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"Tone" "Wood"

#101
"There are, in fact, only so many notes an ear can hear in the course of an evening ... and there are simply too many notes. Just cut a few and it'll be perfect."

-- Jatoba, to Geddilee

Upon hearing this, Geddilee stormed back to his Fortress of Ice at the North Pole (Toronto), saying to Jatoba "I will choose free will!" Never again did he play the Rickenbacker, rejecting Jatoba's gift of bright maple tone. Instead, he sought to defy Jatoba with synthesizers, which are of all things most reviled by Jatoba for their false tone.

Geddilee and his demons have since inflicted the world with far more notes than any ear can hear in an evening. Jatoba does His best to keep the world safe from the cacophony, but Geddilee still escapes from time to time and goes on tour, always accompanied by his demons. Many are tempted and fall from the path of righteousness at these times.
 
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#102
alder said:
Tone is created by Jatoba and Jatoba alone. Jatoba is generous and shares his tone with men through his divine trees. But the creation of tone he reserves to himself. The hand of man cannot create tone, only remove it. This is why tone knobs only go backwards.
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The knobs on my Stingray go backwards and forwards, so I can increase the tone whenever I want. I don't see why we should all just settle for whatever tone comes from the wood, when modern active electronics let us have any tone we want.
 
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#103
placemat said:
The knobs on my Stingray go backwards and forwards, so I can increase the tone whenever I want. I don't see why we should all just settle for whatever tone comes from the wood, when modern electronics let us have any tone we want.
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What deviltry is this? There is no tone but tone, the tone of Jatoba, which comes from His wood.

"Thou shalt place no tone before my tone," sayeth Jatoba.

Cast out your wicked batteries !!! Jatoba commands it !!!
 
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#104
From the Book of Fullerton:

"In his latter days, St Fender did go astray. He sought to create tone himself, with batteries, in direct contravention of Jatoba's commandments. But Jatoba is merciful and forgiving, and St Fender did do many good works. He discovereth the alder, and the ash and the basswood, which Jatoba did create and infuse with tone. St Fender discovered the maple fretboard that addeth brightness and light, and the super-thin rosewood fretboard that removeth lightness and brightness. But St Fender also invented the bolt-on neck, which destroyeth Jatoba's tone, so it's a wash. But Jatoba forgiveth, and St Fender now sitteth at Jatoba's picking hand in the Kingdom of Tone."
 
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#106
hondo4life said:
I say the bolt-on neck is good. With its blessing, we behold the glorious marriage of pine and maple.
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"While the bolt-on neck was once seen as an abomination, the Jatoba's Witnesses is a progressive organization, open to scientific advancements. There was a time when a luthier faced excommunication for using anything but hide glue, but today it is recognized that other means of neck attachment may be acceptable. We owe a great debt to St Fender for opening many new avenues in luthiery."

-- from the 143rd Conclave of Tone, 1969

The word of Jatoba should not be taken literally, but figuratively, as Jatoba tended to drink a lot and ramble. And other things, it was the sixties, you know. I wouldn't say Hippie, but Jatoba was a free spirit for sure.
 
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#107
Pbassmanca said:
I would just build a body out of it since you got it on the cheap. This would be keeping with the Leo Fender tradition ; and we know how that worked out...:D
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Best answer, and provides perspective.

Leo chose wood that was available, affordable, and could be worked to produce the bodies he needed. As far as I'm concerned, those are the three criteria which are paramount in choosing a body.

Electronics and strings, plus your fingers, are the primary players in "tone" (an undefined term, primarily related to psycho-acoustics) as far as I'm concerned.
 
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#112
D M C said:
The bolt-on neck is an abomination in the eyes of Jatoba. It giveth tone, but it sustaineth not. But lo, St. Leo produceth the "Fat Finger," and the Lord Jatoba is pleased.
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Many have been led astray by Geddilee, and care not for sustain, but rather play too many notes. Or try to.

This is an ancient conflict - sustain vs too many notes.

The school of too many notes has far more adherents. It was originally founded in the Dark Ages by Christophoro Squirus ( citation needed ) of the order Yea. Too many notes eventually came to be known as "Prog". While Prog has fewer followers today than when it was at its height during the Renaissance, the practice of too many notes continues in Jazz, Funk, and many other orders.

It is safe to say that almost everyone would play too many notes if they could. Two major exceptions that come to mind are Brother Illsley of Dire Straits, and Brother Hill of ZZ Top, who play almost no notes, but rather rely on Jatoba for their sound.

True sustain derives from Jatoba through His tone woods. However, sustain may be induced in just about any instrument by turning up your amp and standing near it. Such artificial sustain is directly against the teachings of Jatoba, but it finds many practitioners.

True sustain is only found unplugged, and preferably unplayed and untouched, don't even look at it. Possibly the definitive work on the subject is by St Nigel of Spinal Tap:



Some hold that sustain is highly subjective and vastly overrated, and perhaps even complete nonsense. When caught, these heretics are publicly thrashed until they repent and come back to Jatoba's grace.
 
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#114
turf3 said:
So, how's the heretic burning coming along?
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JW is a modern and enlightened organisation. We have not burned a heretic since the Michael Jackson fiasco of 1984. Nowadays, heretics are sent to re-education camps, where faithful JW adherents shout their unqualified opinions at them continually until they repent. With the proper technique and gentle determination, anyone can be beaten back into the fold. Examples of Jatoba's followers carrying out such conversions may be found all over this very website.

Even engineers and scientists can be brought into Jatoba's light and see the truth of His tone, although in their case it is a long and difficult process, requiring deep deprogramming. The hardest cases may require electric shocks.
 
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#117
alder said:
True sustain is only found unplugged, and preferably unplayed and untouched,
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As Jatoba perused the fora of the lower world, he heard a great lamentation pour forth saying, "why art there this dead spot on my g string at the 5th fret? Will no one answer me?"

And St. Leo said unto them, "l will raiseth thy tone from the dead!"

And lo, he went into the shop of customization and brought forth a living neck, wherewith neither the C nor even the C# failed to resound with jubilation, but all enjoyed everlasting sustain by screwing an awkward chunk of metal onto their headstock!

But the people further lamented, "the sustain is nice, lord, but how about this neck dive?"

And St.Leo spake to the gathered throng saying, "What are you gonna do? At least it's not as bad as a T-bird."
 
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#118
It is true, St Leo was a great alchemist. He was never one to say, "This cannot be made better." St Leo was an adventurer, he did not rely on established lore, and oft boldly tried new and dangerous ideas. Some say it is because St Leo did not actually play his creations, nor did he like their sound. St Leo started out as a radio repairman, which shows that anyone can follow the faith of Jatoba, even technicians.

St Rickenbacker immediately declared of each of his creations "This is perfect, never change a thing", while St Gibson said often "This broken neck is causeth by user abuse, and is not covereth by the factory warranty." Oddly, St Gibson's disciple, St Epiphone, buildeth St Gibson's same designs so that they do not break, and yet does he sell them cheaper as well. The ways of tone are indeed mysterious.

Sadly, after St Leo's passing, his Shop of Customization lost its course, and now spends most of its time scratching up new guitars to create false relics. Of course, these are not the same as true relics. In true relics, the wood has had 50 years to dry out and become brittle, while the finish has cracked and flaked off naturally, the glue lost its grip, the fasteners come loose, the pickups short out, the pots corrode and the solder joints go cold, the necks twist, the pickguards shrink and break, the tremolo arm gets lost, and many other enhancements to the original tone and playability. Jatoba frowns upon false relics, but does love true relics, and hangs them high on the wall at Guitar Center with extraordinary price tags.

Let us not forget the devil Steinberger and his cursed creations of resin. Not only do they lack goodly wood tone, but also any kind of style or ergonomics, requiring all manner of Rube Goldberg contraptions just to be playable. This only proveth Jatoba's word: "A guitar is not a countertop." ( Although my own tap testing has given some indication otherwise. )
 
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#119
Tone is not a creation of Jatoba.
Tone comes from The Magic Knob.

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