Debate: Electric guitars and tone woods?

[skullservant]

I guess I can't really compare, because my Baritone is the only floating trem guitar that I've got (Jazzmaster), so compared to the rest of my guitars there are a lot more overtones. I will say that the Mastery Bridge really WAS worth the money, and seems to have made playing the Jazzmaster a much easier task for me while sounding great.

[mathias]

I think microphonic single coil pickups are fun.. tapping them with a pick while a ton of fuzz, modulation and reverb is applied sounds cool..

[dubkitty]

you'd be amazed at how much better bog-standard Epiphone humbuckers sound when depotted. way more air, way more open in the upper frequencies. of course, sometimes that monolithic dense potted PU sound is what you want/need...i wouldn't think that yer Tony Iommi-style PUs would be better if not potted.

[skullservant]

So, with the aluminum saddles on my Duo Sonic and the single coils........ I CAN GET DEM ALBINI TOANZ. Seriously though. Clean tone is an optocomp going into a Rangemaster and it is so AWESOME and BRIGHT and JANGLY

[Mudfuzz]

you'd be amazed at how much better bog-standard Epiphone humbuckers sound when depotted. way more air, way more open in the upper frequencies. of course, sometimes that monolithic dense potted PU sound is what you want/need...i wouldn't think that yer Tony Iommi-style PUs would be better if not potted.

Someone should tell Dumble...

[Greenfuz]

plastic is the best tone wood

[Mudfuzz]

plastic is the best tone wood

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_pTeDz4Zpk[/youtube]

[goroth]

Most caps are made with a 1% or a 5% tolerance. I'd be extremely surprised if anyone could measure two caps so that they had the same value, and do a repeated double blind test and hear the difference. Experimenting with cap values is a lot more interesting than cap types in my opinion. On the other hand, some people buy expensive underwear that no-one ever sees, so if you are cool with spending money on a special cap go for it.

There is such an incredible amount of variables in an electric guitar's tone I find it really difficult to look at anything in isolation. Fretboards - I think maple feels to hard when I play it, therefore I avoid maple fretboards. That effect I feel is greater than any eventual difference on my sound. Same thing with woods - I'd choose something that looked good and balanced the neck so that the guitar sat well rather than something that theoretically could deliver a tone that was different in some manner.

[lapsteel]

Ima in your boat greigoroth....
I would rather spend my cash on an amp or pickups than expensive exotic woods and rare caps.

I have actually talked to people who say they can hear the tonal differences of various finishes in electric guitars... now in acoustic geetars I know a heavy gloss finish, and even some paints can dampen the vibrations in comparison to a unfinished or lightly finished guitar... but on an electric I find this truly hard to believe.

[Mudfuzz]

I have actually talked to people who say they can hear the tonal differences of various finishes in electric guitars... now in acoustic geetars I know a heavy gloss finish, and even some paints can dampen the vibrations in comparison to a unfinished or lightly finished guitar... but on an electric I find this truly hard to believe.

same... I mean my new hollow body has a old style sparkle "finnish" which is plastic drum shell covering... it's a awesome sounding guitar, even unplugged

[masked elwood]

well ya know, a long time ago i was involved with a series of 5 guitars, all were identical in every way. same wood, same necks, same pickups.
i did the first one completely with no finish. it sounded fantastic. then i took it apart to decorate with little annie fanny comics and it was sent off to have a clear coat shot over it. the dude used a thick polyester clear and it completely changed the sound. he followed suit on three others and all had the same plasticy sound both acoustically and when plugged in. so the last one was left unfinished and it kept the woody sound.
so while i'm not a nitro snob (even though i do prefer the way it wears) i do feel that there is a way to strangle the way a guitar sounds with too thick of the wrong kind of finish.
and once again....it's not that it sounds bad but i def feel the sound can be altered using too thick of the wrong finish.

i'll say it this.....hardware is very very important. it's gone down in quality over the years and a simple upgrade to a real metal (like skullservant just discovered) can be amazing for resonance and overtones.

[Chankgeez]

I wanna guitar body finished in Plasti Dip.

[Mudfuzz]

I wanna guitar body finished in Plasti Dip.

sonex?

[Chankgeez]

I wanna guitar body finished in Plasti Dip.

sonex?

Dippier.

[skullservant]

I had to try it. I cut this pick out of an old gutted DOD pedal's back plate, and sanded it down for about an hour until I got it pretty much to the specs of the ILF picks.
REALLY subtle difference, but a little more clank and bite, ESPECIALLY with a compressor on, otherwise if you weren't paying attention you probably wouldn't notice, but I do like how it doesn't bend at all when I strum. I only use it with my Jaguar because it scratches the shit out of the pickguard and that guitar has become my experiment.

Also put a neck humbucker in the bridge of said Jaguar and it sucked. Super muddy. Replaced it with a different bridge humbucker and it was awesome. The neck humbucker almost sounded like it had a low pass filter on it or something. Are neck pickups made that much differently from bridge pickups to sound so drastically different?