Professional Musicians and Exotic woods...

[jackthehack]

Wait til you start dealing with audiophiles... those guys spends more money on cables alone than what most of us would spend on a fancy Warmoth build! Do expensive cables make a difference in sound? I can't really tell... to me speakers influence sound far more than anything else will.

Only if you have magical ears that can detect a -.10 dB signal loss at a given frequency range due to line attenuation loss. To hear that I think you would have to technically be a species of bat.

 

[po_0784]

Wait til you start dealing with audiophiles... those guys spends more money on cables alone than what most of us would spend on a fancy Warmoth build! Do expensive cables make a difference in sound? I can't really tell... to me speakers influence sound far more than anything else will.

Hehe , we sell those fancy Elixir cables at the guitar store where I work...they cost like 50$. Crazy. Hey Rahimiii, I asked you a question about your SRV maple neck (maybe you didnt notice)...what kind of frets did you put on it? Just out of curiosity  :icon_scratch:

 

[David]

I swear the difference between a maple and mahagony neck is not slight.  I was surprised at what a difference it made.

 

[po_0784]

I swear the difference between a maple and mahagony neck is not slight.  I was surprised at what a difference it made.

(Its getting late, my english skills will just go down from there! )

Oh yeah, I can tell the difference right away. But there again, tone vary slightly from one board of maple to the next. I think its just a matter of hasard if one piece sound different. And again, theres no such thing as "wrong" or "good" to me. Just different. I really dig maple necks, but I think another factor explain my dislike for mahogany neck.

the two kind of guitar we are mostly used to :

25 1/2 scale, bolt on neck (typical maple neck with alder body...)

24 3/4 , set-in neck (all mahogany)

Usually, I hate any kind of "glued in" mahogany neck (Gibson) cause it do sound different than a bolt-on neck (to me the neck attachement method make a HUGE difference in sound). Set in neck never seems to sound "tight" to me, but then again, the ones I encounter the most are the typical Gibson/Epiphone with 24 3/4 scale which doesn't help at all with "snappyness". My friend got a bolt-guitar with a mahogany neck and mahogany body. This thing sound super bright.

Anyway, speaking of exotic woods....could someone buy the nice rosewood neck in the showcase and the quilted strat body with sunburst finish and bindings before I get another credit card.  :laughing7:

 

[rahimiiii]

Wait til you start dealing with audiophiles... those guys spends more money on cables alone than what most of us would spend on a fancy Warmoth build! Do expensive cables make a difference in sound? I can't really tell... to me speakers influence sound far more than anything else will.

Hehe , we sell those fancy Elixir cables at the guitar store where I work...they cost like 50$. Crazy. Hey Rahimiii, I asked you a question about your SRV maple neck (maybe you didnt notice)...what kind of frets did you put on it? Just out of curiosity  :icon_scratch:

$50 seems low for fancy cables... I have seen speaker cables costing something like $100 and don't even get started on some of the other cables...

I used standard 6100 fret on the maple neck. Was going to go with stainless but I didn't want to pay the extra $20... not sure if that was a big mistake... The stainless sure feels a lot slicker. I think I will put stainless on my first acoustic build.

 

[SkuttleFunk]

- You can make the body out of a chunk of anything, it's not going to make any appreciable difference in any way, with the exception of very light bodies of some woods being able to pick up additional resonance when playing at volume.
- Choice of neck wood(s) CAN make a difference to tonality, but the difference is in actuality very slight in almost all cases.
- 90% of tone/sound comes from your pickups/electronics selection and your fingers.

  :icon_thumright:

SOMEBODY PLEASE STICKY THIS POST ON EVERY FORUM HERE!!!!!!!


all the best,

R

 

[Orpheo]

strange that the walnut/koa/ziricote LP I have, sounds brighter and punchier and tighter than my custom. and yes, I have had the pickups I have in my walnut guitar, also in the custom. the custom sounded great, dont get me wrong, but it was warmer, more loose. I changed, a couple of weeks ago, the ziricote neck for a wenge neck, and the sound changed again; warmrer, howling, crunchier, so to say. if that hasnt got something to do with woodchoice, I dont know what is. The body and wiring remained the same.

 

[rounce55]

the nut nut would be great for tremolos because it would slide very nicely

 

[Superlizard]

The answer to the original question is most likely because:

- they play what they're comfortable with

...which would be your typical store-bought geetar; of which they prolly grew up with.

-  they respect the tradition and history of the geetar (i.e. not "conservative" as mentioned, but traditional)

...even geetar heroes have their heroes... thus utilizing their heroes' geetar of choice

- they use "what has proven to work" because it works, and has worked countless times

...can't argue with countless platinum albums

Speaking of exotic woods:

I'm a traditionalist and stick to "what has worked countless times on recordings" and FWIW, I hear many on here extoll the virtues of the tonality of exotic woods... but to be honest, I have yet to hear an actual clip which would perhaps persuade me otherwise (unless I missed some).

 

[Superlizard]

*Begins slow clap* I think this whole "tone" crap is a LOT of hype and it's getting out of hand. There might be very slight nuances between certain things but, when people start getting all "Eric Johnson" thinking a certain brand of 9v battery changes your tone. C'mon now. Get real.

IMO, EJ (as anal as he is) more than likely has better ears than the entire board here put together.

My point being - not everyone's ears are alike. 

I've known a few non-musicians who are tone deaf... and I've know a few guitarists who are tone deaf.

...just as I've known some who can pick out the minutest little tone detail in a song or what have you.

There's also the experience factor - way back in the day, I had a cheapo SS amp and a BOSS Heavy Metal pedal with
a POS guitar plugged into it, and I thought it sounded like God. 

Nowadays, I listen to my old recordings and I just shake my head and then laugh at my prior ignorance... I even do that with clips I've made 3 years ago.

 

[stubhead]

EJ (as anal as he is) more than likely has better ears than the entire board here put together.

The whole "tone is in the hands" thing is often misconstrued to mean that someone has some kind of special fingernails, or rad knuckle leverage... the most important things great guitarists do are:

A) Listen really carefully to what's coming out of their speakers, and change their fingers AND their equipment to make it better.
B) Visualize (auralize?) exactly what they're shooting for, and think about how to get there and research how other people got to what they have - you have to be able to HEAR what other people are doing, which means you have be educated about what does what... (why are old Fuzz Faces and vintage Muffs & Tube Drivers still prized?)
C) PRACTICE - this includes practicing turning knobs to see what they can get.

Everything that matters happens IN YOUR HEAD.

As Al DiMeola says, your hands are just dumb pieces of meat. (He's finally getting a decent tone, by the way.... circa 2006 :toothy12