I can be so immature for a 70 year old, but every time Zac said "Let's talk about wood" I envisioned Beavis from Beavis and Butthead saying "He He, he said wood"
Alder is a leguminous wood that is predominantly produced in the NW US. It needs a lot of water to grow, but it grows relatively fast. When I lived in WA state, I saw quite a few old barns built from alder, and of course now, it's been adopted for cabinetry uses as well. It's also used for smoking, just as hickory is in the South. There is some variation on density, but it tends to be fairly light (not as light as swamp ash usually is), and usually has a more even tonal response than ash. I believe that Fender adopted it because it didn't require pore filler, and because it was relatively inexpensive at that time. When I worked at Warmoth (many years back), I made myself a hollow Tele body from yellow cedar with a red cedar top and f-hole. It was so resonant that it fed back tremendously at higher volumes (I was a dumb kid), but at lower volumes, it sounded like an acoustic, rich with overtones. The clear nitrocellulose finish made the body appear golden in sunlight...
We’re talking about electric guitars not acoustic guitars, so it does not affect tone, it affects price. That little almost imperceptible tone wood could give to an electric guitar, doesn’t matter, ‘cause you already have controls on your guitar, amp and damn pedals to manipulate your tone as you wish, so at the end what difference could wood make? It’s just stupid
I have 2 Washburn N4s. One was made of ash in the early 90s and one was made of alder in the 2010s. We’ve swapped electronics between the two and there’s still a big difference in the sound. The ash one sounds like it has more and thicker top end. Harmonics also seem clearer on the ash one. The alder one has a tighter sound and more mid range, but it seems to lose definition on the low and high end.
I have a custom made tele with a maple cap neck. Neck is maple. Fretboard is maple, capped, with a birds eye laminate for a beauty on the eye. Cheap yet looks expensive. Body is ash of course. I loaded it with MFD from G&L and a Wilkinson bridge and brass barrel saddles. With 330 Gibson pots and orange drop at 022uF. This beast can be ice picky yet growl as well (thanks to MFD pickups). Love it!
Another super-informative video Zac! Now for my next Tele I am going to be a wood snob on top of everything else to seek the right tone! Two other things: I changed out my 6-saddle bridge in my Tele for the Fender vintage bridge with brass saddles after watching one of your other videos and it made SO much of a difference and I'm super happy with the change! The second thing: Just seeing that Brett Mason tele in the background is giving me the shakes lol! Great content as always, good job again man!
Most interesting as well. Experiment and experience-based. Not on hearsay sown together with pool table logic. Maestro indeed. I'm jealous. I'm too pedantic to be able to do what le Zac is doing.
An excellent 14 minute seminar. I don’t think you could have done better answering my questions if I was sitting across from you asking directly. Thank you 🙏. 👍👍👍
I really like your talks on gear. The guy at the gig yelling "Play Freebiird" doesn't know or care what wood your guitar is made of but a guitar nerd like me finds it interesting. Did Leo spec swamp ash for the Tele because he used it in his lap steels or because of price points or accessibility? Sometimes happy accidents can create legends. BTW, one of my favorite Tele players who really flys under the radar is Kenny Vaughn. I first saw him live at a Marty Stuart concert years ago. He was wearing a lime green suit and hat with a matching Tele and played licks that would melt your face off. I've been a big fan ever since. Thanks, Zac, for keeping the videos coming.
I’m pretty sure everything that Leo Fender did was motivated by price UNTIL a musician he respected told him “You know Leo, I think it would better is you did ______ because ______.”
My favorite Tele and Strat wood is ash with maple neck. Love the dynamics. Great episode! I heard Vince Gill once say in an interview that he prefers a rosewood fingerboard on his Strat and to his ears gives more sustain although I've never perceived that myself. Also I don't know if this is true or not but I find that I've had more problems with fret sprout and note choking more on guitars I've owned with rosewood boards. Not sure if the rosewood has a tendency to shrink more and can swell more with temperature changes versus maple. Speaking of Vince Gill...I would sure love to see an interview! Cheers!
I'm not sure where I am on the whole Tone wood debate with electrics. I've seen convincing video's where they've swapped out bodies and necks with the exact same pick-up configuration and there has been no audible difference in tone. However I also watched the Warmoth video where they did a similar thing and there did seem to be a noticeable difference (although very subtle). Logically, the signal is produced by a vibrating string in a magnetic field, so how much can the wood really impact the tone? Then there is my own experience whereby I think I can hear a difference. I'll be interested to read others comments on this topic. Great vid as always.
It's fairly obvious a TH-cam video will not easily show any difference in sound. There's a lot of compression going on. I mean, just look at the many tube amp videos and compare to playing using the real deal. There's not a single video that captures that sound accurately. I also would say the wood of any guitar is only a piece of the puzzle. The dominant factors will be pickups, string choice and whatever amp or effects you choose to use, obviously. But those saying it doesn't matter at all which wood a guitar is made of, are simply wrong. Does it matter as much as the marketing wants you to believe? Probably not. But again, doesn't mean there is 'no' difference. Also keep in mind that for any guitar to play well in the hands of a new owner, it should feel good to play on it. 90% of the experience when playing is based on that, not the sound that you can heavily influence by choice of pickups, strings and so on. And then there's also the fun fact, how rarely any two guitars will sound really _exactly_ the same.
My favorite neck on a Strat is solid rosewood, paired with Custom Shop Fat 50's. My favorite neck on a ash or alder Tele is maple with ebony fingerboard. You usually only find those at custom builders though.
It's about both. Brightness is the perception, grouping of harmonics in the attack rather than in the envelope, is how said perception is being generated. Neither is more real than the other. Trust your ears. It's what musical instruments are made for, after all. Outside of perhaps 'Doc' from 'Back to the Future', I can't imagine anyone take an oscilloscope app to the Crossroads Festival.
@@Sophiedorian0535 Well, that is an even deeper dive in how generated sound waves leads to individual perception of what we call tone. And even so I would say, that the difference in the envelope is not neglectable, you are very right, I would rather have a beer, listen and enjoy sound, tone, art, music :)
@@cahootspastor7855 Wait. Not done yet. No self-respecting pedantrix checks out without some Latin. De gustibus et coloribus non est disputandum. I'd rather have a banana milkshake. It's the nerd's Glenfiddich.
Since I’ve been building guitars, I’ve really started to love roasted maple/roasted maple fretboards. Specifically the heavily figured variety. Not just for the pretty grain. It’s a bit softer than rock maple. But with 6% moisture content, incredibly dry and stable. Quartersawn adds a bit more stability as well. I like to make mine a bit thicker(.830”-.900”), but not baseball bats. Combined with a thin oil finish, it vibrates like a massage chair! All those vibrations make it a bit louder acoustically, which enhances the signal output to the amp. Lots of definition imo. Love it!
Im a strat guy and have alder and ash bodies guitars. The best thing for me is maple neck and maple or ebony “cap” meaning a relatively thin curved fretboard 3mm usually - the wood and the construction create a synthesis of the forest.
Similar wood based topic - I made 2 speaker baffles for a 2x12 cab, one spruce ply and one hardwood ply. The hardwood ply had a much harder or strident tone that needed softening up a little. The pine one did the trick and stayed in.
Early Fenders had pine bodies, no truss rod. The pine dented easy, and necks didn’t like long journeys North or South. Pine sounds great. Fender did a Squier Classic Vibe tele, pine body, stock tonerider pickups, great sound, as good as Fender tele costing twice as much or more.
I saw Bill Kirchen live a few weeks ago. He was playing a pine Tele with a pine neck, no truss rod. He said it wasn't that old though, it was made from some pine that came out of Jim Jarmusch's loft apparently. Sounded great.
Thanks for your insights on Tele tone! Of course, how a guitar comes together ultimately is individual to the instrument. Nice thing about T-style, is you can make adjustments! Yes, please! Cover pickups, pots and caps! -- So far, I’m thinking Pinewood body, Maple cap neck, traditional Bridge with Brass saddles...?
I have two identical Ibanez RGs with high output pickups. Same bridge, pickups and everything except wood. One is Ash the other is "mahogany" (not sure if it's real mahogany, but its definitely softer and lighter wood than ash) and they sound very different even through high gain amps. You really hear it when you play higher notes on the low frets, think your 3-5th fret on the D string. You'll really hear it there.
Great observations! I used to talk with a very knowledgeable guy at Warmoth guitars (who later started USA Custom Guitars). He had built countless electric guitars. I asked him his opinion on a swamp ash body with ebony fretboard. He say "It will be fast." In other words, the response may not be what I wanted (I'm a mahogany fan). Much like you've observed here. It's a shame that so many people get upset about this subject. Even those who don't get bent out of shape by tone opinions on the 300,000 types of pickups out there. Everyone's ears are different, and expecting someone _not_ to hear something is bizarre. Like a color blind person insisting that no one can see any difference between red and green, or someone insisting that there's no "perfect pitch" just cause they can't hear it. Anyway, thanks for the informative video!
Lots of people are saying now that the wood can not possibly have any effect on the tone because the magnet in the pick up doesn't amplify the sound of wood, it amplifies the sound of vibrating steel. Maybe, but how about this? The wood is going to affect the sustain, as well as the harmonics and overtones that the strings generate once it's set in motion by the vibration of those strings. Each guitar will produce a note with different harmonic content, because no two pieces of wood are exactly the same, and the pickup WILL sense the difference in the overtones and amplify it. I had a cheap import Strat years ago. It played fine, but tonally it was a dud. The body was about 12 pieces of glued together God-only-knows-what kind of wood underneath a solid black finish. I upgraded everything on that guitar but the body and neck, and nothing helped. It never sounded any better. Now I have a partscaster with a one piece alder body, and it sounds phenomenal with just ordinary stock pickups and hardware. The body vibrates like mad when you strum chords, whereas the dud body did nothing. The only thing I've ever changed on the home built parts caster is the strings. You can see it in the little thumbnail picture to the left if you can zoom in and enlarge the picture. I
The type of wood, moisture content, density, and overall size, all contribute. Not as much as an acoustic guitar, but they def do. Imo, dry wood with less density enhances vibrations and helps carry them throughout the body. Just like an acoustic, you can FEEL it when you strum a chord. A pickup generates a signal by a strings vibration interfering with the pickups magnetic field. More vibration in the wood=more movement to the string=enhances output signal. Thus louder signal, more sustain, and more dynamic articulation. There’s lots of nuances to it, but, I tend to agree with this debate.
Nope. Take a Les Paul as an example. Look how little of the metal of the bridge stud even touches wood. You tihnk the energy of a vibrating string could transfer through that throught the base and saddle to a degree that affects how long the string vibrates? You'd have to hot it with a sledge hammer. Sorry but wood makes NO DIFFERENCE
@@franknstein4340 I have changed bodies on my strat and it's quite noticeable tone wise. If you cant hear that's fine but a lot of us can hear it and it makes a tonal difference.
@@franknstein4340 Does that mean every 1953 Telecaster sounds the same? Vince Gill says that he has never played another '53 that sounds like his. But what does Vince know?? Ask all of the most recognized luthiers if wood makes a tonal difference.
One of my favorites is a one piece swamp ash, maple neck, no truss rod like the summer 1950. Pine is great stuff and it’s easy to get one piece bodies.
I have 2- 1 piece Ohio pine tele bodies that are about 18 months old and almost ready to build. First time I've ever used pine, so it's an experiment. I saw and heard an old pine tele and really liked it. We'll see how it goes. 8) --gary
@@kylebollendorf329 Thanks for asking. I don't normally talk about this, but I have a recurring infection in my right leg that has been plaguing me for 20 years. It's in the bone now and in April they will operate on it. It's very painful and hard to deal with, doing antibiotics at home for now. Everything else is on hold. The 2 pine bodies, and an ash body are still drying. I have all the other parts, and 6 necks I bought from Warmoth. I'm also trying Ratio tuners for the first time, and 'brown sugar blend' wiring harness from Cream Tone. PUPs will be Fender Twisted Tele, and bridge Gotoh in-tune relic. Neck(s) thick V and 1 piece, small frets. When I get going again, hopefully w/both legs, I'll post back here. Thanks again for asking!! 8) --gary
Love the history and personal anecdotes Zac! In every comparison video I've ever heard so far, I have never found the maple fretboard to be bright - if anything, I found it to have a really nice low end that seemed more defined than rosewood. Thanks for another great video!
Check out the Fender American Deluxe HSS mahogany body strat. It's my go-to and for a backup, I have a Fender American Deluxe ash body. My band does mostly hard classic rock w a couple o' mellow tunes, so I needed something with versatility that would cover classic strat tones but hard core Gibson mid's as well. A mahogany body Fender strat will get you way closer to those Gibson mid's / tones than ash, alder or basswood. This strat delivers that in SPADES.
A little over 45 years back, I played in a band, using the bass player's rosewood Tele; the "George Harrison" guitar. VERY warm guitar, but my goodness that beast was heavy. Not a complaint that you didn't address rosewood as a body or neck material, because it just isn't used that often. I find that I prefer mahogany necks more than maple because I can feel the notes through the neck in my fret hand, and I find it helps my finger vibrato. I play them, but maple necks just feel "inert" to me. Now, it has been a long time since I played very loud, so perhaps the tactile feedback differences between maple and mahogany necks evaporate once the Volume knob goes over 4. But I mention this to distinguish between what the neck wood might do to *tone* and what it might do to unconscious fret-hand "information" (for want of a better term). I should emphasize that one rarely, if ever, encounters a mahogany neck with a relatively dense body. More often than not, mahogany necks are either part of an acoustic, or semi-acoustic guitar, or else are paired with a mahogany body. So what I like about them may well be potentiated by, or even confused with, what comes along for the ride. Question: Do some woods benefit from the strings being mounted one way rather than the other? That is, thru ferrules and the body, vs. directly through the bridge plate?
Interesting , I've never played an original rosewood Telecaster but a friend of mine still has his first good guitar his parents bought him in the mid 80's ,which is a Japanese Fender rosewood Tele . I don't think it's much heavier than my Avri '52 but I believe the construction of the rosewood Tele was changed on later ones (after Harrison's, that far back I think) , including the Japanese versions in the 80's . My friend's guitar is like a sandwich body , whereas I think the originals were solid (?)
If you had a graph where the Up-Down axis was Crisp vs Muddy and Left-Right axis was Warm vs Bright, could you do a video where you graph the different woods, and talk about how certain things like roasting, or certain finishes also affect the tone?
Some thoughts: the wood and its relative resonance or lack of and this being the anchor points for the vibrating string provide sustain giving more signal to the pick-up. There may be some microphonic effect at the pick-up which theoretically could then influence tone thru the acoustic resonance of a vibrating system of wood and metal. So there most likely is something to the difference in woods and not so much voodoo. I have a 68 tele bass that is swamp ash and that bass just resonates and sustains like mad. And you can see/hear it because of the wood the neck is so stable and it stays in tune forever. There are a lot of variables that influence the tone but hehe we all know its in the hands!
Just before I even get into this video I'm hypothesizing that the takeaway is density and overall mass in the same way as density and overall mass of certain insulative materials affect volume at different frequencies in studios and venues... Ie bass traps and egg crates and such... That's basically been my concept of how tone woods and different finishes work tonally for a few years and it kinda drives me bananas when people try to insist that wood and paint don't make a sonic difference... Anyway here I go watching the thing 🙃
I know this is an older video but, I must give my 2 cents. At the end of the day...I don't think wood makes a huge difference but, it does some. I always played Swamp Ash and Maple board. I just think the maple board looks right on a Tele or any Fender. My favorite Tele now is a single pick up Lefty bridge with a Rio Grande pick-up. I made the body out a Pine. My neck came off a lefty Squire Affinity Tele. It is the best sounding Tele I have ever played. My guess is the lefty bridge has more to do with it than the wood. And the reverse headstock also helps you keep your bends in tune. No string tree to get hung on. That old piece of pine had a ton of knots in it. So, I did a transparent Seafoam Green finish on her and my pickguard is a 1964 Texas License Plate. She has a Hotrod look and sound. I will never part with her👍
I really like northern ash for downtuned guitars, the low end is tight and articulate. Swamp ash has a nice upper mid range focus, it’s my favorite tonewood.
Hey Zac which of these has more influence on guitar tone. Amplifier, Pickups. Strings, Effects, Capacitors, Resistors, Venue, Cables... (a 250k capacitor vs a 500 capacitor has more influence on tone than the wood.) All of those have more influence on tone than wood. I have never met a person who can listen to a person playing a stratocaster and have the ability to distinguish an alder body from and ash body. Quality wood makes quality guitars that are worth playing.
I was a skeptic about wood with a solid body guitar. After owning many different guitars I have decided it does make a difference. I have two strats with the same pickups and hardware. One with a Alder body the other with Ashe. They sound totally different.
Someone can come along and say yes that’s true but your pick ups may have different numbers of windings in them or the magnets may be more or less demagnetized over time, and stuff like that.
Zak sticks to the standard Fender woods as he said he would, I was just wondering if any Teles were made from the shipment of Sassafras which got into Eric Johnson's Virginia Strat, anyone know?
I have 5 or 6 Teles. I like maple necks on ash bodies as my primary tele. But I like my Adler Teles with rosewood boards too, just not as much. My custom, double bound Tele wouldn't look right with a maple fretboard. It is a unique custom because it has a B bender in it, which you wouldn't know from looking at it because all the components are hidden by the wood or pickguard, there is no backplate. I do have a unique Tele I built that has a relic'd maple neck on a cedar body! The body is made of strips of 1970s cedar wood from a house that have been attached together like a butcher block. So overall it has a reddish brown look but with the variations of the individual strips. So the body is like a 10 piece body. The whole guitar is well under 7 lbs and cedar is considerably harder than pine, so more durable. A very unique guitar, for sure. My 1981 Black and Gold Tele with rosewood board is also very unique and visually a stunner, but it is heavyyyy, almost 9 lbs. That is light Les Paul territory I guess.
Hi. I appreciate your videos. That said, I am quite sceptical with the way wood could possibly affect "non microphonic" pickups. Pickups work with the alteration of a magnetic field created by the coil and magnets. The string vibration will alter the mentioned magnetic field. Could wood affect sustain? That is another discussion. As all vibrate by sympathetic interaction. This could explain a bit of difference on sustain. Since some frequencies disappear by attenuation quicker than other ones, one may have the acoustic impression of a tonal difference. That coupled with the vibration one feels directly on the body by holding the guitar as well as the tinny acoustic sound of the instrument, which we hold relatively close to our hearings. This last will not be audible though, whenever you are at the stage, playing loud along with the band and with your guitar hanging from a strap. Different amps, pickups and strings, in this order will contribute to the biggest tonal difference. Microphonic pickups are a completely different history. But who does prefer them? Only very few people will look for them. I challenge everyone to take an oscilloscope and analyze the results of different woods, using the same strings, playing and pickups on the test. Do not look at the envelope, rather at the frequency analysis and the wave form. Timbre is given by the wave form. Frequency should be quite the same if the string is in tune. Harmonics or overtones should not change with the same pickups and strings whenever one plays with barely the same strength. Of course acoustic guitars are not part of my discussion because they are completely different stuff. That includes semi hollow and hollow electric guitars. They are usually much more microphonic. However when this comes to the player feeling or to playability in general, I absolutely agree that wood, finishing lakers, neck construction, bridge saddles... All that have a great influence in the experience we get from the instrument. Yet this all is submitted to taste and play style. In a nutshell, all this is quite subjective and we should not do science of it at least we can prove it in a LAB environment with the right tools and equipment.
Zac, you may be aware that I have commented to you before and that I'm a huge fan of this site. I missed this one when you did it 2 years ago and just cauight it. I must tell you that I do not understand how the kind of wood on a solidbody guitar when it is played through an amp makes a difference in the sound. Acoustically, unplugged, yeah. Through an amp -?. I know, I have thought that it did, but I'm not so sure now. Please tell me your understanding of how that works. I trust you to be knowledgeable and trustworthy to the max. Say it ain't so my friend. Cheers.
@@AskZac Of course, for acoustic instruments, the wood that it is made of is crucial to the sound of the entire instrument. That is not the question. Regarding a solidbody guitar, the pickups are rarely attached to the wood itself but to some kind of plastic holder or to the plastic pickguard. They almost never touch the wood at all. Exceptions to this are Les Pauls and ES-330s and Epiphone Casinos with P-90s which are screwed directly to the body, and the Telecaster neck pickup which is attached similarly. On a Strat, for instance, the pickups are attached to the plastic pickguard. Most electric guitars do not have pickups attached to the wood. So, given that different wood types resonate differently. How is that different resonance transmitted in any significant way to the pickups and by the signal created by them to the amp?
I thought it was interesting in your Tim Learch interview, the discussion about the neck and the difference it made to him. Thanks Zac for this information.
Geeky but so much fun. There's no doubt that the type of body and neck wood impact vibration hence the tone. Finding a way to describe the nuances of tone, though, is really hard. Zac, you did a great job. And yes, you sound like a wine connoisseur. But in a good way.
So these “vibrations” in the wood generate an electromagnetic impulse that influences the electromagnetic signal induced by the vibrating string over the magnetic poles of the pickup?
@@svgs650r I believe an electric guitar is a system of resonance. Of course the bridge and nut and composition of the string are by far the most significant elements contributing to the nature of the string vibration that in turn creates the electromagnetic impulses. I wouldn't argue that. But if you have a small low mass bridge versus large high mass bridge, the string definitely vibrates differently. That's pretty easy to hear if you've ever swapped out a cheap Japanese bass bridge for a Leo Quan Baddass bridge for instance. I'm not an engineer or scientist so I don't know why, but I suspect the larger mass bridge is more stable at the contact point with the string so it doesn't contaminate the strings vibration with its own wobble. Similarly, the harder and more dense the nut material, the less it vibrates. Most luthiers feel that high quality synthetics work as well as bone and that's probably because they both are dense materials. When it comes to the wood components of an electric guitar, I would admit that differences in string vibrations are probably very small, certainly much smaller than the string material itself. The body and neck of the guitar are part of the system that supports the vibrating string. I work in a guitar shop and many talented electric players pay a lot of attention to how an electric guitar sounds unplugged. They've told me that if the guitar as a whole is lively when unplugged, it will sound better plugged in. It definitely will feel different in their hands which also contributes to playability and therefore to sound. I think there is a lot of hype about "old wood" versus "new wood" and in acoustic guitars it has spawned a mania with baking the top wood (artificially drying out wood) to make it sound better. While that's possible, I suspect it's more a marketing ploy than a real thing. But type of wood (maple vs mahogany vs rosewood, etc.) obviously plays a significant part in the sound signature of an acoustic instrument. I don't think anyone with ears could argue that. With an electric guitar, wood has a much lesser effect. But as I said above. An electric guitar works as a system and every part of the guitar, and even more importantly the players fingers which are also part of the "system," contribute something to the nature of the string vibration and hence the ultimate sound. I apologize for running on and on about this. I'm much more interested in guitar playing than guitar geekery. But your question is an honest one and I wanted to give you an honest answer. As a person who sells guitars for a living, I focus on finding the right instrument for people, one that feels good in their hands and will satisfy their needs. I rarely, if ever, get into the geekery of wood type in electric guitars because there are so many other factors that matter much more.
Today’s shirt is autobiographical....For ALL of us... Great stuff! Always love to hear well researched minutiae about my favorite subjects! Now... if you could just chain Leventhal to a chair for the 12 hour series on ALL the parts on Planet of Love and the signal chain for each moment...😜
I am a Guitar Player and also a Guitar Tech. I had this client once who had formed a strong opinion based on some youtube videos he saw that wood does not have any effect on the tone of a guitar whatsoever and that it is all in the pickups. He is a metal player and i can understand how one dimensional and limited his hearing and relationship with tone can be with that kind of music. Sometimes, it is best to not argue with such people. As they say, whatever bakes one's cookie. In my opinion, if you should have just one guitar, it should be an Alder body and a One-piece maple neck and fingerboard combo. That would pretty much cover all ground musically. In a guitar with humbuckers, that combo has a great tone with Humbucker splits. It gives you all the twang and clarity but also some weight with those mids.
I was already cringing when I saw the thumbnail for this video! It was amazing to me to see how vicious the Great Online Tonewood Debate of the 90's got, justgo play your guitar, live, and let live! 😎😁
excellent video as usual. I think there is a direct relation between attack and brightness since both occur in the first part of a note. If the body and neck are made of a hard wood, there will be little transfer of energy from the string to those woods and there will be more brightness and attack (more energy in the string in the first part of the note). I think this happens because these hardwoods are less prone to movement and require less energy. It's a crazy idea of mine anyway. Saludos desde Argentina!
First comment! I still wake up early though I have no place I need to be. Interesting subject with lots to debate, but I won't. I like wood and beautiful things made from it, especially musical instruments. I'm going to make a lot of music today. Good vibrations through all my ash, alder, spruce, mahogany, rosewood, etc... I've never heard a poem as lovely as a tree, or heard a sound as lovely as string vibrations resonating with woods. Happy strumming!
Nice ! Ibz RR Sr ('58 V) Ash finished to look like korina. Sounds great. Alder Sq stuff, too but almost equally love my Arbor 'woodstock' style strato, pearl white and made out of plywood. I bought this in in '85 instead of the MIJ Squires (all about the neck). i know.... Still love it, tho. Great for Trower tunes.
This is a great video very informative. I would have liked to know a little more about Pine, reason is I was interested in getting a American Professional II Tele and wanted the Butterscotch finish but now it appears for any clearer finish you can not get Alder but only Pine or Roasted Pine. And as Zac mentioned Pine is a soft wood so am afraid my guitar will be subject to getting beat up even with careful use. Not sure why they don't offer Alder anymore for finished like Butterscotch.
Alright! Provocative stuff Zac (my initial thought, seeing the first Tele body you held up; Nice piece of ash! - kinda looks like mine.) Mainly I appreciate this particular episode because I’ve come to trust you as a straight-forward kind of guy. And I appreciate too your saying, “Sometimes we hear with our eyes” (great line!) - but then, “The lack of hardness…. That the rosewood is a little softer than the maple…” (so Zac, are you hearing with your eyes there? Just sayin’…). Which all brings me around to the old (and so true), “Tone is in the fingers.” But again, I appreciate you tackling what I think is a pretty esoteric subject, especially in solid-body electrics. So thanks for wading in and weighing-in there.
everything matters, just like altitude. except not all the factors make a relevant difference after the sound is filtered by the pickups. you can notice those little differences if you push your ear directly against your guitar, but since you use pickups, amps, pedals, etc. most of those differences become irrelevant. otherwise, guitar makers would try to take any acoustic obstacles out of the guitar body, such as holes for the electronic components. It would be super easy to put the controls, wires and metal pieces on a board out of the guitar body in order to preserve its acoustic properties, which is easy to make, but kind of unpractical to play it. guitar bodies don't even have audiodynamic shapes like lutes or violins, which have features like volute shaped heads, water drop silhouettes or sound posts. because those things make a difference in a mechanical amplification system, but they are not that important after you translate the sound into an electric signal, because many parts of the spectrum of frequencies are gonna be filtered out or contaminated by mics, wires, circuits, etc.
I play a 1962 ash body and a 1952 maple neck D profile as the old had back then. What can I say about that ? My Telecaster has lots of treble and bass and it has that honky tonk mid whit that plonky tone. I have a Joe Barden 3 piece brass sadels bridge on it. I change the bridge pickup from flatpole to staggerd as the mid was bit scooped.. And I need have my bridge pickup pretty low setting to get the dynamic right ! I use 0.12-0.56 as close as they was made for back in the 50s. Best regards from Scandinavia Sweden 🇸🇪
Ive thought about the wood/tone issue for 40 years. Im convinced that wood may effect sustain- but wood does not effect tone coming through the pickups- No way. The sound and feel is only experienced acoustically as we hold and play the guitar but that acoustic tone does not come through the pickups.
I mean this as a true question so that I understand your concept. If the pickups are the only thing we are hearing when the guitar is plugged in (aside from sustain) wouldn’t any guitar with the same pickups sound identical to another guitar with those same pickups, or do you think the variances of tone that is heard come from the variance of the pickups even though, theoretically they should be the same? Because if I understand you, you are saying wood does not affect tone coming through pickups. I would suggest taking the neck off your guitar and swapping it with another one and then tell me your guitar still sounds the same.
Chris Lester nope I disagree. PRS’s sound sterile all you hear is the high output pickups. Solid state amps like fractals helix and kempers sound sterile it’s all pickups. Hand wired tube amps non PCB capture both the resonant frequencies of the wood as well as the nuances of the player. And I’m a roadhouse bar band player for over 30 years with a real 50’s tele and a real 50’s Strat & everyone is dancing and drinking and having a good time it’s an older crowd with no cell phones and if a lady spills a bear on my PTP Marshall then its not landfill like the solid state stuff
@@tongusgrump2261 I disagree too because why then same pickups with same electronics sounds different on another guitar than other one? I try that between my two les pauls and one was brighter than another. Strat necks withy different woods effects too. It's just finding the sweet spot about guitar woods and pickups, and i think there comes that, when someone says, this is a great guitar, better than some other one like Gibson LP's.
Hey Zac, You tube bots are hard at work, right after i watched this episode, “concrete guitar” popped up...it’s a good watch if you wanna know what affects that has on tone 👍
Maybe you touched on pickup mounting in Tele's on your Hardware video. I think direct mounting the pickups makes some tonal differences. G.E. Smith swore by it, especially the bridge. May be sacrilege to some to abandon the bridge mount.
What about the hard finish on the maple necks? At least on one that hasn't had it all worn off. I've heard people say that how thinly it's applied makes a big difference in how bright the guitar is. The slipperiness has always bothered me so I've never bonded with maple neck Fenders. Or Rick's with their lacquered rosewood fingerboards.
I've been wondering what your favorite wood combination is for teles. Does it not matter as long as it's a good sounding guitar or do you have a favorite combo?
Interesting video on a subject that is a complete minefield. The sound clips I've listened to over the years comparing different woods for their tonal characteristics made me realise that the perceived differences between say alder and ash are there, they're just very, very slight (and probably even disappear entirely in a concert setting where effects are used). I do think in this whole debate people tend to confuse resonance/sustain/vibration with terms such as mid-range, brightness, etc. I have to admit that I'm less concerned with the latter considerations because I don't use an amp most of the time at home. The quality of wood used for body and neck is definitely important and has an impact upon the way the instrument vibrates acoustically. Every heavy guitar I've had in the past (some by high end makers featuring great hardware and pickups) has been completely dead and they were terrible to play unplugged (as well as in a band context). I can't see what else to blame that on other than poor wood selection. How anyone can say that the body and neck makes no difference whatsoever to the overall sound and feel of a guitar is baffling.
The minefield is there because of the erroneous belief that species is enough of an indicator as to a wood's behaviour in a stringed instrument. Wood is plant tissue. Contrary to animal tissue, the DNA of a plant does not code for phenotypical morphology. Quite frankly, to ascribe specific properties to a plant's species is a form of racism. Wood is God's own Cellulose-Resin fibre composite material. Wish people respected it more.
All things being equal, does changing the wood or the pickup alter the sound more? Also, if a tele were made from scratch to get Chet's sound, for example, what would that tele be? Thanks for keeping the good stuff coming, Zac. Peace.
The fun of this that there are so many different variables in a guitar tone that “testing it out” all science style is impossible. Does wood make a difference? I honestly couldn’t tell you. I haven’t gotten my hands on enough guitars to really have an opinion although I’m kinda leaning towards it’s bs. 1 thing I do know that regardless of the guitar, nothing changes the way it sounds more than practice.
Have you checked out the squier classic vibe tele? Any thoughts? It’s got the pine body, but it has a heavy lacquer. In a budget sense I wonder how it compares.
This is sooooooo interesting Sir! Thank you so much for this information. You are very generous with you knowledge. Good news! I'm getting back to work! So I will get on the case to get my first Telecaster ever and you were very instrumental (no pun intended) in the process. I shall promise this, when my situation gets back to normal (somewhat) I will order this t-shirt of yours (It's a sickness). I just LOVE it :) Keep up the incredible work. I'm a fan and I will keep you informed with the Tele hunt as you will be an incredible source of information while I am looking for my next electric guitar :)
Scientific papers by Arthur Pate and others at the Sorbonne in Paris show that the main things that matter about a solid electric guitar body are its mass and its overall stiffness. For most resonance modes of the assembled guitar (neck plus body) the body acts as a rigid weight immobilizing the bridge and one end of the neck. The neck is far more important for any resonance issues (that might be slightly audible in the electric sound), because it's far more flexible and far less massive. The body is mainly (as Glenn Fricker says), BALLAST. Given that the main things that matter about the body are its mass and stiffness, it's worth knowing that the stiffness depends on the CUBE of the thickness, so if you make a body out of cheap flexible wood, say twice as flexible as expensive stiff wood, you can make it equally stiff by making it 26 percent thicker. (1.26 x 1.26 x 1.26 = 2.00) You can also just add weights to it if you really want the extra mass. There is no characteristic sound of a mahogany or alder or poplar or maple body, independent of its width and especially its thickness. A Les Paul body is massive and stiff, but it's mostly stiff because it's THICK, not because it's made of mahogany. One study by Arthur Pate et al. found that there's more variation in the resonance properties of necks with rosewood fretboards, or necks all with maple fretboards, than there is a difference between the groups. And that's for nominally identical guitars and necks made in the same factory, differing only in fretboard wood. So even if you can tell a difference between a particular maple/rosewood neck and a particular maple/maple neck, it's likely to be due to random differences between particular pieces of fretboard or neck wood, not due to the species. (The paper is titled "Modal parameter variability in industrial electric guitar making: Manufacturing process, wood variability, and lutherie decisions" and you can find it on ResearchGate if you have a (free) account there.)
I can be so immature for a 70 year old, but every time Zac said "Let's talk about wood" I envisioned Beavis from Beavis and Butthead saying "He He, he said wood"
I'm just as bad. Without my readers on, at first glance I thought the title was "How WEED Affects Tone." I know it improves mine.
@@JohnNathanCO LOL!!!
x)
Nothing wrong with being Young at Heart😉👍
You had to say that and now I’m cracking up 😂
Alder is a leguminous wood that is predominantly produced in the NW US. It needs a lot of water to grow, but it grows relatively fast. When I lived in WA state, I saw quite a few old barns built from alder, and of course now, it's been adopted for cabinetry uses as well. It's also used for smoking, just as hickory is in the South. There is some variation on density, but it tends to be fairly light (not as light as swamp ash usually is), and usually has a more even tonal response than ash. I believe that Fender adopted it because it didn't require pore filler, and because it was relatively inexpensive at that time.
When I worked at Warmoth (many years back), I made myself a hollow Tele body from yellow cedar with a red cedar top and f-hole. It was so resonant that it fed back tremendously at higher volumes (I was a dumb kid), but at lower volumes, it sounded like an acoustic, rich with overtones. The clear nitrocellulose finish made the body appear golden in sunlight...
One category was overlooked here. Taste. Maple is more yummy, especially maple frosted donuts.
So good!
Sassafras wood smells like root beer forever
And Persimmon smells like ... never mind.
Or Cheerios lol
@@Sophiedorian0535 Wait a second! What do you mean "never mind"?
We’re talking about electric guitars not acoustic guitars, so it does not affect tone, it affects price. That little almost imperceptible tone wood could give to an electric guitar, doesn’t matter, ‘cause you already have controls on your guitar, amp and damn pedals to manipulate your tone as you wish, so at the end what difference could wood make? It’s just stupid
I have 2 Washburn N4s. One was made of ash in the early 90s and one was made of alder in the 2010s. We’ve swapped electronics between the two and there’s still a big difference in the sound. The ash one sounds like it has more and thicker top end. Harmonics also seem clearer on the ash one. The alder one has a tighter sound and more mid range, but it seems to lose definition on the low and high end.
I have a custom made tele with a maple cap neck. Neck is maple. Fretboard is maple, capped, with a birds eye laminate for a beauty on the eye. Cheap yet looks expensive. Body is ash of course. I loaded it with MFD from G&L and a Wilkinson bridge and brass barrel saddles. With 330 Gibson pots and orange drop at 022uF. This beast can be ice picky yet growl as well (thanks to MFD pickups). Love it!
Another super-informative video Zac! Now for my next Tele I am going to be a wood snob on top of everything else to seek the right tone! Two other things: I changed out my 6-saddle bridge in my Tele for the Fender vintage bridge with brass saddles after watching one of your other videos and it made SO much of a difference and I'm super happy with the change! The second thing: Just seeing that Brett Mason tele in the background is giving me the shakes lol! Great content as always, good job again man!
most sensitive explanation of this subject i have ever heard. maestro.
Most interesting as well. Experiment and experience-based. Not on hearsay sown together with pool table logic. Maestro indeed. I'm jealous. I'm too pedantic to be able to do what le Zac is doing.
An excellent 14 minute seminar. I don’t think you could have done better answering my questions if I was sitting across from you asking directly. Thank you 🙏. 👍👍👍
I really like your talks on gear. The guy at the gig yelling "Play Freebiird" doesn't know or care what wood your guitar is made of but a guitar nerd like me finds it interesting. Did Leo spec swamp ash for the Tele because he used it in his lap steels or because of price points or accessibility? Sometimes happy accidents can create legends. BTW, one of my favorite Tele players who really flys under the radar is Kenny Vaughn. I first saw him live at a Marty Stuart concert years ago. He was wearing a lime green suit and hat with a matching Tele and played licks that would melt your face off. I've been a big fan ever since. Thanks, Zac, for keeping the videos coming.
The guy yelling out, “Play your Norlin-era pancake body Les Paul!” cares😉
I’m pretty sure everything that Leo Fender did was motivated by price UNTIL a musician he respected told him “You know Leo, I think it would better is you did ______ because ______.”
My favorite Tele and Strat wood is ash with maple neck. Love the dynamics. Great episode! I heard Vince Gill once say in an interview that he prefers a rosewood fingerboard on his Strat and to his ears gives more sustain although I've never perceived that myself. Also I don't know if this is true or not but I find that I've had more problems with fret sprout and note choking more on guitars I've owned with rosewood boards. Not sure if the rosewood has a tendency to shrink more and can swell more with temperature changes versus maple.
Speaking of Vince Gill...I would sure love to see an interview! Cheers!
I'm not sure where I am on the whole Tone wood debate with electrics. I've seen convincing video's where they've swapped out bodies and necks with the exact same pick-up configuration and there has been no audible difference in tone. However I also watched the Warmoth video where they did a similar thing and there did seem to be a noticeable difference (although very subtle). Logically, the signal is produced by a vibrating string in a magnetic field, so how much can the wood really impact the tone? Then there is my own experience whereby I think I can hear a difference. I'll be interested to read others comments on this topic. Great vid as always.
It's fairly obvious a TH-cam video will not easily show any difference in sound. There's a lot of compression going on. I mean, just look at the many tube amp videos and compare to playing using the real deal. There's not a single video that captures that sound accurately. I also would say the wood of any guitar is only a piece of the puzzle. The dominant factors will be pickups, string choice and whatever amp or effects you choose to use, obviously. But those saying it doesn't matter at all which wood a guitar is made of, are simply wrong. Does it matter as much as the marketing wants you to believe? Probably not. But again, doesn't mean there is 'no' difference. Also keep in mind that for any guitar to play well in the hands of a new owner, it should feel good to play on it. 90% of the experience when playing is based on that, not the sound that you can heavily influence by choice of pickups, strings and so on. And then there's also the fun fact, how rarely any two guitars will sound really _exactly_ the same.
As a fan of Fender Telecaster, this channel is one of fave. Thanks Zac!
My favorite neck on a Strat is solid rosewood, paired with Custom Shop Fat 50's.
My favorite neck on a ash or alder Tele is maple with ebony fingerboard. You usually only find those at custom builders though.
THANK YOU! Finally someone clarifies, that it is about attack, the first transient, and not really about brightness 💪🏼
It's about both. Brightness is the perception, grouping of harmonics in the attack rather than in the envelope, is how said perception is being generated. Neither is more real than the other. Trust your ears. It's what musical instruments are made for, after all.
Outside of perhaps 'Doc' from 'Back to the Future', I can't imagine anyone take an oscilloscope app to the Crossroads Festival.
@@Sophiedorian0535 Well, that is an even deeper dive in how generated sound waves leads to individual perception of what we call tone. And even so I would say, that the difference in the envelope is not neglectable, you are very right, I would rather have a beer, listen and enjoy sound, tone, art, music :)
@@cahootspastor7855 Wait. Not done yet. No self-respecting pedantrix checks out without some Latin. De gustibus et coloribus non est disputandum. I'd rather have a banana milkshake. It's the nerd's Glenfiddich.
I really love your intro to all your videos,, that Melody and the way you edit,,there's something about it,,well done thank you again
Thank you so much!
Since I’ve been building guitars, I’ve really started to love roasted maple/roasted maple fretboards. Specifically the heavily figured variety. Not just for the pretty grain. It’s a bit softer than rock maple. But with 6% moisture content, incredibly dry and stable. Quartersawn adds a bit more stability as well. I like to make mine a bit thicker(.830”-.900”), but not baseball bats. Combined with a thin oil finish, it vibrates like a massage chair! All those vibrations make it a bit louder acoustically, which enhances the signal output to the amp. Lots of definition imo. Love it!
Im a strat guy and have alder and ash bodies guitars. The best thing for me is maple neck and maple or ebony “cap” meaning a relatively thin curved fretboard 3mm usually - the wood and the construction create a synthesis of the forest.
Zac, your TH-cam-channel is the best for a honky tonk Country musician such as I.
Similar wood based topic - I made 2 speaker baffles for a 2x12 cab, one spruce ply and one hardwood ply. The hardwood ply had a much harder or strident tone that needed softening up a little. The pine one did the trick and stayed in.
Very cool Zac, thank you! I’m an ash body/1pc maple neck fan on my Danos because of the strong fundamental that those ‘50s style axes have.
Right on!
I've switched every part of a Tele/Strat and everything changes something.
Thank you Zac! Once again very interesting to see which sound variations can be achieved with the tone woods. Absolutely amazing!
My pleasure!
Early Fenders had pine bodies, no truss rod. The pine dented easy, and necks didn’t like long journeys North or South. Pine sounds great. Fender did a Squier Classic Vibe tele, pine body, stock tonerider pickups, great sound, as good as Fender tele costing twice as much or more.
I saw Bill Kirchen live a few weeks ago. He was playing a pine Tele with a pine neck, no truss rod. He said it wasn't that old though, it was made from some pine that came out of Jim Jarmusch's loft apparently. Sounded great.
Thanks for your insights on Tele tone! Of course, how a guitar comes together ultimately is individual to the instrument. Nice thing about T-style, is you can make adjustments!
Yes, please! Cover pickups, pots and caps!
--
So far, I’m thinking Pinewood body, Maple cap neck, traditional Bridge with Brass saddles...?
More to come
One thing is certain, That 67 is sweeeet
I have two identical Ibanez RGs with high output pickups. Same bridge, pickups and everything except wood. One is Ash the other is "mahogany" (not sure if it's real mahogany, but its definitely softer and lighter wood than ash) and they sound very different even through high gain amps. You really hear it when you play higher notes on the low frets, think your 3-5th fret on the D string. You'll really hear it there.
Great observations!
I used to talk with a very knowledgeable guy at Warmoth guitars (who later started USA Custom Guitars). He had built countless electric guitars. I asked him his opinion on a swamp ash body with ebony fretboard. He say "It will be fast." In other words, the response may not be what I wanted (I'm a mahogany fan). Much like you've observed here.
It's a shame that so many people get upset about this subject. Even those who don't get bent out of shape by tone opinions on the 300,000 types of pickups out there.
Everyone's ears are different, and expecting someone _not_ to hear something is bizarre. Like a color blind person insisting that no one can see any difference between red and green, or someone insisting that there's no "perfect pitch" just cause they can't hear it.
Anyway, thanks for the informative video!
Lots of people are saying now that the wood can not possibly have any effect on the tone because the magnet in the pick up doesn't amplify the sound of wood, it amplifies the sound of vibrating steel.
Maybe, but how about this? The wood is going to affect the sustain, as well as the harmonics and overtones that the strings generate once it's set in motion by the vibration of those strings. Each guitar will produce a note with different harmonic content, because no two pieces of wood are exactly the same, and the pickup WILL sense the difference in the overtones and amplify it.
I had a cheap import Strat years ago. It played fine, but tonally it was a dud. The body was about 12 pieces of glued together God-only-knows-what kind of wood underneath a solid black finish. I upgraded everything on that guitar but the body and neck, and nothing helped. It never sounded any better. Now I have a partscaster with a one piece alder body, and it sounds phenomenal with just ordinary stock pickups and hardware. The body vibrates like mad when you strum chords, whereas the dud body did nothing. The only thing I've ever changed on the home built parts caster is the strings. You can see it in the little thumbnail picture to the left if you can zoom in and enlarge the picture. I
The type of wood, moisture content, density, and overall size, all contribute. Not as much as an acoustic guitar, but they def do. Imo, dry wood with less density enhances vibrations and helps carry them throughout the body. Just like an acoustic, you can FEEL it when you strum a chord. A pickup generates a signal by a strings vibration interfering with the pickups magnetic field. More vibration in the wood=more movement to the string=enhances output signal. Thus louder signal, more sustain, and more dynamic articulation. There’s lots of nuances to it, but, I tend to agree with this debate.
Nope. Take a Les Paul as an example. Look how little of the metal of the bridge stud even touches wood. You tihnk the energy of a vibrating string could transfer through that throught the base and saddle to a degree that affects how long the string vibrates? You'd have to hot it with a sledge hammer. Sorry but wood makes NO DIFFERENCE
@@franknstein4340 I have changed bodies on my strat and it's quite noticeable tone wise. If you cant hear that's fine but a lot of us can hear it and it makes a tonal difference.
@@franknstein4340 Does that mean every 1953 Telecaster sounds the same? Vince Gill says that he has never played another '53
that sounds like his. But what does Vince
know?? Ask all of the most recognized luthiers if wood makes a tonal difference.
I can guarantee you if I put some Custom Shop pups in my '60s tiesco T-style it won't sound like my pine tele with the same electronics. Wood matters.
One of my favorites is a one piece swamp ash, maple neck, no truss rod like the summer 1950. Pine is great stuff and it’s easy to get one piece bodies.
I have 2- 1 piece Ohio pine tele bodies that are about 18 months old and almost ready to build. First time I've ever used pine, so it's an experiment. I saw and heard an old pine tele and really liked it. We'll see how it goes. 8) --gary
Did you build your pine Teles? Please give us an update! thanks
@@kylebollendorf329 Thanks for asking. I don't normally talk about this, but I have a recurring infection in my right leg that has been plaguing me for 20 years. It's in the bone now and in April they will operate on it. It's very painful and hard to deal with, doing antibiotics at home for now. Everything else is on hold. The 2 pine bodies, and an ash body are still drying. I have all the other parts, and 6 necks I bought from Warmoth. I'm also trying Ratio tuners for the first time, and 'brown sugar blend' wiring harness from Cream Tone. PUPs will be Fender Twisted Tele, and bridge Gotoh in-tune relic. Neck(s) thick V and 1 piece, small frets. When I get going again, hopefully w/both legs, I'll post back here. Thanks again for asking!! 8) --gary
Love the history and personal anecdotes Zac! In every comparison video I've ever heard so far, I have never found the maple fretboard to be bright - if anything, I found it to have a really nice low end that seemed more defined than rosewood. Thanks for another great video!
Awesome! Thank you!
Check out the Fender American Deluxe HSS mahogany body strat. It's my go-to and for a backup, I have a Fender American Deluxe ash body. My band does mostly hard classic rock w a couple o' mellow tunes, so I needed something with versatility that would cover classic strat tones but hard core Gibson mid's as well. A mahogany body Fender strat will get you way closer to those Gibson mid's / tones than ash, alder or basswood. This strat delivers that in SPADES.
A little over 45 years back, I played in a band, using the bass player's rosewood Tele; the "George Harrison" guitar. VERY warm guitar, but my goodness that beast was heavy. Not a complaint that you didn't address rosewood as a body or neck material, because it just isn't used that often.
I find that I prefer mahogany necks more than maple because I can feel the notes through the neck in my fret hand, and I find it helps my finger vibrato. I play them, but maple necks just feel "inert" to me. Now, it has been a long time since I played very loud, so perhaps the tactile feedback differences between maple and mahogany necks evaporate once the Volume knob goes over 4. But I mention this to distinguish between what the neck wood might do to *tone* and what it might do to unconscious fret-hand "information" (for want of a better term). I should emphasize that one rarely, if ever, encounters a mahogany neck with a relatively dense body. More often than not, mahogany necks are either part of an acoustic, or semi-acoustic guitar, or else are paired with a mahogany body. So what I like about them may well be potentiated by, or even confused with, what comes along for the ride.
Question: Do some woods benefit from the strings being mounted one way rather than the other? That is, thru ferrules and the body, vs. directly through the bridge plate?
Interesting , I've never played an original rosewood Telecaster but a friend of mine still has his first good guitar his parents bought him in the mid 80's ,which is a Japanese Fender rosewood Tele . I don't think it's much heavier than my Avri '52 but I believe the construction of the rosewood Tele was changed on later ones (after Harrison's, that far back I think) , including the Japanese versions in the 80's . My friend's guitar is like a sandwich body , whereas I think the originals were solid (?)
If you had a graph where the Up-Down axis was Crisp vs Muddy and Left-Right axis was Warm vs Bright, could you do a video where you graph the different woods, and talk about how certain things like roasting, or certain finishes also affect the tone?
Some thoughts: the wood and its relative resonance or lack of and this being the anchor points for the vibrating string provide sustain giving more signal to the pick-up. There may be some microphonic effect at the pick-up which theoretically could then influence tone thru the acoustic resonance of a vibrating system of wood and metal. So there most likely is something to the difference in woods and not so much voodoo. I have a 68 tele bass that is swamp ash and that bass just resonates and sustains like mad. And you can see/hear it because of the wood the neck is so stable and it stays in tune forever. There are a lot of variables that influence the tone but hehe we all know its in the hands!
Just before I even get into this video I'm hypothesizing that the takeaway is density and overall mass in the same way as density and overall mass of certain insulative materials affect volume at different frequencies in studios and venues... Ie bass traps and egg crates and such... That's basically been my concept of how tone woods and different finishes work tonally for a few years and it kinda drives me bananas when people try to insist that wood and paint don't make a sonic difference... Anyway here I go watching the thing 🙃
I know this is an older video but, I must give my 2 cents. At the end of the day...I don't think wood makes a huge difference but, it does some. I always played Swamp Ash and Maple board. I just think the maple board looks right on a Tele or any Fender. My favorite Tele now is a single pick up Lefty bridge with a Rio Grande pick-up. I made the body out a Pine. My neck came off a lefty Squire Affinity Tele. It is the best sounding Tele I have ever played. My guess is the lefty bridge has more to do with it than the wood. And the reverse headstock also helps you keep your bends in tune. No string tree to get hung on. That old piece of pine had a ton of knots in it. So, I did a transparent Seafoam Green finish on her and my pickguard is a 1964 Texas License Plate. She has a Hotrod look and sound. I will never part with her👍
I really like northern ash for downtuned guitars, the low end is tight and articulate. Swamp ash has a nice upper mid range focus, it’s my favorite tonewood.
Hey Zac which of these has more influence on guitar tone. Amplifier, Pickups. Strings, Effects, Capacitors, Resistors, Venue, Cables... (a 250k capacitor vs a 500 capacitor has more influence on tone than the wood.)
All of those have more influence on tone than wood. I have never met a person who can listen to a person playing a stratocaster and have the ability to distinguish an alder body from and ash body. Quality wood makes quality guitars that are worth playing.
Practice has more affect on tone. If I must be totally honest.
I was a skeptic about wood with a solid body guitar. After owning many different guitars I have decided it does make a difference. I have two strats with the same pickups and hardware. One with a Alder body the other with Ashe. They sound totally different.
Someone can come along and say yes that’s true but your pick ups may have different numbers of windings in them or the magnets may be more or less demagnetized over time, and stuff like that.
As well as different pickup height.
Zak sticks to the standard Fender woods as he said he would, I was just wondering if any Teles were made from the shipment of Sassafras which got into Eric Johnson's Virginia Strat, anyone know?
Another great vid - Thanks Zac! Looking forward to the pickup/pot/electronics episode.
How wood affects tone:
1. They don't.
I have 5 or 6 Teles. I like maple necks on ash bodies as my primary tele. But I like my Adler Teles with rosewood boards too, just not as much. My custom, double bound Tele wouldn't look right with a maple fretboard. It is a unique custom because it has a B bender in it, which you wouldn't know from looking at it because all the components are hidden by the wood or pickguard, there is no backplate.
I do have a unique Tele I built that has a relic'd maple neck on a cedar body! The body is made of strips of 1970s cedar wood from a house that have been attached together like a butcher block. So overall it has a reddish brown look but with the variations of the individual strips. So the body is like a 10 piece body. The whole guitar is well under 7 lbs and cedar is considerably harder than pine, so more durable. A very unique guitar, for sure.
My 1981 Black and Gold Tele with rosewood board is also very unique and visually a stunner, but it is heavyyyy, almost 9 lbs. That is light Les Paul territory I guess.
Hi. I appreciate your videos. That said, I am quite sceptical with the way wood could possibly affect "non microphonic" pickups. Pickups work with the alteration of a magnetic field created by the coil and magnets. The string vibration will alter the mentioned magnetic field. Could wood affect sustain? That is another discussion. As all vibrate by sympathetic interaction. This could explain a bit of difference on sustain. Since some frequencies disappear by attenuation quicker than other ones, one may have the acoustic impression of a tonal difference. That coupled with the vibration one feels directly on the body by holding the guitar as well as the tinny acoustic sound of the instrument, which we hold relatively close to our hearings. This last will not be audible though, whenever you are at the stage, playing loud along with the band and with your guitar hanging from a strap.
Different amps, pickups and strings, in this order will contribute to the biggest tonal difference.
Microphonic pickups are a completely different history. But who does prefer them? Only very few people will look for them.
I challenge everyone to take an oscilloscope and analyze the results of different woods, using the same strings, playing and pickups on the test. Do not look at the envelope, rather at the frequency analysis and the wave form. Timbre is given by the wave form. Frequency should be quite the same if the string is in tune. Harmonics or overtones should not change with the same pickups and strings whenever one plays with barely the same strength.
Of course acoustic guitars are not part of my discussion because they are completely different stuff. That includes semi hollow and hollow electric guitars. They are usually much more microphonic.
However when this comes to the player feeling or to playability in general, I absolutely agree that wood, finishing lakers, neck construction, bridge saddles... All that have a great influence in the experience we get from the instrument. Yet this all is submitted to taste and play style.
In a nutshell, all this is quite subjective and we should not do science of it at least we can prove it in a LAB environment with the right tools and equipment.
Zac, you may be aware that I have commented to you before and that I'm a huge fan of this site. I missed this one when you did it 2 years ago and just cauight it. I must tell you that I do not understand how the kind of wood on a solidbody guitar when it is played through an amp makes a difference in the sound. Acoustically, unplugged, yeah. Through an amp -?. I know, I have thought that it did, but I'm not so sure now. Please tell me your understanding of how that works. I trust you to be knowledgeable and trustworthy to the max. Say it ain't so my friend.
Cheers.
Why do violinist not just put strings up to a mic? Wood makes a difference. Resonance enhances sustain, that the pickup takes in.
@@AskZac Of course, for acoustic instruments, the wood that it is made of is crucial to the sound of the entire instrument. That is not the question.
Regarding a solidbody guitar, the pickups are rarely attached to the wood itself but to some kind of plastic holder or to the plastic pickguard. They almost never touch the wood at all. Exceptions to this are Les Pauls and ES-330s and Epiphone Casinos with P-90s which are screwed directly to the body, and the Telecaster neck pickup which is attached similarly.
On a Strat, for instance, the pickups are attached to the plastic pickguard. Most electric guitars do not have pickups attached to the wood.
So, given that different wood types resonate differently. How is that different resonance transmitted in any significant way to the pickups and by the signal created by them to the amp?
I thought it was interesting in your Tim Learch interview, the discussion about the neck and the difference it made to him.
Thanks Zac for this information.
I love the swamp ash and maple cap
Geeky but so much fun. There's no doubt that the type of body and neck wood impact vibration hence the tone. Finding a way to describe the nuances of tone, though, is really hard. Zac, you did a great job. And yes, you sound like a wine connoisseur. But in a good way.
So these “vibrations” in the wood generate an electromagnetic impulse that influences the electromagnetic signal induced by the vibrating string over the magnetic poles of the pickup?
@@svgs650r I believe an electric guitar is a system of resonance. Of course the bridge and nut and composition of the string are by far the most significant elements contributing to the nature of the string vibration that in turn creates the electromagnetic impulses. I wouldn't argue that. But if you have a small low mass bridge versus large high mass bridge, the string definitely vibrates differently. That's pretty easy to hear if you've ever swapped out a cheap Japanese bass bridge for a Leo Quan Baddass bridge for instance. I'm not an engineer or scientist so I don't know why, but I suspect the larger mass bridge is more stable at the contact point with the string so it doesn't contaminate the strings vibration with its own wobble.
Similarly, the harder and more dense the nut material, the less it vibrates. Most luthiers feel that high quality synthetics work as well as bone and that's probably because they both are dense materials. When it comes to the wood components of an electric guitar, I would admit that differences in string vibrations are probably very small, certainly much smaller than the string material itself. The body and neck of the guitar are part of the system that supports the vibrating string. I work in a guitar shop and many talented electric players pay a lot of attention to how an electric guitar sounds unplugged. They've told me that if the guitar as a whole is lively when unplugged, it will sound better plugged in. It definitely will feel different in their hands which also contributes to playability and therefore to sound.
I think there is a lot of hype about "old wood" versus "new wood" and in acoustic guitars it has spawned a mania with baking the top wood (artificially drying out wood) to make it sound better. While that's possible, I suspect it's more a marketing ploy than a real thing. But type of wood (maple vs mahogany vs rosewood, etc.) obviously plays a significant part in the sound signature of an acoustic instrument. I don't think anyone with ears could argue that.
With an electric guitar, wood has a much lesser effect. But as I said above. An electric guitar works as a system and every part of the guitar, and even more importantly the players fingers which are also part of the "system," contribute something to the nature of the string vibration and hence the ultimate sound. I apologize for running on and on about this. I'm much more interested in guitar playing than guitar geekery. But your question is an honest one and I wanted to give you an honest answer. As a person who sells guitars for a living, I focus on finding the right instrument for people, one that feels good in their hands and will satisfy their needs. I rarely, if ever, get into the geekery of wood type in electric guitars because there are so many other factors that matter much more.
Today’s shirt is autobiographical....For ALL of us...
Great stuff! Always love to hear well researched minutiae about my favorite subjects! Now... if you could just chain Leventhal to a chair for the 12 hour series on ALL the parts on Planet of Love and the signal chain for each moment...😜
John would likely complain about how he used too much chorus, and put too much stuff in his earlier productions.
Ask Zac That récord made a giant dent in my noggin. I learned LOTS about arranging etc. (...Sidewalk ends etc..)
@@THEItchybruddah I love that record too. It was my intro to him, as I did not hear Colvin till later.
Wow that paisley is eye catching!!!
I am a Guitar Player and also a Guitar Tech. I had this client once who had formed a strong opinion based on some youtube videos he saw that wood does not have any effect on the tone of a guitar whatsoever and that it is all in the pickups. He is a metal player and i can understand how one dimensional and limited his hearing and relationship with tone can be with that kind of music. Sometimes, it is best to not argue with such people. As they say, whatever bakes one's cookie.
In my opinion, if you should have just one guitar, it should be an Alder body and a One-piece maple neck and fingerboard combo. That would pretty much cover all ground musically. In a guitar with humbuckers, that combo has a great tone with Humbucker splits. It gives you all the twang and clarity but also some weight with those mids.
Can't wait to read all the comments. Spicy topic!!!
Not really. There’s subjective reactions and then there’s the hard facts of science. The rest is shamanism. That’s all there is to it.
I was already cringing when I saw the thumbnail for this video! It was amazing to me to see how vicious the Great Online Tonewood Debate of the 90's got, justgo play your guitar, live, and let live! 😎😁
excellent video as usual. I think there is a direct relation between attack and brightness since both occur in the first part of a note. If the body and neck are made of a hard wood, there will be little transfer of energy from the string to those woods and there will be more brightness and attack (more energy in the string in the first part of the note). I think this happens because these hardwoods are less prone to movement and require less energy. It's a crazy idea of mine anyway. Saludos desde Argentina!
First comment! I still wake up early though I have no place I need to be. Interesting subject with lots to debate, but I won't. I like wood and beautiful things made from it, especially musical instruments. I'm going to make a lot of music today. Good vibrations through all my ash, alder, spruce, mahogany, rosewood, etc... I've never heard a poem as lovely as a tree, or heard a sound as lovely as string vibrations resonating with woods. Happy strumming!
Thanks for sharing!
I love you for that reference!
th-cam.com/video/vOHekLZD5i4/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=AdamfulgenceakaEileen
Following your example. Thank you.
Peace and love
Just what I was looking for!
That Paisley a Tele is just stunning 🤩
Nice ! Ibz RR Sr ('58 V) Ash finished to look like korina. Sounds great.
Alder Sq stuff, too but almost equally love my Arbor 'woodstock' style strato, pearl white and made out of plywood.
I bought this in in '85 instead of the MIJ Squires (all about the neck). i know....
Still love it, tho. Great for Trower tunes.
I've been enjoying your video's. One of my best friends does all the neck prep and fret work for Dan on those Danocaster's.
He does great work
@@AskZac Yes, he does. He works on all my guitars and has them all feeling and playing amazing!
This is a great video very informative. I would have liked to know a little more about Pine, reason is I was interested in getting a American Professional II Tele and wanted the Butterscotch finish but now it appears for any clearer finish you can not get Alder but only Pine or Roasted Pine. And as Zac mentioned Pine is a soft wood so am afraid my guitar will be subject to getting beat up even with careful use. Not sure why they don't offer Alder anymore for finished like Butterscotch.
Love it!😎
Always an incredible source of information! ⚡️
Love your playing!
You may already have a video of it but I'm a new subscriber and was curious about all the different telecaster wiring 2 and 3 pickups
Here are some from my site www.askzac.com/category/articles
Oh man that 67 made my mouth water....👍
Alright! Provocative stuff Zac (my initial thought, seeing the first Tele body you held up; Nice piece of ash! - kinda looks like mine.) Mainly I appreciate this particular episode because I’ve come to trust you as a straight-forward kind of guy. And I appreciate too your saying, “Sometimes we hear with our eyes” (great line!) - but then, “The lack of hardness…. That the rosewood is a little softer than the maple…” (so Zac, are you hearing with your eyes there? Just sayin’…). Which all brings me around to the old (and so true), “Tone is in the fingers.” But again, I appreciate you tackling what I think is a pretty esoteric subject, especially in solid-body electrics. So thanks for wading in and weighing-in there.
everything matters, just like altitude. except not all the factors make a relevant difference after the sound is filtered by the pickups. you can notice those little differences if you push your ear directly against your guitar, but since you use pickups, amps, pedals, etc. most of those differences become irrelevant.
otherwise, guitar makers would try to take any acoustic obstacles out of the guitar body, such as holes for the electronic components. It would be super easy to put the controls, wires and metal pieces on a board out of the guitar body in order to preserve its acoustic properties, which is easy to make, but kind of unpractical to play it.
guitar bodies don't even have audiodynamic shapes like lutes or violins, which have features like volute shaped heads, water drop silhouettes or sound posts. because those things make a difference in a mechanical amplification system, but they are not that important after you translate the sound into an electric signal, because many parts of the spectrum of frequencies are gonna be filtered out or contaminated by mics, wires, circuits, etc.
Great episode! Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it!
Should be called AskZac.calm, because you’re so mellow.
swamp ash + fat maple neck = BEST GUITAR SOUND EVER
Love your videos! Always informative and interesting!! Go telecaster!!!!!
Looking forward for you to go over pickups...
I play a 1962 ash body and a 1952 maple neck D profile as the old had back then.
What can I say about that ?
My Telecaster has lots of treble and bass and it has that honky tonk mid whit that plonky tone.
I have a Joe Barden 3 piece brass sadels bridge on it. I change the bridge pickup from flatpole to staggerd as the mid was bit scooped..
And I need have my bridge pickup pretty low setting to get the dynamic right !
I use 0.12-0.56 as close as they was made for back in the 50s. Best regards from Scandinavia Sweden 🇸🇪
Oh boy here we go. Please consider hearing a recording vs. playing it in a room.
Ive thought about the wood/tone issue for 40 years. Im convinced that wood may effect sustain- but wood does not effect tone coming through the pickups- No way. The sound and feel is only experienced acoustically as we hold and play the guitar but that acoustic tone does not come through the pickups.
I agree.
I disagree
I mean this as a true question so that I understand your concept. If the pickups are the only thing we are hearing when the guitar is plugged in (aside from sustain) wouldn’t any guitar with the same pickups sound identical to another guitar with those same pickups, or do you think the variances of tone that is heard come from the variance of the pickups even though, theoretically they should be the same? Because if I understand you, you are saying wood does not affect tone coming through pickups. I would suggest taking the neck off your guitar and swapping it with another one and then tell me your guitar still sounds the same.
Chris Lester nope I disagree. PRS’s sound sterile all you hear is the high output pickups. Solid state amps like fractals helix and kempers sound sterile it’s all pickups. Hand wired tube amps non PCB capture both the resonant frequencies of the wood as well as the nuances of the player. And I’m a roadhouse bar band player for over 30 years with a real 50’s tele and a real 50’s Strat & everyone is dancing and drinking and having a good time it’s an older crowd with no cell phones and if a lady spills a bear on my PTP Marshall then its not landfill like the solid state stuff
@@tongusgrump2261 I disagree too because why then same pickups with same electronics sounds different on another guitar than other one? I try that between my two les pauls and one was brighter than another. Strat necks withy different woods effects too. It's just finding the sweet spot about guitar woods and pickups, and i think there comes that, when someone says, this is a great guitar, better than some other one like Gibson LP's.
Thank you again!🏁🎯
Hey Zac, You tube bots are hard at work, right after i watched this episode, “concrete guitar” popped up...it’s a good watch if you wanna know what affects that has on tone 👍
Maybe you touched on pickup mounting in Tele's on your Hardware video. I think direct mounting the pickups makes some tonal differences. G.E. Smith swore by it, especially the bridge. May be sacrilege to some to abandon the bridge mount.
Good idea. Another video
What about the hard finish on the maple necks? At least on one that hasn't had it all worn off. I've heard people say that how thinly it's applied makes a big difference in how bright the guitar is. The slipperiness has always bothered me so I've never bonded with maple neck Fenders. Or Rick's with their lacquered rosewood fingerboards.
Awesome episode Zac! How about the affect that guitar weight has on tone? Thanks as always! Fister
A topic for another vid
I always found Swamp Ash had a tad more resonance, more vibration than Alder.
I've been wondering what your favorite wood combination is for teles. Does it not matter as long as it's a good sounding guitar or do you have a favorite combo?
It depends. But I tend to like ash with a maple or maplecap neck.
Steve Morse played a Tele custom with a Poplar body and all the guitars I've played with Poplar, I didn't like. It has to be in my head.
Super minimal in my opinion. Nice vid Zac.
This is great. Zac, what about swamp ash body, maple neck and rosewood fingerboard? Thanks and greetings from good old England.
Like Steve Cropper's 63 Tele. Same woods
@@AskZac wow... thanks!!!
Hey Zac, thanks for the video. What do you think of the roasted pine American Fender Jazz bass pro II? Any thoughts?
Don’t play a ton of bass. All that matters is if it speaks to you
Interesting video on a subject that is a complete minefield. The sound clips I've listened to over the years comparing different woods for their tonal characteristics made me realise that the perceived differences between say alder and ash are there, they're just very, very slight (and probably even disappear entirely in a concert setting where effects are used).
I do think in this whole debate people tend to confuse resonance/sustain/vibration with terms such as mid-range, brightness, etc. I have to admit that I'm less concerned with the latter considerations because I don't use an amp most of the time at home. The quality of wood used for body and neck is definitely important and has an impact upon the way the instrument vibrates acoustically. Every heavy guitar I've had in the past (some by high end makers featuring great hardware and pickups) has been completely dead and they were terrible to play unplugged (as well as in a band context). I can't see what else to blame that on other than poor wood selection. How anyone can say that the body and neck makes no difference whatsoever to the overall sound and feel of a guitar is baffling.
The minefield is there because of the erroneous belief that species is enough of an indicator as to a wood's behaviour in a stringed instrument.
Wood is plant tissue. Contrary to animal tissue, the DNA of a plant does not code for phenotypical morphology. Quite frankly, to ascribe specific properties to a plant's species is a form of racism.
Wood is God's own Cellulose-Resin fibre composite material. Wish people respected it more.
All things being equal, does changing the wood or the pickup alter the sound more? Also, if a tele were made from scratch to get Chet's sound, for example, what would that tele be? Thanks for keeping the good stuff coming, Zac. Peace.
Pickup is more than 90% of your sound, so start from there.
@ClaudioMartella this does not jive with my experience. Pickup, strings, wood, touch all make a big difference
Would love to hear a blind sound test with different necks on the same body.
Go to warmoth channel, they have several of those videos.
The fun of this that there are so many different variables in a guitar tone that “testing it out” all science style is impossible. Does wood make a difference? I honestly couldn’t tell you. I haven’t gotten my hands on enough guitars to really have an opinion although I’m kinda leaning towards it’s bs. 1 thing I do know that regardless of the guitar, nothing changes the way it sounds more than practice.
Science says: don't bother trying to prove a negative.
So when does it fully materialised
Great discussion on the infamous “tone wood”.
PRS also did a great discussion on tone and how everything works together.
Have you checked out the squier classic vibe tele? Any thoughts? It’s got the pine body, but it has a heavy lacquer. In a budget sense I wonder how it compares.
I have played a couple, and they were great. I always look for lighter ones.
Love coming here...yeah that 67 of yours is nice....what pickups are in there
Originals.
Ask Zac do you know how hot the pickups are wound
This is sooooooo interesting Sir! Thank you so much for this information. You are very generous with you knowledge. Good news! I'm getting back to work! So I will get on the case to get my first Telecaster ever and you were very instrumental (no pun intended) in the process. I shall promise this, when my situation gets back to normal (somewhat) I will order this t-shirt of yours (It's a sickness). I just LOVE it :) Keep up the incredible work. I'm a fan and I will keep you informed with the Tele hunt as you will be an incredible source of information while I am looking for my next electric guitar :)
THANK YOU!!!
Hey Zac ! What about the pinecaster guitar wood.
Spot on.
Thanks Zac.
It's called a 'comb filter' in electronics, or a 'selective overtone sink' in acoustics.
Thanks, Doc!
@@AskZac You're welcome, Prof. I'm a fan.
Scientific papers by Arthur Pate and others at the Sorbonne in Paris show that the main things that matter about a solid electric guitar body are its mass and its overall stiffness.
For most resonance modes of the assembled guitar (neck plus body) the body acts as a rigid weight immobilizing the bridge and one end of the neck. The neck is far more important for any resonance issues (that might be slightly audible in the electric sound), because it's far more flexible and far less massive. The body is mainly (as Glenn Fricker says), BALLAST.
Given that the main things that matter about the body are its mass and stiffness, it's worth knowing that the stiffness depends on the CUBE of the thickness, so if you make a body out of cheap flexible wood, say twice as flexible as expensive stiff wood, you can make it equally stiff by making it 26 percent thicker. (1.26 x 1.26 x 1.26 = 2.00) You can also just add weights to it if you
really want the extra mass. There is no characteristic sound of a mahogany or alder or poplar or maple body, independent of its width and especially its thickness. A Les Paul body is massive and stiff, but it's mostly stiff because it's THICK, not because it's made of mahogany.
One study by Arthur Pate et al. found that there's more variation in the resonance properties of necks with rosewood fretboards, or necks all with maple fretboards, than there is a difference between the groups. And that's for nominally identical guitars and necks made in the same factory, differing only in fretboard wood.
So even if you can tell a difference between a particular maple/rosewood neck and a particular maple/maple neck, it's likely to be due to random differences between particular pieces of fretboard or neck wood, not due to the species. (The paper is titled "Modal parameter variability in industrial electric guitar making: Manufacturing process, wood variability, and lutherie decisions" and you can find it on ResearchGate if you have a (free) account there.)