Does The Wood Matter as Much as We've Been Told???

Kerry Brown said:
With acoustic guitars unamplified, wood makes a huge difference. With electric guitars it makes less difference and the difference can be compensated for by the electronics. In other words yes, wood can influence the sound but as soon as you amplify the sound you can change the sound to get whatever you want. Each guitar has an intrinsic sound that you can shape with amplification.
Click to expand...

This sounds right to me.

Everything on the guitar makes a difference (to me, the neck wood/fretboard makes a big difference, the bridge and saddles make a huge difference, the pickup bassplate -especially on the bridge pickup- make a huge difference), but to various degrees, so whack massive gain on an amp and many nuances will be leveled out/lost.
 
I've spent a great deal of time and effort trying to make a GREAT guitar. The custom double neck was a success, but on my other builds, I haven't quite been able to pull if off.

Beating Gibson for build quality and tone was not difficult at all. But, I haven't been able to build a guitar on-par with Schecter's build quality .

On my YelloStrat, I went really extreme. The brass block and saddles were one-off customs, as was the DiMarzio Neanderthal Humbucker. The not-yet-completed Warmoth neck is again a one-off custom design.

Interestingly, while the YelloStrat plays very, very well and sounds good, it just doesn't come close to either my 2005 C1 Hellraiser or my 2019 Hellraiser C1FR in terms of tone or playability.

Even my Mom's 1979 Gibson Les Paul Custom is not even close to my Schecter in terms of playability and tone - even dead clean through a Princeton. There just isn't any comparison between them.

I've been trying to figure this out.

Using my 5 new Gibson's as a direct comparison, all were hand made at least to some degree. This would explain the too steep neck angle, humped fretboard, loose frets, poorly cut nuts, shorted pickups and finish flaws (a thumbprint in the black nitro of my 2016 Gibson Les Paul Studio for example) present in all the 5 new Gibson's that I bought between 2016 and 2018.

The human hands add an element of unpredictability and could account for the "heaven and hell" experiences with these guitars posted all over You Tube.

The largest number of Schecters are being built by World Musical Instruments in South Korea. The entire process is CNC with minimal hand fitting. Zakk Wylde's line of guitars are said to be produced here because he wanted CNC consistency for his namesake guitars.

The biggest Indonesian builder is Cort (PT Cort-Tek) located in Ngoro, Mojokerto, near Surabaya, East Java. This guitar factory has been operational since 1995.

Cort produces roughly 1 Million guitars a year, between their Korean, Chinese and Indonesian factories.

Beside their own Cort branded guitars PT Cort manufactures for Ibanez, Fender/Squier(includes amps), G&L, Gretsch, Laguna, Avalon/Lowden, Music Man, Schecter, Lakland, Strandberg, EVH, Chapman and Jackson among others, both
Ibanez and Jackson,

I'm thinking that the biggest difference between the Korean/Indonesian and USA builds might be the use of greater automation in the build process and less by-hand operations.

Either way, I really thought all the attention to detail on YelloStrat was going to net me a guitar that truly blew me away, and I'm afraid that I missed that mark entirely.

YelloStrat is a nice guitar, but just about any off-the-hanger Jackson sounds better, as humbling as this fact is to accept.

Although the custom Warmoth neck is still coming, I have my doubts that it will impart any significant changes to YelloStrat's tone, although I do think it will play better.

After we finish the upcoming video, I am going to give YelloStrat to our guitarist Mike as a gift, just to get rid of the constant reminder of a failed project.

Next up for liquidation is the White Jackson San Dimas. Although it's a great guitar, its very plain white wrapper to me...just boring to look at.

My two Les Paul's - both currently out on loan to L.A. bands for video shoots - are my in-studio workhorses. They are never used outside the studio.

My plan is to add a Purple burst Jackson SLX Soloist as my #2 backup to my #1 Purple burst Schecter.

L47827000002000-02-500x500.jpg

It's taken me a very long time to realize that I can't beat CNC production and even a one-off custom wind DiMarzio, including going as far to pay $2k (a few years ago) for a pair of Gibson T-Tops, didn't net me anything memorable.

Live and learn...
 
Robert Herndon said:
I've spent a great deal of time and effort trying to make a GREAT guitar. The custom double neck was a success, but on my other builds, I haven't quite been able to pull if off.

Beating Gibson for build quality and tone was not difficult at all. But, I haven't been able to build a guitar on-par with Schecter's build quality .

On my YelloStrat, I went really extreme. The brass block and saddles were one-off customs, as was the DiMarzio Neanderthal Humbucker. The not-yet-completed Warmoth neck is again a one-off custom design.

Interestingly, while the YelloStrat plays very, very well and sounds good, it just doesn't come close to either my 2005 C1 Hellraiser or my 2019 Hellraiser C1FR in terms of tone or playability.

Even my Mom's 1979 Gibson Les Paul Custom is not even close to my Schecter in terms of playability and tone - even dead clean through a Princeton. There just isn't any comparison between them.

I've been trying to figure this out.

Using my 5 new Gibson's as a direct comparison, all were hand made at least to some degree. This would explain the too steep neck angle, humped fretboard, loose frets, poorly cut nuts, shorted pickups and finish flaws (a thumbprint in the black nitro of my 2016 Gibson Les Paul Studio for example) present in all the 5 new Gibson's that I bought between 2016 and 2018.

The human hands add an element of unpredictability and could account for the "heaven and hell" experiences with these guitars posted all over You Tube.

The largest number of Schecters are being built by World Musical Instruments in South Korea. The entire process is CNC with minimal hand fitting. Zakk Wylde's line of guitars are said to be produced here because he wanted CNC consistency for his namesake guitars.

The biggest Indonesian builder is Cort (PT Cort-Tek) located in Ngoro, Mojokerto, near Surabaya, East Java. This guitar factory has been operational since 1995.

Cort produces roughly 1 Million guitars a year, between their Korean, Chinese and Indonesian factories.

Beside their own Cort branded guitars PT Cort manufactures for Ibanez, Fender/Squier(includes amps), G&L, Gretsch, Laguna, Avalon/Lowden, Music Man, Schecter, Lakland, Strandberg, EVH, Chapman and Jackson among others, both
Ibanez and Jackson,

I'm thinking that the biggest difference between the Korean/Indonesian and USA builds might be the use of greater automation in the build process and less by-hand operations.

Either way, I really thought all the attention to detail on YelloStrat was going to net me a guitar that truly blew me away, and I'm afraid that I missed that mark entirely.

YelloStrat is a nice guitar, but just about any off-the-hanger Jackson sounds better, as humbling as this fact is to accept.

Although the custom Warmoth neck is still coming, I have my doubts that it will impart any significant changes to YelloStrat's tone, although I do think it will play better.

After we finish the upcoming video, I am going to give YelloStrat to our guitarist Mike as a gift, just to get rid of the constant reminder of a failed project.

Next up for liquidation is the White Jackson San Dimas. Although it's a great guitar, its very plain white wrapper to me...just boring to look at.

My two Les Paul's - both currently out on loan to L.A. bands for video shoots - are my in-studio workhorses. They are never used outside the studio.

My plan is to add a Purple burst Jackson SLX Soloist as my #2 backup to my #1 Purple burst Schecter.

View attachment 59388

It's taken me a very long time to realize that I can't beat CNC production and even a one-off custom wind DiMarzio, including going as far to pay $2k (a few years ago) for a pair of Gibson T-Tops, didn't net me anything memorable.

Live and learn...
Click to expand...
You are way too hard on yourself, Robert. But that is who you are.
 
Robert Herndon said:
I've spent a great deal of time and effort trying to make a GREAT guitar. The custom double neck was a success, but on my other builds, I haven't quite been able to pull if off.

Beating Gibson for build quality and tone was not difficult at all. But, I haven't been able to build a guitar on-par with Schecter's build quality .

On my YelloStrat, I went really extreme. The brass block and saddles were one-off customs, as was the DiMarzio Neanderthal Humbucker. The not-yet-completed Warmoth neck is again a one-off custom design.

Interestingly, while the YelloStrat plays very, very well and sounds good, it just doesn't come close to either my 2005 C1 Hellraiser or my 2019 Hellraiser C1FR in terms of tone or playability.

Even my Mom's 1979 Gibson Les Paul Custom is not even close to my Schecter in terms of playability and tone - even dead clean through a Princeton. There just isn't any comparison between them.

I've been trying to figure this out.

Using my 5 new Gibson's as a direct comparison, all were hand made at least to some degree. This would explain the too steep neck angle, humped fretboard, loose frets, poorly cut nuts, shorted pickups and finish flaws (a thumbprint in the black nitro of my 2016 Gibson Les Paul Studio for example) present in all the 5 new Gibson's that I bought between 2016 and 2018.

The human hands add an element of unpredictability and could account for the "heaven and hell" experiences with these guitars posted all over You Tube.

The largest number of Schecters are being built by World Musical Instruments in South Korea. The entire process is CNC with minimal hand fitting. Zakk Wylde's line of guitars are said to be produced here because he wanted CNC consistency for his namesake guitars.

The biggest Indonesian builder is Cort (PT Cort-Tek) located in Ngoro, Mojokerto, near Surabaya, East Java. This guitar factory has been operational since 1995.

Cort produces roughly 1 Million guitars a year, between their Korean, Chinese and Indonesian factories.

Beside their own Cort branded guitars PT Cort manufactures for Ibanez, Fender/Squier(includes amps), G&L, Gretsch, Laguna, Avalon/Lowden, Music Man, Schecter, Lakland, Strandberg, EVH, Chapman and Jackson among others, both
Ibanez and Jackson,

I'm thinking that the biggest difference between the Korean/Indonesian and USA builds might be the use of greater automation in the build process and less by-hand operations.

Either way, I really thought all the attention to detail on YelloStrat was going to net me a guitar that truly blew me away, and I'm afraid that I missed that mark entirely.

YelloStrat is a nice guitar, but just about any off-the-hanger Jackson sounds better, as humbling as this fact is to accept.

Although the custom Warmoth neck is still coming, I have my doubts that it will impart any significant changes to YelloStrat's tone, although I do think it will play better.

After we finish the upcoming video, I am going to give YelloStrat to our guitarist Mike as a gift, just to get rid of the constant reminder of a failed project.

Next up for liquidation is the White Jackson San Dimas. Although it's a great guitar, its very plain white wrapper to me...just boring to look at.

My two Les Paul's - both currently out on loan to L.A. bands for video shoots - are my in-studio workhorses. They are never used outside the studio.

My plan is to add a Purple burst Jackson SLX Soloist as my #2 backup to my #1 Purple burst Schecter.

View attachment 59388

It's taken me a very long time to realize that I can't beat CNC production and even a one-off custom wind DiMarzio, including going as far to pay $2k (a few years ago) for a pair of Gibson T-Tops, didn't net me anything memorable.

Live and learn...
Click to expand...
Unless you want to pay a top luthier a computer controlled factory with top quality control will beat hand built almost every time. There is a reason top luthiers charge top dollar and take a long time. I've been saying for a few years that the top Asian factories are as good as if not better than MIA or MIM until you get into the very high end custom shop models.
 
20210219_112630.jpg
It's cool and all, but has nothing on any of my Gibsons or my made in the orient Gretsch for that matter. Maybe I should pull the Fralins out and put in some hot humbuckers. FWIW I have never had any of the problems Robert has had with my Gibsons new or used. But then I have never used a model below a Standard either. Maybe there's something going on there.
 
Cadorman said:
View attachment 59399
It's cool and all, but has nothing on any of my Gibsons or my made in the orient Gretsch for that matter. Maybe I should pull the Fralins out and put in some hot humbuckers. FWIW I have never had any of the problems Robert has had with my Gibsons new or used. But then I have never used a model below a Standard either. Maybe there's something going on there.
Click to expand...

Could be. I also tried an SG Standard, but I have bad luck with guitars...
 
Kerry Brown said:
Unless you want to pay a top luthier a computer controlled factory with top quality control will beat hand built almost every time. There is a reason top luthiers charge top dollar and take a long time. I've been saying for a few years that the top Asian factories are as good as if not better than MIA or MIM until you get into the very high end custom shop models.
Click to expand...

If I had to ever perform with an off the shelf guitar, it would be Jackson or Schecter...period.
 
Kerry Brown said:
Unless you want to pay a top luthier a computer controlled factory with top quality control will beat hand built almost every time. There is a reason top luthiers charge top dollar and take a long time. I've been saying for a few years that the top Asian factories are as good as if not better than MIA or MIM until you get into the very high end custom shop models.
Click to expand...

I've played many hand made, high end guitars that were uneventful. Top shelf luthier is no guarantee.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top