Heck of an argument against tone wood affecting electric guitars

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mickey
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Sinster wrote: Thu Feb 03, 2022 2:16 pm
Chocol8 wrote: Thu Feb 03, 2022 12:46 pm Old ears is a big issue.

Huge issue... especially at the higher frequencies. I don't hear my brakes squeaking after the cars been sitting a few days where the rotors start to get a little rust. My kids have to point it out to me.
Y'all have reminded me of my late father-in-law who was a professional pilot when WW2 broke out. On about December 8, 1941 he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and spent about the first third of the war as an instructor pilot. Once that wound down he moved to the "Ferry Command" where he basically spent all day every day going to the aircraft factories and picking up whatever plane had just been built then flying it to the appropriate port for shipment to Europe. The third third of the war he was stationed in India flying C-54's & C-47's to China supplying the folks who were fighting the Japanese there. He flew nearly 400 round trips India/China/India across "The Hump" as it was called. In fact, he flew the second highest number of trips but as he said "nobody remembers the second man on the moon." :D

Anyhoo, he spent countless hours in loud, noisy, droning cockpits of multiengine aircraft. As a result, his hearing was shot. I disremember the exact frequency but he knew the exact frequency where his hearing quit. I tested him once by feeding an audio oscillator into an amp/speaker and he predicted the exact frequency where his hearing quit. :D

Thanks for the memories folks.
Gandalf the Intonationer
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Chocol8
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Everyone loses the ability to hear the highest frequencies as they age, but obviously not at the same rate.

When I was in business school, we had a classroom room with this crazy annoying high pitched squeal. The problem was only about a quarter of us could actually hear it. Everyone else thought we were all nuts! One of the guys in the class worked in a hearing lab at the university and brought in some equipment and found it was a fluorescent light ballast that was squealing at just under 18 kHz. These days I can only hear up to about 15kHz so I would be in the non-believer camp now! :D

BTW, the stuff they did in the hearing lab was really cool. They had a speaker behind black fabric that they could move around left to right and up and down to test peoples perception of sound directionality. People are pretty good at detecting direction side to side of things in front of them. A little Les so behind, but we recognize that deficiency and naturally want to turn our heads. People THINK they are really good at locating sounds vertically, but we are actually horrible at it and use other cues to trick ourselves into thinking we hear something that we don’t. For example we hear the sound of an airplane to be up and a babbling Brook to be low even if the sounds are played from the opposite positions. The crazy thing is how even when aware of what they are doing, you brain still strongly perceives the sound as coming from the wrong place. But, when you can see where the speaker is, you hear it coming from the speaker…even if it is a dummy speaker! Crazy shizit!
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Partscaster
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dabbler wrote: Thu Feb 03, 2022 9:28 am In reality, or at least IMO, everything matters, pickups, strings, wood, how you play, bridge etc. it's just a matter of how much.
And neck wood has more impact than body wood in a solid body guitar, but body wood still has an affect on tone, IMO.


Different strokes for different folks. 🙂
I agree. I have switched lots of necks around and been quite surprised at the changes in tone. Sometimes slight, sometimes very obvious. Sometimes more noticeable on deeper strings.
Sometimes opposite of what I generally would have expected.
I think its true more-so using lower vintage wind pickups.
"The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils. The motions of his spirit are dull as night, and his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted."
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Rollin Hand
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Gergo wrote: Wed Feb 02, 2022 11:42 am I find it funny that people rant about how tonewood makes no difference, but then turn abound and have to point out when a Les Paul copy has a maple cap as opposed to just being solid mahogany.
I was going to say that they still hate basswood, but same difference.
"I'm not a sore loser. It's just that I prefer to win, and when I don't, I get furious."
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PsychoCid
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Some folks can't see the difference between red and green either!
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Sinster
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Gearlist: Many Les Pauls, Couple of Tele's and Strats, a PRS, a EVH Woflgang, a Bass, and Epi Acoustic. Egnater Rebel 20, Tubemeister 18.

Until I see a 'real' study with a real control, blind, and where all influences are removed. Then I will remain it doesn't make a difference on electric guitars. Playing guitar A and guitar B comparing them isn't very control or scientific.

Out of the *60k viewers no when could tell the difference when Spectre Sound offered to give away the guitars if someone could tell him the difference. Again I will refer you do the Paris double blind test. Both of these are more scientific than comparing A to B. I have searched for some data on wood to see if it really change the tone and none I have found. Again A to B isn't what I'm looking for.

*views of the video not sure how many actually took a shot at it.

https://newatlas.com/guitar-wood-types/58139/
https://www.theage.com.au/education/doe ... 22k7b.html
https://www.researchgate.net/project/Ef ... ic-guitars
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 105623.htm
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Sinster
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Gearlist: Many Les Pauls, Couple of Tele's and Strats, a PRS, a EVH Woflgang, a Bass, and Epi Acoustic. Egnater Rebel 20, Tubemeister 18.

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