Just curious this forum's opinion of tone wood on electrics.

[Prs Mods too]

@opnoob Since pickups are all that matter, why did you spend so much on that nice CU24 in your avatar instead of putting a set of 85/15s into a Harley Benton CST24 or similar PRS clone? Not trying to "gotcha" you here; I'm legit curious about your thought process here.

Oh I can't wait.

...off to get some popcorn...

 

[JasonE]

Where the wood really matters the most is in how dense it is. The reason certain species of wood are used is that they tend to be within the density range that the builder is looking for, to produce what they want to build. There can be woods that are typically not at the density level the builder wants that will occasionally have a higher density, as it is a natural material, that could serve the purpose of what the builder wants.

I am not a fan of basswood or poplar for guitars. It isn't that they don't produce good sounding guitars. I have played a few that I really liked the sound of. I just don't like them because those woods are soft and ding easy. I find I prefer the tried and true ash, alder, mahogany and maple for bodies. I like mahogany and maple for necks and maple and rosewood for fretboards. I have tried others but keep coming back to these. It could be that when I started playing my first good guitars were made of these woods. It is what I am used to.

 

[Jcub]

This is really interesting. There is one part of the equation that seems to have been left out. Originally, violins were designed to be played using gut strings. The majority of them have been modified to use steel strings (neck rests, heavier sound posts). I wonder how that factors into the sound that we now hear.

I need to re-read the articles to see if that was taken into account. The take home message for me from the studies is to be skeptical of widely held assumptions regarding acoustics (e.g., 16th century violins have vastly superior projection and sound) until/unless they are rigorously tested. I am scientist by training and have read many studies in the same journal related to my field. I was pleasantly surprised to see peer-reviewed standards applied to questions related to my second “career.” It was also great to see the authors conducted a second study to address criticisms they received when the first study was published.

My field is not acoustics or physics so I defer to others with the relevant knowledge and experience.

 

[Greywolf]

from one of the great Master Luthiers ..

lest you say .. well that's not an electric .. John makes those too .. this beauty --used $120K ..

 

[opnoob]

I have to admit, I was a little bit disappointed that it took a few pages for one of the hardcore "tonewood is a myth" types to show up. Usually on TGP they show up on page two, if not one.

@opnoob Since pickups are all that matter, why did you spend so much on that nice CU24 in your avatar instead of putting a set of 85/15s into a Harley Benton CST24 or similar PRS clone? Not trying to "gotcha" you here; I'm legit curious about your thought process here.

Because quilty boi looks good