender Jaguar, "plinky" is exactly what you paid for!

 

[Stef]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

• Light strings and/or super-low action.
• Thick poly finish.
• Bolt-on neck. (Good ones, no. Bad ones, yes.)
• Plastic nut.
• Bridge made of soft, cheap metal.
• Fret crowns that are flattened instead of round.
• Old or defective strings.
• Shallow break angle over the nut.

all this and body piece(es) wood, neck piece of wood .. everything on the instrument

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

My Epiphone Les Paul is like that. It's a fun guitar to play around with alternate tunings, but the thinner strings have no meat or depth to them and it's not due to the setup. Some guitars just don't vibrate the way you want them to. Sell it and move on... no amount of refinishing or hardware changes is going to magically make it work the way you want it to. I'm not a huge fan of lighter weight guitars either. For some reason, I've never owned a lightweight guitar that had the kind of punch or meat to it that my keepers have.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

I'm not a huge fan of lighter weight guitars either. For some reason, I've never owned a lightweight guitar that had the kind of punch or meat to it that my keepers have.

Try a Fender Custom Shop Relic Nocaster or Stratocaster! :naughty:

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

Try a Fender Custom Shop Relic Nocaster or Stratocaster! :naughty:

I have a custom shop '56 RI Fender Relic Stratocaster (1 of my 2 "keeper" guitars). Mine is 7.5 lbs. though, not a featherweight by any means

 

[aleclee]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

In the case of a lumpwood guitar, no amount of adjustment, tweaking, or modding will resolve it.

What kind of pickups should I put into my lumpwood guitar to nail <insert name of guitar hero who achieves massive guitar sounds by doubling or tripling guitar parts>'s tone? I play through a vintage Peavey Bandit.

 

[Gingrel]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

What kind of pickups should I put into my lumpwood guitar to nail <insert name of guitar hero who achieves massive guitar sounds by doubling or tripling guitar parts>'s tone? I play through a vintage Peavey Bandit.

Oh, any POS pickups will do, as long as you wire them according to the secret diagram of epic tone:

 

[sosomething]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

New term for me:scratchch I've been calling them planks,as in "That POS strat is a Plank!"

"Plank" is already a term commonly used to describe flat, simple guitars like Esquires and old Les Paul Juniors.

Lumpwood sounds worse = better.

What kind of pickups should I put into my lumpwood guitar to nail <insert name of guitar hero who achieves massive guitar sounds by doubling or tripling guitar parts>'s tone? I play through a vintage Peavey Bandit.

Excellent question. I reccomend: