PittPastor
Member
fronobulax: Delete or lock this as you see fit. Not trying to stir the pot -- just wanted to add one thing, because I think it might be constructive....
I picked up my 2 acoustics from Stuart Day today. Since he is a bona fide Luthier, and since he builds all type of guitars, I decided to ask him his opinion on the "does wood affect tone" question.
First I told him about the the thread here, and he was amused. He said: "Man, when it comes to guitar tone, guitarists are more religious than anyone in your church. You should know that. I never get into discussions about tone if I can help it."
But I asked him to explain it to me, because I wanted to understand it. The hypothetical was two identical model guitars, with humbucker pickups. The only difference was the body's wood. Does the wood affect the tone? And if so, how is that possible, since the pickup only gets the sound from the strings?
He said: "OK, so, scientifically speaking, you are right. The pickup cannot get anything from the wood. Only the strings. That's how they work. Unless you believe in magic, a humbucker cannot be picking up anything from the wood. So that part of it is right. What you are missing though is that the humbucker picks up all of the vibrations of a string. A string does not vibrate just up and down, it also vibrates in and out. Basically, it vibrates in a 360 degree pattern. Anything that affects any of those vibrations will affect the way the string moves, and by extension, the guitar's tone. Since wood vibrates, and different wood vibrates differently, it will affect the string differently, and it will change the tone of the guitar."
OK, I said. But we are talking theoretical here. Sure, the tone changes. My real question is: Can the average ear tell the difference?
He said, "It depends on the wood differences. There are a lot of very similar woods, and they probably wouldn't make enough of a difference for the average ear to notice. But, if the two woods in question were Ash and Mahogany, the difference is great enough that the average ear would almost definitely be able to pick out the difference in an A/B test. And even if it weren't a direct A/B test, but you knew the sound of one of them really well, you would be able to tell if a switch was made. So, if your lead guitarist usually played an Ash guitar, and then you guys took a break and he secretly switched to a mahogany, when you guys started back up again, you'd probably notice something was different in the sound."
So then I asked: OK, that makes sense. Now what if it isn't a simple clean guitar, plugged into an amp? What if it ran through a pedal board, with some things like reverb, delay, or some dirt...
And I was halfway through that question when he just smiled and shook his head as in: "Yeah, I'm not answering that one..."
But that's OK, because I think I got my answer and it's good enough for now.
So, FWIW, that's what the luthier said.
I picked up my 2 acoustics from Stuart Day today. Since he is a bona fide Luthier, and since he builds all type of guitars, I decided to ask him his opinion on the "does wood affect tone" question.
First I told him about the the thread here, and he was amused. He said: "Man, when it comes to guitar tone, guitarists are more religious than anyone in your church. You should know that. I never get into discussions about tone if I can help it."
But I asked him to explain it to me, because I wanted to understand it. The hypothetical was two identical model guitars, with humbucker pickups. The only difference was the body's wood. Does the wood affect the tone? And if so, how is that possible, since the pickup only gets the sound from the strings?
He said: "OK, so, scientifically speaking, you are right. The pickup cannot get anything from the wood. Only the strings. That's how they work. Unless you believe in magic, a humbucker cannot be picking up anything from the wood. So that part of it is right. What you are missing though is that the humbucker picks up all of the vibrations of a string. A string does not vibrate just up and down, it also vibrates in and out. Basically, it vibrates in a 360 degree pattern. Anything that affects any of those vibrations will affect the way the string moves, and by extension, the guitar's tone. Since wood vibrates, and different wood vibrates differently, it will affect the string differently, and it will change the tone of the guitar."
OK, I said. But we are talking theoretical here. Sure, the tone changes. My real question is: Can the average ear tell the difference?
He said, "It depends on the wood differences. There are a lot of very similar woods, and they probably wouldn't make enough of a difference for the average ear to notice. But, if the two woods in question were Ash and Mahogany, the difference is great enough that the average ear would almost definitely be able to pick out the difference in an A/B test. And even if it weren't a direct A/B test, but you knew the sound of one of them really well, you would be able to tell if a switch was made. So, if your lead guitarist usually played an Ash guitar, and then you guys took a break and he secretly switched to a mahogany, when you guys started back up again, you'd probably notice something was different in the sound."
So then I asked: OK, that makes sense. Now what if it isn't a simple clean guitar, plugged into an amp? What if it ran through a pedal board, with some things like reverb, delay, or some dirt...
And I was halfway through that question when he just smiled and shook his head as in: "Yeah, I'm not answering that one..."
But that's OK, because I think I got my answer and it's good enough for now.
So, FWIW, that's what the luthier said.