Electric Guitar Tone

[DaRealBandit]

 

Couple questions... (and thanks in advance to whoever answers!)

1. what's a neck and a fingerboard? And which has more of an impact on tone?

2. body and fingerboard wood; which has more of an impact on tone?

3. difference between HSS & SSS? (tone wise, of a fender strat)

4. does finish impact tone as well? (gloss, gloss polyurethane, and satin finishes)

You don't have to know all the answers, but if you know some I would appreciate it!

Edited July 24, 2020 by DaRealBandit

[Dad3353]

4 hours ago, DaRealBandit said:

...You don't have to know all the answers...

'Know' would be a bit foolhardy; nay: pretentious. Opinions, that's what you'll get. No-one 'knows' stuff like that. Opinions..? Here's mine...

The 'neck' of a guitar is the long arm stretching out from the body of the instrument, in order to have enough distance from the body to hang the strings. Sometimes just one piece, running from the headstock tip to the bottom of the body, but more commonly a separate piece, either glued to the body or bolted on.
The 'fingerboard' (also called 'fretboard'...) is a long, thin piece of wood laid along the neck, into which the frets are fixed. Different essences of wood can be used, with ebony, maple and various rosewoods being typical, although there are many others.
Impact on tone..? Hold on tight, because this is where the can of worms flies open. I'm of the persuasion that, for solid-body electric guitars, if there's a difference, it's so minor compared to so many other factors that it comes down to personal preferences, aesthetics, budget and credibility. There are woods that are pretty much excluded from luthery, such as light-weight balsa for model airplanes, but most woods have been used over the decades, giving fine instruments, with, for my money, no overall Winner nor tendance. I'd privilege the construction techniques and build quality over wood essence every time. Others will have different views and experience, I'm certain.
'HSS' indicates a 'H'umbucker pick-up in the bridge position, the middle and neck PU being 'S'ingle-coil, where 'SSS' indicates all PUs being Single coil. The sonic difference would be mostly apparent whe using the bridge PU alone, where, by its construction, the output would be stronger than the Single-coil. Is that 'better'..? It depends on what one wants from the guitar. The 'H' will not give the funky 'chuka-chuka' clarity of a bridge Single-coil, but the 'S' PU will lack the 'Oomph' of the 'H' PU. One takes one's choice.
Finish..? Again, for solid-body guitars, just about negligible, I'd say. Wear and weathering would be affected, and choice of colours and/or decor, but that's about it. I doubt anyone could detect, audibly, a poly finish from a nitro finish from an oiled-wood natural finish.
Hope this helps. 

Disclaimer: subject to completion, correction and/or contradiction from others.  

Edited July 23, 2020 by Dad3353

[DaRealBandit]

On 23/07/2020 at 19:38, Dad3353 said:

'Know' would be a bit foolhardy; nay: pretentious. Opinions, that's what you'll get. No-one 'knows' stuff like that. Opinions..? Here's mine...

The 'neck' of a guitar is the long arm stretching out from the body of the instrument, in order to have enough distance from the body to hang the strings. Sometimes just one piece, running from the headstock tip to the bottom of the body, but more commonly a separate piece, either glued to the body or bolted on.
The 'fingerboard' (also called 'fretboard'...) is a long, thin piece of wood laid along the neck, into which the frets are fixed. Different essences of wood can be used, with ebony, maple and various rosewoods being typical, although there are many others.
Impact on tone..? Hold on tight, because this is where the can of worms flies open. I'm of the persuasion that, for solid-body electric guitars, if there's a difference, it's so minor compared to so many other factors that it comes down to personal preferences, aesthetics, budget and credibility. There are woods that are pretty much excluded from luthery, such as light-weight balsa for model airplanes, but most woods have been used over the decades, giving fine instruments, with, for my money, no overall Winner nor tendance. I'd privilege the construction techniques and build quality over wood essence every time. Others will have different views and experience, I'm certain.
'HSS' indicates a 'H'umbucker pick-up in the bridge position, the middle and neck PU being 'S'ingle-coil, where 'SSS' indicates all PUs being Single coil. The sonic difference would be mostly apparent whe using the bridge PU alone, where, by its construction, the output would be stronger than the Single-coil. Is that 'better'..? It depends on what one wants from the guitar. The 'H' will not give the funky 'chuka-chuka' clarity of a bridge Single-coil, but the 'S' PU will lack the 'Oomph' of the 'H' PU. One takes one's choice.
Finish..? Again, for solid-body guitars, just about negligible, I'd say. Wear and weathering would be affected, and choice of colours and/or decor, but that's about it. I doubt anyone could detect, audibly, a poly finish from a nitro finish from an oiled-wood natural finish.
Hope this helps. 

Disclaimer: subject to completion, correction and/or contradiction from others.  

"...for solid-body electric guitars, if there's a difference, it's so minor.." so is it just the pickups that really impact the tone then, and not the wood?

Edited July 27, 2020 by DaRealBandit
fixed a typo

[Dad3353]

Yes, it's the pick-ups (active or passive...), the choice of strings, the volume and tone control settings, the pick used, and, most important of all by far, the dexterity of the Player. Playing closer to the bridge or neck, harder or softer strokes, choosing to pick out harmonic 'nodes' on the strings, right- and left-hand damping, the use of one's ears (sadly, often neglected, in my view...)... These are what determine most of what goes into the amp, and a pedal-board has quite some impact, too. As a rule, though, the music comes from the Player, not the guitar.

[DaRealBandit]

14 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

Yes, it's the pick-ups (active or passive...), the choice of strings, the volume and tone control settings, the pick used, and, most important of all by far, the dexterity of the Player. Playing closer to the bridge or neck, harder or softer strokes, choosing to pick out harmonic 'nodes' on the strings, right- and left-hand damping, the use of one's ears (sadly, often neglected, in my view...)... These are what determine most of what goes into the amp, and a pedal-board has quite some impact, too. As a rule, though, the music comes from the Player, not the guitar.

 thank you! as you can tell im new to all this so i really appreciate ur time brother

[Dad3353]

There was a time (oh so long ago...) I, too, was 'new to all this'; some folks answered my questions, too. What goes around, comes around. S'all good. 

[ezbass]

I’ve always been of the opinion that the biggest influences on tone are the transducers in the signal chain. These would be the components that turn mechanical energy into electrical impulses. In the case of the electric guitar these would be the pickups. Everything has a contributory effect, but they are all (mostly) subservient to the transducer. 

[Dad3353]

2 hours ago, ezbass said:

I’ve always been of the opinion that the biggest influences on tone are the transducers in the signal chain. These would be the components that turn mechanical energy into electrical impulses. In the case of the electric guitar these would be the pickups. Everything has a contributory effect, but they are all (mostly) subservient to the transducer. 

Not to say that you're completely wrong; the pick-ups are, indeed, an important element, but I still maintain that a guitarist can radically change the tone by playing differently, and that these changes produce much more effect than would changing a pick-up for another. Using Fralin, or Di Marzio, or Seymour Duncan, will all give a different sound, but rolling the tone off, or picking over the bridge or neck, will give a vastly wider palette of tones. There are subtleties between different models, I don't deny, but I'm of the Old School of 'it's all in the fingers', really.

[EdwardMarlowe]

I wish my dog could talk, because with her ears she maybe can hear a difference I can't....  You'll hear a lot of talk about "tonewoods" with guitar. Now it's fair to say a mahogany and maple Les Paul sounds very different from an Alder or ash bodied Strat. Thing is, that Les Paul might also sound quite different from the next (suposedly same model) Les Paul, and ditto for the Strat... Wood is organic, and thus prone to variations - any two pieces of wood even from the same tree might not be quite identical. That said.... I personally hold to the opinion that with modern pickups (by and large much more consistent than they were back in the days when they were all handwound) and amplification, the electronics have far more influence on tone. Every minor change in spec will, arguably, have an effect on making up the overall tone, but for the most part it'll be the electronics, the amp, and any effects you use which will be the most signficant.

I would say wood type makes a much bigger difference with an acoustic guitar sound, especially if miking rather than using a soundhole or under-saddle pick-up.

It's worth noting that the early Led Zep stuff was a mix of Les Paul and Telecaster; nobody now knows which is which by listen ing to the records, and Page can't remember... 

The differences from one guitar to the next may be minimal for a listener, of course, but what I think can matter more is the look and feel to a guitar player. Frankly, how my guitar looks does matter to me; all other things being equal, of any two guitars I'll pick the one I like the look of most. When I play, some things I prefer to play on -hell, even some days I just prefer to play my Strat, other days my Tele. Both sound the same thorugh my amp and pedals to anyone else, really, but beause each "feels" (half of it psychosummatical, at that) different to me, I tend to play differently on each, so evne if a listener can't hear a difference, it does affect how I play and so I suppose you could say it affects how I sound in an indirect way.

As a new player, I'd concentrate less on what a guitar is made from and more on whether you like the look, feel and sound.  You'll naturally gravitate towards certain things. A lot of my guitar heroes played a Les Paul, but (Juniors aside)I just can't get excited by them any longer - I'm definitely a Fender man, and I can get the  ' Steve Jones Les Paul' tone I want very easily through  godo amp and my Telecaster. There are just so many different options with guitars and bits these days that I think if you tried all of them to see what is"best" you'd go mad. Try as much as you can, see what you enjoy, buy that. It might be the guitar your utter hero played, but if it  doesn't work in you hands and you don't enjoy playing it, there's no point.

As a last thought in this steam of consciousness, I can't help but wodenr why I've never read a discussion about the effect of the scratchplate material on the tone of a Stat - after all,  the pickups in a Strat are fixed directly to the plate, not the wood....