Tone Block

[Drag]

I am wondering if anyone knows what a Tone Block is and how a person could go about putting one into a home made guitar.

The reason I am asking is because I was reading about the John Petrucci Ball Family Reserve guitar on the Ernie Ball/Music Man website, and the site says the guitar has a mahogany tone block in it. If it is reasonable to do so, I would like to include a tone block in a guitar which I plan to build myself. If that's an idea that's way out in left field, then at least I'll know what a tone block is. haha.

Thanks in advance for anyone and everyone's input.

P.S.

The link to the John Petrucci BFR on the EB/MM site is http://www.music-man.com/jp_BFR7.html

[low end fuzz]

with no real idea what it is, i almost want to say they carved a square out of whatever wood, thats not mahogony;

and stuck a block of mahogany in it;

IF thats the case i would say why bother; if you think theres a wood out there that has the sound you want ,make the whole thing out of it; for sound purposes, the less glue the better;

[Xanthus]

I'm calling voodoo on this one. As if having Petrucci's name on it couldn't sell enough product.

I'm assuming that the "tone block" is a piece of wood that the bridge sits on. Clearly, for better tone

I want to hear a side-by-side comparison of two identical guitars, one with a tone block, before I buy anything so absurd.

Going off of what low end fuzz said; if there was a magical wood that reeked of "good tone" why not make the whole guitar out of it, instead of just putting one small block into another piece of wood?

I'm not sure I buy the less glue the better philosophy, but that's neither here nor there.

[guitar2005]

I'm calling voodoo on this one. As if having Petrucci's name on it couldn't sell enough product.

I'm assuming that the "tone block" is a piece of wood that the bridge sits on. Clearly, for better tone

I want to hear a side-by-side comparison of two identical guitars, one with a tone block, before I buy anything so absurd.

Going off of what low end fuzz said; if there was a magical wood that reeked of "good tone" why not make the whole guitar out of it, instead of just putting one small block into another piece of wood?

I'm not sure I buy the less glue the better philosophy, but that's neither here nor there.

+1

Complete marketing hype bullshit.

As if a piece of wood could create universal tonal bliss for all users and applications.

[aidlook]

I am usually very sceptic as fast as someone uses the expression "enhances tone".

[Mickguard]

I'm going to assume the Petrucci had some say in the design of the guitar. And that he/they are playing cook --add a bit of this, a dash of that. Probably the reasoning behind adding a bit of mahogany to a piece of alder capped with maple is to get the best of all worlds.

Since I've never heard this guitar, I couldn't say if they're right or wrong. I suppose it depends on how big the piece of mahogany is and where it's place. A lot of people seem to believe that maple/mahogany makes a Les Paul, and alder/maple or ash/maple makes a Strat/Tele...

[Xanthus]

I've played the guitar, the guitarist I used to play with has one. He has one of the old models, not capped with maple, that is. Here it is, I believe the body is basswood on this one? And no D-Sonic pickup, either. However, I've played it and it is one sweet beast. Very responsive, very comfortable, and a nice sound out of it.

Granted it's radically different from the one at hand But yeah. I've never heard alder being topped with maple, and that with the addition of a mahogany block just seems overkill. I'm not saying it WON'T make a tonal difference, but like Mick said, it has to be a significant size and placement is key.

I'm thinking that the tremolo studs barely break through to the alder, so you're going to be getting mostly the maple tone and mahogany neck.

[crafty]

The EBMM Petrucci is probably the best guitar I've ever played and I would love to own one. It sounds waaay better than it looks like it should with the relatively small basswood body, so that little piece of mahog may have something to do with it. It feels a lot like a Parker but sounds like a very clean Les Paul or PRS.

[erikbojerik]

Make the whole guitar out of mahogany, and the entire thing will be a "tone block"...

[Xanthus]

The EBMM Petrucci is probably the best guitar I've ever played and I would love to own one. It sounds waaay better than it looks like it should with the relatively small basswood body, so that little piece of mahog may have something to do with it. It feels a lot like a Parker but sounds like a very clean Les Paul or PRS.

Ok, so it's not just my eyes I could have sworn that the body was really tiny in comparison to the neck, I didn't know if it was just me.

[wohzah]

I would like to think it is a block placed in the wood to affect the tone of the guitar, not unlike a mahongany body with a maple top or back. But I am not sure how a block set into the wood is that much different from a top of a different wood. So I would have to agree with the others that, if it is my idea, it is a bit of a marketing ploy.