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impact of wood on pickups?


StreamLine

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i can certainly hear how different woods sound on electric guitars, how they sustain and react to different pick-ups.

but why? is the question for me -

i know how pickups work, strings vibrate, creating a magnetic pitch, which moves poles in pickups, then they work as electromagnets, and the winding picks up the current along with the frequencies, which is then filtered by pots, then into amp to be amplified and made 'sound'...... i got all that, but then how can body wood affect tone? and why?

sure it resonates, but it does not give off magentic current does it? so however long the mahogany sustains for in your LP, why should this matter to the pickups, since they're picking up the string's movement? i mean, how is the sound you hear when tap toning a wood get into pickups? i just dont get it........ i mean if only strings matter, then in effect a rod with a bridge fitted and pickups and strings should have the same sound as a '59 LP with same p-ups and bridge, but it clearly doesnt...... how come?

i hope i have explained it clearly, so someone help me out of my confusion please!

:D

thanks,

Roman

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i can certainly hear how different woods sound on electric guitars, how they sustain and react to different pick-ups.

but why? is the question for me -

i know how pickups work, strings vibrate, creating a magnetic pitch, which moves poles in pickups, then they work as electromagnets, and the winding picks up the current along with the frequencies, which is then filtered by pots, then into amp to be amplified and made 'sound'...... i got all that, but then how can body wood affect tone? and why?

sure it resonates, but it does not give off magentic current does it? so however long the mahogany sustains for in your LP, why should this matter to the pickups, since they're picking up the string's movement? i mean, how is the sound you hear when tap toning a wood get into pickups? i just dont get it........ i mean if only strings matter, then in effect a rod with a bridge fitted and pickups and strings should have the same sound as a '59 LP with same p-ups and bridge, but it clearly doesnt...... how come?

i hope i have explained it clearly, so someone help me out of my confusion please!

:D

thanks,

Roman

you also have to take in consideration stuff like resonance , and resonant feedback.. you can have the guitar have feedback and never hear it.. when you play it is similar in the fact the way a room will have reverb type reflections, you also have the sound comin back from your amp and will cause certain parts of your instrument to vibate differently than if it was unplgged. this will have either a positive or negative effect on sound on your instrument.

when you can feel like your guitar is "alive" and about to jump out of your hands that is really bad resonant feedback. i have seen a guitar crack because of this.

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The pickup signal is a result of the string moving through the pickup's magnetic field (or the string vibrating beside the stationary pickup). Since all is relative, then the signal is also a result of the pickup moving relative to the strings. Since the vibrating wood moves the pickup, that vibration becomes part of the pickup's output signal. So the sound of the vibrating wood is heard in the guitar's output signal.

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The pickup signal is a result of the string moving through the pickup's magnetic field (or the string vibrating beside the stationary pickup). Since all is relative, then the signal is also a result of the pickup moving relative to the strings. Since the vibrating wood moves the pickup, that vibration becomes part of the pickup's output signal. So the sound of the vibrating wood is heard in the guitar's output signal.

:D

i would tend to agree more with lovecraft, the wood affects the string's vibration, that is in turn relayed by the pickup. the wood doesn't have as strong an effect on the pickup it's self,

i mean think about it, a string suspended by 2 points 25 inches apart at high tension, vs, a pickup supported by 2 screws, under no tention, which is going to oscilate more??

the farthest i'll strech that is that using metal and plastic pickup rings affects the tone, a tiny bit, but in terms of what the pickup gets from wood, it's all the same, in terms of what the string gets from wood, it can be completely different,

i duno, thats just makes sense to me, unless someone can explain a flaw in my logic,,

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Mute your strings and knock on your guitar and you'll hear it loud and clear through your amp. Even with the strings removed, you can hear the knock (wood vibration) through the amp. I would say it's a combination of the wood's effect on the string vibration AND the wood's vibration on the pickup itself. The ultimate test would be to hold a pickup outside of a guitar near its strings without it physically contacting the guitar. If I'm wrong, it should sound exactly the same as if it was in the guitar (with a clean amp sound of course). I'll have to try that some day just out of curiosity.

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