A talk about tone and wood
- Thread starter Greywolf
- Start date
That is a truly interesting video!
Ya know, I've talked a bit about BRW and Madagascar RW fretboards vs IRW, ebony and maple. And in my experience, what was demonstrated here is very similar to what they do as fretboards on electric guitars.
I've said that BRW seems to get the attack of the note off faster. My experience is that Madagascar is just a bit slower, but has a beautiful tone. Now I know why: Velocity of sound. I've said the ebony doesn't work for me on an electric. Now I understand why that is, too. It's a drier sounding wood.
Of course, the dryness of ebony on an acoustic offsets the woods vibrating so audibly and ringing on an acoustic, instead of competing with those woods. So it works for me.
My experience as a player tells me that I'm not hearing things, even with an electric guitar. The woods matter. Those who disagree need to know what to listen for. Lots of players don't.
And now I know why my maple acoustic sounds the way it does (and why I like it): There's less competition with the top (mine's Adirondack spruce).
Ya know, I've talked a bit about BRW and Madagascar RW fretboards vs IRW, ebony and maple. And in my experience, what was demonstrated here is very similar to what they do as fretboards on electric guitars.
I've said that BRW seems to get the attack of the note off faster. My experience is that Madagascar is just a bit slower, but has a beautiful tone. Now I know why: Velocity of sound. I've said the ebony doesn't work for me on an electric. Now I understand why that is, too. It's a drier sounding wood.
Of course, the dryness of ebony on an acoustic offsets the woods vibrating so audibly and ringing on an acoustic, instead of competing with those woods. So it works for me.
My experience as a player tells me that I'm not hearing things, even with an electric guitar. The woods matter. Those who disagree need to know what to listen for. Lots of players don't.
And now I know why my maple acoustic sounds the way it does (and why I like it): There's less competition with the top (mine's Adirondack spruce).
Clashcityrocker
Curve Denier
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2016
- Messages
- 1,158
I played a McPherson carbon fiber guitar. My first impression was it sounds like carbon fiber. There is a lot of factors going into an electric guitar. Metal bridge, neck material, pickups and what you are playing through. I believe the pickups are picking up how the string vibrates and the wood is affecting that.
I completely agree.
The wood and hardware vibrate - you can feel the neck vibrate when you play, but it's not all the vibrates - and those vibrations modulate the oscillations of the string - that's what the magnetic pickups "hear." Pickups are also microphonic to a lesser degree, and pick up some of the sound directly from the vibrating guitar body as a microphone would.
Moondog Wily
Howlin' At The Moon!
Love it, good video! I learned a lot!! Thanks for sharing!!!
Clashcityrocker
Curve Denier
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2016
- Messages
- 1,158
Tonewood doesn't matter? Can I have my late 70's Marquis by Harmony Les Paul copy back. It had 16 layers of plywood in the body and the fretboard seemed to be painted on. It did have super distortion pickups however, which is why I ordered it from JC Penney.
one of my favorite tone woods .. this gorgeous 1" set is $750 and you wonder why pretty guitars are expensive ..
figured koa only grows above 3000 ft in Hawai'i , and has been limited to dead fall harvesting due to cultural laws. All of the good stuff was owned by Parker Ranch, they would lease sections for harvesting . Thankfully Pacific Tonewoods and Taylor joined forces and bought 600 acres to create a Koa farm . BRAVO
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