Ford Posted September 22, 2003 Report Share Posted September 22, 2003 I have been searching the internet with little yeild as to what contributes to various guitar tones. For example: What makes a Tele sound like its twangy Tele self? Its bridge, its body shape? What makes a Strat sound blusey? The pickups, the wood? A Rickenbacker chimey? The cool triangle inlays, purty finishes? Whatever, I'd be interested to see where this topic goes. Fire away! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted September 22, 2003 Report Share Posted September 22, 2003 well for the telel, it's mostly the exsesive use of maple or ash, the small headstock, and the pickups. Pickups being the biggest thing on the lower end models. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AlexVDL Posted September 22, 2003 Report Share Posted September 22, 2003 And the most important the string thru body design... a tele without string thru body doesn't sound like a tele! But the tele bridge pickup is mounted rigged into the bridge plate... this sounds more twangy like for instance into a plastic pickguard or directly into the wood. A strat usually is made from alder which sounds a bit different than the ash a tele usually is made from. But a strat also has a tremolo, therefore less wood in the back (tremolo cavity). The pickups are mounted onto a plastic guard... these are all little differences which causes different models guitars to have there own unique sound. The rickenbacker sound like a rickenbacker because of the all maple and neck thru design. Why doesn't an all maple bc rich sound like a rickenbacker... well they have different pickups. The bodyshape isn't that important... BUT in order to have a full rich sound the part between the headstock and the bridge should be as solid as possible. That's why the weird small bodied steinberger guitars and copies actually sound like a real guitar but without the "guitar" shape. This works only on guitars made of one kind of wood... so if you have a maple neck thru blank, you could but a bridge on it and some pickups and it would sound ok. You could add maple wings to the neck to make a real guitar shape, but you would notice there is not much of a sound difference... BUT when you use mahogany wings than you'd get a totally different sound!! So to come back to your question: a tele and a strat and a rickenbacker are all made from one kind of wood, I mean; the tele has an ash body (no other woods), the strat has an alder body and the rickenbacker is all maple. So you could change the shapes of these guitars without you noticing a difference in sound. If you took an ash strat body, put in some tele pickups (neck pup directly mounted into the body and bridge pickup into the bridge, so no pickguard), screw on a tele bridge and let the strings thru the body, than you'd definatly have a tele sound and not a strat sound... I hope this helps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ford Posted September 22, 2003 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2003 Very interesting! I wasnt neccessarily just asking about those 3 guitars, just examples. Like I said, its hard to find this info on the net (well, for me anyhow), so I thought it would be cool to post this topic for everyones benefit! Any other guitars? PRS, SG's, Parker's, Jaguar's, etc? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AlexVDL Posted September 22, 2003 Report Share Posted September 22, 2003 Same story... except if you use different woods... i.e mahogany sounds heavier than maple etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted September 22, 2003 Report Share Posted September 22, 2003 parker's guitars start to tread on new ground though, they use basswood in the neck (a first) they're neck thru (i beleive), very thin, and the entire back of the guitar is covered in a sheet of carbon fiber for great strength and to make the guitar extremely light. The fingerboard is also Carbon fiber, and the frets are glued on stainless steels frets not the regular kind with tang's so the fingerboard is much more solidand thus stronger. So in short.... a very strong VERY LIGHT guitar, that would be very hard to reproduce without the right machinery and tools and suppplies. Fender's Jaguar's.... i remember reading up on the "teeth" that jaguar pickups have that alter tone and help quiet them. Also the bridge plays a role in that guitar i beleive, being different from most fender style tremolos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AlexVDL Posted September 22, 2003 Report Share Posted September 22, 2003 parker's guitars start to tread on new ground though, they use basswood in the neck Damn... why basswood??? That is one of the less good sounding woods available. But hey with all that carbon I would like to hear if it actually will sound like a guitar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted September 22, 2003 Report Share Posted September 22, 2003 didn't you see the link to the site that makes ALL CARBON acoustics? they look sweet!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canuckguitarist Posted September 22, 2003 Report Share Posted September 22, 2003 didn't you see the link to the site that makes ALL CARBON acoustics? they look sweet!!! yea those are awesome! havent had a chance to play one yet though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ford Posted September 23, 2003 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2003 Muh! I played one briefly while visiting a church I use to attend. The guitar player sunday monring had one, so I stopped to "chat with him." The thing was so light! I thought it would sound terrible, but mang, was I wrong! Great tone, near perfect intonation. I stummed a few inverted seven chords to see, and they sounded nice and clear. The gentleman that owned it told me of another carbon fiber guitar owner that wanted to test its strength. He threw it in a pond in his back yard one night. Being in Denver, the pond froze, and in the morning, the man carefully pulled the guitar back out. Still in tune. Yiesh. I want... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cr_XD Posted September 23, 2003 Report Share Posted September 23, 2003 And the most important the string thru body design... a tele without string thru body doesn't sound like a tele! But the tele bridge pickup is mounted rigged into the bridge plate... this sounds more twangy like for instance into a plastic pickguard or directly into the wood. Alex, thus i can assume that a tele with a bigsby doesn't have the "twang" i was actually planing on one, you just put me off... is it THAT noticeable Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roli Posted September 23, 2003 Report Share Posted September 23, 2003 Scale lengths are also improtant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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