Crusader Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 Can't believe its been a whole month since I was on here last. All progress on my recent build has come to a holt due to the quest for the mighty dollar...in other words I've been working too much and haven't had the time to pursue this hobby. So anyway I thought it might be interesting to share what I have noticed or "discovered" about guitars I have bought, electric and accoustic The length of the headstock is roughly half the distance from the nut to the body join (16th fret on LPs and Strats etc) The bottom of a LP body is almost perfectly round and the Tailpiece is in the centre of this 'circle' I predict this is also true for an ES335 You can 'tap-tone' a guitar (best done in the dead of night when there is complete silence) I have found if you hold a guitar at about the 1st fret (muting the strings) and rap it with your knuckles at the base or end of fretboard it will "boing" just like a blank piece of wood - But if you rap it near the bridge you just get a 'thud' My accoustic guitar seems to have the bridge right on this point while the electic is just off a bit - The distance from the top of the head to where you hold it is the same as the distance from the base to where it 'thuds' about 215mm - If you take the strings and hardware off, the point where you hold it moves up the fretboard - The bass guitar is a different kettle of fish and I haven't finished investigating it yet My conclusion is these must be important aspects of guitar building and could be what is wrong with my first few guitars which have very long necks Anybody have any comments or thoughts on this? cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 i think headstock mass/stiffness certainly has a pronouced affect on tone... length will obviously tie into those factors - but there is no rule for this and a headstock that doesnt fit the norm wont make your guitar sound bad! some examples of extreme headstock sizes from very good sounding guitars Not sure where you are going with the body shape thing ??? Yes, you can tap a guitar and get it to sound like you are tapping on a piece of wood - i can also do this with my front door, dining room table and wife's head now if you want to look at tap-tuning the guitar that would be worth investigating (an electric guitar, not the wife's head)... i.e. can you tune that boing to a specific frequency (yes) and what would the benefits be of doing so. comparing one you have tuned to one you havnt might be interesting if you wanted to go down that route. long necks work fine once stability issues have been addressed (many ways to do that) - having a long neck wont make the guitar play or sound bad! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotYou Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 I have a theory about guitar length and size and how the positions nodes land can affect tone. After some informal testing, I seem to be right. But, just so I don't sound like a hack, I don't want to go into details until I'm sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihocky2 Posted January 30, 2011 Report Share Posted January 30, 2011 You can 'tap-tone' a guitar (best done in the dead of night when there is complete silence) Anybody have any comments or thoughts on this? cheers Why can I picture a bunch of guys out in the moonlight tonight with a rack of guitars tone-tapping them? Does the tone enhance at all if tapping them while in the middle of a pentgram with candles lit and chanting incantations. Sorry, I enjoy these threads but I couldn't let that one alone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusader Posted January 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2011 Sorry, I enjoy these threads but I couldn't let that one alone Lol thats cool Yeah my thoughts on this are; you don't want the sound of the timber interfering with the sound of the strings which is what I think happens on a couple of my guitars. When I had the SG and put it on a tuner the needle reached pitch then held steady. But on a couple of guitars I made the needle waves around a lot before it settles, then for no apparent reason it jumps around again. They also don't sound 'clean' when played, they have a "phasing" kind of sound...very subtle but its there. The nodal points on these guitars are no-where near the bridge or the first fret so I think it could be the reason I don't think length of headstock and position of nut to be too important but position of bridge and tailpiece might be critical My mother's violin (although a lot harder to 'tap-tone') does also seem to have the bridge at the nodal point Anyhow Its not something I'm going to delve into too much but I think it might have some relevance, especially if you're going to experiment with radical body shapes etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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