I guess I'm the odd man out here. I've been comparing guitars, new and old, strings, saddle, nuts, -- even bridge pins -- for 40 years, and I have some pretty well formed opinions.
1. Old instruments sound better in general than new instruments -- if sound is your thing, buy old.
2. Construction materials (woods) are important -- not necessarily better, but tonally predictably distinctive. Some materials are known to work better for different styles and genres.
3. Top/bracing,bridge,bridgeplate geometry -- there are the major determiner for guitar tone.
4. Setup -- neck pitch, saddle height, etc., etc. Incredibly important -- setup is where the money is to be made. Optimize these, you optimize power.
5. Strings are mostly a matter of taste. I agree that coated strings last longer but lose some power. Once you have the right guitar with the right setup, cheap strings will work fine and will be really hard (impossible?) to beat.
6. Finally, there is saddle materials, bridge pins, and nut materials. I suppose if you used chewing gum, you might have an effect. What we have found is that the geometry of these are very important -- the materials (within reason) are not.
Strings - Nut - Saddle - Pins - They are essential to TONE!
in Gibson Acoustic
Posted
I guess I'm the odd man out here. I've been comparing guitars, new and old, strings, saddle, nuts, -- even bridge pins -- for 40 years, and I have some pretty well formed opinions.
1. Old instruments sound better in general than new instruments -- if sound is your thing, buy old.
2. Construction materials (woods) are important -- not necessarily better, but tonally predictably distinctive. Some materials are known to work better for different styles and genres.
3. Top/bracing,bridge,bridgeplate geometry -- there are the major determiner for guitar tone.
4. Setup -- neck pitch, saddle height, etc., etc. Incredibly important -- setup is where the money is to be made. Optimize these, you optimize power.
5. Strings are mostly a matter of taste. I agree that coated strings last longer but lose some power. Once you have the right guitar with the right setup, cheap strings will work fine and will be really hard (impossible?) to beat.
6. Finally, there is saddle materials, bridge pins, and nut materials. I suppose if you used chewing gum, you might have an effect. What we have found is that the geometry of these are very important -- the materials (within reason) are not.
There it is -- sad but true.
Let's pick,
-Tom