Acoustic a definite yes. Not only does tonewood affect the tone of a guitar, each individual piece of wood affects the tone. A classic! This is because the wood itself is mimicking the string’s vibration at two separate points: If the guitar is tonally dead unamplified, its electrified tone will mirror that inadequacy. As a luthier, I tend to agree with those who say that the species of body wood has little effect on the tone (especially in electric guitars – pickups, scale length and hardware have more influence, while shape and the topwood, and how it is braced are the vital drivers in acoustics.) Plus most people adjust the sound though electronics which standardizes the tone. It depends on what you call important. All that nonsense about this wood sounds warm while that one has more bite, etc., etc., are all bullshit blown by self-aggrandizing amateurs. Ya I know those 1500’s luthiers really knew how to get the most out of their ELECTRIC guitars. The woods used to build guitars—acoustic guitars in particular—are called tonewoods, and they have enormous effects on … Sapwood tends to have a more porous structure – it is softer, and tends to shrink or swell more easily with changes in moisture – so luthiers avoid it and use ‘heartwood’ whenever possible. CYBER WEEK SALE: Save 50% on a Monthly Plan. And they are not all shredder axes. It doesnt change the tone per se, it makes it more stabke, though. This list is by no means complete, nor do I intend it to be. It sounded like mud…. Tonally and structurally they are the same, black korina comes from the edge of the tree where white korina comes from the core. I built an ash guitar recently for a customer based on his ’58 Tele in swamp ash, and it had nothing like the acoustic properties of the original, even with identical hardware and construction. I have a great opportunity to get some incredible cherry, but won’t waste my money if is not well suited for an electric guitar. Individual vibro-acoustic characteristics are mainly due to different densities of wood types. I could make the mahogany sound like the Maple, or make the maple deeper and more resonant and the mahogany bright and treble dominated just by doing that – with no change to the wood used in the body. Neck's wood has a strong influence in the guitar tone. In my experience, what Orpheo has said is pretty accurate, and as he mentions are general rules for species. Brightness, attack, bite paired with a slick, speedy feel. Acoustically – Yes, out of pickups – not at all. pickups and hardware are for fine tuning. This article talks about the need to wait for the note to bloom for a fraction of a second. John I tend to disagree with people that talk like you. They do not pick up wood vibration, the vibration of the wood is not amplified. At the end of the day, electric guitar tone is a magic brew made up of a lot of factors. Cherry is lovely and I use it for bodies and necks – makes excellent acoustics and I see no reason not to use it in electrics – it is a lot like maple to work and in strength and flex, (although it smells nicer – but the dust can be an irritant – use a mask) although that can vary with the tree – some cherry is hard, some are soft. The difference between a billet cut from the top or the bottom of the tree makes a huge difference in tone. Props to Mr. Catherwood. It isn’t in my head nor is it imaginary if luthiers have discussed this at length since the inception of electric instruments. That makes it a perfect template for your own sound. all of them giving diff tones… I had a piece or heartwood/Hardwood mix for a body. As a builder of small volume/one off guitars, you use the general rule in the design process, then select the individual blank that taps in a nice resonant way. As a fretboard you get the bite of maple and the rumble of rosewood, with a unique, speedy feel. In this paper two differing wood types are studied, ash and alder, and a method are investigated to determine their tonal spectrums. Due to its price tag and hard nature, ebony is most often used for fretboards, though some luthiers are known for using ebony as the sides and sometimes even the top or back of an acoustic guitar, and on occasion you can even find ebony necks. Then how could the wood not play a role in your guitarâs tone? Put a set of lipsticks in a strat and they won’t have the same spank and boing as in a dano; put a set of strat p’ups in a dano and they won’t have the same fluidity of sound as a strat. Johann, better start fixing your own grammar before trying to fix other people’s mistakes. Guitarists are familiar with the various tonewoods and shapes that are used on electric guitars. Not much mention of wood there, but in reality, that is only part of the story. Also the shape of the guitar or if it’s solid or hallow shouldn’t be a tone factor… Realy?! Just to confuse things some “hardwoods (like Balsa and Obeche) are very soft, while some “softwoods” like Pitch pine are quite hard. Admits what? The purple is its natural color but it will change to a brownish hue over time under the influence of air and light. In fact, most guitarists would agree that it is an important one. Embedded content: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoi2sDiBa0Ebpai8s. So what do you make of that. Despite what /u/swordfingers has stated modern electric guitars do have cavities- if there are tone blocks added, for instance, and so this does have an impact of the sound. Shut up and go play your guitars!!!!!! Gear, Equipment, Recording & Off Topic Gear, Equipment, and Recording discussed here. That said, the effect of all of this is not as large as people tend to make it out to be. Maple is far and away the most common type of electric guitar neck wood, and for good reason. There a many different grades of Maple, Mahogany, etc etc. So… if there is no difference to tone NO MATTER the material of the body and all that matters is the scale the pu and the strings, then a tin made guitar will sound exactly the same as a concrete body or a mahogany body guitar!!! Tonally korina is very similar to mahogany, with a bit more upper mids and presence. HOME > Neck influence in guitar tone THE NECK INFLUENCE IN GUITAR TONE. Maple. Does an electric guitar's tonewood affect the tone? What is “hardwood” used in budjet guitars. Don’t expect a smooth jazzy tone of honky, smokin blues sound, but if bite is what you need, maple is your best friend. Koa loves to be matched with a walnut back for added power, more tightness in the lows and extra scream, or with korina or mahogany for more sweetness and growl. Yeah, and not all of us care about grammer or what you think either. Dense and fairly heavy, with sonic characteristics similar to those of mahogany, walnut is occasionally used in electric-guitar bodies. It should always be remembered that no two pieces are the same, there are the general tonal characteristics to these woods. Swamp ash, on the other hand, is much lighter, with less compression in the tone. A high-cut piece of hard ash might be closer to the sound you’re looking for than a lower cut of swamp ash. Try that on an acoustic and you’ll have some weird sounding stuff. I am not a luthier, just a guitar lover and a history student who tries to help others with my experiences. The short answer is that nearly all the parts of an electric guitar affect the tone in some way. Poplar is used on many inexpensive guitars, often as ‘body wings’ for neck-thru Vs and the like, but there are also much finer, higher-quality, higher-priced examples. I wouldn’t call that a confirmation. But when it comes to the Electric guitar signal to the amp, the wood is bypased. Hard ash is generally speaking on the heavier side. I have strangers come in and they can tell the difference….sorry, it’s true. Why not just use the other kind of wood if that’s what you intend to do? Itâs a debate that has waged on among beginner and advanced players alike for a long time, and itâs something that Reddit user NissanGT77 asked. And yes tones can easily be adjusted to sound like different woods, but then you are just overriding the natural tone already presented. That said, I assume tone-wise, the difference between an expensive guitar (with exotic wood) and a cheap electric (of plywood), but both have the same pickups, hardware, etc., is nearly non existent. Agathis is a general moniker, not a specific species. You cannot properly evaluate the tone of production guitars, they are too inconsistent in supplies and craftsmanship. This African wood also goes by the name limba and is available in two versions: white and black. So make a guitar body out of crap and play it so we can all listen how it sounds… If you really can’t hear any difference, change instrument… Learn the flute. George, while I agree that there is an effect on tone from woods, the electronics are a majority of the tone, its an electric guitar, as for the picking out different guitars from a line-up like you said, I would certainly like to see that. Reclaimed Mahog. trust me, those same difference you hear with an accoustic are technically there on an electric, they don’t just dissapers. Amps, pedals, whatever. Active 1 year, 11 months ago. The body is arguably the most important wood used in an electric guitar, but the guitar’s neck also plays a role. 70% of the strings’ vibrations travel along the neck. I pick out my Gibson’s by choosing the one that sounds the best. Ignorance is bliss my man. The amount of peer-reviewed research on this subject currently is lacking; an article published by a university in Australia claims that a researcher has proven that wood does not affect a guitar's sound, but no data has been published together with this assertion. (La Trobe Or they haven’t been playing the right guitars. The different tones themselves were not fully explored and in this article I will give a global overview of the different tone woods, the sound they produce and in some cases their purpose. I can’t stand the grammatical errors. Those who donât believe wood affects a guitarâs tone point to the physics of how an electric guitar works. Does the type of wood on a solid body electric guitar affect its tone or sound? Your statement is vague with no clear direction. ( now you will have some debating on if the wall is sheet rock or wood, lol) I have never built a guitar but I believe nature is the teacher on this one. Unless you checked sonically and measured every sound from the lowest to highest and directly compared them, you can not make that statement, if you had checked,you would see a measureable difference ,and anyone with a discerning ear would be able to hear it, all else being equal,(obviously if you crank everything to 11enty eleven and at 150 db where there is no possibility of actually making music instead of noise,whats left or your hearing isn’t likely to hear anything but volume.The changes will be made at specific vibrational frequency’s ,and change specific characteristics,IE sustain, tone attack, etc whatever your term, dependent on what you change ,how its connected ,what its connected to. Warm but not muddy with great sustain. My guess is: ♦ Locking tuners ♦ A good bridge (Tune-o-matics are crap, because the strings lay on small blades and they snap a lot, also small surface area is bad for sustain) ♦ A metal nut, best if it also locks. If it was only changing pickups and hardware….. oh what a beautiful world it would be!! I have a guitar that I use to try out different strings and pins – it is astonishing how much the tone can be changed, and how much I can hate the sound of that guitar with the wrong combinations, and love it with the strings and pins that suit it best to my ears. The strings might not directly touch the wood, but the energy from a strummed string is transferred from the bridge and nut into the body and neck, creating frequencies that move through that wood. I don’t need to build anything, I need to play them. It’s like an exaggeration of a rosewood fingerboard. Acoustically – Yes, everything on the guitar affects the tone, because the tone comes from strings resonating the wood, and the vibrating wood (The whole guitar actually) is causing the amplified sound. Not sure about sustain, but it’s said that it’s dependant on the materials of bridge and nut, and the magnetic field strength of the pickups. Logic goes: Acoustically – Yes, everything on the guitar affects the tone, because the tone comes from strings resonating the wood, and the vibrating wood (The whole guitar actually) is causing the amplified sound. Softer woods will have a darker tone with less bite. That doesn’t mean to say that you should only use the “big brand” tonewoods. If you'd like to learn more about all things guitar, check out Fender Play. Build a few guitars then you will realize just how stupid a statement that is. Could be how each was setup (string height and intonation) because as you said they were all the same guitar and most likely the same type of wood. People just attempt to justify their decision to sink down big bucks on boutique guitars, when the tone is actually not any different. 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