OP
Every guitar I play (Electrics, that is) that sound loud and clear unplugged, sound better plugged in....
Les Paul Tone:
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Every guitar I play (Electrics, that is) that sound loud and clear unplugged, sound better plugged in....
eSGEe
Ferengi Ambassador of Trade
OP
no
Les Paul Standards, Customs and Studios, all seem to have the same bridge to pickup spacing....notwithstanding the hybrid models you posted...
Please I am a scientist and a Saint! It is proven the wood will only stick to a magnet with the help of super glue or the like. Lead will stick to wood if you shoot it. As far as any natural reaction causes would to bond with steel doesn't exist on earth. F = M X A yep it will stick only if F is strong enough to embed itself being the magnet. As far as the molecule make up these things don't even blink when sharing the same space.
ivan H
Ambassador of Tubes & Grooves
Sorry if it appeared that my post was in response to yours, it wasn't (I would have quoted if it was). Ok, I only giving this as a hypothetical & not saying it is fact, but as a string moving above a pickup results in the generation of a signal, so does moving a pickup below a string. We know that string vibrations are transferred threw the body, so might not those vibrations in turn be transferred to the pickups, resulting in miniscule movement of the pickup in relation to the string? Not saying it does, mind you. Cheers
Sounds good!
OP
Interesting!
I believe it is the relative density of certain woods that prolongs the vibration of a string on a guitar, and I believe this is why some guitars have more sustain and.or sound better than others...I can plug into the six string neck and play the 12 string side and it will come through with amazing clarity....That's the transfer of vibration through the wood, because the strings on that neck have no vibrating string ...
syscokid
Ambassador of War & Peace
It's not just the sustain that gets affected. Ya'll have to agree that you can also feel the guitar vibrate too as those strings are vibrating. The guitar is resonating. This resonating is a form of energy. The resonating energy "colors" the strings vibration.
What do I mean by "colors"? Glad you asked ...: A properly tuned open "A" string vibrates at 110 Hz. Go ahead and download a Tone Generator app, and listen to the 110 Hz tone. Now listen to your guitar's open A string at proper pitch. If all goes well, you should hear your guitar's "A" tone as having more audio info on its tone than what you hear from the tone generator. Pickup design has alot to do with this, but one properly tuned open A string is sending out more vibrating info than the 110Hz frequency. Enter the world of added harmonics, or lack of harmonics.
Then there is resonance that can kill the intended pitch that you are trying to create. I call these: dead spots. Acoustic guitars are very vulnerable to resonating dead spots. But it can happen to a solid body electric, too.
Different types of woods resonate differently. Two guitars made with the same type of wood from the same tree can resonate noticeably different... thus sound a little bit different from each other.
What do I mean by "colors"? Glad you asked ...: A properly tuned open "A" string vibrates at 110 Hz. Go ahead and download a Tone Generator app, and listen to the 110 Hz tone. Now listen to your guitar's open A string at proper pitch. If all goes well, you should hear your guitar's "A" tone as having more audio info on its tone than what you hear from the tone generator. Pickup design has alot to do with this, but one properly tuned open A string is sending out more vibrating info than the 110Hz frequency. Enter the world of added harmonics, or lack of harmonics.
Then there is resonance that can kill the intended pitch that you are trying to create. I call these: dead spots. Acoustic guitars are very vulnerable to resonating dead spots. But it can happen to a solid body electric, too.
Different types of woods resonate differently. Two guitars made with the same type of wood from the same tree can resonate noticeably different... thus sound a little bit different from each other.
OP
Good points!!!
chilipeppermaniac
Ambassador of Decibels
Just a point of clarification. Those who suggest wood influences the tone of an electric guitar are not suggesting that wood has any direct influences on the magnetic properties of the pickup. They would suggest any tonal differences would be due to the wood absorbing and/or reflecting vibrational energy of the strings. The idea being, different materials tend to absorb and reflect energy differently from each other. So, any tone differences would be due to the resultant vibration on the string, itself, that the pickups detect and convert to electrical energy. If this were the case, we would expect to see any difference within milliseconds after the initial attack. Though, at the instant of attack, there would likely be no difference. It would take some time, albeit very brief, for any differences to become apparent as vibrational energy is either absorbed or reflected.
That is the theory, anyway.
Personally, I suspect that if such a system could be subject to truly objective testing using laboratory test equipment (not hearing tests), there may be some measurable difference. Whether that difference is able to reach the level of detectability of human hearing is a different matter.
To illustrate, one of my sons has his master's degree in mechanical engineering. He recounted an interesting story of an open-house his place of work had recently. The idea was to win a prize if you could guess the weight of your own signature. That's right. He works around test equipment so sensitive it can detect the difference in weight of a piece of paper before you have signed your name and after you've signed your name. Of course, no human being can detect something quite so minute. That's why I say I do suspect different body and neck materials may, in fact, affect the vibrational characteristics of a string such that it may actually be testable and measurable on professional, laboratory-quality test gear. But, it's also possible any such differences may not rise to the level of really affecting what we hear.
....Or, they may...or may not!
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Of course the world is flat!!! Flat as a pancake! Come to one of our Flat Earth Society meetings and express your feelings. Cookies and punch in the hallway before, during and after the meeting. Sometimes I just stop in for a cookie and leave.
You should make cookies in the shape of a sphere...just to see the brain cells pop...then you can operate on them!
OP
I think you nailed what I was trying to say...
gball
Ambassador of Boogie
Yup, nailed it.
At the end of the day though, all I know is what my fingertips and ears tell me, and those two admittedly subjective data collectors tell me the wood and construction make a difference. Even if its just the way the guitar feels due to different wood/design that's enough because it will make you play differently, and the sound will differ. These things don't play themselves so the human element is not a variable that should be factored out IMO.