Guitar Weight

[Zaned]

The sound extracted from an electric guitar is the disturbance in the magnetic field of the pickups, caused by the string. That is correct, yes. And the pickup shapes that sound according to its personality, yes.

But the woods do matter greatly. Strings by themselves only have a high frequency pitch to them. Their job is to provoc wood vibration, through vibration transmitters like the frets, nut, saddles and bridge. That vibration RETURNS through the same transmitters and brings a new overtone to the strings that is sympathetic to the wood tones. And THAT combination is what the pickups are hearing. And that's why we hear the difference between body and neck woods also in electric guitars. And the heavier the wood, the harder it is for the string to provoc tone wood vibration and that sympathetic vibration.

And yes, the construction (neck angle, scale, neck joint type) has a great affect too.

-Zaned

[AndyR]

I think that it's less to do with how heavy they are, and more to do with what colour they are.

The type and colour of the strap you use has a big affect too Bump - I've heard that straplocks can be tone-suckers because there isn't enough body/strap interraction, so I never use them (can get a bit expensive on the luthier bills if you're not careful though...)

[Will]

White volume knobs and cream tone knobs open the guitar up a whole lot too

[gwEm]

tone is all in the fingers - thats why alot of todays guitarists are painting their fingernails black

[Bob Johnson]

 :lol:

[Bradock PI]

But the woods do matter greatly. Strings by themselves only have a high frequency pitch to them. Their job is to provoc wood vibration, through vibration transmitters like the frets, nut, saddles and bridge

And yes, the construction (neck angle, scale, neck joint type) has a great affect too.

-Zaned

The vibrations in the wood are dependent on the energy from the string and the mass of the wood - string = light weight very little energy = body = massive object = very little vibration - very little vibration = tiny effect. Believe me the physics mean the only way a tone wood can impart a lot of character is if it is light and thin. All the effects you are hearing are down to the way the sting behaves on a solid body

[Bob Johnson]

But the woods do matter greatly. Strings by themselves only have a high frequency pitch to them. Their job is to provoc wood vibration, through vibration transmitters like the frets, nut, saddles and bridge

And yes, the construction (neck angle, scale, neck joint type) has a great affect too.

-Zaned

The vibrations in the wood are dependent on the energy from the string and the mass of the wood - string = light weight very little energy = body = massive object = very little vibration - very little vibration = tiny effect. Believe me the physics mean the only way a tone wood can impart a lot of character is if it is light and thin. All the effects you are hearing are down to the way the sting behaves on a solid body

If you really want to get into the physics you'll have to open your horizons to a lot more than just the concepts of mass. Complex structures like those presented in various species of timber have many varied resonant characteristics; only a few of which are governed by their mass. Guitar bodies do not resonate en mass like a piece of cast iron does; they "filter" sound, emphasizing some frequencies, killing others and generating harmonics. Use a guitar tuner with an internal mic to tune your acoustic and you'll see that occasionally your tuner will register the fourth or even the fifth harmonic, this will also occasionally happen on a solid bodied guitar as well . This is a symptom of what the tonewoods in your guitar are doing to the root note.

 

[MrBump]

Has anyone ever put all of this to scientific enquiry?

I mean, we all talk about tone wood, construction etc.  And there are builders and manufacturers that do things in a particular way, possibly because that's how they've always been done, possibly because because that's the best way of doing it.

How could one measure the "tone" of wood, scientifically?  Make various slabs of different woods with fretboards and pickups mounted?  Then a blind (or double blind) test?

Personally, I'm pretty sure that construction and woods must have an impact, particularly neck wood.  However, I'm also a firm believer in the human psyche, in that when we see a Les Paul (or, God forbid, a Telecaster!!) we expect it to sound a particular way.  When we see a maple fretboard we expect that to sound different to a rosewood one.  I'm not saying that there are NO differences, just that I believe we can convince ourselves of differences where none necessarily exist...

Mark.

[MrBump]

Oh, and Andy - that stuff about straplocks is just crazy talk.

[AndyR]

:lol:

You wait, people will be quoting me in years to come...

Just doin my bit to subvert the interweb :lol:

[Bradock PI]

I am not saying there will be no vibrations through the body but their influence on the signal will be tiny. The string vibrates in many modes and will carry a large number of harmonics the field effects on the magnets will also generate harmonic and complex tones as the field is complex close to the magnets and the coupling between the two magnet and string is also complex. The stings movement will not be uniform it will vibrate and it precess with osiclations intially in several modes on the first pluck settling down to a more stable group resonance and then settling down to a decayed clean resonance. This sequence of mode changes is what gives the characteristic tone of the instrument and it is all about how the supporting structures neck body and bridge impact those changes.

[WezV]

I dont wish to get into a mass debate (he he ;) ) about the effect of wood on a guitars tone but i dont think you need to play many guitars to know that the wood makes a difference.

take a factory like fender, gibson or PRS producing fairly accurate re-creations of the same guitar over and over again.    The only difference between each guitar in the same line is the actual piece of wood used.  This is different because its hard to control the density, stiffness and weight of pieces of wood.  Nature has other ideas.  

So anyway, lots of identical guitars produced to exacting tolerances (in most cases)... and whaddayaknow  , they all sound a bit different... you only have to play a couple of supposedly identical guitars to notice this!!

[MDV]

Edit: to braddock

No, their influence is large.

The guitar is a closed loop sympathetic resonance system - vibrations setup in the string cause vibrations in the body and neck that cause vibrations in the string. Ergo frequencies that can exist in both the string and the body and neck (since the string is capable of far more resonant modes than the guitar, this is quite few) are boosted in the string by constuctive interference with the resonance of the guitar and those that cant exist in one or the other are not permitted or severely diminished in the loop - the dominant modes in the string become the resonant modes of the guitar.

By your logic 2 guitars with the same strings on, both the same scale and both with the same bridge and nut would have (very nearly) the same sound. Sorry, but thats bollocks. The woods of the body, the construction, the shape, they all affect the sound very strongly.

[MrBump]

Ahhh, go on Wez - I like a mass debate as well as the next man...

I still think that, even in mass produced guitars, there are many, many other variables that might make a difference - different glue in the neck joint, electrics wired differently etc.  It would be very hard to pin tonal differences down to wood alone, wouldn't it?

Was that too many woods/woulds?

[broken cord]

What do you consider heavy? I have a 10-lbs Soltero and 9.6 lbs Les Paul, and neither one are breaking my back.  Both sound very different from each other both are single cut style guitars. Personally, I think the weight adds to the tone especially as the wood ages and is exposed to sonic bombardment. However,I am not a physicist or a tone wood expert.