Where does tone come from in a guitar?

[pompeiisneaks]

This is a really interesting video...



Thoughts?

~Phil

[bepone]

so only pickup and piece of wood. this kind of videos i have seen many years ago, but they played metal on the shovel.
but who wants to play on piece of wood? where is the total romance like with the guitar?

for me he just starded with the tests.. doesnt matter that he actually removed guitar body from the tone with the tests of "air" guitar.. i would include various types of wood for improvised "body" to see various effects (darker tone ? ) for various wood , per example machagony and walnut ..

[gktamps]

Very interesting, Phil. It's a fairly good attempt at isolating the variables and testing for them, but too hard to tell by the audio provided, but some changes and similarities were audible. His air guitar should have no problem with sustain, given the huge mass the bridge and nut were attached to.

There are lots of other variables that would be a challenge to test for, such as note decay, harmonics and frequency response in the signal output, as well as the same effects as recorded acoustically, and at different volume levels.

Clearly the guy is a troublemaker - sure to set some people's hair on fire!

[pompeiisneaks]

heheh yeah I'm sure he'll make some people rage.

I am sure there are things he's missing, and I'm also not sure I think the audio recording techiques are the 'best' but to my ear his tonal differnces were almost not there. He also did say he's going to keep this up, so I think he's going to try more tests...

~Phil

[BobSimpson]

I've always been told it's in the fingers...

[igotdibs]

I love it. Great job... totally predictable results.

[ViperDoc]

Very entertaining.

By the time he arrived at duplicating enough factors to correctly diagnose the differences, he essentially starting playing a guitar you would never play. Not very useful IMO. A bigger factor I noticed was that he focused on playing open chords, whereas the "tone is in the hands" phenomenon comes more from a player's overall technique, the way they touch the instrument as opposed to the instrument itself.

I definitely notice differences in the various guitars that I play, especially the same models built from different woods and employing different pickups.

Ultimately, you could take all of that and enslave it to the speakers loaded into the cabinet, or whatever build type it may be, then look at the preamp and how it's lead dressed, how the power supply is spec'd, what ground scheme is used, what iron was pushing the tubes, and THEN I could see a lot of people on this site getting fairly aroused.

[ChopSauce]

Well, I'm rather taking my guitar with me than carrying two benches and the piece of soil they're bolted on...

[pompeiisneaks]

Well, I'm rather taking my guitar with me than carrying two benches and the piece of soil they're bolted on...

This made me laugh, maybe more than it should have

~Phil

[Matthews Guitars]

The string generates all the fundamentals and harmonics that can exist for a specific strike on the string.

Everything else beyond the string is subtractive. Every thing has a spectrum of frequency response. They all filter the output of the string, and the filters sum. (Add to each other.)

literally none of those other parts, other than a Sustainer type device, or acoustic feedback, can INCREASE the length of time a note rings, but they can all decrease it, and they DO.

A more resonant fingerboard won't increase sustain, it will simply decrease it LESS than a less resonant choice. Same goes for any other component of the instrument.

The concept of "tonewood" can be rephrased as "some woods have more or less desirable filtering effects than others" and this is undoubtedly true, but it is also true that wood in an electric guitar has a relatively minor effect on the overall tone of the instrument, and ways to minimize those tonal effects include playing with more distortion and playing at higher volume with feedback, and particularly sustained feedback.

[Berger]

there was a video that had a blind listening shootout between two pedals or op amps,etc
IE challenging the big myths.

I cant find it...anyone remember it and/or have a link for it?

[TUBEDUDE]

Very entertaining.

By the time he arrived at duplicating enough factors to correctly diagnose the differences, he essentially starting playing a guitar you would never play. Not very useful IMO. A bigger factor I noticed was that he focused on playing open chords, whereas the "tone is in the hands" phenomenon comes more from a player's overall technique, the way they touch the instrument as opposed to the instrument itself.

I definitely notice differences in the various guitars that I play, especially the same models built from different woods and employing different pickups.

Ultimately, you could take all of that and enslave it to the speakers loaded into the cabinet, or whatever build type it may be, then look at the preamp and how it's lead dressed, how the power supply is spec'd, what ground scheme is used, what iron was pushing the tubes, and THEN I could see a lot of people on this site getting fairly aroused.

I'm a gittin' my pitchfork n torches ready!

[CaseyJones]

As has been mentioned, tone is in the fingers. Everyone knows that.

Except for the umpteen bazillion wannabees riffing out (badly!) at GuitarCenter. Those guys are convinced that a Holy Grail guitar matched with a Holy Grail amp (not to mention the ubiquitous Holy Grail reverb ) results in Holy Grail tone.

Science aside, the dude in the video comes embarrassingly close to Anderson tone with his $100 guitar reduced to a Les Paul "log" replica. I would say the essential en- greedy- grunts (ingredients) are the Seymore Duncan pickup and some careful blueprinting to match the setup on the Anderson.

I'll bet we could find some kid at GuitarCenter who sounds universally awful no matter what he's using for gear.

[Reeltarded]

Well, I haven't watched the video. It's a youtube algorithm avoidance issue for me..

I probably did this experiment when I was alone, and 4 years old. Popcicle stick on the table edge.

After years of sculpting and luthiery that starts with felling your own wood.. everything matters, but you can only know the reaction of your materials to the real world, then there is a magical chance at something magical.

I like the knock of pawlonia. A light maple one piece quartered neck is a better popcicle stick than any other as a match for it. It's simple physics. Pawlonia is hyper swanp ash. It's lighter, yet much stiffer. It resonates like a short deep bell.

I normally don't like poorly conducted experiments on youtube. They usually find what they are looking for.

If you want to make your guitar sound better, delete all that toidy hardware and go buy some lightweight pot metal parts. Much, much better. STOP BEING A HARDWARE SNOB. lol

[JPK64]

Interesting test. The actual guitar seemed to have a little more shimmer in the high range with the open chords. More high end.