My Beliefs on Guitar Tone

[Mor Paul]

Oh, I'm not presenting this as fact.

Influence on tone:
Amp-player/pickups-strings-neck wood-body wood

Mass-
Some mass helps. Other mass is unimportant.
The wood at the bridge, headstock, and everything in between is what really counts. Hollow bodies can change the sound some, but body shape (not depth) is unimportant. Adding mass by clipping something onto the headstock won't really accomplish anything. Thin bodies might change sound slightly, but changing the body thickness is just as much a structural issue as a tonal one. If you cut a comfort contour, you won't ruin your tone forever. Thicker necks could very easily help tone. I can feel the strings vibrate my standard thin neck, and a thicker neck may help cut back on the string's vibrating force being wasted on the neck.

Finish-
No effect.

Tuners-
No effect on sound. If you have an effective break angle at the nut, no vibrations should go to the tuners. That being said, you don't want the headstock or tuners to absorb the string's vibes. You do want tuners that are assembled tightly, I guess.

Bridge-
Different materials will change the sound slightly, more so with a vibrato bridge. The whole locking tailpiece thing isn't flying for me.

Frets-
I see why stainless steel frets could be a bit brighter, but the main factor is the neck wood there, I think.

Electronics-
I really don't have anything to say here. Pickups pick up. Single coils and humbuckers are different. Ha. Electronics has been analyzed scientifically, so I'm not going to disagree with it. It won't matter if you have cloth coated wire or that plastic. I think nobody will really disagree here.

Knobs-
Unobtanium is the way to go.

Nut-
Fossilized Mammoth Penis ftw.

Go ahead and disagree with me. I can't say I've tested everything I've said. I'm going on imagination. Just explain why you think it is.

 

[Keyser Soze]

The single most important piece of any guitar is the hind end playing it.

And, speaking properly, it would be fossilized mammoth baculum, since the other tissues do not really fossilize.

 

[elgravos]

All things being equal, I think the major ommission is scale length.  Though I suppose if you are talking in absolute terms that becomes a secondary consideration as, if you are drawing up a set of "general" rules, it should be based on a single scale length from which each component can be swapped out... but in my book, that's the main difference between the "acoustic" sounds of an LP and a strat (discounting pickups).  Looser strings just don't vibrate the same way.

as for unobtanium, that goes without saying.

 

[Nando Vallart]

By strings you mean brands or thickness???

I agree maily with that, specially with the amp and pickups being the most important thing... Get a nice amp and nice pickups and put on the worst chinese guitar and it'll sound good (if there isn't any intonation problem or fret buzzing, of course)... Get a '59 LP, put crap pickups and those "student pack" amplifiers and get a crap tone...

I think the ears of the player is even more important than his hands... if he plays nice but has problem on the roll of the knobs, everything will sound bad (I know some guys like this, if you set the amp's knobs and give him a guitar everything sound awesome, let he mess with it and it'll be MESSED :laughing7

 

[Mor Paul]

Strings would be thickness, material, quality, style, etc...
My acoustic guitar has 13's on it now, and it sounds better than it did with other strings,

I don't really have anything to add about scale length. I don't think there are really any misconceptions or real disagreements about it.

 

[jerryjg]

Player- 0% ( tone is completely subjective regardless if a chimp plucks the strings or the greatest player who ever lived) Tone exists in and of the guitar. Of course certain players may know how to extract that element, however tone is "NOT" in the fingers, as they say, because no tone exists, per se, in a crappy guitar, despite the myth.
Strings- 0% inconsequential parameter. The strings will ad exactly the same sound to any guitar they are added to.
Body Woods ( finish 15%)- 40%
Hardware-40% ( Bridge is huge- 24%, Tuners 6%,Nut 5%, 5% other)  I have to insert a caveat here, cause all hardware must be first quality, and assembled to the body with strictly tight tolerances- a HUGE factor.In actuality, the Body woods could determine the tone almost entirely , with the proviso that a constant in the build exists, and that is the  integrity of the hardware.
Pickups - 20%. This is a tricky area, because the wrong pickup can destroy an otherwise great guitar, however, a great pickup can only marginally compensate for a bad guitar.  Pickups should be carefully selected to augment the properties of the tonewood, and even sometimes , to much lesser extent, to mask the deficiencies.
Pickups are easy to select for standard builds. For exotic tonewoods much forethought is required.

 

[DangerousR6]

The single most important piece of any guitar is the hind end playing it.

And, speaking properly, it would be fossilized mammoth baculum, since the other tissues do not really fossilize.

+1....learn how to play first Max, before you start theorizing.... :icon_biggrin:

 

[Mor Paul]

The single most important piece of any guitar is the hind end playing it.

And, speaking properly, it would be fossilized mammoth baculum, since the other tissues do not really fossilize.

+1....learn how to play first Max, before you start theorizing.... :icon_biggrin:

Ha, I'm improving. And I'm noticing as my playing gets better, my guitar is sounding better. Chords are sweeter, any harshness is going away

Part of that is the fact that I've got pure nickel strings on it now. I like them better (feel and sound) than the steel ones. I thought it was a tad bit harsh with the stainless steel strings.

So, yeah, I know how to play. I'm never going to be as good as I'd like, I hope. Otherwise, I'd stop improving.

 

[tfarny]

Jerry you crack me up. I hope you're not being serious and are just a harmless troll. I still picture you lying in wait in a shed out in BF nowhere in Texas in August with a shotgun and a cooler full of Hamm's Light waiting for the punks who stole your GI Joe collection to return. Cheers man.  ccasion14:

 

[jerryjg]

Jerry you crack me up. I hope you're not being serious and are just a harmless troll. I still picture you lying in wait in a shed out in BF nowhere in Texas in August with a shotgun and a cooler full of Hamm's Light waiting for the punks who stole your GI Joe collection to return. Cheers man.  ccasion14:

How did you know about that? lol. Yeah, I'm serious, whats the problem?
I could show you my collection of guitars and try and tell you about 30+ years of playing experience, but that doesnt seem to matter. What exactly is it that you can't fathom?

 

[hannaugh]

Jerry you crack me up. I hope you're not being serious and are just a harmless troll. I still picture you lying in wait in a shed out in BF nowhere in Texas in August with a shotgun and a cooler full of Hamm's Light waiting for the punks who stole your GI Joe collection to return. Cheers man.  ccasion14:

This mental image made me laugh really hard.  Thanks, tfarny.

I think it's funny that guitar people have their beliefs... it's like religion.  "And the Lord did grin, and spoke that tonal salvation may be found in thy body woods..."

 

[line6man]

I think it's funny that guitar people have their beliefs... it's like religion.  "And the Lord did grin, and spoke that tonal salvation may be found in thy body woods..."

And thus sayeth the Lord, turn your eyes from worthless guitars, and worthless features, thine path surely leads to bad tone.

Chapter 5, verse 2 in the book of Warmoth.

 

[DangerousR6]

Just put a Floyd on it, and get a pointy headstock....... :icon_thumright:

 

[Mor Paul]

Well, they're beliefs for me because it hasn't all been tested scientifically. The extent of the influence needs testing, for the most part.

Then did he raise on high the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, saying, "Bless this, O Lord, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy." And the people did rejoice and did feast upon the lambs and toads and tree-sloths and fruit-bats and orangutans and breakfast cereals ... Now did the Lord say, "First thou pullest the Holy Pin. Then thou must count to three. Three shall be the number of the counting and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither shalt thou count two, excepting that thou then proceedeth to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the number of the counting, be reached, then lobbest thou the Holy Hand Grenade in the direction of thine foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it."

 

[mayfly]

Jerry you crack me up. I hope you're not being serious and are just a harmless troll. I still picture you lying in wait in a shed out in BF nowhere in Texas in August with a shotgun and a cooler full of Hamm's Light waiting for the punks who stole your GI Joe collection to return. Cheers man.  ccasion14:

:icon_biggrin: :laughing11:

I'm amused also by Jerry's rants.  He can't be serious though ... can he?  :icon_scratch: :doh:

 

[stubhead]

There's just something special about old Deadheads.... :hello2:

 

[GoDrex]

I hate tone.

 

[Tonar8352]

You’re all crazy!  :evil4: :evil4: :laughing7: :laughing7:  Tone is in the amp!!  :icon_jokercolor: :icon_jokercolor: :icon_jokercolor:

 

[hannaugh]

Gotta love a thread with a reference to The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.

 

[m4rk0]

tone is in the ear of the beholder...


and in the pickguard screws.



don't forget the tone worms!