Interesting article on guitar wood

[egan.]

This has been debated to death but Strandberg actually tested it.
http://guitarworks.thestrandbergs.com/2014/12/28/the-impact-of-wood-choice-in-an-electric-guitar/

 

[LeSedna]

The results are more or less what I expected : not over dramatic difference, however the difference is noticeable. The koa sounds smoother and darker than the other 3 by far, for example !

 

[Clockwork]

Neat test. I have always liked Alder bodies and personally it was my favorite sound in this test so I feel mildly vindicated.

 

[Terminus]

Cool test. Would be nice to see one with mahogany involved.

 

[XxSicRokerxX]

Cool test. Would be nice to see one with mahogany involved.

^

 

[Fox Mulder]

Cool test. Would be nice to see one with mahogany involved.

Yes, Alder vs Mahogany would be really nice

 

[Behind]

I'm quite impressed with the results. The difference is HUGE!

 

[abt]

I think one of the reason why this debate keeps going is that rarely do I see any testing that includes different types of pick-ups. Some pups, especially actives can sound pretty much the same no matter what you put them in. I think this is why you see one camp saying wood makes a huge difference to the sound and another saying that they don't hear much difference.

I used to be in the don't hear too much difference camp but I also used to be an EMG user, since moving to passives I hear much more of a difference.

 

[Mago]

finally something more scientific.

I think the main reason why there's so much misconception about this, is something that was also stated in the article: seldom will 2 guitars from the same model sound the same by default.
So it's hard to get a grasp on where the difference you hear comes from.

And yeah, emgs might play into that as well. Although I wouldn't say it makes every guitar sound the same to put, for example, an 81 in there, there's more difference with passive pups, generally.