Good Wood v Fancy wood for tone

11top said:
Taylor built this from an old pallet. They said it sounded great.



Click to expand...

I kinda wanted one of those as I like the idea but they're super expensive (or at least the limited run they did later is). One is for sale in England at the mo and the asking price is £9K, so just shy of $12K US.

And to answer the OP's question, for me the woods used traditionally for guitars work - so if I was building a set neck humbucking guitar I'd want a Honduran Mahogany body and neck, BRW board, and a Maple top I liked.

I've never tried some of the fancier neck woods so I'd be open to Pernambuco or BRW etc, but I'd want to hear what they sounded like first so I’d at least have a good idea about what I was going to end up with. Maple would be a definate 'no' for me on a Custom, for example, as I can hear even acoustically a PRS Custom with one is a lot brighter than one with a Mahogany neck.
 
11top said:
Taylor built this from an old pallet. They said it sounded great.



Click to expand...

Good is in the ear of the beholder, I’m sure, but it probably sounded ok. It’s the subtle details in tone that distinguish good from great, but of course the design and build matter a lot.

PS’ generally sound great anyway. Why, I’ll bet even 11 Top’s highly awesome figured pieces sound so good it’s unnecessary for me to ask, “Yeah but how does it sound?” ;)

Maybe I’ll ask, anyway.
 
Lots of good advice and its just a bit of paranoia creeping into the thought process.
As you say PRS Vault materials are selected by experts who know their stuff.

I have no better pictures than those on the Wildwire site of the PS Koa HB2 I believe they did one of their videos as well I found a while ago on Youtube.
It was a completely random purchase as I had never seen such a nice guitar for play and feel and yes it looked awesome.
I walked into a store near where I was visiting a customer one day and they had just taken a load of PS on consignment for a good customer and they were all stacked in the lounge area. So asked to have a look and the last case was the HB2 I love Koa and I just had to have it and I have not one regret and as much as I own SE's, Core, and the PS its the one that makes we want to get one built to my spec.

I also think with the HB2 I had no preconceived idea of how it would sound as its very much its own thing If I do order a PS I am thinking 594 as the basis and I want that as close as I can get to that classic old school single cut sound. I am still pontificating that or doing something completely random and out of my normal realm.

See what I see at Experience in may

thanks
 
LSchefman said:
Good is in the ear of the beholder, I’m sure, but it probably sounded ok. It’s the subtle details in tone that distinguish good from great, but of course the design and build matter a lot.

PS’ generally sound great anyway. Why, I’ll bet even 11 Top’s highly awesome figured pieces sound so good it’s unnecessary for me to ask, “Yeah but how does it sound?” ;)

Maybe I’ll ask, anyway.
Click to expand...

I was just talking with Michael Byle at NAMM, and we were discussing my ebony body/ebony neck PS Angeles. He commented on how good it sounded; not overly bright like you might expect.



And then there was the day Hansomatic was at my place and we were playing a bunch of different acoustics. He was really surprised that his favorite sounding guitar that day was this all-walnut body Larrivee dreadnought.








 
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Jez said:
Lots of good advice and its just a bit of paranoia creeping into the thought process.
As you say PRS Vault materials are selected by experts who know their stuff.

I have no better pictures than those on the Wildwire site of the PS Koa HB2 I believe they did one of their videos as well I found a while ago on Youtube.
It was a completely random purchase as I had never seen such a nice guitar for play and feel and yes it looked awesome.
I walked into a store near where I was visiting a customer one day and they had just taken a load of PS on consignment for a good customer and they were all stacked in the lounge area. So asked to have a look and the last case was the HB2 I love Koa and I just had to have it and I have not one regret and as much as I own SE's, Core, and the PS its the one that makes we want to get one built to my spec.

I also think with the HB2 I had no preconceived idea of how it would sound as its very much its own thing If I do order a PS I am thinking 594 as the basis and I want that as close as I can get to that classic old school single cut sound. I am still pontificating that or doing something completely random and out of my normal realm.

See what I see at Experience in may

thanks
Click to expand...
Lucky day!

I love Koa as well...
image.jpg


image.jpg


And Singlecuts - with Braz necks and trems!

56588-D4-A-FA18-4503-809-D-FFB1-D37-D3008.jpg


38_C3_A97_D-8_F60-4_CE4-83_DD-6_CD00665743_B.jpg
 
I would say if you’re going to spec something, at least do something unobtainable in core or wood library. Whether that’s a different neck carve or switching or control configuration...something. Granted - there’s nothing wrong with just a fancier core model, but there’s so many awesome WL or similar out there, it just seems like one should do something a little extra when spending that kind of money. As you know, they are worth it. There’s some extra love and craftsmanship and possibly fairy dust sprinkled in but I’ve always thought a PS should be a little more personal if you’re going to spec something out. I also recommend going to pick your own wood if possible.
 
11top said:
I was just talking with Michael Byle at NAMM, and we were discussing my ebony body/ebony neck PS Angeles. He commented on how good it sounded; not overly bright like you might expect.



And then there was the day Hansomatic was at my place and we were playing a bunch of different acoustics. He was really surprised that his favorite sounding guitar that day was this all-walnut body Larrivee dreadnought.
Click to expand...

People perceive maple fretboards as bright, but maple works great as an acoustic body tonewood or neck wood. So ebony doesn’t seem like it’d sound thin or overly bright if used to make a guitar body.

My own thinking is that both of these hard woods absorb (or filter, to use an audio term) less of the note attack than oily woods like rosewood, resulting in the perception of brighter sound.

If you think of an ADSR envelope, with ebony and maple fretboards, the slope of the attack seems steeper and more immediate, Probably works similarly with guitar bodies.

Heck, Rainsong makes pretty decent sounding guitar bodies using carbon fiber. There’s a material that hardly absorbs/filters any sound.
 
I played a Macassar Ebony bodied (back and sides) acoustic last year. It was a mellow but pleasing sound and weighed quite a bit.

Still prefer the Rosewood/spruce/Mahogany combination though.

My luthier friend built an acoustic out of Cherry with a Maple neck. Sounded so sweet, no pun intended and was as light as a feather!
 
Tap every piece of exotic and ultra-blinged wood in the PS vault, and I’m sure you’ll find many that resonate great as well.

The more the woods resonates, the more they will:
- Vibrate the strings (from the outside)
- Vibrate the pickups (ditto)

That’s what gives a good electric guitar a woody amplified tone.
 
I would think that if the wood debate is true, you should hear a sonic difference in a strum unplugged. If it's dead and has no ring it might be the wood used is just not of a quality or density to give you a loud unplugged ring. My Simple, no bling McCarty when hanging with the other lesser mortals rings louder than the rest. The rest? Strats and Teles. Maybe the routs on the Strats take away what ever quality is suppose to be delivered by the wood, but they are all just not as alive as the McCarty. It's not even a 10 top, just a nice striped Maple.
 
Little late to the party, but...Pretty sure this has been overstated, but wood appearance (flame vs. quilt vs. plain, etc...) doesn't help or hinder tone/resonance (now Wood type...Absolutely!!!) ...
Some of the best sounding guitars I've played were the good old "Plain Janes"...early on, there was a Fire engine Red CE24 Standard that just rang for days!!!!
 
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