Do wood types affect guitar/bass tonality?

[Skinny Viking]

I .....


never-fucking-mind

 

[LeSedna]

No they don't, only strings matter, that's why I play a guitar made of stainless steel nowadays. It sounds good for HEAVY metal.

 

[ALaz666]

So for those who think the wood matters in an AMPLIFIED guitar sound.

Can you please explain to me how magnets interact with wood.

In a non-amplified or acoustic guitar sound, it sure does, but I fail to see how an amplified electric guitar which uses string vibrations and magnets to capture sound, can sound different based on the wood it is made out of.

 

[LBTM]

Can you please explain to me how magnets interact with wood.

Don't expect to get scientific information here.

 

[Trevoire520]

So for those who think the wood matters in an AMPLIFIED guitar sound.

Can you please explain to me how magnets interact with wood.

In a non-amplified or acoustic guitar sound, it sure does, but I fail to see how an amplified electric guitar which uses string vibrations and magnets to capture sound, can sound different based on the wood it is made out of.

Magnets don't interact with wood. The wood interacts with the string and the string interacts with the magnet.

 

[LBTM]

Do you guys have any ideas how to reduce the interaction between the magnets and the wood in the pickup cavity? Like putting some kind of cloth or somethin? I had good luck putting a Dunlop cloth on the tremolo springs to reduce vibration.

 

[blue_fAng]

So for those who think the wood matters in an AMPLIFIED guitar sound.

Can you please explain to me how magnets interact with wood.

In a non-amplified or acoustic guitar sound, it sure does, but I fail to see how an amplified electric guitar which uses string vibrations and magnets to capture sound, can sound different based on the wood it is made out of.

 

[Trevoire520]

Do you guys have any ideas how to reduce the interaction between the magnets and the wood in the pickup cavity? Like putting some kind of cloth or somethin? I had good luck putting a Dunlop cloth on the tremolo springs to reduce vibration.

The magnets don't interact with the wood directly, they interact with the strings, which are influenced by the wood, bridge etc.

 

[egan.]

but I fail to see how an amplified electric guitar which uses string vibrations and magnets to capture sound, can sound different based on the wood it is made out of.

The bridge, the body wood, the neck, the nut, the cavity and the strings are all part of a complex relationship of interactive resonances. Two really obvious examples of this sympathetic vibration loop are when tremelo springs create a reverb clearly heard through an amp or when hollow bodies feedback at the exact same frequency all the time (the resonant freq of the chamber). You can also knock on the body like a door and hear it through your amp. These are all examples of vibrations moving back from the guitar to the strings and then picked up by the pups. Obviously the relationship of wood is more subtle (and subject to the particular piece of wood and construction), but the notion that wood doesn't make a difference ignores easily demonstrable phenomenon.

 

[Kohugaly]

when you plug a peace of wood doesn't it vibrate? yes it does! As the string vibrates it periodically bends the neck and the body. The wood passes certain frequencies through (and dump other frequencies) and they add or subtract at the other side of the string depending on the phase and time they arrive in. The time clearly depends on the speed of sound in wood (so the quality of wood), length and also the shape, because it bounces from the borders. If this wasn't true, than piezoelectric instruments wouldn't work at all, because most of the time the sensor is under the bridge, not directly under the string. Also it's very hard to dump the vibrations of the wood, because the vibrations are microscopic in amplitude. That's why it doesn't really matter soundvise in what position you are playing and which part of your body touches the wood (cos' skin is relatively jelly-like and most of clothes are furry unless you are playing in medieval plate armor).

So to make it short. At any place, where string touches the rest of the instrument, certain frequencies pass through the wood and return to the string (to both sides of the string) at different phases, times and amplitudes, making every instrument unique.

Theoretically you can even capture the IR of the guitar. Connect a monitor to the bridge (resp. neck) and put a contact sensor to the neck (resp. bridge) and use sinesweep like when catching a cab. then put the other way around ad sum those two. You'll problably have to compensate the monitor and sensor response and I can bet the result will be totally unusable, but theoretically it is possible.

 

[RedDog]

So for those who think the wood matters in an AMPLIFIED guitar sound.

Can you please explain to me how magnets interact with wood.

In a non-amplified or acoustic guitar sound, it sure does, but I fail to see how an amplified electric guitar which uses string vibrations and magnets to capture sound, can sound different based on the wood it is made out of.

You're deaf.

 

[Terminus]

I can see where this thread is heading....

 

[indecizo]

So in my conclusion, wood types do not contribute much on a guitar's tone, and the differences are negligible with distorted tones, specially on high gain; tonewoods are completely overrated. Just like neck thrus are overrated in the sense that resonate much better than bolt ons, when bolt ons are found more in shitty level guitars and neck thrus are found mostly on well built guitars in the first place.

 

[StoneLord]

 

[indecizo]

^ another unscientific test...

 

[MotherEel]

How do magnets even work?
Miracles.

 

[Kohugaly]

So for those who think the wood matters in an AMPLIFIED guitar sound.

Can you please explain to me how magnets interact with wood.

In a non-amplified or acoustic guitar sound, it sure does, but I fail to see how an amplified electric guitar which uses string vibrations and magnets to capture sound, can sound different based on the wood it is made out of.

The vibrations of a string are caused by two soundwaves bouncing from forth an back between two ends of a string. However neck and bridge are not completely rigid and some of the vibrations are attenuated by the wood. Also some vibrations are conducted by the wood and pass form one side of the string to another. Thats why the wood affects the tone of the string.

 

[Mago]

So in my conclusion, wood types do not contribute much on a guitar's tone, and the differences are negligible with distorted tones, specially on high gain; tonewoods are completely overrated. Just like neck thrus are overrated in the sense that resonate much better than bolt ons, when bolt ons are found more in shitty level guitars and neck thrus are found mostly on well built guitars in the first place.

great for you man!

You should be able to save a lot of money by just sticking a neck, pickup and the rest of the hardware on any piece of wood, disregard the type or shape or any other factor, and be able to play guitar with it. Even more so: for you it will sound awesome anyway cause you can't hear the difference. I envy you!

I do agree on the neck through thingy however, and also on the video not beeing very scientific. Same for the video you posted half a year ago and got this thread started.

Do be able to get a feel for the differences you have to have played a lot of guitars with the same differences and similarities in one place.
That way you can start to understand where which portion of the tone is made from that individual guitar as an individual, or the general sound of one of the variables. Which of course interact with eachother and make the whole thing even more difficult to pin point.
Not to mention that a guitar sounds different with every player too.

 

[egan.]

It absolutely affects tonality, low gain, high gain, or whatever. It's plain as day and easy to demonstrate, and manufacturers use the difference tonal characteristics of different types of woods to help predetermine the sound of the instrument. For example, an all-mahongany guitar will be somewhat dark sounding. Slap a piece of maple to it (such as on a Les Paul) and the guitar instantly sounds a bit brighter and arguably more balanced. The tone of the wood can be offset by the pickups and other factors, but that still doesn't remove the wood's tonality from the equation. This goes for any wooden instruments - guitars, drums, violins, etc.

It goes even further than that too. Two identical guitars made of the SAME type of wood can have significant tonal differences. Go play 5 Fender American Standard Stratocasters - they'll all sound a little different. Anything organic will be naturally inconsistent and idiosyncratic, and no two slabs of wood sound identical.

This is still the answer.

 

[Spectivum]

There are slight differences but it won't change the sound of a band.
You can play a plastic body for that matter and nobody will notice the difference.