An interesting interview with...

[Southpa]

http://www.ctbasses.com/CTinterview.html

I totally agree with his views on tone and woods used, the man just tells it like it is and doesn't hold back.

Here are samples of his work:

http://www.ctbasses.com/

And for all you guys just getting started, take this man's advice and don't steer off the path. If someone is trying to describe their expected "tone" to you then tell them not to waste their breath. Its a totally subjective concept. He also mentioned something about the "heaviness" of certain woods. "Hey, it all depends on who is picking it up!"

[guitar_ed]

Oh, how I have wanted to say some of those things. But not being a pro, figured that I was short a sandwich or two.

Very wise man, if a bit crazed.

Guitar Ed

[jay5]

That was an awesome read! Thanks for the link! I dont think I really like his designs but I'm sure they sound good. Cool read though

[Brian]

Aaron: What are the characteristics of a really great neck pocket? What makes it good?

Carl: Hopefully it's in the right place.

Love his cander on the answer's

[john]

"Carl: Player. Player will change the sound more than-People get too involved in all that stuff about finishes and wood. Change the scale length and you'll really know the difference. If a guy comes in with a piece, a bass like this and it's made out of Mahogany or it's made out of Walnut or Cherry or Swamp Ash or any of those things that they talk about all the time. And somebody comes in with the same bass made out of a totally different wood. I'll bet if people couldn't see it they wouldn't know. But I'll tell you one thing that would change it: the scale length. If one of them had a 36-inch length and one of them had a 34-inch scale you'd hear a difference right away. I'm not saying that woods don't have different properties and different sounds but I don't think-It's pretty hard to tell. That's so close. A piece of Maple is going to sound brighter than a piece of Mahogany probably but which piece of Maple is it and which piece of Mahogany is it? And who's playing it? And what pickups are you using? What kind of amplifier? What kind of strings are on it? If you're going to get that particular about that area then you better get particular about it all. Because it just doesn't happen."

something ive always believed.

[westhemann]

strange...i have 2 ibanez guitars with the emg 81 at the bridge...same scale length...the only difference is that one is mahogany and maple and the other is basswood and maple...

all my friends can tell an obvious difference.....the mahogany guitar is muddier on the bottom end and sweeter on the highs...while the basswood one is sharper at the bottom end and very "plain jane"on the highs.

you will always find plenty of people,even proffesionals,who can't tell the difference,but you will find just as many who can..

why do people always assume everyone else is just like them?you say that about the tonewoods as if to imply that i and others are wasting our time with wood choice....i disagree

[spirit]

That is a very interesting interview.

*bookmarked*

[Myka Guitars]

you will always find plenty of people,even proffesionals,who can't tell the difference,but you will find just as many who can..

why do people always assume everyone else is just like them?you say that about the tonewoods as if to imply that i and others are wasting our time with wood choice....i disagree

I think westheman is right in saying that some people hear it and some don't. The ones who don't think the ones who do are crazy. The ones who do wonder what the others lack. Personally it makes no difference to me what anyone says about it. The wood I use makes a difference in my guitars. Hopefully a wood-tone deaf person is ahead of me in the lumber yard because they'll leave all the good stuff behind.

When I build guitars I am always tapping and hearing what the wood will sound like, trying to add the qualities I want into the mix. It certainly doesn't mean that I can control what the guitar will sound like exactly but I can get it in the ball park by choosing the right woods. The rest is in the construction and technique. There is a lot that you can do to get tone from a piece of wood (tap tuning acoustic guitar plates, chambering solidbodies, etc) but wood choice is a still the most fundamental consideration. If you build an archtop guitar soundboard out of rosewood it will sound good when it is carved correctly and with skill but it will never sound like spruce.

That being said I do believe that you can make a good sounding guitar out of anything. Bob Benedetto made an archtop out of construction grade pine and paint grade maple. He said it played and sounded as good as any of his top of the line models. He also only made one. He proved a point and then continued his pursuit of the finer tones.

Here is a telling response:

Aaron: Like, how do you select what woods to go with what?

Carl: Oh I don't know that's chance.

If anyone here seriously believes that wood choices do not make any difference then please make a Les Paul out of nothing but hard rock maple and show me that velvety tone that LPs are famous for.

[syxxstring]

A piece of Maple is going to sound brighter than a piece of Mahogany probably but which piece of Maple is it and which piece of Mahogany is it? And who's playing it? And what pickups are you using? What kind of amplifier? What kind of strings are on it? If you're going to get that particular about that area then you better get particular about it all. Because it just doesn't happen.

I think he nails it there. I think a lot of times people neglect the total package. I really dont care what a gutiar or effect sounds like in guitar center. I really care about what its going to sound like when i get it in my rig. Also how it fit in the live and recording mix with the rest of my band.

I think a lot of people who cant hear the difference are using pickups/amps/effects that make it all sound the same. One of the reasons I didnt like my modeling amp my les paul,rg, parker, and strat all sounded pretty much the same. Not so with the mesa.

On acousitcs the top is your speaker and the rest your cabinet, so there is a difference there. But its again a total package, braces, strings, string mounting, finish etc... Remember a lot of the older martins that are supposed to be cool people scalloped the inner braces. Put heavy strings on your acoustic and tell me it doesnt sound different. Heck tryit on an electric too.

[Myka Guitars]

I think a lot of people who cant hear the difference are using pickups/amps/effects that make it all sound the same.

There are a lot of cheaper amps that paint the tone completely regardless of what guitar is going into it. All of my guitars sound the same through my friend's cheap transistor amp. They all sound different through my somewhat decent tube amp.

The picture is quite complex. Carl Thompson does hear the difference in wood species. He just hears the difference in pieces of wood of the same species too. That makes is hard to generalize what a particular species sounds like. But there are certain generalizations that are true most of the time.

[Guitarfrenzy]

I'm not disputing anyones claims here just making an observation.

It's mostly in the mind actually, I've had the singer in our band say, "hey turn up the highs some" I can just over to it and act like I'm tweeking it and he will yell... "Right there, that's it.. just right" So in some way the mind can actually change what we are hearing. I've done this with expert musicians, etc. all the same. Just as if they thought in their minds that something in the sound was changing, it would change for them the way they hear it. So, if this guy has already determined he can't hear changes in wood, then he's already set his mind up not to hear them, the same as someone who claims they can hear any change there is. Everyone hears things differently, just as everyone sees things differently.. it's all in how your mind preceives things. Anyway, just my thoughts on the matter.. No one is right or wrong... because there is simply no right or wrong to this subject.. since everyone hears things the way they hear them.

There has to be some psycho- book about this kinda stuff somewhere.. lol

[spirit]

a psycho-book. it's coming to get you and eat your brains

[frank falbo]

I didn't want to weigh in on this one but I feel like I should. I've done articles and write-ups on the tonal differences of wood types, and on how the other things affect tone. The only way in which I agree with him is that he's trying to create a ratio. So:

Wood affects tone? = YES

To what degree? = UNKNOWN AND INFINITELY VARIABLE

Basically its a percentage of the whole. The more stuff you pile on, the less percentage it occupies. For example, an acoustic guitar has "nothing" added. So string gauge differences, action height, and nut/saddle material is about all you can modify. Record with a piezo instead of a condenser mic, though, and you've just diminished the wood tone, you know? Almost like your equation now is 50% piezo/EQ, 50% wood. Pass through a tube compressor and some heavy chorus and reverb, and now its even less. If you're going for that ultra processed pop sound, eventually you could go back and unplug that $2000 Taylor and plug in a $350 Washburn and you'd still have the same basic sound.

For electrics, it's even more diminished, because now you have pickups and amps. Stick a Floyd on and the wood is even less apparent. Use a Line 6 or some Digitech/Zoom/etc. ultra processor, and it's now even less. So I agree with all you guys there. It still makes a difference, but the degree is less than if you used a "hi-fi" pickup like a Bartolini (without active freq boosts) straight to an ultra clean amp.

My percentages are just silly equations, but you get what I mean. The problem is Thompson is so nuts that he can't communicate without disenfranchising some faction of the industry. And personally, I think multilaminate bodies tend to sound like "multilaminate". That has a sound of its own, and I think it's less affected by the types of wood you use since you're locking them in with glue joints every inch or two. So to me his vantage point is skewed in that his styles of instruments can diminish wood type a little. Everything he says about player, scale, etc. having more of an impact is true, but it doesn't mean you take wood selection any less seriously.

[GregP]

Interesting read.

That dude is a nutter. Imagine Tommy Chong as the voice of Carl Thompson, and you'll see what I saw.

Greg