new guitar pics! :D

[Yngvai X]

Ebony, in my experiene, it brighter than maple. I've seen some sources that disagree and a lot that agree, such as warmoth http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/necks/necks.cfm?fuseaction=guitar_neckwoods.

Yeah, ebony is brighter than maple. They are my two favorite tonewoods for a fretboard... I just don't like rosewood, the tone or the look of it. Granted, I use EMG pickups, which kill more of the guitar's natural tone than passive pickups do, but I still think it makes a bit of a difference.

 

[schenkadere]

Yeah, ebony is brighter than maple. They are my two favorite tonewoods for a fretboard... I just don't like rosewood, the tone or the look of it. Granted, I use EMG pickups, which kill more of the guitar's natural tone than passive pickups do, but I still think it makes a bit of a difference.

Ok...can some one explain to me the physics that would make one fretboard noticeably brighter than another. The fretboard is a comparatively small amount of wood in relation to the neck and body making those much more significant in tone and resonance...furthermore, the string makes contact at the nut, fret and saddle...how significant can the wood be? With everything that happens between the plectrum striking the string and the speaker cone vibrating, I'm certain the fingerboard wood is relatively insignificant. Strings play a much bigger role...I don't doubt the instrument cable has more effect on brightness.

I prefer ebony because of its rich appearance and it is usually found on better instruments.

 

[ABQShredHead]

Michael, I think you used the right word: resonance. Every material has its own resonance, and that vibrational aspect translates into a string's vibration.

The notes produced by the vibration of the string are actually a sum of interger multiples of each frequency (aka, Fourier series). These harmonic frequencies are affected by the characteristics of all things present on your guitar. The wood of the body enhances certain frequencies based on that wood's resonance, and the bridge and the neck and the fretboard and the this and the that also cause the same tonal enhancements or dampings.

So, if you have all the same materials on a guitar and change one variable (i.e., the fingerboard), some sensitive ears may notice a change in tonal characteristics.

 

[schenkadere]

Michael, I think you used the right word: resonance. Every material has its own resonance, and that vibrational aspect translates into a string's vibration.

The notes produced by the vibration of the string are actually a sum of interger multiples of each frequency (aka, Fourier series). These harmonic frequencies are affected by the characteristics of all things present on your guitar. The wood of the body enhances certain frequencies based on that wood's resonance, and the bridge and the neck and the fretboard and the this and the that also cause the same tonal enhancements or dampings.

So, if you have all the same materials on a guitar and change one variable (i.e., the fingerboard), some sensitive ears may notice a change in tonal characteristics.

I understand that...but unless you had an identical guitar with only a different wood fretboard, you can't possibly attribute the brightness to that difference...too many other factors.

 

[razoredge]

I just spent a fare amount of time researching this tone wood issue recently, when I was interested in archtops and also a bit for solid electrics... I have not struck it word for word to memory... also remember solid bodies are a far cry from the refined tone characteristic of an archtop or acoustic.

On tone woods, Luthiers look at how an individual piece of wood transfers tone by literally taping on it, clunking it, to hear the ring of the wood. All the different woods have these characteristic differences, then you can compensate by how you mix the body wood to the neck to the fretboard according to the tone that is desired.

The articals from Luthiers stated that the fret board itself is at best the icing on the cake but the "soundboard" in the case of any hollow body we all know should be a single layer of solid spruce. That rosewood or mahogany sides and back are better than maple but the difference in expense and availability is night and day and that a well "tuned" maple side and back quitar can sound just fine but less warmth than "the dark woods". Same case is stated for neck woods, mahogany neck is warmer than a maple neck, BUT this can be compensated somewhat with use of rosewood fretboard for maple neck and ebony for mahogany neck. HOWEVER Gibson, Gretsch, Guild, and other production builders of archtop guitars have been using laminated Spruce tops and laminated maple sides/backs for years on those popular and highly sought guitars...ES 175 for exapmle. Still the cream of the crop is supposed to be the hand built, hand picked tonewood combination of spruce and rosewood or mahogany, and are HUGE money.

So whys this IDJUT talking about Archtops when we are talking about solidbody electrics?..... because all that same tonewood stuff (excluding Spruce) applies to solid bodies as well but now with solid bodys "sustain", mass production, budget and PICKUPS enter the picture. As well as a few new tonewoods, Ash, Alder, Basswood, Koa, to name a few. Rosewood BODIES exit the picture with Mahogany bodies remaining, but due to availability and expense BASSWOOD is considered a great alternative with alder more bright and ash brighter yet (I think I have those two (alder/ash) right). Apparently for what ever reason Maple is not a desirable solid body, body wood, possibly due to its lower transfer of sound which would be a sustain issue - but still great for necks and ONCE AGAIN more available and less expensive than Mahogany.

Apparently from my reading the only woods suitable for fretboards, due to hardness are Ebony, Maple, Rosewood and a few other members of the dark tropical woods that are sorta related to Rosewood. As read on the Warmoth page Meedly put up Maple needs to be finished to shield from moisture absorbtion which is not an issue with the suitable HARD dark tropical woods. Im sure most guys that come here have played their old guitars enough to have worn those little grooves into the fretboards. If these other "tonewoods" such as Mahogany, Ash, Alder, Koa were used on fretboards it would not take long to ware these grooves, Basswood forgetaboutit you could do it in one gig.

There is some relevance to the fretboard due to that being the point... at the fret where you end that string vibration and sound, it transfers down through the fret, transfers through the fretboard, into the neck wood, down to the body at the tail piece. Body mass and headstock mass can affect this "tone" somewhat as well. We all should know that Yngwie ONLY plays the old LARGE CBS headstock Strat necks, because he feels that larger headstock has the perfect tone he desires.... and whos gonna argue with Yngwies Strat sound... used for Neo Classical shred no less...... how cool is that?

Then as we all have stated with electric solid bodys the electronics enter the picture as well as personal tone preference and the fingers/technique..... myself Ive been trying to find some after market replacement fingers........

TONE the Holy Grail of discriminating guitar players, and most of us are never totally happy, at least for long, that way we get to buy new toys............

How that for a book with no answers and no happy ending.........

 

[schenkadere]

I understand that...but unless you had an identical guitar with only a different wood fretboard, you can't possibly attribute the brightness to that difference...too many other factors.

I still find what I said above to be so.

Thanks for all the info, razor...

 

[razoredge]

Even those highly skilled handcarved archtop luthiers will say no two sticks of "tonewood" sound the same and that two guitars of the same design and woods will have a different tone. The best example in solid electrics would probably be the maple fret Strat versus the ? Rosewood ? board Strat, eveyones had their preferences over the years and some guys like SRV for example have used different Strats for what they say is a different sound ? ? ? ? They surely have better ears than mine, but I know of my three electrics, which all have different body and fretboard woods except for all have maple necks... all have different tones and those tones align with the characteristic claims for the "tonewoods". Even my Gretsch which is all laminated, pressed maple has the frequency resonance issues that carved spruce top Luthiers claim is the fault of this construction method. Still sounds sweet and "woody" if you dont turn it up too much, stand away and dont face the speakers, but there are a few specific notes that are willing to take off if givin the opportunity.

 

[Swabs]

Not entirely related to the thread but I thought I would post it here:

Schecter have extended the Jeff Loomis signature range,You know he always used to play that black C-7 Hellraiser that had the tonepro Tunomatic bridge for songs that didnt require trem wankery? Well not anymore
(just a link to the picture, as it's huge and I dont want to ruin the thread )

http://www.harmony-central.com/ProductImages/Large/000029321.jpg

Anyway so I was thinking of buying a seven string (and I'm not a fan of floating bridges tbh). But now I have to make a decision The new Jeff Loomis sig for somewhere around £700-800...

Or the new seven string Xiphos? I love the sound of Dimarzio DiActivators and the Grey Chameleon paint job looks incredible (changes from metallic gray, to different shades of green and purple in different light). Plus it's about £200 cheaper.

 

[schenkadere]

Even those highly skilled handcarved archtop luthiers will say no two sticks of "tonewood" sound the same and that two guitars of the same design and woods will have a different tone. The best example in solid electrics would probably be the maple fret Strat versus the ? Rosewood ? board Strat, eveyones had their preferences over the years and some guys like SRV for example have used different Strats for what they say is a different sound ? ? ? ? They surely have better ears than mine, but I know of my three electrics, which all have different body and fretboard woods except for all have maple necks... all have different tones and those tones align with the characteristic claims for the "tonewoods". Even my Gretsch which is all laminated, pressed maple has the frequency resonance issues that carved spruce top Luthiers claim is the fault of this construction method. Still sounds sweet and "woody" if you dont turn it up too much, stand away and dont face the speakers, but there are a few specific notes that are willing to take off if givin the opportunity.

what I'm saying is if you have two guitars, one with two different fingerboard woods, there's no way to attribute one being brighter than the other to the fingerboard...there are far too many other contributing factors...unless of course the guitars are otherwise exactly identical.

 

[razoredge]

I have never liked playing any of my guitars without a double locker since I got the Kramer w/Floyd. Sure they stay "pretty much" in tune but the Rose stays in tune. I can go weeks if temperatures are fairly consistant, put it on a tuner and it will be dead on. I dont use it alot, but its there when I need it. For the life of me I cant understand why people have so many problems with their double locking systems, blocking the back, cranking the spring tension, all that crap. Then you even have the fine tuners which make for effortless tuning.

Schenkadere - I dont really know. Seems to me the Strats are best example, between the two fretboards they are supposed to offer a different tone, but like I said, I really dont know. I played a nice maple American I really liked alot once upon a time but I wasnt compareing it against another Strat. I just loved it, sounded great and felt like home, I only played it clean though, but gotta love that clean Strat sound.

Yngvai - Nice guitar, Ive considered 7 string from time to time but sticking with 6 at least for awhile. You clips answered one question I have always wondered about. Usually playing loudly amplified or through headphones I never noticed, but every once in awhile I'd sit down and play unpluged and notice when I chopped my riffs I was getting wicked fretting out. It made me wonder if I was doing something wrong, action too low or not good enough and if this was creating a sound amplified that was not good and I was unaware of it. Watching those clips it appears this is common and no big deal when cranked up ?

That seems to be another thing I chase in circles, perfect low action.

 

[schenkadere]

I have never liked playing any of my guitars without a double locker since I got the Kramer w/Floyd. Sure they stay "pretty much" in tune but the Rose stays in tune. I can go weeks if temperatures are fairly consistant, put it on a tuner and it will be dead on. I dont use it alot, but its there when I need it. For the life of me I cant understand why people have so many problems with their double locking systems, blocking the back, cranking the spring tension, all that crap. Then you even have the fine tuners which make for effortless tuning.

Schenkadere - I dont really know. Seems to me the Strats are best example, between the two fretboards they are supposed to offer a different tone, but like I said, I really dont know. I played a nice maple American I really liked alot once upon a time but I wasnt compareing it against another Strat. I just loved it, sounded great and felt like home, I only played it clean though, but gotta love that clean Strat sound.

Yngvai - Nice guitar, Ive considered 7 string from time to time but sticking with 6 at least for awhile. You clips answered one question I have always wondered about. Usually playing loudly amplified or through headphones I never noticed, but every once in awhile I'd sit down and play unpluged and notice when I chopped my riffs I was getting wicked fretting out. It made me wonder if I was doing something wrong, action too low or not good enough and if this was creating a sound amplified that was not good and I was unaware of it. Watching those clips it appears this is common and no big deal when cranked up ?

That seems to be another thing I chase in circles, perfect low action.

Bending is a huge part of my playing...I never have really low action...can't get under the string that way.

I have a Kahler locking vibrato...I like that better than Floyd Rose...but it's not critical to my style.

 

[anacrucix]

That seems to be another thing I chase in circles, perfect low action.

my jackson PS-2 has the best action i have ever experienced on any guitar ever, you could almost breathe a note on it, its incredible. but the whammy is screw in...