what REALLY changes guitar tone?
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- Опубліковано 16 жов 2024
- This is an older video where I discuss guitar tonewood and why different guitars made of the same species sound different. The way you build a guitar is more important than the species. Everything makes a difference, but you have to ask the question, "how much?"
This is a video that I reuploaded by request of my subscribers.
I have no interest in revisiting the tone wood debate.
The best explanation yet to be heard. Thanks for shearing your wisdom and knowledge.
its underrated how someone finds the time to explain the science of simple things like tone. you go from not thinking about it, to thinking about waves themselves going through certain densities and its awesome.
Nice re-upload, this is the least salty of the old one and thus least funny of the old tone wood discussion vids but it's really well made and fair.
I don't need tone wood because I have a tone knob on my guitar and my sustain comes from a pedal, but I do love me some good looking wood finish, well shaped bodies and most importantly appreciate a stable neck (that's not as expensive as a aluminum one because I can't afford it right now)
Old school classic! I thought as I got older my heart would grow, and I would accept those who believe in tonewood as just another of god’s creatures, fallible as we all are. Alas, I cannot. Please excuse my human frailty.
Hey Will, long time fan. Been loving your videos forever. Hope your well.
You are wonderful, telling people the truth!!!😊
Thank you! 🙂
This is the October Surprise everyone is talking about.
Can you reupload "The ugly truth about Britain"? That's my favorite video of yours.
Could there not only be 'tone wood', but also 'tone could' and 'tone should'?....
I wonder if Paul Reed Smith has seen this. I bet he would be triggered to the point of needing a safe space, a coloring book and an emotional support ferret.
He claims that changing tuners affects tone. Which I always said, if that's the case, than the guitar strap you use affects something. What shoes you wear or don't wear affect it. But I always found it funny, because "affects tone" is so broad. It affects the sustain? The treble? The bass response? The harmonic vibration? "Tone" is not a singular.
I hope Paul never changes. Wood might not be a huge part of tone but those guitars are gems and works of art. I have a pretty big paycheck coming and as soon as it clears I am rewarding myself with a couple of wood library custom 24s. One with a matching stained neck and one with a rosewood neck.
@@JohnAvillaHerpetocultural I've only played the off the rack 1000 dollar versions, and personally, I wasn't particularly impressed. They are pretty though. That was Paul's business model. "Pretty sells"
@@TheSdrake1967 at 1000 it’s an SE. Different animal but IMHO the best thousand you could spend. Different strokes but I like them. I will tell you I have played some old ones when they weren’t old and they are something different. I once got to play a brand new dragon inlaid custom 24 at the studio I hung around as a kid. It put the Gibsons and Fenders I was used to to shame. I still like Strats though. I play them more than anything.
"an emotional support ferret" is LULZ
_...and "tone" has to be the stupidest word ever to be stupified._ We mean "timbre" instead of "tone" but we're a fucking retarded culture that can't pronounce words of a French origin.
_{i.e. pentaTONIC, triTONE, diaTONIC - it's all pitch intervals. People confuse harmonic series "overtones" of timbre with tonal/scale theory every fucking day}_
The whole lard thing, and bending a 12" girder is absolutely fuhkin hilarious. I prob subscribed like 9 years ago when this video was new?(Is that accurate) And it's been so long, I don't I even remember who the rivalry was with.i know there where a cpl.its been so long. Back than people made response videos. I miss those days. You are a funny bastard tho😅 this gave me a good laugh. Always loved your comedy
"I guess I picked the wrong week to make Marshmallow guitars...Johnny what do you make out of of this?"
I really miss the old tonewood war days. It really was the peak of guitar UA-cam. I always say that if wood effects tone then wood species would matter to the signal on those old box wood tv’s. The oak cabinet tv got the same signal as pine cabinet. Electric guitar is an electronic device not an acoustic instrument.
Definitely, the peak of guitar UA-cam. So much content.
2011-2013, where Scott and Will and Duncan put out more guitar science info than virtually any mere mortal had hitherto ever seen.
Now it's does this $200 Chinese guitar with a roasted maple neck and stainless steel rounded frets sounds better than the other one?
@@AnnoyingCritic-is7rp and all those guitars suck so who cares. I’ll take my American fenders and peaveys any day of the week over that China shyt. People seem to confuse “a lot better than they used to be” with “hey this is a quality guitar.” I tried a bunch of those budget things and usually it’s decent wood, shyt electronics, and a passable fret job but will fall apart in 6 months if you actually try to make it your daily player. I had an Indio Strat from monoprice where after the first change in seasons, summer to fall, the body came unglued and fell apart. Pieces of shyt.
@@ShiceSquad then google bought UA-cam, made it corporate, and sucked out all the fun.
ME. I CHANGE THE TONE, BY SPITTING ON THE TUBES SO THEY SPARKLE LOUDER.
(Srsly though, you and glenn fricker both confirmed what i had long suspected and concluded as an amateur repairman back in the 10's. It would be awesome if you reuploaded some of these deleted vids to an archival site.)
Do you do that "Hawk Thua" before or after they have reached operating temperature?
If any (electric) guitar in my hands sounded bad it wasn't because of anything on the guitar or the species of the wood. It was because the amp (mainly the speaker) was crappy or the EQ was set to extremes. I'll swap out pickups if I have a guitar where the pickups are too hot, lack clarity, or don't sit in the mix, but other than that, I don't worry about anything on the guitar affecting "tone". Of course, every guitar in my collection sounds "different" in a vacuum with the same EQ, but I can quickly and easily tweak things to where you can't distinguish them blindly when recorded or in a mix. If the guitar is stable and perfectly intonated, it doesn't matter what it's made of, it'll sound good. As for acoustic guitars I've played some turkeys, expensive or cheap, and some beautiful-sounding acoustics also expensive or cheap.
Bingo.
Speakers and pickups are the alpha and omega of the whole phenomenon. Transformation of energy (kinetic->electromagnetic->electronic->acoustic) is the broader context, and awareness at each stage is crucial in understanding wtf is or isn't working so well.
Tangent: In a vacuum guitars don't sound at all - but an electric guitar CAN be plugged in (or wirelessly transmit) to a normal environment and be heard.
After all, pickups "pick up" magnetic-field disturbances not acoustic sound.
I think the person playing a guitar also effects tone.
Absolutely NOT!
If you spend $5000 on the Custom Shop SRV-Strat..
You'll play "Texas Flood" at least as good as he did!!
It's all about the guitar, those fingers are irrelevant!!
Go buy Rory Gallaghers Strat, and you'll even become Irish!!
Even neurology would explain a lot of how tone is perceived. The increase of dopamine when buying something new for example.
brand names on headstocks and price tags with lots of zeroes at the end do likewise
Will would agree with me, when I say that when a hot chick is in the same room as a guitar, that guitar will sound better and play more notes per second and notes will bend much higher.
There were times that Will had pornstars introducing his guitar videos. The fact that I recognized a few of them says a lot about me, I guess. I like good aesthetics on both, women and guitars.
IMHO, guitars should have sexy female contours.
I prefer a Ferrari 250 GTO over a Lamborghini Countach.
But that's a personal preference.
I agree, everything matters to a point. Build quality & pickups are the biggest factor on a guitar. The amplifier & speaker(s) change the sound immensely after the guitar, cables, pedals & whatever else in between.
Still love this channel..I know you had taken a break, had some.health stuff happen. I hope your doing good tho. Are you? I hope to see some new videos as well
Oh man, this brings me back. Hope you are doing well.
Potentiometers and capacitors can make a big difference.
If you replace one 300K pot in a 1978 Gibson The Paul by a 500K pot, those T-Tops suddenly don't sound mellow anymore, but harsh instead.
Do they make tone glue? How about the finish on the wood? Myself, I've always felt that the guitar depends on the person who built it. You can feel when a guitar is what one would call a "good guitar". At least that's been my experience.
Hi! Great topic! Follows your thoughts here!.. In other terms of instruments,.. There are said that you've got the "sad instrument syndrome "!. Occurs when an instrument is not played at, or played in a wrong way!.. Another thing is temperature and moisture. - Agree!.
You missed the Aloha Jam this year again!
Sustain is different from "tone". Different woods will affect the tone because of resonance(frequencies coming to our ears from moving air),but only speaking about acoustic instruments.On electric guitars pick ups can't detect resonance (movement of air caused by wood vibrations.) They're not microphones, what they can detect is just a disturbed magnetic field caused by the vibrating strings converted into electricity.So the wood can't affect the tone..but it will affect the sustain depending by the weight and density.of the wood So... what will change the sound of the electric guitar?Pickups, different scale lengths, effects, potentiometers (when they have small impedance differences one from the other ) amps and the hands of the player.
From what I gather tone comes from electronics and sustain comes from wood and the materials that the guitar is made of. I agree that the density of wood matters more than the species of wood for sustain however, you are more likely to get a certain density of wood from a certain species. In my experience, Alder consistently has a medium to sometimes high density, poplar consistently has very low density with extremely low sustain, mahogany can be extremely dense, Balsawood like and anywhere in between. From what I hear Ash can also be extremely dense and Balsawood like depending on where it’s grown.
It seems to me that pickups affect tone and character as to where the tone capacitors and potentiometer’s affect the tone.
What about for acoustic guitars? How big of a % does the wood species contribute to the tone in that case?
The soundboard certainly is crucial.
Someone might prefer the sound of a cedar, redwood or fir top - but Spruce are often favored because they are what was more readily available in the USA _when and where_ the early demand for guitars grew, and so those species rapidly became associated with "a nice-sounding guitar' when little else could be compared to them.
What's the best tone glue? Hyde? Titebond? Gorilla?
boogers and chewing gum
That's a question for a professional gluethier
I can take a Fender Strat qand the Fender Partscaster I have made of about 2" thick of plywood that is a 6 Flags prize win that I actually turned into a badass sounding and playing guitar. I can take an EQ pedal with some IR's and make it sound just like a Fender strat. Will is right. They mean so little that the only thing I would worry about it pickups (which two of the same kind and brand can sound a little different due to maybe one or two winds) But pickups, for cleaner or more gain. But in 39 years, there are not many things I could now make it sound like the songs I was playing.
I'm not interested in revisiting the tone wood debate either, BUT it sure is nice to reminisce about the glory days, when all the biggest spergs in the guitar world came out of the woodwork to go after you and Scott and Duncan. Remember that guy Wayne or Wes or W- something? The King of the Tonewood Spergs - you made more than one video response to him. He was challenging you to death matches and shit. Hilarious what hills people choose to die on on teh interwebz.
(answer at 7:20 🤣)
I've never been able to hear what that intro girls saying. Grey Coke of Lolita Dyke???
I still don't know if hollow-body and semi-hollow guitars make ANY difference, or if their unique sound is 100% down to the pickups they put in them.
Well those are acoustic instruments/semi acoustic
Play one and turn up the amp, and you'll find out.
@@shaft9000 ya, well, aside from the feedback sensitivity. A lot of times I suspect a 2x4 with the same pickups stuck on would sound the same, but without that weakness.
I've played pre-CBS Strats that not only sounded horrible, they felt horrible!
Oh boy, there's WAY too much of that uncommon "Common Sense" here Sir William. I don't know if people are ready for that, or for facing the realization that Marketing Specialists are full of $chit.
Back when UA-cam was actually good
Do you like the way it looks? Do you like the way it sounds? Do you like the way it feels?
What else could you possibly need to know?
😂😂😂😂make up a name, we’ll call him Wyatt😂😂😂😂😂
Anyone else remember Wyatt?
Your "Whiteboard Episodes" were awesome and the tonewood ones were way ahead of time! Also "What guitar manufacturers don't want you to know" was one of my favorites🙂
No they aren't.
Real scientists use a blackboard!!
if you talk about electric guitars you can forget the whole soundwood thing ,the biggest sound changers are the pickups and electronics . the thickness neck of the neck dont matter , you have steelrods inside the neck . and the string is resting om metal on both sides . so wood dont make a differnse , and even construction has minor difference , the steel point at the bridge has most influence ,
The "thickness", or "shape" of the neck DOES matter :
If it is not comfortable, you won't be playing that guitar 6-8 hours a day.
And THAT'S what matters.
@@hansemannluchter643 i 100% agree , but the sound will not change , on a fat or lean neck , or the connection on the neck will not even matter that much ,
also will, where is your video about you making fun of guitarists talking about guitar tone using words.. "i want that sound like if a brick was black..." etc ?
i have to look for it
@@WillsEasyGuitar yeah that was funny as heck. Keep that one up !
Well, Will you lay down some of the law indeed.
However, without a doubt _"Tone"_ is the most abused term of all. People mean "timbre" but are such insecure lemmings - too often to be sure about what they mean - so they fall back on the lowest common denominator term "that everyone else uses".
WE ARE ALL GUILTY, so the sooner we recognize this we can move on for the better.
Real scientists use blackboards!
the intro 🤣
@@baksagimm5890 who's that girl..tell me.. 😆😁
A real professional who plays an instrument, hockey stick, baseball bat, tennis racket for days, years, his life - will feel any tiniest differences. And with guitars - he will find a difference between guitar A' and guitar A'' whereas the guitar plebs thinks, cmon it sounds totally the same. A classic is the tone knob - 99.99% of the guitar plebs never touches it - watch a pro, you ask if he has a problem with the tone (and volume) knob.
Enter the "I hate the Strat volume-knob" crowd.
Jeff Beck: OK mate....
@@hansemannluchter643 well, it ~is~ situated so close to the strings that during spirited rhythm playing (if the pot moves with little resistance) it gets jostled.
I have to increase it's friction with o-ring(s) to fix that. It would have been Jeff's tech's problem, and not his.
Jeff Baxters 25$ Burns Baby Bison has entered the discussion...
Donna Summer didn't care, because you can't buy a voice!!
Jeff once played a plexiglas guitar with the Ventures.
It's tone plastic man! The little strips most people just take off when they get a new axe bruh. Bwahahahaha 🤘