Does wood type effect tone

[James Stephanidis]

I've seen some comments on different forums that are debunking the notion that the wood on a guitar has no effect on the tone. I'm no specialist but that doesn't seem to make sense to me. PRS spends a lot of time on different woods and wood combinations. Does anyone have any knowledge on this topic to share?

 

[Mentalo87]

There is this super interesting guy, Prof. Manfred Zollner, who has done research about electro acoustic properties of guitars for is whole career now. His conclusion is that, the type of wood has almost zero impact on the amplified sound. The biggest effect seems to be the capacitance of the system: Pickups, internal wiring, cables. The non amplified, bare acoustic sound is a different story…

 

[ruger9]

I think so. I've seen far too many people (including many pros) who think it does. I'll defer to their experience as opposed to the internet warriors who "know stuff" and claim wood is irrelevant LOL.

There is also the issue of who can hear what. While you can "hear what you want to hear" sometimes (confirmation bias), I do think some people hear "more" than others. Try a carbon 9V vs alkaline vs lithium in a fuzz, see what you think. Some people can hear the difference, some cannot. I modded a Princeton reverb once with a mid control, and I could hear an obvious difference between a ceramic and carbon comp resistor. Many think that's impossible, but I heard it with my own ears.

Something else I think matters: weight. And "lighter is [not always] better". My 2 favorite guitars are boat anchors.

 

[aphantomvaper]

Perhaps not the body so much, neck construction and wood used does matter. Wood resonates and different types enhance different frequencies. This is most audible in bass guitars though. For example, an ebony strip down the middle of a multi-ply neck enhances the fundamental note.


This is speaking for me though, anyone can feel different about it.

 

[dogrocketp]

I believe that everything affects the sound, no one person is ever completely right (except me), and we should all shut up about this and play our guitars.

 

[d^rren]

This is a gigantic can of worms you've opened.

For an acoustic guitar, yes, the woods make a huge difference.

For an electric guitar, yes, the woods make a difference, but a lot of that is filtered out by the electronics.

 

[Headset]

My swamp ash body rosewood neck custom 24-08 with the same pickups as my mahogany body mahogany neck custom 24 sounds noticeably different even to non-musicians I’ve played in front of (solo, not in mix). It’s not night and day but there is a perceivable difference.

 

[Gtrbldr]

Oh noh, not this topic again??????






I dunno. Made two telecasters once with the same everything, but body wood (ash vs alder). Amplified: very minor differences. Acoustic a little more.

Does this test tell you anything? No. It is too small a sample. But I was surprised and it put me in the camp that electronics apparently matter more than type of wood.

And I can hear the difference between NOS tubes and modern production, so I guess my ears work.

 

[Greywolf]

My take after 40 years of Lutherie .. which Pauls has also stated ... Everything effects the tone ... sometimes in subtle ways.
I've built the same guitar using a wide assortment of woods and also have a large collection .. I can tell you Every piece of wood is different, finding those magic combinations with everything else in line and you have what drives all Luthiers to keep building .

 

[RC Mike]

I *know* very little. I *believe* that there’s a totality of an instrument that leads to its tonality.

I also believe that market forces, over a period of 80-ish years, provide some insight into the issue. Materials that are different combinations of feel, sound, weight, workability/durability, and cost have been experimented with ad nauseam. If there were repeatable methods to get the same results significantly less expensively, those methods would come to dominate the market.

 

[SinSir]

Short answer is yes. There's discussion after discussion around here to read. Everything affects everything.

There's non believers but once you experience it yourself real world it's impossible to think otherwise.

 

[Ballistic]

Think about it this way, if 5 guitars are built exactly the same, yet they all don't sound exactly the same, then what's the source of the variance? Wood. The tolerances of modern manufacturing are too tight for it to be anything other than wood. Of course, I'm talking about variances in a like-for-like scenario, not how the tone is derived in the first place.

 

[Prina]

It makes no difference to the sound when the guitar isn't being played.

 

[TheCraftsman]

Yes..

 

[RickP]

You hear/feel what you do, and don’t hear/feel what you don’t. No one can tell you what you hear or feel. Shockingly, this also applies to the internet.

 

[James Stephanidis]

I appreciate all the replies. And forgive me for broaching a worn out topic. From my own experiences, I own more than 20 guitars and they are all different. I can feel the vibrations in the body and neck, each instrument is unique for how this is sustained and delivered to the pickups.

 

[Tonart]

I appreciate all the replies. And forgive me for broaching a worn out topic. From my own experiences, I own more than 20 guitars and they are all different. I can feel the vibrations in the body and neck, each instrument is unique for how this is sustained and delivered to the pickups.

Your instincts are spot on. I’ll share what has taken me years to finally understand.

Pickups make copies of string movement, nothing more. The copy is then sent to the speaker cone to make a louder copy. That’s why electric guitars sound like guitars.

So the right question to ask is not whether wood affects tone. The right question is: does the material of the guitar affect string movement. If so the faithful copier will simply replicate the effect.

If you sang during a special earthquake, you’d sound different. Or standing on one of those vibrator exercise machines. Your vocal cords are moving but also moved from the outside.

Same with strings. They can move within nodes and also be moved from without.

So the answer for me is a clear yes. Different materials move differently and thus they will move a string differently. A ceramic guitar will sound different from a plastic guitar from a stone guitar.

Ironically, the better the pickups, the more obvious this should be. Because better pickups make better copies.

As with many other things, it was so simple once I understood it.

That said, it’s hard to generalise between wood species. Brazilian Rosewood and Pernambuco necks seem to have a distinct character. The rest, very hard to pin down. individual wood pieces, very easy. That’s why it’s best to test every guitar in person.

 

[Rider1260]

Everything makes a difference , Strings , wood , pickups , cables, speakers , Cabs hell even your pick or fingers . for each player that can vary.
In the end most of us sound how we sound with subtle changes that make a BIG difference to us as players

 

[ruger9]

The hands matter- because that's where the tone is.

 

[Maertl513]

The Hydra topic.

I fully agree to @Mentalo87, but in the beginning I drove aswell the wooden train.

In the meantime I'm convinced of Zollners scientific results. And it makes life very easy to decide for or reject a guitar by optical attraction and haptic and if it sound or not - but not relying on wood influence.

The electrical sound of a guitar is depending on any electric and magnetic relevant part. And this excludes by natur every wood, right?
I do have a Parker Fly Deluxe with carbon fibre fretboard and other composite materiel. It neither sounds like plastic nor different like my expensive luthier made guitars made out of wood which dried over decades.

String material, string gauge, the pickup with its design and measures, the position of the pickups, height, the cables with their respective capacities in the guitars and between guitar and amp, electrical resistances, capicitors. The player is relevant, too: Where and how and with what he hits the string(s).

We read and hear frequently about well resonating guitars. When foremost the strings swing, resonating wood will consume the energy of the swinging strings (additionally to the energy, which transforms to heat). Reason: The rule of conservation of energy. And due to the fact we love sustain, it's not something we would prefer, is it? Maybe, if we play Jazz.
When you demand sustain, the wood and neck joint should better be stiff as possible. Or generally the selected material. Today I saw an electric guitar as follows: body made of a drum ride, pickup screwed on the head, guitar neck attached to the ride. It sounds like an electric guitar, not in any mean like brass.

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I quoted the claim of a poster in Fox Mulder's office once in this topic: "I want to believe."

If you want to believe, that wood or the used material for fretboard, neck and body is relevant for the colour of the electric tone, then believe.
Feel free to chase the holy grail. Without BRW I'm not worthwhile to play the Women Tone, with maple or mahogany I'm worthless.