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Author Topic: Does weight effect tone?  (Read 10186 times)

jpfamps

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Re: Does weight effect tone?
« Reply #30 on: April 12, 2010, 11:06:38 PM »
There was an early 80s Fender "The Strat" in the shop which weighed in at 12 lbs.

Truly a "fighting" Strat.

I wouldn't want to fight it!  :lol:

If I remember right, that model had a huge chunky brass bridge and brass knobs, which can't have helped.

Indeed it was resplendent with gold plated brass hardware, although the one actually had original chrome tuners.

Rumours are that production costs for this model were more than trade price.

Fender also went back to the pre-CBS small headstock with "the Strat" although they got the shape "wrong"!

Having said that, it was a good sounding guitar.

Philly Q

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Re: Does weight effect tone?
« Reply #31 on: April 12, 2010, 11:53:29 PM »
There was an early 80s Fender "The Strat" in the shop which weighed in at 12 lbs.

Truly a "fighting" Strat.

I wouldn't want to fight it!  :lol:

If I remember right, that model had a huge chunky brass bridge and brass knobs, which can't have helped.

Indeed it was resplendent with gold plated brass hardware, although the one actually had original chrome tuners.

Rumours are that production costs for this model were more than trade price.

Fender also went back to the pre-CBS small headstock with "the Strat" although they got the shape "wrong"!

Having said that, it was a good sounding guitar.

Yeah, I remember GAS-ing over one in the window of John Ham's music shop in Swansea, circa 1980 or '81.  They had one of those silver Anniversary Strats too.

(I ended up with a cheap Les Paul copy  :( )
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thisisnickpaige

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Re: Does weight effect tone?
« Reply #32 on: April 13, 2010, 03:19:20 AM »
Uff cheap les paul copy...never ever good.... especially instead of a Fender Strat...that stinks.
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Searcher

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Re: Does weight effect tone?
« Reply #33 on: April 13, 2010, 03:43:53 AM »
One of the warmest guitars I've ever played was an Ibanez with a thin maple neck and a Floyd.  Go figure.  Heavy mahogany body, though.  Bright pink, too.  And the second-warmest guitar I've played was an SG.  It was red.  So there's your correlation: warm colours = warm tones.  Those bowling ball Strats must have been very diverse.

Err, anyways.  I'm not a huge fan of small hollow-bodied guitars.  They have a kind of brittle sound to me.  Maybe that's not the best word to describe it, but solid-bodied guitars have mostly sounded thicker in some way.  If I were to build a very warm Tele I'd go for a solid mahogany body with a rosewood board neck.  You've gone and got the maple one and maple has always sounded a little more articulate to me - which is not the same as bright, necessarily, but it's harder to dial in quite the same thick warmth, I reckon.  Thick necks are supposed to have a better sound, too, though I haven't personally found this to be always true.  Solid necks with a good connection to the body have better tone, though, for sure. 

Then there's pickups, amps settings, and so on.  Oh, and the colour, of course.  ;)


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CodeName

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Re: Does weight effect tone?
« Reply #34 on: April 13, 2010, 08:59:03 AM »
I've only really played Les Pauls, or LP imitators, so I don't have a lot of experience with body versus tone apart from LP's. But a friend sent me a link on Piezo pickups. Now, I know that these pickups are meant to emulate acoustic guitars on solid bodies, so that may be the factor here in the demonstration. I heard someone say it isn't the body, but the actual pickup that affects the tone. I do find that hard to believe, but this youtube video has a Piezo pickup nailed onto a concrete block-- YES! Concrete, I said --and it still sounded amazing. Maybe some of you more experienced players can chime in on this. Did the Piezo pickup sound good because it was just an acoustic emulator? Will a hot BKP pickup also sound good on this concrete block?

You have to see the video (just an ordinary chunk of concrete with a pickup attached to it, but still sounds great)-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFyQXy74xz4
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BigB

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Re: Does weight effect tone?
« Reply #35 on: April 13, 2010, 10:07:20 AM »
I heard someone say it isn't the body, but the actual pickup that affects the tone.

False, and true :wink:

Truth is : everything affects the tone : body wood, neck wood, fretboard wood, thickness, density, shape, construction method, bridge and nut material and type (for the bridge), strings, settings, etc, etc, etc. And of course your fingers.

wrt/ magnetic pups, and depending on winding, mouting system, height adjustment and whatnot, they get more or less of the tone from the wood itself - remember that magnetic pups can be very microphonic. Also, what the pups do pick up - that is, the strings tone - is itself part of  and affected by the whole system.

There has been quite a few attempts at building "inert" guitars so "only the pup" would define the tone. I tried a couple of these guitars in 80s - they plain sucked, period. As warm, lively and reactive as a frozen cadaver. 

wrt/ piezo pickups, it's  an entirely different technology, and I guess that the way they're used in this vid (and are usually used), that is, directly mounted in the bridge itself, greatly minimizes but doesn't totally suppress the impact of the body material and construction. FWIW, you'll notice that the neck itself is good old wood.... They should try with a concrete neck :mrgreen:

Will a hot BKP pickup also sound good on this concrete block?

Can't tell, but I won't bother trying as far as I'm concerned  8)
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Keven

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Re: Does weight effect tone?
« Reply #36 on: April 13, 2010, 03:30:19 PM »
piezo electrics translate direct vibration into voltage, while magnetic pickups translate magnetic field variations into voltage.  piezos will always sound like piezos wherever they are, they'll have that crisp attack and sensitivity to string sliding and so on. magnetics are warmer because it depends on how the attack is perceived and the whole frequency response of the RLC circuit a guitar pickup makes with its electronics.

that said, piezos being in almost -direct- contact with the string at the bridge also makes its tone very unique, compared to a string hovering over a magnetic field.
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Ribboz

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Re: Does weight effect tone?
« Reply #37 on: April 14, 2010, 05:36:10 AM »
Nope i only play guitars and cut the wood i dont know tonal difference, hence why im asking. But i thank you for giving me a real and useful answer not just " play your guitar! ' lol i already do that but when buying a new guitar by parts id like to have a general idea of what ot go after, so sorry if im being annoying , im not trying to be im just very curious.  So i think i get what you mean but just to clarify what do you mean but wide sound? So then would a thinline be even more airy is what you're saying? And then what would you call Ash? and what would you call Mahogany (the warmest kind, i still dont know which is, after your last post in my other topic) ?

Oh the comment about people should know, was more directed to the other people. I wouldn't be that BAM IN YOUR FACE rude. When youre just trying to better understand an instrument. Learning the fundamentals of guitar tone was the funnest year for gear. After you have a good image, youre just waiting for new "stuff" to come out XD or looking for more luthiers XD

A WIDE sound is created by lowering the mids in comparison to the highs and lows. By lowering the mids it seems to emphasize both the strength of the high end and low end. Thus created a wider difference between the high and low. From this you get a wide tone. Understanding the opposite will better allow you to further understand.
To get a FAT sound you emphasize the mids. What this appears to do (from the ear) the emphasized mids seems to lower the difference from high to low end. This lack of contrast between the extremes seems to create a more even fat tone.

I find the best setting more of a WIDE setup. The great extremes of a scooped tone(built right) has astonishing vocal properties because that huge contrast between high and low allows one to achieve a huge variety in tone.(based on physical manipulation)

Ok for the thinline. I noticed on some companies that build hollow bodies, there is a certain feedback. It made Anderson guitars almost unplayable, because of this feedback. I remember holdsworth talking about just this issue. He had away around it, thus I assume luthiers already have fixed that. (So I really dont like hollow bodies, atleast for electric guitar) Depending on your style, if its rock/hard rock and anything more aggressive I would stay away from thinline.

Ahh Ash... Ash is a gold of wood. (A good piece) You can feel a good piece of ash when you play. The resonance is wondrous and lush. The tone is very cool too. Most people think ash is bright, its really not so much. They just dont match it with good pickups. I've had a bunch, in a few ash guitars. But in the end, I had a C-pig and a C-diver in ash (two guitars) and they just blow me away. See ash naturally has a scooped tone. Thus a good pickup leaves chords wide and single notes sing. Its just miraculous :D   BUT light ash is what you want if you want ash. Heavy ash is like a shiteeety version of maple. BUT DONT GET HEAVY ASH. Its just not worth it. For many reasons.

I really enjoyed what john suhr said about Mahogany. (good mahogany) It makes sense when you think about this too. (But, Im adding my own two scents here) Mahogany really isn't "warm". When compared to warm tones created at the end of the chain, (the sound you hear) a warm tone from wood would be more like Basswood. Because Basswood tends to cut lot of high frequencies. I always thought of it as a dead wood. It just seems to cut too much presence. Back to Mahogany. It has a very FAT midrange and thus seems to emphasize a more of the low end. Im not saying the actual low mids (maybe it does)(Im no luthier)

Sadly theres really no way of knowing how a guitar will sound till its all complete. :\
All you need is a general idea how it SHOULD sound. + Quality parts and it should sound awesome. :)
« Last Edit: April 14, 2010, 05:39:11 AM by Ribboz »
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