Wood or pickups?

H

Helios

New member
I've been following many threads lately and trying to absorb many different opinions and objectives....

Given we know how a pickup works and how it effects tone.....how is it that wood plays any factor? Not trying to stir the pot...but I'd really just want to know. Given we have a magnetic field, a string, and coiled wires......how does wood play any effect in tone?
 
Re: Wood or pickups?

The body wood, construction and hardware affect the vibration of the strings, changing the dynamics amplified by the pickups.
 
Re: Wood or pickups?

ParameterMan said:
The body wood, construction and hardware affect the vibration of the strings, changing the dynamics amplified by the pickups.
Click to expand...


Good description. One quote I like is from Paul Reed Smith...."everything effects everything." Sounds simple, but it's actually pretty complicated when you think of how many dynamics there are to an electric guitar tone.
Put a JB in an Ash tele, and compare it to a JB in a mahogany LP studio, and you'll hear 2 drastically different tones, even though it's the same pickup. That's an extreme example, but it illustrates how much has to do with the wood.
 
Re: Wood or pickups?

Gearjoneser said:
Good description. One quote I like is from Paul Reed Smith...."everything effects everything." Sounds simple, but it's actually pretty complicated when you think of how many dynamics there are to an electric guitar tone.
Put a JB in an Ash tele, and compare it to a JB in a mahogany LP studio, and you'll hear 2 drastically different tones, even though it's the same pickup. That's an extreme example, but it illustrates how much has to do with the wood.
Click to expand...

don't forget the differences in strings, pots and caps, fret material, cables, effects, amp-types, speakers, speaker/amp housings etc. wood and pickups are just part of the tonal equation, and i'd say the amp is just as responsible for a major part of your tone as the guitar.
 
Re: Wood or pickups?

super rad ska said:
don't forget the differences in strings, pots and caps, fret material, cables, effects, amp-types, speakers, speaker/amp housings etc. wood and pickups are just part of the tonal equation, and i'd say the amp is just as responsible for a major part of your tone as the guitar.
Click to expand...

+1. All are pieces to the puzzle.
 
Re: Wood or pickups?

A good illustration can be examined when you compare a solidbody Alembic and a (good) solid body Gibson. The Alembic is made from very hard woods so as to reflect the energy back into the strings increasing sustain A LP or SG is made of comparatively soft woods that absorb enery making the body resonate....also increasing sustain. Although the end result is the same you get two radically different tones. The LP or SG are significantly darker due to the mahogany "soaking up" some of the highs Now in the 70s when Gibson's Mahogany was rife with mineral buildup from the different type of tree than they were using in the 50 the guitars also sounded different. You got a brighter zingier, pingier, LP or SG.

Hope that helps....it made sense in my head but I don't know if it does when actually written out.

Luke
 
Re: Wood or pickups?

By far, the biggest influence on the tone of an electric guitar is the pickups.

Put humbuckers on a Fender Strat or Tele and it sounds a lot like a Gibson Les Paul or SG.

The body wood, neck wood, fingerboard wood, fret type, neck joint, scale length, bridge type, tailpiece type, 250K vs. 500K pots, tone cap value, etc. all have an influence on the final tone of the guitar too.

But the biggest diff that can be made in an electric guitar's tone is changing the pickups from single coils (Strat, Tele or P90) to full size humbuckers.
 
Re: Wood or pickups?

Try out two new and virtually identical Gibson Les Pauls. Even Better make them Historic 59 reissues.

They came from the same factory, with considerable care going into their construction. The same exact hardware (tuners, bridge, pots, strings, and burstbuckers) and finish.

They will sound different, because of the slight difference in wood of each individual guitar.
 
Re: Wood or pickups?

Lewguitar said:
By far, the biggest influence on the tone of an electric guitar is the pickups.

Put humbuckers on a Fender Strat or Tele and it sounds a lot like a Gibson Les Paul or SG.

The body wood, neck wood, fingerboard wood, fret type, neck joint, scale length, bridge type, tailpiece type, 250K vs. 500K pots, tone cap value, etc. all have an influence on the final tone of the guitar too.

But the biggest diff that can be made in an electric guitar's tone is changing the pickups from single coils (Strat, Tele or P90) to full size humbuckers.
Click to expand...

+1 to this.

To steal an analogy from Terry McIntruff, a pickup is like a microphone. A good singer (guitar) will sound good through any good microphone (pickup) but they will sound GREAT through the microphone that compliments the inherent features and characteristics of their voice.

Thats why you can put a SD59 in one les paul and have it sound phenomenal and then put it in another LP and have it just sound pretty good.

Thats why i think the pickup is the most important aspect. Obviously a dog of a guitar is a dog, its its made from crap then its going to sound that way. All guitars that are made pretty well from good materials, on the other hand, are all going to sound pretty good, but if you want them to sound great then it comes down to picking the right pickup to compliment that guitar.
 
Re: Wood or pickups?

Helios said:
I've been following many threads lately and trying to absorb many different opinions and objectives....

Given we know how a pickup works and how it effects tone.....how is it that wood plays any factor? Not trying to stir the pot...but I'd really just want to know. Given we have a magnetic field, a string, and coiled wires......how does wood play any effect in tone?
Click to expand...

The guitar needs to be "tight". Solid wood (multi-part bodies are OK but careful about necks with separate heels and headplates). You need a correctly seated bridge that doesn't rattle and doesn't damped. You neck pocket needs to be clean and have some pressure against the sides, or if it's set neck you can't have a neck glued in my a moron.

You need a basic match of what kind of wood, what body shape and what style of bridge to your expectations.

Once you have that, your journey to better sounds goes through miles and miles of pickups and electronics before you really have to worry about wood quality.
 
Re: Wood or pickups?

Yes, by and large it seems to me that your pickups, amp (and effects), bridge, nut, electronics, and overall guitar construction seem would seem to make up your tone.

A strat is constructed quite differently from an LP so it's clear where there is a big difference there.

I just having a hard time understanding how the wood really effects much of anything beyond affecting amount of sustain. It is the string vibrating in the magnetic field, and the pickup and electronics that would dictate tone before the amp and effects come into play. Assuming a well constructed guitar, what does it matter if it's basswood, mahagony, or maple? How does that change the basic function of the a magnetic field, and a string vibrating within it beyond amount of sustain?
 
Re: Wood or pickups?

Helios said:
I just having a hard time understanding how the wood really effects much of anything beyond affecting amount of sustain. It is the string vibrating in the magnetic field, and the pickup and electronics that would dictate tone before the amp and effects come into play. Assuming a well constructed guitar, what does it matter if it's basswood, mahagony, or maple? How does that change the basic function of the a magnetic field, and a string vibrating within it beyond amount of sustain?
Click to expand...

What matters about the wood used is the color it imparts to the string that is still vibrating...if the wood's really super tight and hard, the color will be bright and hard, and the same applies to softer woods...then it would be darker and have a softer attack.
 
Re: Wood or pickups?

guitfiddle said:
What matters about the wood used is the color it imparts to the string that is still vibrating...if the wood's really super tight and hard, the color will be bright and hard, and the same applies to softer woods...then it would be darker and have a softer attack.
Click to expand...

exactly. it's like the difference between an ash and mahogany tele...
hit the ash tele with a power chord, and you'll get a very punchy, immediate sound. with the mahogany tele on the other hand, you'll get a bit of sag(right word?) and smoothness as opposed to the punchy, faster attack of the ash tele.
 
Re: Wood or pickups?

Christopher Caruana said:
wood comes first, the pickups will only amplify the sound that the wood produces
Click to expand...

The pickups have the strongest influence on how a guitar is going to sound.

Lets say you built two Les Pauls.

#1 is your classic Les Paul with a body made of select Honduras Mahogany with a flamed Maple top and a select Honduras Mahogany neck with a Brazilian Rosewood fingerboard. Classic Les Paul woods.

#2 is made of plywood from Home Depot.

If you put a set of Duncan Antiquity humbuckers in the #2 guitar (the one made of plywood!) and a set of Telecaster pickups in the #1 guitar made of select Les Paul woods, the LP made of plywood but using humbuckers will sound more like a Les Paul than the Les Paul made of the correct wood but using Tele pickups, because the pickups have a larger effect on the tone of the guitar than the wood.

Lew
 
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Re: Wood or pickups?

I was never really happy with my Strat, I tried a few different pickups, but it never really made me say "wow". Then I changed the body from whatever a '95 trans ash MIA Strat body is to a two piece alder body, and the difference was pretty dramatic. Along with the SSL-1's it just sounds like a great Strat now, before the overtones weren't right or something.

In the end it's all one system, everything affects everything. Of course changing the pickups can have the most dramatic effect, but it won't make a mediocre piece of wood sound good.
 
Re: Wood or pickups?

Here's my take...

The fundimental tone of a guitar is a result of the body and neck woods. From there, you can choose a pickup or set of pickups that will enhance the fundimental tone to one's desired tonal goal for that guitar.

For example: If we can agree that a strat body build from alder will give us a balanced tone, and that a neck from maple with a rosewood fretboard will yeld a balance-warm tone; then we can assume that you could choose a set of pickups to brighten the guitar, to further warme the guitar's tone up, or to keep the balanced tonalities of the wood that we've used to build the guitar.

Catch all that?
 
Re: Wood or pickups?

So - the wood encourages the strings to vibrate in certain ways and not in others.
The wood gives a guitar it's 'voice'.
The PUPs pick that voice up and make it louder - average PUPs do it 'averagely', PUPs not suited to that type of voice sound a lot worse than PUPs which enhance that type of voice.

Then there's the fingers that make it sing.....

.....but that's a whole other issue :naughty:
 
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