Good Wood v Fancy wood for tone

Jez

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Jan 29, 2017
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Without wishing to end up with an endless forum debate does wood effect tone.

Rather thinking about a Private Stock build do you go outrageous figured blinged wood guitar or do you go for the best quality but less fancy if you want to build the best toned guitar.

I am reminded of comments from a number of small builders over the years when I was shopping for a custom-built Tele and hearing if you want a great Tele to forget the classic first-time customer's mistake and stay away from endless flamed maple or heavily birds-eye necks, oh and try to not have everything in gold LOL.

I have one PS HB2 Koa that I bought from a store and its fancy and lovely and is a great guitar.

But speccing my own build I would welcome more experienced peoples opinions or does a less bling PS rather defeat the object LOL.

thanks
 
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When someone has a guitar with bad tone, what do they do? Often swap pickups and the control electronics. So that just might mean that woods don't matter for tones.

Get the wood you like the looks off in the finishes you like.

However, the Amazon is burning, as are all the other rain forests around the globe. Guitar factories choose the straight grain nicest samples essentially throwing the rest of the tree away. Two million new guitars are made every year and before CITES nearly 90% were using rosewood. Choose something faster replenishing and more local. You can push the tones with your pickups and controls.

If instrument factories say they need the fancy woods to sound good ... what is their skill in building instruments?
I think they are pretty good at building and don't need the crutch of magical lumber.

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The thing about wood in the vault is that it generally gives you both. Most of the wood that comes in the door doesn’t make it there. Using maple as an example, you can go with a look that suits you without worrying about a tone penalty. That doesn’t mean you can’t tap a few sets of tops you like the look of to decide which you want on your guitar.

But, in the wide world of guitars, wood definitely impacts tone. I would not buy a pretty guitar that didn’t sound good.
 
I agree completely with Veinbuster.

Certainly the wood chosen affects tone. If it didn’t, all guitars of a given model would sound exactly alike, and they don’t, of course. But PS has some pretty great woods that are beautiful and also have wonderful tone.

I’m lucky enough to have a few PS models. They sound fantastic, and no doubt your koa PS is wonderful, too. One of mine is an acoustic. The tone quality is incredible. I’ve had some sweet acoustics at the higher end of the market, and played lots of legendary luthiers’ one-offs, and my guitar still blows me away. It also has lovely looking wood. When I ordered it, I said the emphasis needs to be on tone, not bling.

Paul R. Smith did indeed tap it for tone, but yeah, it’s also great looking.

You can have both tone and looks.
 
I agree with the others - wood that gets graded PS will sound good. Best to work with a knowledgeable dealer who has been through the PS build/design/ordering process to help you get exactly what it is you are looking for tone wise with your build. Tyranny of choice in the PS Vault!

BTW, I remember that PS Koa HBII - at WildWire music in the UK? Please show us more pictures! :)

https://wildwireguitars.com/prs-pri...-ii-signature-408-3544-koa-top-rosewood-neck/
 
I went 99% tried and tested tone woods 1st and looks 2nd. All woods resonate differently and therefore sound different no matter how slight is my belief, and then built bye luthiers of the highest calibre. You can have your cake and eat it if your willing and able to strive for it.
It looks sounds and plays incredibly but like anything else in this world there's a cost factor and in my case a sacrifice in other area's.
And no I didn't sell the Mrs.!!!:D.!!!
 
I’m pretty sure it was Benedetto who constructed an arch top guitar from “knotty” pine to show it was the construction as well as materials.

I feel the storage and preparation of materials bears great importance too.

It doesn’t hurt to have a body and neck made from bonnie timber!
 
I just saw a NAMM video where a new Custom Shop Tele was made from two pieces of pine glued together with a pine, trussrod-less neck. Tone is in the ear of the player, I suppose, and players like GE Smith say their pine guitars sound incredible. Personally, I’m not paying top dollar for a pine guitar where the figuring is knot holes. You can get looks and good sound together from PRS.
 
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