... you haven't proven
that wood affects tone in an electric guitar..
I don't know what other peoples' intentions are, but I'm not trying to prove anything!
I have nothing to prove.
One of my desires in this thread has been to try to frame one portion of the discussion accurately, specifically, to point out that saying that pickups cannot sense wood, because it is nonmagnetic, misses the point of the tonewood advocacy discussion. This is because the tonewood advocacy people never claimed that. Rather, they focus on the potential interplay of vibrations between the wood and the strings, not whether wood can directly affect the output of a pickup.
That is why I attempted to verbalize the technical concept behind the tonewood advocacy position, as best I understand it from lurking through various forums, and trying to think through it on my own. I think too often we as guitar players talk past each other without really bothering to understand one another.
Beyond that, I'm not interested in ~proving~ anything. I'm more interested in a test as I described, or something similar to it, and just seeing what the data indicate. Bea posted some interesting info, but I don't speak German, so I don't know if it addresses the type of metrics I'm interested in.
If you were to ask me if I think there is anything to the idea that wood can affect tone, I'd say, "I don't know."
If you were to ask me if I think an electric guitar is immune to the effects of wood on tone, I'd say, "I don't know."
Honestly, just because some may not hear a difference, it doesn't mean there is no difference. It just means they couldn't hear it. Similarly, just because some others say they hear a difference, it doesn't mean there is one. They may have imagined it.
That's why testing with real lab gear is worthwhile, at least to me. It can objectively reveal if there is really something there, or not. "Proof" is not my concern; my interest lies more in some sort of test results, regardless of where on the continuum they may fall.
The data could reveal that wood can affect tone, but to a degree so minor as to be of no practical value. The data could reveal that different woods have no effect whatsoever, freeing us from the concern altogether. Or, the data may indicate that there is some effect, but just on the verge of being detectable by human hearing. This could spur guitar makers to intelligently select woods or other materials in such a way as to take the effect from just being on the verge of something detectable to something this is consistently detectable and worth pursuing.
Anyway...just more thoughts....
