Boudreau Guitars - Tonewood debate guitar builds. Part 1

Music : On My Life by Letter Box

[knowwhey]

One thing I'd suggest:
Edit your sound samples close together. In Paul Graham's video, he let each note ring until it faded away (wood vs acrylic) and it was hard to judge. I actually downloaded his video and cut the samples closer together myself. The differences were much less than I'd originally thought.

[Nihilism]

Thanks for going to all this trouble. I am really interested to see the result.

[catdumpling]

Whatever the results, I'm looking forward to it! I appreciate you taking the time to do this, and putting all that work into it, regardless of how it turns out. And hey, at the end of the day, you'll still end up with two great-looking guitars!

Also: please to deposit the ambrosia maple directly into my hands. K thx. ;)

[The_Reality_Filter]

Excellent video, can't wait to hear the results. Good to see you are approaching this with an open mind.

[Ibaneddie]

Holy crap I remember watching these when they first came out, hope you are still building guitars man I bet you've built some cool shit in the past 8 years!

[johngerson]

Hey there, in your prior video about this project you asked for suggestions about making sure that the "sameness" factors about these test instruments were as aligned as possible. I may have a couple unless they are factors which you've already taken into account. I'd think that you would want both bodies to be of the same "grain orientation" i.e., both slab cut or both quartersawn. I imagine that both of your necks are quartersawn. It also seems to me that you would want both of the bodies to have similar density characteristics and therefore be (hopefully) similar in their "bloom" characteristics or acoustic output value, if that's a better description maybe. One other thing, if it's plausible, would be to cut the fingerboards in a bookmatching fashion out of a single piece of rosewood so that the boards grain characteristics and densities will also maybe be closely matched in type and form. Just suggestions,   if they don't apply or you've already taken those aspects into account, please disregard. I'll be interested to see what your outcome is in this experiment, thanks for sharing it with us. Really dig your work either way. Cheers!

[sjp]

I realize this is an old build, and was posted a couple of years ago, however I'm watching this build, because I appreciate what you do. Ban the naysayers! move on for those of us who are as curious as you are about this subject. I appreciate your skills, and your willingness to do this series. Regards, And respect, Solomon

[howabouthetruth]

I too, have been so looking forward to this. As for your warnings to any viewer who can't contain themselves in the comments during this entire process, I say RIGHT ON Ken! That's tellin' 'em. As you said, you don't have to do this, and your doing this for everyone of us. THANK much RESPECT.

[BoudreauGuitars]

Thanks, Howaboutthetruth, Ordered all the parts from Stew Mac earlier this evening,  and I should be seeing them on Wednesday. \m/

[LUTE]

Hey Brother please don't take offense. Are these guitars built from scratch or are they kits? Have you looked at the guitar making world in general lately. It just amazes me how many guitar manufacturers there are in the world and how many guitars they produce and there all going like gangbusters. You would think there would be a saturation point somewhere along the line. Your guitars are beautiful by the way love that scooped out cutaway. Is that your idea? Just curious I never saw any of your videos before. I Haven't been Youtube surfing in awhile. I like what you do. Sound like you hail from my neck of the woods Mass.

[chipfilmstv]

This is a good Tonewood video, however, it did get into some WWE style camera time towards the end. So, what recording instruments will you be using to capture the sample sounds? Mic'ed cabinet? Direct?

[blasiusguitars]

hi, i watched these videos because i wanted to hear these two guitars but i couldn't find one with the recordings. did you make any recordings with them?

[stephengent]

So wood is a natural material. It varies enormously. Moisture content and grain structure can effect the sound it makes. To me making two guitars of different materials seems a good idea, however it is just one sample, and cannot be said to be tell us much. Two other guitars might give different results. So that aside how about recording sound frequency from the guitar unplugged, and with detection equipment to pick up frequencies from the neck and bod. Kind of like an acoustic. We all agree ( I think) that different woods make a difference in acoustic guitars, so why wouldn't the same idea apply to solid body i electric instruments. Having said all that there are other issues: pickups are two ever identical? Pots ditto. They vary a lot. Caps same thing. Guitar pick and how you play. Lastly amplification. To summarize, I think it does make a difference, but that difference may be lost entirely because other factors cancel them out.

[prognosis]

use the same electronics on both guitars

[blackfender]

I'm not so sure any more either we all have our opinions.I was in the tonewood/set neck camp forever.But i have modded some cheapies that sound fantastic .So who is to say.I think the better wood certainly makes a better quality instrument.

[johnwhitehouse]

Stay cool, you have the skills and technical abilities to build wonderful guitars .
So you will unfortunately get posts from those who have no ability to do anything .

Keep posting, as you show and talk through builds and hardware that even a layman like me can understand .

[DKGCustom]

Cool....exciting stuff.
There are some really abusive assholes on both side of this debate, and sometimes I've been pretty abusive in response.
Having done my initial tests I was always of a mind to go fine 'Tonewood', but after some of the hate I received I was tempted that if I did find it, I'd just keep it to myself because those assholes didn't deserve a truth like that!
Anyway, back to your test. I can't remember if you were going to build bolt on necks. I'm still constantly getting comments about the neck being the thing that makes the difference. It would be cool to extend your test to stage 2 and do a neck swap...
But I'M not going to tell you what to do because I know how much work goes into these things.

Good luck

[ramblinman]

What about the strings?  I've thought about your idea and it seems the strings might be an area of question, you know, stretching and such.

[OsmiumStudios]

Dude, I've sent you a message to your youtube inbox. anyway man these videos are super cool. Do not get offended by stupid trolls ;) cheers man looking forward to see the results ;)

[joaocastro]

keep the good work bro, , , dont bother about the rest... this people are everywhere, , , big mouths and don acomplish anything