The effect of wood on an electric guitar

Started by bacchus, February 14, 2012, 11:11:22 AM

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Just throwing this into the pot ....

Larrivee RS-2 set neck. Mahogany body / mahogany neck 25 1/2" scale length Manlius Pickups Quiet Goat P-90s

EBMM Axis Super Sport bolt on.  Ash body / rosewood top / solid rosewood neck / 25 1/2" scale length EBMM MM90 P-90s with EBMM Silent Circuit

Two very different guitars that both sound almost identical.

The only real similarity is the scale length, they both are bright and twangy, very tele'ish in the bridge and like a souped up strat in the neck.

 :nana_guitar :nana_guitar :nana_guitar :nana_guitar :donut :donut :donut :don

Take two identical guitars, say a strat, same pickup configureation, one rosewood fretboard, one maple, they sound totally different, the maple is brighter tone, the rosewood a fatter tone :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :nana_guitar :nana_guitar :nana_guitar :nana_guitar :nana_guitar :nana_
Tom:

Peace and LONG LIVE THE BLUES...

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Quote from: bigbluesdaddy on April 02, 2012, 05:16:25 PM
:nana_guitar :nana_guitar :nana_guitar :nana_guitar :donut :donut :donut :don

Take two identical guitars, say a strat, same pickup configureation, one rosewood fretboard, one maple, they sound totally different, the maple is brighter tone, the rosewood a fatter tone :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :nana_guitar :nana_guitar :nana_guitar :nana_guitar :nana_guitar :nana_

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Quote from: bigbluesdaddy on April 02, 2012, 05:16:25 PM
Take two identical guitars, say a strat, same pickup configureation, one rosewood fretboard, one maple, they sound totally different, the maple is brighter tone, the rosewood a fatter tone

I hear something different from maple and rosewood boards on Strats and Teles... maple sounds more "midrange focused" to me - which some folks interpret as "brighter". Actually, what I hear from rosewood is more highs and lows...like a scooped smiley face eq pattern...and less of the focus that maple has.

I've heard that same tonal difference from maple bodied jumbos versus rosewood bodies jumbos (think Guild here...but I think you'd hear it in Gibson and Larrivee jumbos as well). Maple is more focused with strong midrange, rosewood has more bass and sparkley highs...mahogany bodied guitars are in between these two - to MY ears...
2021 C-03R TE left-handed
Larrivee owner since 1992

Quote from: Mikeymac on February 15, 2012, 12:29:22 PM
This conversation can quickly turn into a murky pile o' poo ... because every piece of wood IS different. Some pieces are magical, and sometimes you get a mating between a neck and a body (whether bolt-on, set-neck or neck through) that just resonate beautifully together and have great sustain and the right frequency resonances for wonderful tone. Other times you end up with a neck with "dead spots" - no matter what you do, some notes just die out quickly. These are the guitars that end up getting sold off by musicians in the know.

Wood DOES make a difference on electrics. They are also "acoustic" instruments by nature, even though they're amplified.

I want to re-emphasize the highlighted sentence above. Tonight I put a Warmoth neck and body back together that just have that magic: they belong together (see pics below). It's an ash strat body with a quilted maple veneer top (I don't really think this veneer affects the tone at all) and an all maple strat neck. This body is routed for two humbuckers, and they're Seymour Duncan JB and Jazz pickups (I'm seriously thinking about getting a set of Larrivee humbuckers to put in here).  BTW, when I bought this body from Warmoth back in '96 or so, it was a "second" and was on sale because the neck pocket wasn't completely square - IOW, it doesn't line up perfectly with the neck in the pocket...doesn't matter!

Every time I put this neck and body back together, they just sound incredible. Great sustain. And, for some reason, the Wilkinson VS100 tremolo (by Gotoh) also stays in tune almost perfectly when this neck is on it, and right now it has a plastic nut on it (with lots of graphite in the slots - looks pretty dirty, but it works!)...this thing shouldn't stay in tune!

A guitar is more than the sum of it's parts ... and sometimes, with good high quality parts, there's just some magic that happens.  :thumb

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2021 C-03R TE left-handed
Larrivee owner since 1992

Fretboard wood does make a difference on electric.
Even Eric Johnson stated of his signature series Strats that the newer rosewood fretboards give the guitar a slightly different tone.  Nothing bad at all.
Taylor 410 L2 (Rosewood)
Gibson Custom Shop J-45
Partscaster Tele
Partscaster Strat
Therdrail Amp
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