Tonewood doesn’t matter

la szum said:
People who actually play a variety of guitars with different woods know better. We always have. We always will.
Click to expand...

FTW

Fist Pump Success GIF
 
AngusV said:
Apparently 25000 people in the comments section couldn't guess correctly in the results follow up video LOL

Result's :
Click to expand...

Guessing correctly is one thing. But stating they all sound the same?

I’ll have to admit I had A as the Les Paul and D as the PRS, B was clearly the strat, and while not familiar with the guitar I had C as the Harley Benton.

Also 4000 =! 40000 and 2500 =! 25000
 
phil92 said:
Guessing correctly is one thing. But stating they all sound the same?

I’ll have to admit I had A as the Les Paul and D as the PRS, B was clearly the strat, and while not familiar with the guitar I had C as the Harley Benton.

Also 4000 =! 40000 and 2500 =! 25000
Click to expand...
Yes I agree. They do all sound different. I remember reading David Gilmour talking about a solo he did using a strat and everyone thought he had used a LP. So I think my take away is that I don't think in a lot of cases the tonal differences are that great.
I have recordings of my V vs a PRS and MM Luke III. Theres is not much in it TBH.
Still, I have no issue with dropping 5k on a guitar but it's not for tone. My LUKEIII is the best playing guitar I have ever owned. The sustain is nuts and plays like a dream.
But I wonder who could tell the difference between that and a cheap knock off in a recording...
 
AngusV said:
Yes I agree. They do all sound different. I remember reading David Gilmour talking about a solo he did using a strat and everyone thought he had used a LP. So I think my take away is that I don't think in a lot of cases the tonal differences are that great.
I have recordings of my V vs a PRS and MM Luke III. Theres is not much in it TBH.
Still, I have no issue with dropping 5k on a guitar but it's not for tone. My LUKEIII is the best playing guitar I have ever owned. The sustain is nuts and plays like a dream.
But I wonder who could tell the difference between that and a cheap knock off in a recording...
Click to expand...
A great player makes a massive difference .
 
While wood doesn't "hear" sounds like a microphone, it certainly vibrates and resonates differently depending on its density, stiffness, and other properties. These vibrations can subtly affect the way the pickup translates string energy into electrical current, potentially influencing sustain, attack, and tonal nuance.
 
charles.reily said:
While wood doesn't "hear" sounds like a microphone, it certainly vibrates and resonates differently depending on its density, stiffness, and other properties. These vibrations can subtly affect the way the pickup translates string energy into electrical current, potentially influencing sustain, attack, and tonal nuance.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah!
 
AngusV said:
Still, I have no issue with dropping 5k on a guitar but it's not for tone. My LUKEIII is the best playing guitar I have ever owned. The sustain is nuts and plays like a dream.
Click to expand...
To me this is an important and overlooked part of the tone equation. Players connect to the instrument in their own ways.

Different guitars look, feel, sound, and play differently so it makes sense that the player would respond to those differences.
 
NY Guitarist said:
To me this is an important and overlooked part of the tone equation. Players connect to the instrument in their own ways.

Different guitars look, feel, sound, and play differently so it makes sense that the player would respond to those differences.
Click to expand...
Just the player really. But when I compare it is me playing it.
 
NY Guitarist said:
To me this is an important and overlooked part of the tone equation. Players connect to the instrument in their own ways.

Different guitars look, feel, sound, and play differently so it makes sense that the player would respond to those differences.
Click to expand...
Totally agree.

I took some engineering classes with David Moulton at one point. He said they ran an experiment. They had 2 keyboards, they had one player come in and play them both, they recorded the playing, and asked a group of folks (including the player), which one sounded the best.

They unanimously picked the same keyboard/track as sounding the best.

The physical keys were weighted differently, thus the two keyboards had different feels. The electronics were identical.
They wanted to show that the player's connection to the instrument will yield a different performance (and sound)
 
yes, absolutely. A great guitar will make me play better, will inspire me. Playing a truly good guitar to me feels like I'm getting more out than I'm putting in. While a mediocre one makes me fight for every note and then fall short. It's an uphill battle. Driving with your hand brake on.
 
phil92 said:
yes, absolutely. A great guitar will make me play better, will inspire me. Playing a truly good guitar to me feels like I'm getting more out than I'm putting in. While a mediocre one makes me fight for every note and then fall short. It's an uphill battle. Driving with your hand brake on.
Click to expand...
Yep even the captain agrees here at 15.45:



Oh and how cool does that Guit sound? !!! .... Must be the wood..
 
Last edited:
15 yrs ago, myself and a superb musician went to a music store to help a friend buy her first serious rock guitar. He grabbed different guitars to hand to me, to hand to her, as she played. We went through about 10 and somewhere in those 10 myself and my friend said "that one !!".

Point is, there's an x-factor that no guitar builder has control over.

More proof, Greg Koch does a ton of guitar reviews for Wildwood Guitars. These are expensive guitars, it's pretty obvious when a guitar has the x-factor, I can't count the amount of times I've thought "that one sounds good", then looked in the youtube information area to see the word "SOLD". The 'good' ones get bought pretty quickly, and they're all expensive. Good luck controlling that X-factor. This is why you must try a guitar before buying it.

Use your ears, stop reading specs and looking at graphs.
 
Marantz said:
Point is, there's an x-factor that no guitar builder has control over.

More proof, Greg Koch does a ton of guitar reviews for Wildwood Guitars. These are expensive guitars, it's pretty obvious when a guitar has the x-factor, I can't count the amount of times I've thought "that one sounds good", then looked in the youtube information area to see the word "SOLD". The 'good' ones get bought pretty quickly, and they're all expensive. Good luck controlling that X-factor. This is why you must try a guitar before buying it.
Click to expand...

True. But the problem for me is that there aren’t a lot of guitars in my local stores. So I’ve been buying guitars on Reverb. The other issue is that I can get a general idea of what a guitar sounds like at a store, but until I get it home I won’t really know it’s core tone. Playability is easy to determine, but in a store with 15 year old shredders and all kinds of noise it’s tough to truly hear a guitar. I have Waza Air phones that I bring in to the local GC which helps some. The thing with buying used guitars is they are being sold for a reason. Especially the ones with upgrades. A guy puts $500 bucks worth of parts into a guitar, and then sells it. That’s a guitar that probably doesn’t have what you call the X factor. He or she was hoping they could get it there but in the end it just didn’t have it. I saw an SC245 awhile back that I was interested in. I asked some questions and the seller made me an excellent offer but I passed because of the impression I had from our conversations. The guitar sold and 2 months later it was back on Reverb.
 
I had a Warmoth build (strat) with an alder body. Played great and sounded great and got a lot of compliments on the tone, BUT it wasn't what I was looking for. I wanted more snap and definition. So I ordered a Warmoth swamp ash body (same spec's). When it arrived all I did was swap the body. EVERYTHING else was the same. First strum and I instantly knew I had found what I was looking for. Big difference to MY ears anyway. Since then I used the alder body to build a HH strat, and it sounds great, but has the same warmth and girth that it had with its former neck and hardware. The tone was in the body. I had two 70's Les Pauls, the same model and year. Both sounded very different. And I could hear those same exact differences amplified and unplugged (and side by side). Same with a couple identical Charvels I had. Both identical, but sounded different, and you could hear the same differences plugged in and unplugged. Convinced me!
 
This is just ... too easy. Greg Koch, a master Telecaster player ( not my style, but I love his observations and playing ), tries 4 different Telecasters.

My ear went, "the Select Wildwood "10" 1951 Nocaster Heavy Relic" is what I'd buy.

and in the comments

"@waawaaweewaa2045​

6 years ago
The '51 nocaster is by far the best sounding. Has that punchiness without being overwhelming, and just the right amount of glass."

It's not some mystical science, some guitars are just right.

 
I wonder how much of the "X Factor" peeps talk about (in reference to demo'ing guitars in guitar stores) is simply setup. I own guitars that had no "X Factor" at first, but then, after tinkering with setup (I now always do my own), suddenly "X Factor" appears.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom