What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

[sosomething]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

Hey there Mr. Music Blogger... don't you have something you should be doing?


I kid, I kid...

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

Hey there Mr. Music Blogger... don't you have something you should be doing?


I kid, I kid...

A little preview of my forthcoming review...

Q: What do all these things have in common?

A: They kick ass, and your girlfriend hates them.

 

[sosomething]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

That has all the makings of the embodiment of everything that was ever good and true.

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

But what REALLY got me was the Gibson Traditional Pro I played the other day at GC . Was the same sound.. My Burny, EPi lp and explorer and others have a totally diff sound accoustically and sound right. So I wouldnt buy that trad pro...

And there you have it folks. A guitar with a) the right hardware b) the right pickups c) preferred woods d) preferred construction and finishing methods and that still doesn't change the fact that wood is wood and that some have good tone and some don't.

I've heard really good sounding cheap Epiphones. According to this thread, that shouldn't be because of the a) inferior hardware b) inferior woods c) inferior electronics, etc. To those who try to make sense out of it by trying to fit the pieces of the puzzle into a quantifiable difference, don't bother. All you have to do is listen.

 

[John_L]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

Chambered bodies make guitars sound plinky. Or to be more accurate badly chambered bodies. Since the end of 2008 all Gibson Les Pauls have had chambered bodies. Basically they rout chunks out of the mahogany to make it the magic 5 lbs that for some reason guitars are supposed to be these days. Fender have been doing the same thing for a couple of years. They have made the back scoop bigger and rout out under the pick guard. Some strats and teles are effectively semi's with plastic sound boards. These guitars do tend to sound very plinky.
Tom Anderson does Hollow guitars which are very light and don't sound at all plinky they do sound more like a thinline but it's a good sound. (shame he uses Buzz Feiten other wise they would be amazing guitars.) G&L also offer most of their models in thinline format for people who want light guitars.
Golden rule is if you want a big tone you need dense wood which will be heavy. If you chamber the body you are entering toy town tone land.

 

[FuseG4]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

^ there's still a few high-end LP models that don't get swissed, and there's no way you can say all the ones with the swiss cheesing are plinky.
Bottom line is that gibson has to put the holes in to offset the less desirable, more plentiful, heavy ass mahogany that is cost-effective. If you want your LP to be naturally light, you're gonna pay. Not all dense, heavy guitars are tone monsters. It's nothing like that simple.
Weight relieving is better for you back, too.
A ton of people who are owners of vintage and new LPs can tell you that the weight-relieving does not affect the tone anywhere near as much as some people think it does.
Go play 20 standards right now and tell me they all sound plinky. No way.

 

[John_L]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

The last few I've tried have all sounded plinky, it's not the chambering Per se but the way it's done. The blank gets a pre-set CNC rout regardless and in most cases it takes away more than the weight. Gibson used sandwiching in the 70's which also helped with the weight and wasn't detrimental to the tone. But there are a lot of things Gibson did right in the 70's that don't do now.
Tom Anderson manages to chamber his 'Bulldog' guitar and make it sound great and they sell for the same as a USA Les Paul standard in the UK.

 

[FuseG4]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

I even expected the robot guitar to be a dog but I was surprised that is was really, really nice unplugged. Maybe you have slightly high standards for plinky?

 

[John_L]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

Maybe I'm looking for more woody than normal I also sometimes wonder if the German stores cherry pick all the best ones in Hamburg when they are unloaded from the boat.

 

[wahwah]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

I would try replacing the saddles, nut, frets, pickups, tuners, string trees, truss rod, neck, body and strap buttons with something less plinky.

Hope this helps.




Cheers.......................................... wahwah

 

[BloodRose]

Re: What makes a guitar sound "plinky"?

I would try replacing the saddles, nut, frets, pickups, tuners, string trees, truss rod, neck, body and strap buttons with something less plinky.

Hope this helps.




Cheers.......................................... wahwah

I sold it.. I didnt want to have to invest a bunch of money in it at the risk of it NOT be any better. I have an Epi that I paid much less for that has almost NO filler around the inlays, has better feel, that gutteral plunk when you hit a string where you can feel it in the wood. So, I didnt wanna waste the money