There are dozens and dozens on YouTube. People transfer the electronics over, even build plucking machines, and then play versions with different body or necks with the samples not labelled. It's also been done in other audio fields in which those who claim to be able to distinguish between sources, interconnects listen to ABX and often in reality cannot distinguish things. The placebo effect is very strong.
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Different tone from different wood, really?
- Thread starter Robsco
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There are dozens and dozens on YouTube. People transfer the electronics over, even build plucking machines, and then play versions with different body or necks with the samples not labelled. It's also been done in other audio fields in which those who claim to be able to distinguish between sources, interconnects listen to ABX and often in reality cannot distinguish things. The placebo effect is very strong.
Haven't you also seen the videos of folks plugging up different woods to the same electronics & showing the graph of the output?
The graphs don't lie!
The graphs don't lie!
The specific wood has whatever tonal qualities the marketing department says it does.
Exactly. IME, that absorption affects the harmonic content that the strings vibrate with, which is captured by the pickups.
Paul Reed Smith does a Ted Talk where he talks about how the parts of construction subtract from the overall timbre, so the goal is to have the least amount of subtraction.
If you look at the gross properties of the common woods then there is often overlap. Things like the Janka figures are just averages. If you look at the range of density values, for example, there's plenty of overlap. But as noted above, it's not a given that there is a linear relationship between these properties and sound (even assuming complete coupling). Given that only a proportion of the energy of the string ends up vibrating the body the effect is diluted.
I'd expect more effect from the neck as that's a relatively flexible element of a solid body instrument, and so stiffness may make a difference, but then you are also talking a system with at least one metal or other rod in under various possible states of compression
Neck stiffness makes a huge difference, i.e. a flimsy neck vs. a very stiff neck.
Witnessed this myself with two of the same model of Ibanez that I owned last year.
The one with the stiffer neck sounded leaps & bounds better than the one with the flimsy neck.
Witnessed this myself with two of the same model of Ibanez that I owned last year.
The one with the stiffer neck sounded leaps & bounds better than the one with the flimsy neck.
If someone were to build 3 identical basses in every way, strung with the same new strings, and the only difference was that the body woods were different - lets say Mahogany, Swamp Ash, and Alder. Now we paint all 3 red. I doubt anyone could tell the difference, but there might be a few lucky guesses.
Years ago there was a thread here where someone did sound samples of a J-bass, then took it apart, and screwed all the parts to a hunk of thick plywood. After several pages of guesses the results were inconclusive. A few people got it right, but said they were just guessing.
Years ago there was a thread here where someone did sound samples of a J-bass, then took it apart, and screwed all the parts to a hunk of thick plywood. After several pages of guesses the results were inconclusive. A few people got it right, but said they were just guessing.
Maybe next time don’t be condescending to perfect strangers. It’s such a simple concept, I didn’t think it needed to be spelled out, but anecdotes do not equate to facts in any way.
So you sanded your instrument and it sounds different. Paint does not equate to density - perhaps there’s a difference due to reverberation. Perhaps it’s your room. Perhaps it’s just you. There’s zero science and therefore zero fact involved in your anecdote. It’s as useful as a buggy whip or a paperweight. But good job on the condescension.
I first read this as “gain structure” and was in agreement with you, until I re-read it.
My J Mascis Jazzmaster has an anodized aluminum pickguard- swapped it with a spare plastic tort guard I had in a parts bin but immediately switched it back. The aluminum definitely makes a tonal difference.
We’ve had this disagreement before. I enjoyed that debate, but have no desire to rehash it!
Play on. Regardless of our disagreements about tonewoods, I like your contributions.
If it makes a difference that you can hear, that’s great. I swap pickguards on my p basses like socks, including anodized aluminium, and I can’t hear any difference, but my point is that this subject is never discussed the way that wood is debated.
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