Wood & Guitar Tone

Does Wood affect the Guitar Tone?

  • Total voters
    92
Slammin Mofo

Slammin Mofo

Inspired
Here's a little poll for you guys: Do you believe that body, neck and fingerboard wood is actively affecting, regardless how sparsely, the electrical guitar tone?
 
Absolutely. The materials and methods used to make a guitar affect the tone, "electrical" and anything else.

If not, they'd all be made out of plastic.
 
it all makes a difference:
materials, components, build quality, design, setup..

some 'things' make a bigger difference than others..
the primary ones are pups and build quality..

the guitar's 'voice' is the sum of all of it..
 
Agreed. Pickups 1st. Next is the hands that put the guitar together.

Then the body wood & how it was treated, then the neck wood & construction, then the pots & wiring, then the bridge & nut.

Everything after that contributes very minutely to the actual tone, with the possible exception to the strings, depending on who you're talking to.
 
I'd actually say that construction has an even bigger impact than wood..
bad joints, especially the fingerboard to the neck will suck out loads of tone

a guitar that's really well made from ok wood [even crap wood], will sound and feel far better than a guitar made badly from exotics..
 
I've been building my own guitars with Warmoth parts for nearly 20 years. I have five so far (want more). I've changed necks, bridges, pots, pickups on most at one time or another. It all will alter the sound in some way. The pickups will have the most profound effect, followed by neck (wood type and mass) then bridges (type and mass). Body wood is also important. I've had dead guitars that nothing could help and happy accidents where two pieces of wood create a wonderful resonant bond. That's part of the fun of building them. They all have their different personalities.
 
Oh boy - this discussion...I'm still on the fence...I guess until I build a guitar myself to see/hear if for myself.

Side note - I'm attracted to Scott Grove videos like bored silly servants driving by a 5 car pileup in Friday rush hour. This guy definitely comes off as an arrogant obnoxious prick (he'll thank for that compliment if he's tuned in here), and his videos call out his perceptions of bullshit far more than they explain what his perceptions of non-bullshit are; however; I often wonder if there's some truth in what he preaches (he seems to agree that wood affects tone acoustically, but not once the guitar is plugged in). I'm too much of a hack myself to know for sure, but I'm kind of a techy-typ that really gets the connection between bridge / string / nut / pickup but with a good dose of skepticism on the impact of woods on amplified guitar tone. Anyway, some of these videos are kind of a hoot:

Last Time, Does Wood Type, Finish, Mass Matter On Electric Guitar By Scott Grove - YouTube

More On Electric Guitar Tone Woods With The AMAZING Scott Grove - YouTube
 
Voted yes, even though I've seen a piece of research that shows that *identically constructed* guitars made from radically different wood tested almost identically for the most audible frequencies. If this is backed up by more research, I'd have to admit I was wrong.
 
I would have to say yes it makes a difference but again not as much as one would think. That said the difference between a solid body and a hollow body is apparent when made from the same woods and with the same electronics. So density, mass and construction style are the contributing factors with respect to wood.
 
Philip34 said:
Agreed. Pickups 1st. Next is the hands that put the guitar together.

Then the body wood & how it was treated, then the neck wood & construction, then the pots & wiring, then the bridge & nut.

Everything after that contributes very minutely to the actual tone, with the possible exception to the strings, depending on who you're talking to.
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You have it 100% in my experience.

I built my own 8 string. The choice of construction and wood meant choosing pickups I would not otherwise have considered.

Mass and body design is also a factor, mass more than body design.
 
GM Arts said:
Voted yes, even though I've seen a piece of research that shows that *identically constructed* guitars made from radically different wood tested almost identically for the most audible frequencies. If this is backed up by more research, I'd have to admit I was wrong.
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I've seen that piece of "research." It's flawed in several ways, and the data presented don't match the conclusions.
 
You can buy two different gibson bonamassa and a epiphone bonamassa that use the same wood and same pickups and arguably the same construction but very different sounding and playing.
Makes you wonder what the finish of the wood and the other hardware make.
I just bought a new les paul standard yesterday and tried a few ,all sounding different.
 
waterknox said:
You can buy two different gibson bonamassa and a epiphone bonamassa that use the same wood and same pickups and arguably the same construction but very different sounding and playing.
Makes you wonder what the finish of the wood and the other hardware make.
I just bought a new les paul standard yesterday and tried a few ,all sounding different.
Click to expand...

Every 1959 Les Paul isn't gold. Some sound great, some not so great. My point is that every guitar tends to be individual.

I reckon that wood choice narrows the field of error, and greater than other factors.

Just my opinion, btw. :)
 
The properties of the materials for body, neck, nut, bridge, etc., too which the strings are tensioned to, will determine the base tone and sustain of the resonance structure as a whole. The vibrant qualities of the strings are determined by the carrying structure. That different combinations of materials can deliver the same tonal and sustain properties as wood is also very much possible. IMHO the chain of tonal development starts in the hands of the player, followed by pick, strings, nut/bridge (coupling to base materials), neck/body, pickups (body mounted, frame mounted and distance to strings) and electronics. A major factor in how well these tonal properties of the resonance structure will be perceived becomes less apparent in the high gain fraction.

The perfect example for the tonal qualities of wood is the xylophone.
 
IMO, every part affects the tone. However, most differences are subtle. I believe that pickups , strings, and quality craftsmanship have the most profound effects. After that, wood, pots, cable, etc... All of those can be overcome by whatever you're plugging into.
 
For me a lot of the difference depends on the amp, amp settings, pedals and types of tones you are using.

For some heavy gain tones, to me, you can't really hear the "wood" of the guitar.

But for lots of mid-gain, crunch, clean, over drive sounds, I've always found the better an instrument sounds unplugged, the better it sounds plugged.

I wonder though in a blind test if I would really pick that out? Would be interesting.
 
There's an interest video on the PRS site regarding their private stock guitars. Paul has a selection of woods that make up the body, neck, and fretboard and he taps them with his finger. Being hand-selected for their resonant properties, they ring like a bell. Even the piece that makes up the fretboard. Watching this, you'd have to conclude that wood contributes in some way to the tone---even if it's just sitting and playing w/o an amp. I do believe that poor construction (lots of glue?) could negate the advantage of these good tonewoods.
 
interestingly.. I have two Morgan Guitar Works V6 guitars
the necks were cut from the same blank of flamed maple, the fingerboards from the same piece of African ebony
the bodies are alder but likely not from the same tree
the hardware, specs and construction is exactly the same
the pups are the same make, model and specs

for all intents and purposes, they are about as identical as twins get..
so… do that sound the same???
the answer is… NO ! ! ! lol..
sure they both have the same fundamental characteristics..
but in detail
Silures [the purple one] is brighter and slightly more aggressive
Ordovices [the tangerine one] is slightly warmer and has a more gentle voice
 
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