Technical discussion: "The guitar's natural tone"

[Sunbane]

So - have we arrived at the conclusion that a solidbodied guitar's "natural tone" is...hard to define at best?

[Dreamland_Rebel]

yes, they strung up a bunch of guitar and neck blanks.

its natural tone is amplifyed but the pickups colour it as does the amp. hell, even the construction and alloys of your strings colour the tone as well as the material of your pick, and how you physically strike the strings, hold the notes on the fretboard, to the mass of your fingers...

so a guitar's natural tone is relative to many factors.

[Partial @ Marshall]

Everything has an impact on tone, that's why it's so hard to pin down. I would suspect wood density to make the biggest difference in resonance /acoustic properties.

[zeegler]

So - have we arrived at the conclusion that a solidbodied guitar's "natural tone" is...hard to define at best?

Pretty much, since there are so many factors that affect how a guitar sounds. If you were to try and design a guitar to sound a specific way, it goes far beyond what wood it's constructed from. Here's a list of things that apparently affect the sound of a guitar.

Body wood
Neck wood
Fretboard wood
Neck/body joint
Neck construction
Headstock joint
Headstock veneer
Bridge type
Bridge material
Bridge mass
Saddle material
Fret material
Nut material
Scale length
Headstock size
Body size
Body shape
Finish type
Finish thickness
Pickup type
Pickup height
Pickup mounting method
String gauge
String brand

...and I'm probably forgetting about 6 more.

[CharvelRocker]

Glue used
Screw material
Tuners
Inlay material
Pickguard shape
Trem cover

That it?

[zeegler]

Color?

[Trem]

MoJo?? []

[jdr94]

isnt the natural tone the way it sounds when you put your ear to the body and pluck the strings? and if so couldnt you plug up the guitar, use an earbud in one ear, have the other to the body and adjust the tone knob and eq to match em up? or am i missing the point of this thread. are we tryin to figure out how to get the natural tone of the guitar comin out of the amp?

[Cuthbert]

Yeah, I just noticed that.



As someone mentioned above, the wood probably does affect the way the strings vibrate. That's really the only way the wood could have an effect on a magnetic pickup. So, we're not really "hearing" the wood, but rather we're hearing the affect the wood has on the way the strings vibrate.

EXACTLY!We don't hear the "tone" of the wood but the way it changes the vibration of the string.

This is also true for acoustic guitars where the wood is moved by the vibration of the air and its "echo" interacts with the vibration of the strings, enhancing the sustain (if the material is good, of course).

[Spivonious]

isnt the natural tone the way it sounds when you put your ear to the body and pluck the strings? and if so couldnt you plug up the guitar, use an earbud in one ear, have the other to the body and adjust the tone knob and eq to match em up? or am i missing the point of this thread. are we tryin to figure out how to get the natural tone of the guitar comin out of the amp?

To get that tone, you just need to have a transparently amplified piezo unit.

I think the discussion has changed to what creates the natural tone.

Personally, I think the fretboard wood, the body wood, the type of bridge, and the neck joint type all influence the unplugged sound of the guitar. Basically anything that touches the strings and/or vibrates due to the strings moving. An alder guitar with a rosewood board and bolt-on maple neck and string-thru bridge sounds completely different than the same guitar with a floating trem.

[jdr94]

To get that tone, you just need to have a transparently amplified piezo unit.

I think the discussion has changed to what creates the natural tone.

Personally, I think the fretboard wood, the body wood, the type of bridge, and the neck joint type all influence the unplugged sound of the guitar. Basically anything that touches the strings and/or vibrates due to the strings moving. An alder guitar with a rosewood board and bolt-on maple neck and string-thru bridge sounds completely different than the same guitar with a floating trem.

i see. in that case i agree with all of the above being a factor. i would think that traditional fender style bridge would be bright, string thru mellow, and floyd.....maybe in the middle, but weaker since its floating. neck joint making it more mellow sounding(but louder acoustically) if its neckthru since theres a longer travel distance, bolt on being a little sharper(but softer acoustically) cause it probably keeps most of the vibration bouncing in the body. of course this is just me thinking about it with no experimentation or technical training.

[scotty]

How much affect would fretboard wood make? It is part of a guitar but a very small piece. The strings don't even touch the board just the frets.

[Spivonious]

In my experience, maple fretboards always sound a bit "snappier" than rosewood. I've never played ebony

[Newc]

Headstock veneer, inlay material, trem cover material, trussrod cover material/size, and such as that are cosmetic items that have no bearing on amplified tone.

While a Strat-style pickguard will reflect the acoustic tone more than a Les Paul-shaped pickguard, that has no bearing on the pickup's magnetic field or the string's oscillation.


Fretboard material relates directly to fretwire stability, so a denser wood like maple or ebony will reflect the vibration back to the fretwire more than a softer wood like rosewood or pao ferro.

Inlay size/shape doesn't affect fret stability (except on those rare few that have inlays that cross fret slots, like SRV's custom that had his name in MOP down the board).

The biggest factors of an electric guitar's tone are the density of the wood in which the bridge is mounted, the bridge and mounting hardware material density, the nut material and density, and how secure the string ends are (locking saddles/nut vs tuners/ferrules/cups).

However, the question remains: When matching a pickup to a guitar, does one start with the acoustic tone and try to have that duplicated when amplified, or does one simply state "this combination of materials will yield this response"?

And what of adding overdrive/distortion? I've often read in guitar mag articles written by alleged "experts" that when you introduce distortion you have to tweak the EQ to restore frequencies that are lost.

What's that about? Trying to get the same tone distorted as clean? How does that even work, exactly?


Now, I'm all for EQ as a tone-shaping tool, whether clean or distorted - make a Les Paul jangle like a Ric or make a Strat bark like an SG - but in the context of this discussion, what is the baseline "tone"? Where does the statement "this is the guitar's natural tone" come from?

[jdr94]

However, the question remains: When matching a pickup to a guitar, does one start with the acoustic tone and try to have that duplicated when amplified, or does one simply state "this combination of materials will yield this response"?

Now, I'm all for EQ as a tone-shaping tool, whether clean or distorted - make a Les Paul jangle like a Ric or make a Strat bark like an SG - but in the context of this discussion, what is the baseline "tone"? Where does the statement "this is the guitar's natural tone" come from?

well i personally have never considered the acoustic tone when selecting a pickup for a guitar. i usually buy used pickups, try it, sell it, try another til i get what i like. that is a good question tho. i would like to know who does consider it. i just figured once i found the pick up that got me closest to what i was goin for then i would eq the rest of it out.