How much difference would mahogany have been instead of alder?

[jtroska]

Finish my alder LP.  I had hoped the alder would have cleared up some of the muddiness inherent in mahogany Les Pauls.  But I didn't care for the results.  It did cut through very nicely.  But it was almost too clear--to the point of sounding a bit nasty.

Anyway, after way too much time thinking about it and planning and dreaming and ordering parts and building.  I hated the Warmoth and I'm back to using my 10 year old beat up ugly Carvin.  Still miss the Warmoth neck but the sound was nasty.  Wondering if a mahogany body could have save it.  Or maybe I just don't like the sound of bolt-ons?

 

[riverbluff]

What kind of pickups are you using?  Might be worth changing them out and see what happens.

 

[-CB-]

On a thick solid body, the body wood makes only a small change in the overall tone.  Way more important is the neck wood, neck contour and PICKUPS.  Really, pickups are king in this regard, then neck wood, and neck contour.

 

[DangerousR6]

On a thick solid body, the body wood makes only a small change in the overall tone.  Way more important is the neck wood, neck contour and PICKUPS.  Really, pickups are king in this regard, then neck wood, and neck contour.

Not really, pup's are a major factor but the body wood effect the tone more than what you think. I have 3 Jackson Dinky's, all 3 with identical pup's and same neck wood, maple/maple. Same neck profile slim, but all 3 have different body woods. 1 is basswood, 1 is swamp ash, and 1 is alder. And they all 3 sound totally differnt from one another.

 

[-CB-]

No doubt they do.  But if you put, say, a thin mahogany neck on one, the tonal change would be greater from maple to mahogany neck, versus ash to alder with the same neck.  Yah body wood makes a difference, but smaller than neck wood.

Body wood makes a bigger difference when the body is a thinline though.  Or at least I've found that to be the case.

 

[Alfang]

I have spent countless hours swapping pups from one guitar to another, I wind pups, I can tell you for certain, that whatever body/neck wood combo you can imagine, theres a pickup that will sound good in it.

Also, as much as people claim one wood is tonally better than others, including nuts bridges etc...In an electric guitar, pickups rule the tone, everything else is a distant 2nd

 

[-CB-]

BINGO BINGO BINGO....

<the duck comes down and hands Alfang a ceeeeeegar!>

Amen brother... Amen

 

[DangerousR6]

I have spent countless hours swapping pups from one guitar to another, I wind pups, I can tell you for certain, that whatever body/neck wood combo you can imagine, theres a pickup that will sound good in it.

Also, as much as people claim one wood is tonally better than others, including nuts bridges etc...In an electric guitar, pickups rule the tone, everything else is a distant 2nd

Maybe you didn't thouroughly understand what I said in my post, but I'll lay it out for you again.......

I have 3 jackson's with the same pup's.....I mean exactly the same, the ohm's are even within a few tenths of each other. So they were probably machine wound, now all three bodies are of different woods, ash, alder and basswood. The necksare all identical maple/maple.....But get this...they all sound differnt...... :tard:

 

[Alfang]

maybe you didnt understand wtf I said in my post too.

I never said the exact pickups will make different woods sound the same at all. I simply said, pickups are the biggest tone changer in your guitar.

Dude, if the wood is different, in 3 guitars, with the same pups.....duh......... sounds different.

I'd bet that each of those pups would sound different if you started swapping them from guitar to guitar.  I dont care how consistant those guys can wind pups, theres no two the same.  Probably can't hear very much difference though, but they have their own signature.

 

[jackthehack]

Not much

 

[chuck7]

jtroska,

I think what everyone is getting at here is, sense you cant change the body wood without changing the body, you might consider trying out some different pickups.  I don't know about some of the other makers, but Seymour Duncan has something like a 20 day return policy where you can wire the pickup in and play with it for a bit to see what you think of it. 

 

[DangerousR6]

maybe you didnt understand wtf I said in my post too.

I never said the exact pickups will make different woods sound the same at all. I simply said, pickups are the biggest tone changer in your guitar.

Dude, if the wood is different, in 3 guitars, with the same pups.....duh......... sounds different.

I'd bet that each of those pups would sound different if you started swapping them from guitar to guitar.  I dont care how consistant those guys can wind pups, theres no two the same.  Probably can't hear very much difference though, but they have their own signature.

You are probably right in one aspect, that they might all sound different if swapped aroung between the different woods, but pickups don't change the tone. The size and number of pots really dictates the tone..

 

[Alfang]

OK I give up, your right I'm wrong, your a genious  i don't have a clue, you can play like clapton I play like Barney Rubble ,you understand pickups I wind pieces o crap, your handsome i'm ugly. Game over you win

 

[DangerousR6]

OK I give up, your right I'm wrong, your a genious  i don't have a clue, you can play like clapton I play like Barney Rubble ,you understand pickups I wind pieces o crap, your handsome i'm ugly. Game over you win

Hey Barney.....  I am a genius, but I don't play like clapton...... :icon_biggrin:

 

[DangerousR6]

Since the load on the pickups is determined by the total parallel resistance of all pots that are being used at a atime, using fewer pots will reduce the overall load and give a slightly brighter sound. Also, connecting more pots is the same as using lower value pots, two 500K pots will loose or "bleed" the same amount of treble frequencies as one 250K pot. To lessen the effect, switching should be designed (when possible ) to remove pots from the circuit when the related pickup is not selected. An example of this is the Les Paul: bridge controls are out of the circuit when in the selector is in the neck position and the neck controls are out of the circuit when the selector is in the bridge position.

Either 250K or 500K pots can be used with any passive pickups however the pot values will affect tone slightly. The rule is: Using higher value pots (500K) will give the guitar a brighter sound and lower value pots (250K) will give the guitar a slightly warmer sound. This is because higher value pots put less of a load on the pickups which prevents treble frequencies from "bleeding" to ground through the pot and being lost. For this reason, guitars with humbuckers like Les Pauls use 500K pots to retain more highs for a slightly brighter tone and guitars with single coils like Stratocasters and Telecasters use 250K pots to add some warmth by slightly reducing the highs. You can also fine tune the sound by changing the pot values regardless of what pot value the guitar originally had.

 

[tfarny]

Uh, Dangerous, that's getting a bit troll-like there. Get real - "pickups don't change the tone."  wtf?? Ever changed pickups? It makes your guitar sound utterly, totally different.
The rest of the guitar is a freaking holder for the pickups, okay? (I may exaggerate at times to make a point).

I wouldn't wanna mess with Alfang when he's grouchy. 

 

[DangerousR6]

Uh, Dangerous, that's getting a bit troll-like there. Get real - "pickups don't change the tone."  wtf?? Ever changed pickups? It makes your guitar sound utterly, totally different.
The rest of the guitar is a freaking holder for the pickups, okay? (I may exaggerate at times to make a point).

I wouldn't wanna mess with Alfang when he's grouchy. 

 

[Shmoopie]

alf will bring the thunda!

 

[-CB-]

Not much

ty

 

[-CB-]

You are probably right in one aspect, that they might all sound different if swapped aroung between the different woods, but pickups don't change the tone. The size and number of pots really dictates the tone..

Pot values have about the same change on tone as body wood... but in a different way.  Pickups on the other hand... do change the tone in dramatic and extreme ways.