• From: BELGIUM
  • Registered: 2007-01-27
  • Posts: 3,403

Topic: GUITAR: USED MATERIALS

http://www.woolsonsoundcraft.com/tonewo … woods.html
A very interesting link: a guide for tonewoods.

ELECTRIC GUITAR:
Using heavy HARD WOOD/SOFT WOOD: Example: a Fender build with softer wood will sound different than a Fender build with hard wood. WHO or HOW can you see or hear the difference?
On a certain moment, plugging in, your Electric guitar, using a POWERFUL AMP and effects such as distortion I DOUBT IF YOU HEAR A DIFFERENCE between a US Fender - MX Fender - Squier or STAGG. I only know that SOFT wood absorbs more
ACOUSTIC:
This is the most delicate and most important and here you need to compare by playing and listening.
- BACK & SIDES:= Rosewood is used a lot, but what about walnut, mahogany, maple, koa?
Brazilian Rosewood: is it THAT much better than East Indian rosewood? CAN A HUMAN EAR HEAR A DIFFERENCE?
- GUITAR TOP: I see that spruce is often used, but I HAVEN'T a clue about the different spruce types, like GERMAN spruce, Sitka Spruce, Englemann Spruce, Adirondack Spruce ALSO Mahogany.
- NECK: fret board included, ebony, again rosewood. IS THE NECK as IMPORTANT as a TOP or SIDES and BACK? IS the neck CONTRIBUTING to the sound?
HOW CAN YOU HEAR THE DIFFERENCE?
IS THERE A WAY TO MEASURE SOUND WAVES?

[color=blue]- GITAARDOCPHIL SAIS: TO CONQUER DEAD, YOU HAVE TO DIE[/color]   AND [color=blue] we are born to die[/color]
- MY GUITAR PLAYS EVERY STYLE = BLUES, ROCK, METAL, so I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY IT.
[color=blue]Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.[/color]

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2 Reply by cytania (edited by cytania 2008-02-13 12:58:54)

  • From: Nottingham, UK
  • Registered: 2006-08-08
  • Posts: 690

Re: GUITAR: USED MATERIALS

HOW CAN YOU HEAR THE DIFFERENCE?

Sit down with the guitar. play a simple fingerpick with simple chords. On a simple level a guitar can sound trebley or boxy. Boxy isn't necessarily a bad thing, some can sound commanding and woody. Trebley isn't always bad either. When you play a note it is never one pure tone. You can generate pure sine waves on a synthesiser and they sound dull, like rubbing your finger round the top of a wine glass (but more so). Human ears like sounds composed of many notes, the main note and harmonics. One of the reasons electric guitarists prefer valve amps is that the harmonics are derived from the main note which sounds musical. Simply introducing random noise to a note (like a bad pickup or battered old pedal would) sounds awful. Even with acoustics good construction adds decent harmonics.

IS THERE A WAY TO MEASURE SOUND WAVES?

Not that I know of. What you are after is a computer that can resolve soundwaves and appreciate them like the human ear. When you use a chromatic tuner it basicly does lots of fourier transforms and aggregates them to give the prime note value. An electronic ear would be doing domething more complex, isolating every harmonic and then comparing all of them to rules/databases of what combinations humans favour.

Does anyone know if such a device exists? My guess is Fender, Yamaha etc would love such a thing, so maybe they are working on it...

'The sound of the city seems to disappear'
  • From: BELGIUM
  • Registered: 2007-01-27
  • Posts: 3,403

Re: GUITAR: USED MATERIALS

Thanks Cytania, I had about 15 years ago a GIBSON LES PAUL STUDIO, in 1996!! At that time, entering a music store, they started to "enlarge" their collection. Before, even in the 80-ties, you had only a few brands like GIBSON and FENDER. I know there were topics about WHY a Gibson or Fender, my answer is simple: OVEREXPOSURE. MTV Europe started, videoclips and guess: Gibson & Fender. I wasn't that interested in acoustics, but I had and still have a YAMAHA FG-300, price end 70-ties: 300$. I loved to play that Yamaha, and kept dreaming about Electrics. So 17 years later, a Gibson LP Studio (for 500$ via airport customs, a high ranked friend, also for my) Marshall Valvestate. I was "settled". Too much work, in 1996 a Martin HD-28 (700$) from a person needing instant cash (he asked me first if I could loan the money, but I was too much ripped-of, and I wasn't an ATM machine. This was always a HUGE problem, the fact that I helped, treated 35% of my patients, asking (example) 20$ in stead of 30$, the same price they got back from our social security. (I calculated the never received money = enough to buy a house cash). I had my "specialities" Laser & Loosing weight + anti-cellulitis machine, worked a lot (75h/week). Finally I started to play more and more, and my way to check an electric was sitting on an amp, volume, tone identical, and trying a few guitars. The sound is absorbed by your a**= you could feel the guitar. BEST choice (we were 3 people) and unanimous= PRS, a VERY EXPENSIVE out of category guitar, about 5500$ IN EUROPE!! But some months later, same guitar, other store, 3 months old 2750$ got for my studio 1200$, and HAPPY I was. But here is it more about acoustics. If you look to the higher price range, MARTIN, GIBSON, TAYLOR use for some guitars the SAME WOOD, what is so DIFFERENT: NECK: important or not, bracings maybe. About machines to analyse the sound, I think it is an "oscilloscope" to analyse the sound waves, but I'm not sure..
Thanks cyt, you are a very nice person, in who I trust a lot.

[color=blue]- GITAARDOCPHIL SAIS: TO CONQUER DEAD, YOU HAVE TO DIE[/color]   AND [color=blue] we are born to die[/color]
- MY GUITAR PLAYS EVERY STYLE = BLUES, ROCK, METAL, so I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY IT.
[color=blue]Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.[/color]

gitaardocphil's Website

4 Reply by Guitarpix (edited by Guitarpix 2008-02-13 20:13:05)

  • From: North Carolina
  • Registered: 2007-02-08
  • Posts: 1,914

Re: GUITAR: USED MATERIALS

Hey Doc, you may find this link interesting also http://www.graceworksmusic.com/Tonewoods_Quiz.htm They have alot of audio samples of different tone woods.

[b][color=#FF0000]If your brain is part of the process, you're missing it. You should play like a drowning man, struggling to reach shore. If you can trap that feeling, then you have something.
[/color][/b]         [b]Peace of mind. That's my piece of mind...[/b]

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