Test yourself

Maertl513

Maertl513

Sherlock 513
Joined
Nov 29, 2012
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We all like tone wood. Especially crafted by the skilled employees of PRS.

Prof. Dr. Manfred Zollner is a German physician researching an teaching at University of Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany. He released his results in an reader called "Die Physik der Elektrogitarre", an English version is available to download, too.
He´s very sceptical to the impact of wood to a destinct tone of a solidbody guitar.
And for sure there are a lot of discussions around: Brazzy sounds better than mahogany, bolt-on than set neck, etc.

A guy and guitarist named Jörg Gebhardt, University degree in physics, prepared a test for volunteers. They built 4 guitars which differs in body wood (ash vs. alder) and neck (one-piece maple neck vs. maple neck with rosewood fretboard.

The test description is in German, but that doesn´t impact the samples.

Here is the test, here is the current analysis. But the riddle isn´t unveiled yet. Therefore you´ve still got the opportunity to listen give your own proposal.
 
Not a solidbody, but a friend of mine had an acoustic made for him by a well known luthier. While on tour, that guitar got stolen in an airport. The luthier made him another guitar, but used a solid Brazilian neck, because this guy uses many alternate tunings and the neck needed to be stiffer.

I've played that guitar a few times. It is magic. Best acoustic I've ever played, period. The luthier, at least, attributes a lot of that to the neck wood.
 
Certain woods have certain tonal characteristics. This does not mean all pieces of any certain type of wood will all sound the same...fact.
Any guitar is a 'system', a sum of it's individual parts.
That said, I've tested identical model guitars (up to 4 at a time) at least 4-5 times over the last few years, and each one has always had a unique tone/voice.

My opinion based on my experiences.... ymmv.....
 
I could actually download the Wav files (yay Work firewall!) so I did listen. There were obvious differences at times, and at times they seemed identical. The differences could be down to the playing technique, not actual difference in the guitar wood.

But I will say these two caveats that kinda invalidate this test for me:

  • The test riffs were all of a particular style that, to me, reveals far more about the pickups or amp (which were supposed to be identical) than the wood. Wood impacts sustain, and none of those tests involved any sustaining notes.
  • Most riffs were also multi-string at least partially, which also doesn't allow isolation of the sound, instead you get a chunky part-chord.

And finally, a large part of wood selection (for me) is the feel - I like the feel of maple fretboards, and they certainly feel different from rosewood (ebony is a whole lot closer to maple, also IMHO). Whether they sound any different (and IMHO they do, especially when maple fretboard on maple neck vs rosewood on hog) is just another factor.

If they had done a rosewood neck vs hog vs maple, all set neck, I think that would have been far more telling.

Still, I'll be looking for final results just out of interest.
 
My personal opinion: I fully agree with the statement a guitar's tone and sound is a result of different internal (Scale, string gauge, bridge type, nut type, action, pickup height, pickup type, guitar weight, stiffness, and so on) and external parameters (Amp! Player!). I'm not that guy who sits down at several GCs testing through all available guitars of a certain model for making up my decision by which sounds best.
For haptical or optical reasons, yes, that would be the exception.
But it has to sound right at home using my personal gear. And an amp gives appropriate options to adjust the tone, beside individual adjustment of the guitar itself.
That said: it's not possible to state this is this and that is that, because every 'system' guitar has slightly differences even the specslist consist of the same items.
 
You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

--Mr. B. Dylan

"You don't need a scientist to tell you different woods affect the tone of electric guitars."

--Lesteban
 
[As per OP but more] The answer would be to make, I dunno, twenty guitars, all with exactly the same neck set-up but a different wood for the body. All the bodies will be the same shape and finish, the electronics will be identical. Make the body simple, make it square or rectangular and flat so it can be easily and accurately reproduced. I guarantee there will be tonal differences.

Now that's done, let's get started on the neck . . .

Eventually someone in geekland has to say "yep, the wood does make a difference" and gets on with something more productive.
 
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Even when Paul walks through his library grabbing neck wood from this shelf, body or top wood from that shelf. And than his famous knocking on wood. Indeed different designated parts sound different, but the same tone wood with the same measures like the other one sound different. The individual density makes the difference. And, if the workpiece is hand-hewn or machined, the sound and resonance will change again. Paul´s knocking is supposed to be an indicator for an obvious quality of material and wood selection, which gives the customer a good feeling that his guitar - as a sum of selected and well crafted workpieces - will resonate well.
I had those discussions in the 513 community regarding the impact on sound by different neck or body wood.
I´m not convinced about the reduction on the material aspect.
 
Mixstar said:
Eventually someone in geekland has to say "yep, the wood does make a difference" and gets on with something more productive.
Click to expand...
Well...no, the question isn't "does it make a difference", the question is, "how does it make a difference?" I mean, yeah, I get it, maple's brighter, mahogany is not, but can we get consensus on all the others?

I will take the test later -- I'm not a good enough player to be able to tell a guitar with a short amount of playing time the character of a guitar, but when a decent guitar player plays the same thing on two different guitars consistently, I do have a good enough ear that I can hear a difference.
 
Would've been better to use some mahogany neck and body guitars to get a broader range, because mahogany has more contrast with ash and alder. But, try telling him that. I'm a little skeptical about fretboard material, not that it makes no difference, but so small that I would have a hard time picking it out. But neck wood, absolutely.

Blindfold me and give me a guitar to play, I think I could tell you in 10 minutes if it has a maple neck. A lot of it is feel, not just the sound that comes out. We adjust our playing to compensate for the tone of a guitar, so while it may not sound different if a good player is at the wheel, you know they feel it.
 
I think Many people that Have owned a Fender guitar, Find that out relatively quickly and easily.

I have a Stratocaster I've swapped 3 different necks, No change to anything except bolting on a new piece of wood. The differences are quite strongly noticeable. Many people report this when swapping out just the tuning pegs.
Certainly how the neck grain has been cut, quarter Sawn vs Flat sawn, versus flame maple, Which relatesTo
the actual mass of the wood and probably most of The Tonal impact. The flame maple was the heaviest neck, and strongly darkened the guitar boosting the mids lowering the trebles. Experiment done. Studying the degree of Tonal change spawned an industry that builds 1 million guitars per year.
 
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