Have been reading this thread for the last few days before heading off to work. I sit down in my music room, drink my coffee, play guitar and read the news, forum posts, or just play.. and here I sit, today, guitar on lap tapping this crap out on this-here keyboard because, for the life of me I don't understand the arguments.
I have always believed in a guitar's unique tone coming from it's construction - the woods - joints - whatever.. I have built too many guitars and own too many of them to not notice the differences between how they resonate differently. I honestly never gave it much thought. Knowing each guitar you create or pick up has a unique tone just points to the fact that there is "something" unique about them. We must assume then it's the materials. It's in the construction. The sum of it's parts... Because ..well ...that's the whole of it.
Pickup arguments aside. As, has already been pointed out, you can drop a PAF Pro in a S-Strat and it simply won't sound the same as the guitar you moved it from. "Pickup/String height" .. Hmm.. pickup position on the scale would make a much better argument, as, you can adjust pickup height all day long, you are not going to get the same sound out of a LP as a S-Strat fitted with the same pickups. So, I'm talking resonance. the vibration you feel in the woods when you play a guitar and how they impact tone.
Vibration you can feel. Is it a good thing? ...Kinda like a tone control leaches high-frequencies from a pickup's signal, body resonance leaches energy (frequencies?) from strings. Energy being what it is, that vibration we feel is a transference of string energy after all.
Then we have transmission of that string energy ...I pulled worn frets, beam-sanded a heavily oiled and badly damaged fingerboard - undoing as much damage as I could get away with, and installed new Jescar frets on an old Jackson Fusion Stnd., last week. Immediately noticed a difference in tone.. Didn't give it much thought, as, ..well ..you screw around with a guitar's construction ..it's again, "different".
Sounded good. Better. And that's what we aim for when screwing around with the things.
We each have a collection of guitars. They are all a little country-or rock & roll. They are all different. I collect them and build them Because there are obvious differences. But, when you know something from your own experience, and somebody wants to argue your own personal experiences. A person might smile inwardly, keep an open mind, take in another viewpoint and look for merit.
...In my own experience though.
I also watched the Daryl Whatsisname video - that was while back, him sawing up a cheap Strat? ..to dispel the notion of tone this-that and the-other. But, it's YouTube. It's compressed audio, and his playing is not my playing. And then there's the fun sound spectrum readings - if you ever used something like that to tame wild frequencies in your studio you might find that you will hear a lot more details in sound than you will see.. so .. in hearing them, I might notice the minute differences in squiggles on a screen and how they translate, but, then? maybe not.
Some dude sawing-up a cheap guitar and publishing compressed audio as proof of something, some fella with the squiggles on a screen - when we all know that those squiggles look-like ass and can never translate to the complexity of a Beethoven it represents..
..Squiggles and jigsaws.. odd-little endeavors which have some merit. Some. ..but, in my own experience.. a Limited amount.
In my own experience Changing out frets changes the quality of the sound. Changing out the bridge, the nut. The strings. And each of these things transfer vibration to the body and neck - energy is being leeched-from the string, before the pickups process those string vibrations and begin the amplification process.
It all comes together, and it all plays a part.
..sitting here playing a little. Giving it some thought. Maybe more of the resonant frequencies are dampened more in the neck. I can certainly feel resonance a lot more in the neck. The neck is naturally less stable, so would generally have a greater impact on resonance-it being the longer, thinner, more flexible span between supporting posts on the strings. This is where we fret notes and express ourselves to a greater degree, this is where the action is..
Resonance impacted by construction and materials used. String resonance and frequencies attenuated/uniquely dampened by energy transference between wood, and metal, and points of contact ....the majority of guitar being unique in it's natural materials. The whole of it?
Plays no Part? ..I don't think so. I think it all comes together to play a part.
I do think that is what generates that unique tone each guitar has - and expensive doesn't necessarily means better sounding either, in my own experience. As far as I can tell.. A guitar's predictability more comes from it's pickups and pots, it's wiring and solder joints etc.. A guitar's uniqueness - in my opinion - is in the construction. The wood, it's grain, it's density, all of which come together to naturally soak-up and highlight very small parts of the signal before it gets boosted to insane levels with an amplifier.
..just my opinion. :0)
...And I'll thank you-lot kindly for not making me think about this kinda crap on a regular basis. I have limited processing power, and this old CPU and this here cup of coffee powering it, is all I gots! :0)
