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The truth about electro guitars, wood, pickups, long & short tenons...etc.

daveinspain

By daveinspain
in The Gibson Lounge

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Karloff

Karloff

Posted
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ok, I'll take the bait, lol.

I agree and disagree. i think theres a lot of factors that come into play that gives an electric guitar its sound. the wood, the pickups, strings ... and probably the most important component, the fingers. David Gilmour will sound like David Gilmour regardless what he is playing. Fender custom shop, or First Act Strat right off the shelf @ Walmart.

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PelhamBlueFire

PelhamBlueFire

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Agree about the fingers playing the guitars. It is what gives a musician an identity. Crap player + great guitar = bad tone. When it's the other way around, the great player will still sound good on that piece of crap guitar.

 

Saying the pick-ups etc don't make a difference, I don't agree witht that. Some factors like the wood are often overrated when it comes to electric guitars, as it really has a minimal effect on the overall sound, but it still makes a slight difference. Guitars do sound different, but the player is still the biggest factor of them all.

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Rabs

Rabs

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Yeah I agree and disagree...

 

I do think its makes a small difference.. But they are small and nothing that cant be compensated with a tweak of the amp or a pedal...

 

I once saw a vid on youtube about this.. the one part of the video that was most interesting to me was he did an experiment to see if the pickups actually pickup sound from the wood or if it all comes from the strings in which case the wood species would be irrelevant.... What he did was take a pickup and attached it to some wood at one end with an output cable wired directly to it, then at the other end of the wood he placed a small music box and turned the handle and the pickup DOES pickup the sound through the wood...

 

So this means that wood hardness would make a difference... even if its a small one.

 

Then pickups, they detect a range of frequencies... and that range is different depending on their construction (magnet type, wire type and amount of winds)... So some will pickup more bass, or more treble etc..

 

But yes.. in general terms, an electric guitar sounds like an electric guitar no matter what its made of.

 

How about this guitar.. No wood here :)

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capmaster

capmaster

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... i think theres a lot of factors that come into play that gives an electric guitar its sound. the wood, the pickups, strings ... and probably the most important component, the fingers. ...

[thumbup]

 

Including picks if applicable everything contributes to the entire sound chain to my experiences. Magnetic pickups of same make reveal significant differences between guitars of same build but different timbers strung with same sort of strings and set up the same, let alone identical piezo pickups.

 

I always do sound like me, but different guitars translate that quite differently, even when amped up as clean as can be.

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Retired

Retired

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1470079917[/url]' post='1788262']

[thumbup]

 

Including picks if applicable everything contributes to the entire sound chain to my experiences. Magnetic pickups of same make reveal significant differences between guitars of same build but different timbers strung with same sort of strings and set up the same, let alone identical piezo pickups.

 

I always do sound like me, but different guitars translate that quite differently, even when amped up as clean as can be.

 

I agree. My sons Vendetta has a much deeper base sound then my Les Paul. I can play my Epiphone and it sounds great, but when I take out the Gold Top there's a big difference. Great guitar players can make any guitar sound superb, but there is a differenence between diffent models. Joe Walsh can make a Strat sound incredible, but then why does he pick out different guitars to play in a concert? A Les Paul will sound different.

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Searcy

Searcy

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If it's all in the fingers and nothing else mattered then it's pointless to have more than one pickup or a tone knob on a guitar.

 

But, if you flip a pickup switch on a Strat or Les Paul and hear and difference... then the gear and materials matter a great deal.

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merciful-evans

merciful-evans

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Is there no end of this populist twaddle?

 

My guitars sound different and I use the same fingers on all of them. A Les Paul sounds completely different to a Strat.

 

I have never swallowed the whole ‘tone is in the fingers’ meme because it’s a flawed premise of misdirection.

You might just as well say that ‘colour is in the retina’. It sounds vaguely feasible but it too explains absolutely nothing.

 

It’s more accurate to say that player’s technique informs his ‘sound’. I would go further and repeat what Pete Walker once told me, that a player’s individual sound is mostly from his picking hand. Note the substitution of the word ‘sound’ for ‘tone’ in both instances.

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btoth76

btoth76

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Yes. Playing style that's in the fingers. And this is the most recognizable thing by a listener. If You have developed Your own style, the listener will recognize Your playing, regardless You are playing a Tele, or a Les Paul.

 

Only us, - guitar players - are so obsessed with the slight tonal differences of our instruments. The listener, - especially someone who knows nothing about making music - is not aware of those.

 

The tonal differences, however, are very important to us players. It's all about the comfort of playing. If You are satisfied with the way You sound, You have more confidence to play.

 

Bence.

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daveinspain

daveinspain

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Of course an electric guitar will sound different if has multiple pick ups depending on where the pick up is positioned in relation to the bridge and neck of the guitar. Closer to the neck mellower, closer to the bridge brighter and depending on its output louder and softer. That goes without saying... Give Beck or Gilmore a Les Paul and a Strat and have them play both while the listener is blindfolded. How many people will distinguish which is which?

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btoth76

btoth76

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Give Beck or Gilmore a Les Paul and a Strat and have them play both while the listener is blindfolded. How many people will distinguish which is which?

 

 

Hello Dave.

 

Maybe, a few guitar players with good ears.

 

Couple of days ago, I was wondering whether Peter Green plays a Les Paul guitar on His '82 record. I have the feeling it's a Strat, but I am very unsure. His very characteristic playing style overshadows the possible tonal differences of the guitars.

 

It's a tricky question. As a listener, I don't mind what He is playing, really. As a player, I have my very own concept which guitar I would pick up to play those songs.

 

Bence.

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capmaster

capmaster

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... Give Beck or Gilmore a Les Paul and a Strat and have them play both while the listener is blindfolded. How many people will distinguish which is which?

Depends a lot on the rest of the signal chain. The guitar model will be clearly identifiable with the impact of amp and speaker reduced to zero by feeding the signal to a full-range acoustic system with EQs flat and no FX. That's the way I practice most of the time, regardless if I use magnetic or piezo pickups.

 

Of course one could set up one of the usual contests about blurring input signals beyond recognition through intransparent amp and speaker, gain, and/or EQing. :unsure:

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saturn

saturn

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All electric guitars sound the same. What makes them sound different are the fingers playing them, just sayin'...

 

Come on Dave. We all know you're just posting any ole thing to bring your Count up to 10,000 [flapper]

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american cheez

american cheez

Posted
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what one really should be doing, if one wants to be a great player, and a rock god is this:

 

1) go to every pawnshop you can find

2) look for the guitar from foreigner's "jukebox hero" or guy clark's "guitar". those were actually magic guitars.

3) become a famous rock god

4) collect underpants

5) profit

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vangoghsear

vangoghsear

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All electric guitars sound the same. What makes them sound different are the fingers playing them, just sayin'...

 

You sir are a rabble rouser. So I, being rabble, must respond.

 

Plug into a low wattage Class A amp with no effects (not even reverb) and play a strat, a Hollowbody with humbuckers, a Tele and an LP through it. You'll hear a distinction. The strat and the hollowbody both have a natural reverb that occurs, the Tele and LP will sound more dense and more up front with no reverb sound. The Tele, while dense will be brighter than the LP, but you can make them sound similar by using the center position on the Tele at about 80% volume and lower the tone and use the bridge pickup on the LP raising the tone. Strat quack is hard to get with anything other than a Strat pickup; a coil split humbucker, a P90, or even a Tele, just doesn't quack quite like a Strat, IMO. Viva la difference!

 

Oh, and please don't tell my wife they all sound the same. Thanks.

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jdgm

jdgm

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What he did was take a pickup and attached it to some wood at one end with an output cable wired directly to it, then at the other end of the wood he placed a small music box and turned the handle and the pickup DOES pickup the sound through the wood...So this means that wood hardness would make a difference... even if its a small one.

Yes absolutely. I had a Tokai MAT Strat (plastic body) in the 80s and it was lacking something in tone and responsiveness IMO, especially above 12th fret.

 

Give Beck or Gilmour a Les Paul and a Strat and have them play both while the listener is blindfolded. How many people will distinguish which is which?

 

Me for one. Easy.

(Edit) Well probably...both use effects a lot, both have a signature Strat; Gilmour's Strat sound is usually very identifiable.

However about a decade ago I saw Bonamassa in London and whichever guitar he played - Gibson, Fender, whatever - they all sounded the same IMO!

 

 

Incidentally....David Gilmore is a brilliant American jazz/fusion guitarist who has played with Wayne Shorter, and teaches Guitar Studies at Berklee College of Music where he is an Associate Professor.

 

http://www.davidgilmore.net/

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gilmore

 

Yrs

 

Mr J Smarty

 

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