The Tonewood NONSENSE Debate Again

[Kimoto]

Plain old physics. As you say, the mechanism through which an acoustic makes sound is the strings shaking the bridge, then shaking the top (face) and resonating the cavity and out the sound hole. Wood and construction make an obvious difference.

Electrics make sound by the string moving over a magnet with a coil around it picking up the induced current due to the metal string "cutting" through the magnet's field ("orthogonally"); this tiny current is amplified to be heard. Wood is nowhere in this chain of sound production. It only matters in terms of sustain because a lighter guitar body allows the string to transfer more energy to moving the guitar rather than expending the energy cutting the air and its own internal metallic-structural friction.

For electric tone, it's all in the pickups/electronics, assuming the thing stays in tune and the bridge and nut are sound.

[sentuljazz]

Couldn't have said it better. I have certainly benefited from watching all the guitar stuff that people like Morrisman n others put out on their utube channels. . It's extremely generous and kind of them to do this and for all to learn and enjoy. Thank you very much.

[phromic]

100 percent correct , with electrics it is almost all about the bridge, pick up and strings . i have hot rodded some cheap p o s guitars. basically only keeping the body and tuners and a couple other things maybe, now guess what it sounds good now . with a acoustic you cant do this a 50 buck acoustic will always sound like a 50 buck acoustic .

[RichardKurbis]

yep yep yep...

subtle...
Even still if I see 6 identical Strats on the wall... each one will be slightly different and I will find a favorite sounding one (for me) out of the six.
Is it wood? not if they are the same wood... differences in winding on the pickups, slight variation on the pots and capacitors... there are many factors other than wood.
It's never enough to fight over it. :)
I'm a frugal guitar buyer, and you can find a lot of great "playing" guitars for cheap... and if you want a better "sound" perhaps pots/Caps/pickups can be swapped out to get the sound you want.
Good talk Morrisman.

[TeamFreedomLLC-iykx]

What brand would you recommend for a nice acoustic guitar, Morris? I don't want to spend an arm and a leg, but I would like a rich sounding acoustic.

[Dreamdancer]

I have played many squiers, mexicans, american strats, a few custom shops and also made my own strats from bare wood while straying away from the norm( i made them set ins and neckthroughs not bolt ons with mahogany bodies and necks, not alder or swamp ash, fixed bridges and heavy as fuck).At the end of the day though if the scale length is the same the setup is on point and the player knows what he is doing they ll all play exactly like good strats.

Material on solid body electrics is irrelevant.If it mattered they wouldnt be invented in the first place and we would all mount electromagnetic pickups to acoustics and be over with.

[rocket]

In a live setting with other instruments your audience can't hear or care about the wood, pickups, pots, capacitors or brand. The wood, brand or any of the the other stuff is the preferrance of the musicians. Don't listen to people that say "oh you gotta have this or you gotta have that", the difference is your abilities.

[moreanimalspirits]

This is a great site. Nothing else like it. I am agnostic about tone wood, but I think I learned the hard way that cheap guitars can sound pretty bad.

Certainly you need something with a straight neck and can do low action. And you have to have 'good' pickups. I have tried many but I like the Seymour Duncan SSL2 because my neck has a flat radius. But GFS makes good pickups if you don't have a flat radius.
And, I much prefer bending strings with a guitar without a tremelo than with it...

[billyshears]

I agree with the tone wood being nonsense but not the quality of guitars. I've had some pretty crappy and some top notch guitars. My playing skyrocketed when I had a quality instrument.

[IsmailBergitar]

The debate will always be raised by followers who believe in tonewood in electric guitars. Because if everyone doesn't believe in tonewood anymore, they can't sell at high prices anymore. Their marketing will always say it uses good wood compared to other cheap guitars.

[bluefrog]

I am not a pro or a Luthier but I agree with Morrisman and others who say that tonewood for electric guitars is bullshit. just use common sense and you will have to come to the same conclusion
thanks for opening up my eyes.

[GWRevolutionTV]

I refuse to buy a 2000 dollar Martin Guitar.. you can get a good cheap acoustic guitar.. i paid 100 bucks for a Fender Acoustic at Guitar Center during a Labor Day Sale.. and it sounds good... sometimes you can get lucky and save money and come away with a good deal and good instrument

[wildbillhackett]

I've built enough Teles over the years to know that the body wood you use makes no difference whatsoever to the sound of the guitar. Common sense ought to tell anybody over the age of three that a 5 pound chunk of wood wedged between your arm and chest can't vibrate enough to matter. That's why Jeff Baxter's old Lucite bodied Strat sounds like any other Strat. And you can hear a fairly new video at Wildwood Guitars where Greg Koch is playing a metal bodied Tele (Steelcaster) that sounds like any other Tele: watch?v=91oUwd9aG4Y

[TangeOrheen]

Brilliant. Go watch my tonewood vid. We're tagged.