Tested: Where Does The Tone Come From In An Electric Guitar?

This did not go how I thought it would.

0:00 - What am I doing?
1:00 - Introducing the Partscaster
2:00 - First Tests
3:43 - Questioning My Methods
4:47 - The Height Revelation
6:07 - The 2x4 Guitar
8:44 - The Air Guitar
11:01 - Outro Jam

I'm @jimlill on instagram.

____

Lately I’ve been looking for where tone comes from.

I did a video a few months ago where I started down the path of actually testing things in the signal chain to see if they make a difference or not, and I was surprised at some of the results.

The rush I got out of finding reality and realizing that most “facts” about tone must come from people who are just repeating stuff instead of actually testing them made me want to go farther.

In this video, I go farther.

I test as many aspects of the electric guitar that I can, with the goal of figuring out which parts contribute to the amplified tone and which don’t.

See (and hear) for yourself.

-Jim, 1/24/22

[dancurtis]

The main reason the air guitar sounds so good is that you are using the air in a very old shop, which gives it that vintage sound.

[darodjati]

Take a moment to appreciate the amount of string tuning this video takes.

[Giraffinator]

My list of most important tone factors:

1. The player
2. Pickups
3. How cool the guitar looks
4. The audience's blood alcohol content
5. How your preferred deity is feeling on that particular day

[tommyboi]

The first comparison strum on the air guitar is one of the funniest moments in guitartube history

[davej]

Having played the air guitar for years it always sounds exactly just like the album. Remarkable.

[andrenieuwlaat]

The message I get from this is: buy yourself a cheap guitar with a neck that feels comfortable to you, replace the cheap pickups with decent ones, have the guitar properly set up by a pro, and you're in business. Great video !

[kennethyates]

This guy really understands the importance of research methodology

[gameoftones]

How has this video not exploded and broken the guitar community?!

[OlaEnglund]

What an absolute legend of a video. VERY interesting

[laboratoryrack]

Brazilian students of luthiery produced a paper in 2010, where they tested 9 guitar bodies, with 9 very different woods. They even had a mechanized strumming machine, that achieved the same strumming every time, and they concluded that same as this video. The paper is called "Sobre o acoplamento corda-corpo em guitarras elétricas e
sua relação com o timbre do instrumento", and can easily be found via Google. It's in Portuguese though.

[colinyoung]

"This list is long, but it's finite. So I started chipping away at it." This is a beautiful message applicable well beyond the bounds of this video.

[devanbumstead]

Thank you for your faithful service to the world of tone. We can all finally give up the search for the perfect guitar and instead look for the perfect pickup.

[sunsparkle]

I think air from the equator brought north by the gulf stream would make that air guitar sound more organic and giving it that ethereal tone that you just can't get anyway else.

[tonyennis]

You deserve a medal for this. I am not surprised in the slightest by the result so far. Tonewood? The wood is selected for cost. Shape? How well does Bo Diddley's square guitar play quarter notes? neck material, because somehow maple has "more snap". Please. You have shown the emperor has no clothes. Well done!

[CrazyCow]

I spent about two years switching out every part there was on my guitars and came to the conclusion that I should just play more. This video proves that.

[AmosClifford]

Next step, obviously, is to try weighing the bench with something other than honda... ducati engines, yamaha engines, harley engines, indian engines, etc. And then you will need to try them in every possible combination and engine size. Will an 80cc sound different than a 500cc? And of course, it is necessary to consider the implications of engine size for touring. It would not surprise me if you developed a guitar you could just ride to the gig. Thank you for helping to move science forward! I very much enjoy your video. Good ear on that slide, with no frets to visually guide you.

[ElShogoso]

In recent years I already had heavy suspicions that 90% of the value in an expensive guitar comes from how comfortable/enjoyable it is to play, as well as how well it stays in tune (that's where things like the construction, hardware and especially the neck come in place), because the other 10% value could at the very least be satisfyingly obtained through the electronics, setting and amp combination. On your final test, I couldn't help but have a smile of my face.

[dmks]

Good job! I work as a postpro audio engineer. What regularly happens is this. A client sitting next to me demands a certain change whilst I'm changing something else. I go back to the part that he wants to have changed to have a listen first. Client says: "thanks that's better"
Also the amount of times I heard stuff change whilst working on a bypassed plugin...
Expectation plays such a big role in perception it's insane.

[Mattguitarmania]

I think the biggest determining factor in guitar tone is what size Honda engines you are using to hold down the shelf! Thank you for an excellent video that proves the most important parts of electric guitar tone have nothing to do with wood

[sukitta]

It's insane that even after doing all of this, some people will still die on the tonewood hill. This table&shelfcaster just got a tie with the fencecaster in the functional guitar tierlist for me lmao. Good job mate.