Seems like wood does matter after all!

[GuitarIv]

Soo... I made an interesting observation today.

Having finally the chance to play my Strat and my Jackson side by side (moved into a new flat, thus I've taken both guitars with me, the Jackson has been in the rehearsal room previously) I noticed something I would not have thought to be true. I always knew my Strat was spanky and bright, but that it actually would make the Holydiver sound almost brighter than my Painkiller, that's something unexpected.

The Jackson has a Mahogany Body with a Bolt On Maple Neck and a Rosewood fretboard, a Floyd Rose and a 24.75 Inch scale. Tuned to E-Flat Standard with Elixir 10-52s. Painkiller in the Bridge and Coldsweat in the Neck with Black Battleworn Covers and Black Hex Screws.

The Strat has a Poplar Body with a Bolt On Maple Neck and Maple Fretboard, a Standard Strat Trem and a 25.5 Inch Scale. Tuned to E Standard with Elixir 10-46s. Holydiver in the Bridge Uncovered with standard Slug and Screw Coil and Slowhands.

Now is there something I'm missing here? Scale length, Pickup Covers, Hex Screws, the tuning, the bridges or the string gauge? The Jackson has a fatter bottom end than the Strat, with a nice rounded (!) midrange and controlled highs whereas the Strat has a tight, defined bottom with warm mids and sparkly highs.

I would have never expected this outcome, regarding that galaxies are supposed to separate the Painkiller and the Holydiver by their respective characters. Thoughts?

Cheers

[FELINEGUITARS]

Of course the wood matters.
Everything matters and affects the overall outcome from timbers , build style, scale length , tuning etc etc
The pickup acts as a filter and to a degree tunes what the guitar gives through it's selective reinforcement of certain frequency ranges.

That is why many will try pickup after pickup in the same guitar  and settle on one particular favourite that really works on that instrument.

On another guitar however the same experiment may yield a different result as the pickup that compliments the characteristics of that other guitar best may well be different to the previous example.

I have just made 12 technically very similar guitars and loaded each with a different set of pickups.
The results have been interesting to observe when all of the other factors have remained constant apart from the variance between individual pieces of wood.

[Djentleman!]

^I'd love to hear some comparisons of that, that sounds really awesome. Also very impressive!

Woods make a huge difference. I have an Aftermath in both a PRS Custom 24, Maple top Mahogany body, 24.75" neck and an Ibanez JS1200 Basswood body, 22 frets, 25.5" scale. The PRS is deep, saturated, tube-y, throaty, and very dark; the Ibanez is punchy, tight, dry as a bone, and on the verge of harsh. Funny thing too is I literally just got a Blackhawk into my Carvin DC727 (walnut body, maple top, 25" neck) and it is the complete blending of the two with a bit more organic sound (to be expected with the Blackhawk). I expected it to be extremely dark since it's in walnut, but the maple REALLY showed up for some reason and made the sound extremely punchy. It borders on single coil brightness  :x The part I find really cool though is that the walnut shows through as well and gives a thick, deep sound to the punchiness of the maple.

Anyone who claims wood doesn't matter is using bad PUPs, and therefore not BKPs  :lol: But in all seriousness, BKPs are VERY affected by the wood, it's really cool imo.

[GuitarIv]

I'm just really surprised, I could have bought a Warpig for the Strat and a Rebell Yell for the Jackson and both instruments would have been balanced in sound. The Strat cuts like a knife whilst the Jackson has plenty of body and depth, so I'm still satisfied. And yes, Bareknuckles let the guitars character really shine through, unlike EMGs or some Duncans I tried out. They translate the sound of the unplugged guitar! :)

Btw Djentleman, the guitars Feline talks about are these:

https://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=28587.0

I think it would be hard to do a side by side comparison since most of them have already gone to their respective owners.

Cheers

[Djentleman!]

Ahhh bummer  :( That would've been sweet!

[BigB]

The Jackson has a Mahogany Body with a Bolt On Maple Neck and a Rosewood fretboard, a Floyd Rose and a 24.75 Inch scale. Tuned to E-Flat Standard with Elixir 10-52s. Painkiller in the Bridge and Coldsweat in the Neck with Black Battleworn Covers and Black Hex Screws.

The Strat has a Poplar Body with a Bolt On Maple Neck and Maple Fretboard, a Standard Strat Trem and a 25.5 Inch Scale. Tuned to E Standard with Elixir 10-46s. Holydiver in the Bridge Uncovered with standard Slug and Screw Coil and Slowhands.

Now is there something I'm missing here? Scale length, Pickup Covers, Hex Screws, the tuning, the bridges or the string gauge?

You could try to take the strings out of the equation by using the same gauge and tuning on both but I'm not sure it's worth the pain, and we'd still have different scale length.  Don't know how much difference the trem system do, but certainly less than  trem vs no trem.

The Jackson has a fatter bottom end than the Strat, with a nice rounded (!) midrange and controlled highs whereas the Strat has a tight, defined bottom with warm mids and sparkly highs.

I would have never expected this outcome, regarding that galaxies are supposed to separate the Painkiller and the Holydiver by their respective characters. Thoughts?

Well... Could it be that wood does matter  somehow ?-)