That said, I assume tone-wise, the difference between an expensive guitar (with exotic wood) and a cheap electric (of plywood), but both have the same pickups, hardware, etc., is nearly non existent. same bracing pattern? Johann, better start fixing your own grammar before trying to fix other people’s mistakes. As a neck, korina is much like mahogany too. A thicker piece, like a Les Paul Junior, has a thicker, chunkier, meatier tone with softer highs and more push in the lower mids. Just because you cannot discern a difference, doesn’t mean there isn’t one. In my experience, what Orpheo has said is pretty accurate, and as he mentions are general rules for species. Wood is the majority of tone on a electric guitar or any guitar!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That doesn’t mean to say that you should only use the “big brand” tonewoods. What is wrong with you people? It isn’t in my head nor is it imaginary if luthiers have discussed this at length since the inception of electric instruments. You just proved the point the tonewood is BS. Put a set of lipsticks in a strat and they won’t have the same spank and boing as in a dano; put a set of strat p’ups in a dano and they won’t have the same fluidity of sound as a strat. Basically, the tone of the electric guitar is dependant on the pickups, pickup position, the bridge and the nut, the material that strums, strumming technique, The wiring, the main output wire, and the amp, the cabinet, and the room. This is a dense, hard wood that’s being used on necks, fingerboards, tops and occasionally bodies and comes in three major figure patterns: flamed (stripes across the grain), quilt (cloud like shapes across the grain) and no pattern at all called plain. What that feller said is still funny, though. Agreed, body wood does not contribute to tone. And for those who care about grammar, why not become professors of tone and open up a school for guitar players who need to brush up on their ABC’s LOL Orpheo nice work with the article very informative . Apples and oranges my friend. People bag on Basswood too, i own Basswood guitars i love. Asia (not South America): Data For: Palaquium spp. With acoustics, however, I have found different wood combinations to provide a great deal of tonal versatility. Rosewood is incredibly heavy! No one has been willing to pay for the test, so it remains a theory. ♦ Great pickups for your taste. For that matter I am sure I could change the way your guitars sounded simply by changing bridgepins (use brass or aluminium or horn or rosewood or ebony or boxwood or ox bone or camel bone or tusq or plastic) change the strings (silk and steels, flatwounds, bell bronze, 80/20, different manufacturers, different gauges). Same model, same hardware, same everything… except for the wood. I have a guitar that I use to try out different strings and pins – it is astonishing how much the tone can be changed, and how much I can hate the sound of that guitar with the wrong combinations, and love it with the strings and pins that suit it best to my ears. Good quality instruments come always with the top made of solid wood, usually spruce or cedar. Walnut is also beautiful – why not go for a cherry and walnut mix – very tasty – see my acoustics at http://www.catherwoodguitars.com, Idk if this is true with electrics I would belive it when I see a video where someone is blind folded and plays each, don’t feel the wood just play and see if they know what’s what and if it really is a tonal difference. But it doesn’t. Electric guitars have been made out of plastics, stone, plywood etc and that didn’t stop them from sounding great. I don’t know… I think I disagree… Once I tested 5 G&L ASAT guitars, same model, and same construction and each of them hade its own sound… I think in whole process of construct a guitar, the major variant is the wood, since it’s kinda “organic”…. Maybe guitarists are not hung up on grammar. But when it comes to the Electric guitar signal to the amp, the wood is bypased. It is, instead, this genus from S.E. Rickenbacker uses this wood for their fingerboards. Also, is it just me or is anyone else having a Spinal Tap moment? Joined: Apr 11, 2007 Messages: 6,620 Likes Received: Here is a definition from Wikipedia: The genus Agathis, commonly known as kauri or dammar, is a relatively small genus of 21 species of evergreen tree. Announcing the Eric Steckel Signature “Candy” Humbucker Set. Nato's okay by me. But it is NOT to be mistaken for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.If you play more than two chords, you're showing off. Hardwood is a general term for any piece of timber thats cut from the middle of the tree. This wood is hard, heavy and dense. But it used to be a popular wood, especially in the 70s and 80s. Check this, please: http://youtu.be/ryzie8mham8. The 50 year old seasoned wood made for one loud guitar. It means different things to different people. Its just more subtle. I own 2 guitars that have rosewood as a body wood: one has a rosewood top, the other a rosewood back. These necks have a classy, speedy feel to them with an amazing tone. Nyatoh Wood Guitar – A Cheap Alternative | Ace Guitar Course Nowadays, nyatoh wood guitars are quite rare to find. It’s not as soft as mahogany or as hard as maple, which culminates to a tone without a major boost in the tonal spectrum. Unless you checked sonically and measured every sound from the lowest to highest and directly compared them, you can not make that statement, if you had checked,you would see a measureable difference ,and anyone with a discerning ear would be able to hear it, all else being equal,(obviously if you crank everything to 11enty eleven and at 150 db where there is no possibility of actually making music instead of noise,whats left or your hearing isn’t likely to hear anything but volume.The changes will be made at specific vibrational frequency’s ,and change specific characteristics,IE sustain, tone attack, etc whatever your term, dependent on what you change ,how its connected ,what its connected to. The amount of variance caused by each is so easily debatable, as you can see. It's super cheap, and is not really a good sounding wood at all when directly compared to a quality Equatorian mahogany. The back and sides of the guitar can be made of good quality rosewood, mahogany or nyatoh. It doesnt change the tone per se, it makes it more stabke, though. Used for hundreds of years for fingerboards, bridges and other parts, this extremely hard, durable wood is noted for its dark color. Body wood contributes to the acoustic tone, especially in an acoustic guitar. It should always be remembered that no two pieces are the same, there are the general tonal characteristics to these woods. The looks are always stunning. Koa is a wood that grows in Hawaii. Due to its price tag and hard nature, ebony is most often used for fretboards, though some luthiers are known for using ebony as the sides and sometimes even the top or back of an acoustic guitar, and on occasion you can even find ebony necks. Acoustic a definite yes. It doesn’t add anything to your tone but it doesn’t take away anything. As a member of the rosewood family, cocobolo has a warm tone with an open clear yet presence. Sometimes you get a piece of poplar though that seems to defy every ‘rule in the book.’ These pieces will just knock you off your feet due to the sheer beauty of things. I had this idea of a sliding pickup, that you could slide from bridge to neck, that could be cool. Agathis is another one, my cort matt murphy was excellent.