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Naga Chomper said:
At the calculated risk of starting a self induced flamefest, it is my personal experience that anyone who thinks that the "tonewood" of choice makes a huge difference for a solid body electric needs their head examined. Maple brighter that ebony? Hardly. Basswood dead and unresponsive? Right. Ebony and rosewood sounding "darker"? Think again. Mahogany "warmer"? Puhleeeeeze. After having played, and repaired, let alone made a few guitars, the biggest thing I've noticed that makes a difference in tone is solely the quality of the piece of wood, and the overall construction of the guitar. Snug fitting fret slots eliminate dead neck spots, and give a much more lively sound regardless of fretboard wood choice. Tight neck joints, and solid glue and fit make all the difference. Pickups by far and away give the guitar it's personality. Not to mention the way the player approaches the instrument. I would dare say you could instantly recognize SRV even if he was playing through a Guild hollowbody into a Fender Champ, or using Brian May's rig. You would also instantly recognize Alan Holdsworth even if he was playing through Zach Wylde's rig. Moral of the story: Pick the wood for esthetics of choice, and dial the pickups for your preferred sound.
i also heard someone on youtube, who has been gigging for decades say essentially the same thing. He said, once the guitar is plugged-in, it negates any influence the body mat'l has. He said that if you construct two diff axes out of the same parts like pups, bridge, nut, & possibly fret mat'l, but w/ diff wood they would still sound the same once plugged-in.
 
I personally am a novice but the guy made a good argument, PLUS he has experience.
 
there is some truth to the whole "tone" wood thang.  its very small in my opinion but it is there. i know about exotic woods and they do have diffrent qualities. and diffrent feed back frequiencies. i sold lumber to several and i mean "lots" of guitar makers in nashville,including gibson custom shop.  these dudes have things set up where it shows diffrent kind of frequiencies entering and leaving the guitar. wood,shape,glue,hardware,pick ups all effect it.     now i also admit that steve vai could pick up a ibanez gem or a sears flat top with 3 rusted strings and still sound like vai. but he would not hear the same sound.    dig what im saying?    so ya if playing guitar is not your living "which its not mine" i think the whole tone thing is not a issue that some of us can even see hear.  but a dude like eric johnson would talk to you and boar you to death about tone. and i promise he does hear it.

let me add as a final note. if there wasnt tone we would all have only one guitar.
 
sicman said:
now i also admit that steve vai could pick up a ibanez gem or a sears flat top with 3 rusted strings and still sound like vai. but he would not hear the same sound.    dig what im saying?    so ya if playing guitar is not your living "which its not mine" i think the whole tone thing is not a issue that some of us can even see hear.  but a dude like eric johnson would talk to you and boar you to death about tone. and i promise he does hear it.
I agree with most of what you say here. Yes, Eric Johnson might hear a difference, but anyone else would be hard pressed to notice a thing.


I have a bud who is an amazing guitar player. He's also a mastering engineer, so he has a pretty good set of ears. I've spent years in the music business, and have thousands of hours recording and mixing myself. He and I got into long discussions on tone. We both can tell a tube amp from a transistor in a heartbeat. But he has several guitars, and would switch between them telling me what he heard differently. They sounded absolutely the same to me. I was pretty sure at that point that the only difference he "heard" was what he felt as a difference between them.


I decided to test this theory once. My son had a $50 piece of crap guitar with a body made out of hardboard. I stuck a Seymour Duncan '59 in the bridge, did a recording, and then swapped out pickups to a DiMarzio Breed. The hunk of junk was transformed from a creamy Les Paul type sound to a screaming brute instantly. I also recorded a Big Apple strat I had at the time, and a Les Paul '57 Goldtop reissue. I used a DI rig which consisted of my old ADA MP-2 all on the same setting. I played the same thing on all 3 guitars (one twice with the different pickups) and used 4 separate recordings.


I sat it up as a blind test between the 4 different sounding guitars. People easily picked out the DiMarzio pup as being different. But the battle between the real LP, the hunk of junk, and the humbucked strat was a straight up draw. The push told me people were pretty much guessing. It was a very surprising result, because to my ears as I was playing I was convinced that the strat and the beater sounded way different than the LP. But when I played back the recording, I was very glad I had labeled them. I wouldn't have had an easy time picking which was which. (BTW, this was YEARS ago for a paid subscription music and recording site so don't ask me to dig the files up. They are long gone.)

If tonewoods matter, a Steinberger guitar or bass would be useless. Not to mention the BC Rich acrylic bodied guitar line. There's also the 20th anniversary Jem 7 that is acrylic. I've played one of those, and I can attest to the fact that is sounded just like my Jem 7VWH. Go figure.

For that matter, look at acoustics. Mr. Kaman poked holes in the whole "wood matters" theory with the Ovation/Applause lines. The only reason I didn't like them much was because I hate to have to use a strap playing an acoustic while I'm sitting down. Tonewise? They worked well and sounded great. Not to mention being very stable in high humidity environments. More that I can say for a Sitka spruce topped Taylor...

It would be pretty fun to find a beater LP and stick a Tele or Broadcaster pickup set in it. I may just see if I can do that.

EDIT: Here's a vid of my bud Danny that I talked tone with. The little bastard can play :D


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxLCq2phm_k​
 
Sweet Doc.
 
I'd need at least 3 more fingers on my left hand to play that.
 
I remember back in the day of the caveman I learned Wasted Years.
 
I could pull it off but it just never sounded right the way I did it.
 
I got no talent.
 
Nowadays one chord and one riff works for me.
 
Thanks, TB.  Wasted Years is a great song...same album as Alexander the Great.  You've got talent.  I have a lot of respect for those who can play the blues.  It just never spoke to me.  I guess the reason metal speaks to me is when I'm down I get angry, not sad.  You've got some chops, dude. 
 
Hey y'all.
 
Here's my latest riff.
 
Some would call what Seasick Steve does blues.
 
I call it good music!
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4fqhiRb6Mo&feature=youtu.be
 
This followed me home yesterday.
 
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Just stumbled across this Blacktop Strat while I was at a pawn shop. Price was right and the Blacktop gets rid of the only two things that have kept me away from buying Strats before. Single pickups and cheap and cheezy tremlo system. The Floyd Rose is nice to have but I probably won't use it much.
 
 
 
Jeff H said:
This followed me home yesterday.
 
20140514_201933.jpg
20140514_201941.jpg
20140514_201953.jpg

 
 
Just stumbled across this Blacktop Strat while I was at a pawn shop. Price was right and the Blacktop gets rid of the only two things that have kept me away from buying Strats before. Single pickups and cheap and cheezy tremlo system. The Floyd Rose is nice to have but I probably won't use it much.
Nice Jeff! Have you heard the pickups on the SRV Strat?
They sound great.
 
                                                                      MEET GWAMBA
 
Darn it. Another one followed me home.
 
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My first axe ever with active pickups. So far, I like it quite a lot.
 
Bought this one purely for alternate tunings since it is a hard tail. It is intended for D standard, drop C and drop B. Just got it the other day so I havne't had much of a chance to play with it yet.
 
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