Guitar Body Wood

[guitarfeak]

How much of a role does the type of wood of a guitar body play in the sound of the guitar? Thanks

[Christopher Caruana]

thats were everything starts! its the main/most important part. The type, density/weight all effect the sound. Pickups only amplify the sound of the wood.

[DLT]

I always thought pickups amplify the vibration of the strings and the wood makes the vibration unique in tone.

Maybe someone else can chime in here. I am no expert, but I can hear a difference between alder, mahogany and maple bodies.

[Christopher Caruana]

I always thought pickups amplify the vibration of the strings and the wood makes the vibration unique in tone.

Maybe someone else can chime in here. I am no expert, but I can hear a difference between alder, mahogany and maple bodies.

ya sorry, they pickup the strings, and they wood give the sound that strings produce its character. and yes i can hear differences between wood too. like my les paul has a mahogany back with a maple top, rosewood fret board and my baretta has just a solid maple body, hard maple neck and rosewood fret board. My LP sounds much warmer due to the mahogany back with the maple top. My baretta sound brighter and edgier with the solid maple body and neck.

[DLT]

ya sorry, they pickup the strings, and they wood give the sound that strings produce its character. and yes i can hear differences between wood too. like my les paul has a mahogany back with a maple top, rosewood fret board and my baretta has just a solid maple body, hard maple neck and rosewood fret board. My LP sounds much warmer due to the mahogany back with the maple top. My baretta sound brighter and edgier with the solid maple body and neck.

I have an all mahogany Les Paul Special SL. Very different in sound than my 77 LP Standard with the maple top. Of course the pups are different in each guitar too, but an all mahogany guitar just has that certain warm tone.

[Christopher Caruana]

I have an all mahogany Les Paul Special SL. Very different in sound than my 77 LP Standard with the maple top. Of course the pups are different in each guitar too, but an all mahogany guitar just has that certain warm tone.

+1 LP's just have something to their sound. mine is loaded with A2pro's (neck and bridge) wich are very warm pups. That combo is just kick a** warm blues tone

[Ashurbanipal]

As far as electric guitars go, I'm inclined to think that pickups and amplifiers have the greatest impact, followed by the guitar as a whole itself, not merely the wood per se.

A good example of this is Brian May's Red Special, the only part of which contains what we'd call a genuine tonewood is the neck (mahogany). The rest of it is blockboard with oak for mounting the neck and all the hardware. But there's other parts of the equation too, like the booster and AC-30s.

There's also Teuffel's Birdfish, which employs wood quite strategically for subtle tonal variation.

I'm not disputing the presence of differences, but I think they're sometimes over-emphasized. I believe it's more to do with the way the different parts interact.

With acoustic guitars it's a different story.

Here's an interesting rumination by James Tyler http://www.hugeracksinc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=46110.

[mrfjones]

listen the the difference in a 70's lp with a maple neck and one with a mahogany neck.

I think the neck wood has the biggest effect on the overall.

[Diego]

Yes, it does make a difference.

However, once you put the amp, the tubes, the cabinet, the amount of gain, the pickups, the EQ, etc, it may or may not become more or less relevant. It sure doesn't matter playing through a Metal Zone with tons of gain, scooped and graphic EQed. For cleaner sounds, the body wood is very important.

But when tweaking the knobs, checking differences between instruments, or just playing guitar by yourself and going after that elusive tone we all have in our heads, it does become an important part of the equation, just like all the other parts.

This is a great guide for learning what all of this is about:

http://www.andersonguitars.com/tonelibbody.cfm

It covers most popular guitar woods out there.

[super rad stuff]

this is gonna get interesting...

[Hellion]

Back in the early 90s, Guitar Player Magazine did an interview with Paul Reed Smith and he said something that has stuck with me through the last 20 years. He stated that "all guitars are first and foremost ACOUSTIC guitars." He went on to say that you can hear the tone of an electric without even plugging it in, just by listening to the timbre and response of an unplugged electric. For instance, you can hear the spank of a Tele, the breathiness of an Strat, and the warmth of a well made Les Paul, all without plugging them in. What pickups do, he said, is amplify the inherant tone of the guitar in question. Just like certain microphones color the sound of whatever they're picking up, pickups operate the same way. Obviously the physics is slightly different, but he made a lot of sense.

Now, to get back to the original question; the wood of a guitar means everything. It's what creates the personality of that particular instrument.

[rdclmn7]

My first chance to test the idea came while I was stationed in Korea, I bought a 4 ft slab of Phillipine Mahogany for less than $15, and fashioned a body that was a blend of Strat And Les Paul.
I installed a Strat neck and a basic pickup installation to it and plugged it in, there was a noticeable difference in tone.
Now, when I have enough guitars on hand, switching necks can make a good guitar sound exceptional.

[super rad stuff]

booooooring
the denser your wood is, the snappier the attack is. for example, a maple guitar with a maple bolt-neck is going to have a very hard edged attack that will be very in your face.
a set neck all mahogany guitar on the other hand will be much more mellow, have a softer sound and attack, and be much warmer due to it's looser grain. of course, i'm also conveying the differences on neck-joint types, but i'm just exaggerating. of course, finding a nice balance is probably what you want(which should be the case with everything when talking guitar). say you want something warm sounding but still have a punchy feel and attack, you could go for a mahogany bodied strat type with the maple bolt neck. or if you want a bright guitar with a smoother attack, you could go for a set neck with brighter woods, like ash or alder for the bodie. it all depends on what your looking for tonally.

[SlowGroove]

How much of a role does the type of wood of a guitar body play in the sound of the guitar? Thanks

IMveryHO, it all depends how much gain you are going to use.
The more gain you use, the pu's will start to play a bigger roll in the tone than the guitar wood.
Clean guitar, (guitar into Twin Reverb) into amp is a very diff story !


James

[SlowGroove]

booooooring
the denser your wood is, the snappier the attack is. for example, a maple guitar with a maple bolt-neck is going to have a very hard edged attack that will be very in your face.
a set neck all mahogany guitar on the other hand will be much more mellow, have a softer sound and attack, and be much warmer due to it's looser grain. of course, i'm also conveying the differences on neck-joint types, but i'm just exaggerating. of course, finding a nice balance is probably what you want(which should be the case with everything when talking guitar). say you want something warm sounding but still have a punchy feel and attack, you could go for a mahogany bodied strat type with the maple bolt neck. or if you want a bright guitar with a smoother attack, you could go for a set neck with brighter woods, like ash or alder for the bodie. it all depends on what your looking for tonally.

Mmmmm, so why did my old el'cheapo semi-hollow Danelectro '59 w. very cheap wood sound soooo snappy, with a very fast attack ?


James

[Christopher Caruana]

As far as electric guitars go, I'm inclined to think that pickups and amplifiers have the greatest impact, followed by the guitar as a whole itself, not merely the wood per se.

A good example of this is Brian May's Red Special, the only part of which contains what we'd call a genuine tonewood is the neck (mahogany). The rest of it is blockboard with oak for mounting the neck and all the hardware. But there's other parts of the equation too, like the booster and AC-30s.

There's also Teuffel's Birdfish, which employs wood quite strategically for subtle tonal variation.

I'm not disputing the presence of differences, but I think they're sometimes over-emphasized. I believe it's more to do with the way the different parts interact.

With acoustic guitars it's a different story.

Here's an interesting rumination by James Tyler http://www.hugeracksinc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=46110.

not true, if you have two guitars unpluged, one made of plywood and the other out of maple. If you strum both of them, the plywood guitar is not going to have anywhere near as character to the sound as the maple guitar. sure the pickups are going to change the sound, but two guitars with the same exact pickups, but different woods are still going to sound different

[super rad stuff]

Mmmmm, so why did my old el'cheapo semi-hollow Danelectro '59 w. very cheap wood sound soooo snappy, with a very fast attack ?


James

i left out semi-hollows because i don't know
btw it's set neck, right?

[scottish]

Back in the early 90s, Guitar Player Magazine did an interview with Paul Reed Smith and he said something that has stuck with me through the last 20 years. He stated that "all guitars are first and foremost ACOUSTIC guitars." He went on to say that you can hear the tone of an electric without even plugging it in, just by listening to the timbre and response of an unplugged electric. For instance, you can hear the spank of a Tele, the breathiness of an Strat, and the warmth of a well made Les Paul, all without plugging them in. What pickups do, he said, is amplify the inherant tone of the guitar in question. Just like certain microphones color the sound of whatever they're picking up, pickups operate the same way. Obviously the physics is slightly different, but he made a lot of sense.

Now, to get back to the original question; the wood of a guitar means everything. It's what creates the personality of that particular instrument.

Id mark this as spot on. The pickups only pickup whats there and add their own little coloration to it. Thats why some pickups work best in lets say, all mahogany guitars. The characteristics of that pickup compliment whats already there from the wood. Put them in a different guitar and they might clash rather than compliment.

So yeah, the wood of the guitar (presuming build quality is consistently good) is what determines the basis of the sound.

[guitarfeak]

What do you guys think about Basswood?

[guitarfeak]

Like alot of people on this site i am after the Van Halen brown sound. I feel that I have a good sound with my fender starcaster guitar and a custom custom. I was wondering if having a basswood body on one of my other guitars would have a noticable tone difference between my basswood guitar and my Fender even though I would be using the same amp settings.