Suhr Modern wood choices

[cragginshred]

I am leaning toward a basswood body and a figured maple top. I have two Les Pauls so I have the mahogany maple combo covered. Also I spoke with Don from Suhr today who said the combo of woods sound really different in the longer modern neck scale. You FAS Suhr modern users who had one built what woods did you opt for and why and for what tone/style ?

 

[Sidivan]

I am a firm believer that wood choice doesn't matter as much as construction, pickups, string, and amp choice. I would go with whatever you think looks awesome.

 

[Rex]

I am a firm believer that wood choice doesn't matter as much as construction, pickups, string, and amp choice. I would go with whatever you think looks awesome.

Wood still makes a difference, though. I have two Ibanez guitars: a 540-SQM (mahogany body, maple neck), and and a Roadstar II (basswood body, maple neck). Same scale length; neck geometry is almost identical. Same pickups in both guitars. The difference in tone is significant. Not huge, but significant.

IMO, pickups make a bigger difference than wood. Strings make a smaller difference than wood.

 

[Sidivan]

Wood still makes a difference, though. I have two Ibanez guitars: a 540-SQM (mahogany body, maple neck), and and a Roadstar II (basswood body, maple neck). Same scale length; neck geometry is almost identical. Same pickups in both guitars. The difference in tone is significant. Not huge, but significant.

IMO, pickups make a bigger difference than wood. Strings make a smaller difference than wood.

You could take 2 guitars built by the same manufacturer with the same specs and you'll still perceive differences. Literally every other component that processes your sound (pickups, the pots used for tone and volume, the cable, the amp, any pedals you use, etc...) will overpower any difference the wood makes. Taylor guitars proved this many years ago when the made a couple guitars out if the pine pallets their wood is shipped on: nail holes and all. Quality construction is absolutely the #1 factor. After that, it's pickups. everything else is about equal and will be overpowered by processing.

The "I have 2 guitars that are kind of the same, but different wood" argument is anecdotal. I have 2 guitars that are basically the same and ARE the same wood, but sound different. That doesn't mean anything either.

Hell, the pickup height alone will overpower anything the wood is contributing.

Edit: I even have a carbon fiber acoustic that has absolutely no wood in it whatsoever that sounds fantastic and very "woody".

 

[cragginshred]

Focus people there is a topic and although you tried to stick to it were not there yet. The folks at Suhr =Master builders say something radically different. Tone and wood choice does matter!

 

[piofusco]

You could take 2 guitars built by the same manufacturer with the same specs and you'll still perceive differences. Literally every other component that processes your sound (pickups, the pots used for tone and volume, the cable, the amp, any pedals you use, etc...)

*steps on to tree stump

People don't realize how much of a different pots make.

Most guitar companies say they use a ____k pot. However, not all of the guitars that leave the factory will have pots with the exact value advertised. Generally to cut costs, most guitar companies allow a "range." So, if you guitar is advertised 25k ohm pots, you will get a guitar with pots that are 20-30k ohms. The better the company, the lower the variation.

So, when you go to a guitar store and play two of the same guitar but one feels "different" or "better" to you than the other, it might be the pots!

End of speech.

*steps down from tree stump

 

[Rex]

You could take 2 guitars built by the same manufacturer with the same specs and you'll still perceive differences.

That's true...sometimes. Sometimes those differences are so subtle they defy detection.

Literally every other component that processes your sound (pickups, the pots used for tone and volume, the cable, the amp, any pedals you use, etc...) will overpower any difference the wood makes.

Gotta disagree, my brother. I've heard the difference too frequently to think otherwise.

Taylor guitars proved this many years ago when the made a couple guitars out if the pine pallets their wood is shipped on: nail holes and all. Quality construction is absolutely the #1 factor.

Taylor proved you can build a good guitar from cheap materials. Though I will agree that design and construction are critical to the sound of acoustic guitars like Taylor's pallet guitars. But I've played poorly-made electric guitars that sounded great (played like crap, though ).

The "I have 2 guitars that are kind of the same, but different wood" argument is anecdotal.

So is the "wood makes no difference" argument.

I even have a carbon fiber acoustic that has absolutely no wood in it whatsoever that sounds fantastic and very "woody".

I totally get that. As you say, wood is not the only answer.

 

[sprada]

Went with Basswood body maple top, maple neck and pauferro fretboard. Holy grail combo according to John Suhr. Love it.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[laughyouraxeoff]

Woods make a difference but not as much as people tend to think. To me the guitar woods just add a nice touch that would be missing with a different setup. Sadly you could have the exact same woods in a guitar with same hardware and it still sounds slightly different. Each piece of wood from my experience resonates differently.

 

[Whiteyguitar]

I have a Suhr Pro S 5 it's made the Exact way you described, Basswood body with Flame Maple Top, It Sounds Great, Acoustically it's Louder than My Mahoganey Les Paul and Alder Strat the only one that's close Acoustically is my Gretsch Pro Jet, Plugged in it's even Better The Suhr Pickups are Fantastic and Have A Sound all their own, I was a huge Dimarzio guy and Had Evolutions in Everything for a Long time and After Getting the Suhr that's it there's no going back, Get the Stainless Steel Frets as well, so Smooth it will play like Butter.

 

[unFILTERed]

Thruth is wood doesnt matter for acoustic guitars yes, but not for electric. Put your guitar on a table and
Let the table resonate together with the guitar body. It will sound bigger, now u changed the wood / body of your guitar....now check the
tone through amp...it will stay the same. I saw video of a guy doing this and tried it....its true.

Every other part touching the strings make difference, bridge, frets....and pots, pick ups.

 

[Rex]

Put your guitar on a table and Let the table resonate together with the guitar body. It will sound bigger, now u changed the wood / body of your guitar....now check the tone through amp...it will stay the same. I saw video of a guy doing this and tried it....its true.

That doesn't change the body of the guitar. It just uses some of the guitar's sound energy to vibrate the table and use it as a kind of speaker. That's why it sounds bigger—it actually is louder because the table is vibrating, and that loudness is filtered by the frequency response and resonance of the table.

You can't change the body of the guitar unless you actually replace the material that's holding the bridge and nut apart from each other. That material is what anchors the bridge and nut. They vibrate against it, and sound reflects from it, back into the bridge, nut and strings. The pickups are mounted to it, and the body actually vibrates the pickups, which influences the way the pickups see the vibrating string.

 

[unFILTERed]

U are confirming what i am saying, if all is true what u are writing the sound should change.
As the table starts to resonate the body of guitar is tranfering the energy/vibrations through and the whole
process has an impact also on vibrations of the body. It changes, the whole situation change but the
sound stays same. And the vibration of pick ups, so this means the sound of my guitar should change when i walk, run?¿!?

That doesn't change the body of the guitar. It just uses some of the guitar's sound energy to vibrate the table and use it as a kind of speaker. That's why it sounds bigger—it actually is louder because the table is vibrating, and that loudness is filtered by the frequency response and resonance of the table.

You can't change the body of the guitar unless you actually replace the material that's holding the bridge and nut apart from each other. That material is what anchors the bridge and nut. They vibrate against it, and sound reflects from it, back into the bridge, nut and strings. The pickups are mounted to it, and the body actually vibrates the pickups, which influences the way the pickups see the vibrating string.

 

[unFILTERed]

Some serious experiments and results:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=9&ved=0CEUQFjAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stormriders.com%2Fguitar%2Ftelecaster%2Fguitar_wood.pdf&ei=uUdrUsSXHMX5iwLd_IHYCw&usg=AFQjCNGFsK_bbsF1xJ6wHvCZ3O9kH1vLXg

 

[Rex]

U are confirming what i am saying, if all is true what u are writing the sound should change.
As the table starts to resonate the body of guitar is tranfering the energy/vibrations through and the whole process has an impact also on vibrations of the body.

You're right, the table will have an effect, but not a significant one. The coupling between the guitar body and the table is loose and inefficient. It's audible acoustically, because the table has a much bigger surface to radiate sound into the air. But the actual coupling of vibrations is weak. It's nowhere near as strong as the coupling between the guitar body and a bridge that's tightly screwed into it, leaned on by strings under 100 pounds of tension.

And the vibration of pick ups, so this means the sound of my guitar should change when i walk, run?¿!?

Nope. See above.

 

[Rex]

Some serious experiments and results:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour..._IHYCw&usg=AFQjCNGFsK_bbsF1xJ6wHvCZ3O9kH1vLXg

Thank you for the best investigation of this that I've ever seen. Seriously.

But look at the pickup response graphs presented in the paper. For example, the G string. At 1 KHz, the response of the alder body is 10 dB hotter than the ash body. Around 1.5 KHz, the differences are reversed, with the alder body's response almost 15 dB below. On the E string, there's a 1500 Hz range of frequencies where the alder body averages 10 dB stronger response than the ash body. Those are audible differences.

On top of that, they mounted the pickup directly to the bridge. That will minimize the differences in body material (compared to mounting the pickup to the wood).

The data presented in the paper don't support the conclusion.

 

[antcarrier]

I think it's pretty obvious that the wood makes a difference. Plug in a hollow body - it wont sound anything like a solid body that's roughly the same shape.

 

[Sixstring]

I think it's pretty obvious that the wood makes a difference. Plug in a hollow body - it wont sound anything like a solid body that's roughly the same shape.

It's not the type of wood that makes the difference in that comparison it's the lack of it. You can have two guitars made of the same wood type and shape, one solid and the other hollow and they will sound completely different.

My vote for wood choice would be Alder body, Flame Maple top, Baked Maple neck, Pauferro or Ebony board depending on body color and SS Med jumbo frets.

 

[Rex]

I just had another look at the research paper on guitar woods. In it, the author writes,

...Halliday states that the solid body of the instrument in fact has no resonance...

Presumeably, he's talking about one if the guitar-making Hallidays. But the only Halliday cited in his references is David Halliday, co-author of a respected physics text that doesn't mention guitar bodies. I had a year of physics classes based on that textbook, and it's hard to conceive of the author saying that a finite physical object has no resonance.

I wonder what other games the author of this undated paper is playing.

 

[hideous]

if using high-output pickups, imo, the wood probably doesn't have so much affect on the overall amplified tone. but, wood resonance does seem to have more of an affect when using low-output pickups.