What is BKP's view on the tone wood debate?

[Telerocker]

It must have some lacquer on it - maybe even an epoxy resin - otherwise I can't see how one could play the fret board.

100% correct. Impressed by the strat I watched some more of their videos and they coat the cardboard in epoxy resin

Of course they did, otherwise the neck would be playing like a toiletpaperroll.

[gwEm]

It must have some lacquer on it - maybe even an epoxy resin - otherwise I can't see how one could play the fret board.

100% correct. Impressed by the strat I watched some more of their videos and they coat the cardboard in epoxy resin

Of course they did, otherwise the neck would be playing like a toiletpaperroll.

I'm not sure the neck is amazing to play anyway with those holes. But, it looks absolutely fantastic!

[BigB]

Why is that - well, the pickups in the guitar do not pick up air resonance. They pick up the strings vibrating.

This is a common misconception. Guitar pickups are actually (more or less) microphonic (depending on construction, quality, AND how heavily they were wax-potted), sometimes to the point you can sing thru your pickup.  Modern hot pups are most often heavily potted (else they would squeal at hi-gain settings) so the microphonic effect can be negligible, but vintage ones are either only slightly potted or just not potted at all, and then they do pick some of your guitar's acoustic tone too. That's also (partly) why semi-hollow and hollowbody guitars are more prone to feedback...

wrt/ the good old tonewood debate, there are still way too few scientific researches on the topic but some recent (french - but quite serious nonetheless <g>) studies tend to demonstrate that the neck and fretboard woods would have much more impact than the body's. Which FWIW would match some empirical evidences collected by people having tried the very same guitar (usually a F-type one <g>) with three or more different necks (I did and the difference ranged from "noticeable" to "night and day").

[_tom_]

I don't think it makes as much of an impact on tone as I once thought. So long as it has some resonance and sustain to the acoustic tone, I've found the pickups make more of a difference. My SG has been really picky with pickups and I think the Black Dog has been the best so far - most pickups make it sound dull and lifeless which is not the case unplugged! Whereas my Pearl LP and cheap strat copy sound fine with pretty much anything and have loads of sustain - even the no name single coils in the strat have more sustain and life than the wrong BKP in the SG!

[Dave Sloven]

But the fact that guitars can be picky about the pickups begs the question as to what it is about the guitar that is making it more sensitive to pickup changes than other guitars!!!  Wood type would be part of the equation, but only a small part, as many guitars have the mahogany neck/body combination and it is also the case that maple neck SGs sound more like other SGs than other guitars with mahogany bodies and set maple necks (e.g., some Explorers).  The construction, thickness, bridge type, neck angle, pickup placement, all of these things must have an influence here.  Otherwise every guitar with a certain pickup set in it would sound the same.

[Yellowjacket]

There seems to be two parties on opposite ends of the spectrum, so the question is does the type of wood actually effect the tone or is it a myth...

When you have such a polarized deliberation, usually both sides are right.. .. somewhat.

Wood affects tone, construction affects tone, pickups affect tone.  It all adds up yielding a unique result in the end. 

From what I have heard, the acoustic tone of an instrument is more audible when playing clean but as you add more and more distortion, the timbre of the pickup and the amp tends to predominate. 

[screamingdaisy]

wrt/ the good old tonewood debate, there are still way too few scientific researches on the topic but some recent (french - but quite serious nonetheless <g>) studies tend to demonstrate that the neck and fretboard woods would have much more impact than the body's. Which FWIW would match some empirical evidences collected by people having tried the very same guitar (usually a F-type one <g>) with three or more different necks (I did and the difference ranged from "noticeable" to "night and day").

I suspect there's a lot research that's been done but it's considered proprietary knowledge that various companies would prefer their competition (and probably their consumers) not to have access to.

On one hand they wouldn't want their competition to steal something that took years/$$$$ to figure out and implement, and on the other they wouldn't want their customers to understand how miniscule the effects of their latest changes to next years model are.