Meanwhile, at Warmoth: neck tone shootout - Maple vs Mahogany

[aarontunes]

And...boom goes the dynamite.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/DPC6qAnrPR8[/youtube]

 

[stratamania]

They all looked like Vintage modern construction too.

It will be interesting to see what comments it gets on Youtube.

The differences seemed about what I would have expected.

 

[aarontunes]

They all looked like Vintage modern construction too.

It will be interesting to see what comments it gets on Youtube.

The differences seemed about what I would have expected.

yep...all Vintage Modern necks.


The comments will fall roughly into these four genres:

• You're right...great test.
• You're full of crap, you stupid idiot.
• You hair is stupid.
• You look like A Man Has No Name/Myles Kennedy/etc, etc.

 

[rgand]

Well, that was a very good video. I came away thinking that, although there, the differences were slight and barely distinguishable between maple/maple and maple/rosewood. The difference between neck woods was still slight but more noticeable between maple/rosewood and mahogany/rosewood. I went repeatedly from 4:44 (maple/maple) to 4:57 (maple/rosewood) to 5:11 (mahogany/rosewood) and all combinations thereof.

So also considering previous comparison videos, I agree that there was a bigger difference between body woods than neck or fretboard woods. Also more differences between construction types and fret materials.

Great videos, all of them. Thanks, TA!

 

[Cagey]

I heard some differences, but they were so slight as to be unworthy of consideration when it comes time to reach for the wallet. I'm still gonna look at feel/appearance before all else.

 

[aarontunes]

It will be interesting to see what comments it gets on Youtube.

My favorites ones so far:

• "Aaron is my adopted father"
• "Not trying to be a pr*** or anything, but maybe this isnt the job for you. I say that because i heard a pretty substantial difference in all 3 necks. I heard a substantial difference in the body woods too. Are you guys deaf?"
• "snake oil salesman at it again, tone is all in your hands and pickups"

I enjoyed replying to that last one:

Folks, Warmoth necks are a miracle cure-all, guaranteed to remedy every guitar-induced colic. Just a dab of our patented liniment smooths and soothes all that aches and ails. Make no mistake: Warmoth necks are a miracle elixir for the weak-toned. But I also bring tragic news: due to uncertain production from the far East, supplies of our magical oil have dried up like an August creek-bed. But, as fate would have it (and through means which I am not at liberty to divulge) one small batch has made it's way into this humble servant's hands. YES...I have with me today all that remains of this miracle tonic. Will you let this one chance to be cured of all that ails you slip away into the ether? Or shall you follow your manifest destiny AND BE CURED?

 

[stratamania]

I will have to take a look at the video via Youtube and take a look at the comments  ccasion14:

 

[spe111]

People who say woods don't make a difference are the kind of people that heard "yanny" and insisted that everyone who heard "laurel" was a moron.

 

[Strat Avenger]

I have pretty good ears (that's not to say that no one has better ears), and I maintain that there is a slight difference in tone between different body woods, and different neck CORE woods. I also maintain that on electric guitars, there is NO significant difference in tone between fretboard woods, or between nickle & SS frets. 

 

[new-killer-star]

I had a very hard time telling the difference between the fingerboards on the maple neck, I couldn’t really tell when they switched.

I did prefer the mahogany sound, it was different in a good way.

The differences were really subtle and they all sounded really good.

I’m going to go with picking the neck I like the look and feel of!!!

But... I listened on the drive in on Bluetooth earbuds in my old diesel Land Rover that is about 85db inside when running - so maybe my listening environment wasn’t ideal

 

[Seamas]

It will be interesting to see what comments it gets on Youtube.

My favorites ones so far:

• "Aaron is my adopted father"
• "Not trying to be a pr*** or anything, but maybe this isnt the job for you. I say that because i heard a pretty substantial difference in all 3 necks. I heard a substantial difference in the body woods too. Are you guys deaf?"
• "snake oil salesman at it again, tone is all in your hands and pickups"

I enjoyed replying to that last one:

Folks, Warmoth necks are a miracle cure-all, guaranteed to remedy every guitar-induced colic. Just a dab of our patented liniment smooths and soothes all that aches and ails. Make no mistake: Warmoth necks are a miracle elixir for the weak-toned. But I also bring tragic news: due to uncertain production from the far East, supplies of our magical oil have dried up like an August creek-bed. But, as fate would have it (and through means which I am not at liberty to divulge) one small batch has made it's way into this humble servant's hands. YES...I have with me today all that remains of this miracle tonic. Will you let this one chance to be cured of all that ails you slip away into the ether? Or shall you follow your manifest destiny AND BE CURED?

If you need a guy to hobble up to the stage in crutches only to tap-dance around after being given a new Warmoth neck, I am your man!

 

[swarfrat]

I agree with cagey (buy what you want without worrying about it) , although there were a couple surprises:

1) I expected all differences to go flying out the window once distortion started to get heavy. The hog definitely had some beef (pork?) to it that wasn't washed out. The distorted mahogany ones were actually enough that I was wondering if the levels were consistent.

2)  I was kinda of surprised that the rosewood/maple seemed a little more open/airy than the all maple. I would've guessed that to be the other way around.

 

[rauchman]

Aaron, thanks for these "tone" tests of body and neck woods.  Like you, I found more tone variation in the body woods vs neck woods.  Having said that, I heard some small differences between the neck woods.

Maple - Bright and trebly, approaching spikey
Maple/Rosewood - The Rosewood seemed tame the treble a bit and add a shade of richness to the tone making it a little fuller (my fav' of the bunch)
Mahogany/Rosewood - Less trebly than maple with a bit more definition in the low end.  Seemed to over tame the treble a bit for me.

I'd be curious to hear these tests done with a humbucker.  I "think" the single coils make the maple brightness pop more and accentuate the "spikeyness" mentioned earlier.

I have 2 Les Pauls,....
1975 Deluxe (standard Hb's), with pancake body and 3pc maple neck w/ rosewood fretboard
1992 Custom, no maple cap and 1pc mahogany neck w/ ebony fretboard.

The Custom sounds darker.  I think the main difference in sound is the neck.  The maple neck on the 1975 LP really gives it a sound that pops and cuts through better......maybe it's me.

Again, thanks for these tests.  They very much help

 

[Strat Avenger]

The rosewood didn't tame anything.
There's not enough material there to have any effect on the tone. Your eyes, and decades of propaganda told you it sounded "warmer".

 

[spe111]

The rosewood didn't tame anything.
There's not enough material there to have any effect on the tone. Your eyes, and decades of propaganda told you it sounded "warmer".

I disagree. I also don't think everyone hears the same thing the same way as me. There are a lot of frequencies and we all hear them differently. See my above laurel/yanny post...

 

[swarfrat]

I was listening to the video while the window was in the background, and I heard the shift from maple to rosewood without my eyes to even tell me he'd switched necks. It was however much more subtle than the difference to mahogany. I'd put the differences as "subtle" for the mahogany and "extremely subtle nuance", but I could hear every time he switched. The rosewood does have a subtle notch to it - it actually sounded a hair brighter, but tamed the maple's icepick a bit.  I'll stop here, any more and I might start to sound like I switched sides.

And BTW - I recommend watching any of these shootout videos that way the first time.

 

[aarontunes]

The rosewood didn't tame anything.
There's not enough material there to have any effect on the tone. Your eyes, and decades of propaganda told you it sounded "warmer".

I disagree. I also don't think everyone hears the same thing the same way as me. There are a lot of frequencies and we all hear them differently. See my above laurel/yanny post...

This, IMO, is the point.


I get criticized a lot for not being more scientific about these tests, and sending the wave forms through spectrum analyzer. My feelings on that are:


1. I am not trying to scientifically prove a hypothesis. I am comparing woods so you can make up your own mind, with your own ears.
2. I could care less what a spectrum analyzer says. On my instrument, all the matters is what I hear. On your instrument all that matters is what you hear.
3. What a fantastic way to sap the fun out of things. Next, let's solve some math equations!
4. Even if I did use a spectrum analyzer, it still wouldn't settle anything, so why bother.

 

[Jebberz]

Thanks for this test, I really appreciate all those capsules.

I hear a slight difference when I use my hi-end phones to listen to this, but not enough to alter the woods I would choose. And in a live environment, i guess those differences will disappear in the mix.

So I would choose based on what I like visually.

Next debate, I think it could be cool to see how scale length affects the sound. I think conversion necks with the same body, and 30" vs 32" for short scale bass.

 

[Strat Avenger]

I guarantee if it were a blind listening test, you couldn't tell the difference between maple and rosewood fretboards.

I agree that a scale length comparison would be cool.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

It's the same thing with amp modeling, and I've done dozens of blindfold tests with various mixes, some mine, some by commercial releases, and the blindfold test wins every single time.