Paul Reed Smith Ends the Tonewood Debate
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- Опубліковано 20 лис 2022
- Paul Reed Smith drops in to dip a rig and unpack the facets of tone-and why he unwound-and destroyed-a set of $10k vintage Fender pickups. Plus, all the fun stuff: What’s it like working with John Mayer? Does Santana’s guitar sound like a tenor sax? Why does David Grissom need every PRS on a music-store wall to play great? And the dudes argue over the big question: What’s better a cheap guitar and an expensive amp, or an expensive guitar and a cheap amp?
Big thanks to StewMac for sponsoring this episode. Head to stewmac.com/dippedintone to get 10% off!
8:20 Shill of the Week
14:49 Paul Reed Smith Interview
16:59 Paul Dips a Rig (Kinda)
29:04 I Can't Afford a Real Marshall, Paul
32:27 The HDRX Amp and Old Marshalls
38:44 Seriously, do tonewoods even matter?
47:35 What does Paul look for in a piece of wood?
50:56 How do you make a good guitar great?
53:20 Paul talks about how PRS is making saddles better
59:18 The Silver Sky SE
1:04:58 The magic of a 1963 Stratocaster
1:10:30 Expensive guitar or expensive amp?
1:20:28 We get the PRS nod
1:22:07 What PRS should you start with?
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Produced by Jason Shadrick
Dipped in Tone is:
Rhett Shull www.rhettshull.com/
Zach Broyles / Mythos Pedals mythospedals.com
Premier Guitar www.premierguitar.com/
#guitarpodcast #dippedintone #electricguitar
Instrument builders that are woodworkers/carpenters/musicians all their lives usually can hear the tonal differences in woods just from handling them for years and years. When you are lifting wood onto tablesaws, surface planers, shop tables, then you'd hear how they sound and feel how they vibrate when being knocked around while machining them. Those moments are unavoidable. And then when you have played hundreds of guitars, owned over a hundred guitars, built a few... what the ears hear is UNDENIABLE.
Your ears don't hear any differences? I am sorry for you and your ears. I cannot lend you my ears.
But because you don't hear the differences, does in NO WAY mean that I cannot. Tonal differences exist in acoustic and electric instruments. Pickups are microphones, they hear some of the wood. There is no argument.
Only a debate: who can hear it, vs who cannot.
Nailed it!
Pickups are magnetic. Not microphonic. No one needs to be lent ears. First, tonewood proponents need to do better than anecdotes and appeals to authority. The placebo effect is real and accepting that tonewood is BS means you have ti admit you were suckered into buying a really expensive piece of furniture to bolt the much cheaper, actual tonemaking components to. But maybe there are tonewoodentologists out there that just believe in the power of the tonewood thetans no matter what because their $4000 piece of furniture has granted them high operating tonewood thetan status. Let's analyze the Esquire electronics: tone & vol- just vol -direct. One pickup. Explain how wood is going to effect tone as much as the pots after doing that. Alot of creators are going to nuke their credibility to make a quick buck from the manufacturers protecting the profitable tonewood myth. Is the tonewood debate the transgender debate yet. Appeals to "special knowledge" and feelings. Dude, a man ain't a woman and a magnetic pickup ain't a microphone. I don't care what the dude that bolted those awesome jugs on ya said. No amount of makep and plastic surgery will make that tonewood affect the magnetic pickups. Spare me your auditory gnosticism.
@@gnarlantlers70 play a guitar with your ear on the neck and you’ll hear just how much is going on throughout the instrument. Being a blowhard doesn’t make you correct.
About pickups not being microphonic? Lol. Some are, some aren’t. Your point implying they’re all the same is wrong to begin with. The unpotted PAFs in my guitar are quite microphonic.
And about trans people… it’s a spectrum. There are masculine and feminine versions of both basic categories. There’s definitely a more manly man out there than you. And me for that matter. There’s almost certainly several woman out there that would beat both our asses.
And I’d implore you to reconsider your categoric binary beliefs by heading over to your favorite porn site and researching women with large “parts” and/or men with small “parts”. There are greyscale shades of both binaries, quite naturally (no surgery) blurring the lines you’re saying don’t exist. Aka hermaphrodites. If these genetic variations exist in tangible form why wouldn’t they in other ways (mental/emotional complexity)?
I respect PRS but the guy’s delivery/ego is only slightly less toxic than Kanye’s.
So Paul uses violins as his example to back up tone woods. Last I checked Violins were acoustic instruments. Then he talks about "hollow bodies" which has a definite acoustic dynamic. 🙄 Most people won't argue tone wood greatly affects acoustic instruments. Please tell me how ash, poplar, basswood maple, sassafras, Alder, bazillion vs African mahogany tones cause a significant difference, especially in the mix. These variables have much more to do with the tone: hands, the pickups/hardware, amp, and effects.
@@orbitaljellyfish808 it doesn't matter how much sound is going through the neck. All that matters is what the pickups detect and the pot values. You're using a resonance argument here and resonance translates to feedback susceptibility. More resonance = more prone to feedback, has nothing to do with electric tone but will affect false feedback sustain.
Whenever the tone-wood debate begins, everyone immediately ignores the fact that Steve Vai and Joe Satriani have been playing 'plastic' guitars forever and have MONSTER tone and sustain.
Yes. See through body guitars. Clear plastic.
@@MarioReyes-se8vj Steve Vai uses acrylic see-through guitars. Acryl is plastic.
Yes, but clear plastic still sounds different than alder or mahogany.
high gain does not do a resonant guitar any justice, a saturated amp can sound big and all but low gain dynamic stuff stands out with a resonant guitar. plus these guys get better tones with wood guitars, hence why no one plays plastic in the studio
@@ltcuaa this comment only underlines your own biases. Assuming that tone woods DO make a difference to electric guitar tone (to be clear, don't believe they do), why wouldn't it make a difference to high gain "saturated" tones? Wouldn't the amp also "saturate" or boost the resonant tones or do you imagine that the resonance somehow gets lost in the signal somewhere? That's sounds awfully like you don't think the pickups actually "hear" the resonance, which sounds awfully like the point I'm making.
I don’t believe the experience argument holds up with the Jim Lill example. Dude is a well regarded professional touring & studio musician. He also doesn’t suggest the wood (or whatever mass the vibration passes through, including a workbench) has zero impact. He just proved it’s objectively less important than things like the pickup, wiring, & pickup placement/height.
I own several PRS guitars & they’re great… but to pretend like the guy who makes wood library guitars, with massive margins, for 30K, isn’t biased, is absurd.
I’d also love someone to take a blindfold test between a lower tier core model PRS & any of the new car priced options. I’d wager neither of you guys or Paul can tell the difference. At a minimum you’re looking at significant diminishing returns from a cost/benefit analysis.
It's amazing how much hate Jim Lill received from doing nothing more than well-thought out tests. He put in the work that no one else has ever done and people bash him for it. It boils down to anecdotal evidence versus scientific evidence and I'll believe scientific evidence every single time.
He makes core guitars that sell for a few thousand. Not "30k". They are priced similar to Gibson Les Pauls or custom shops and are made a lot better.
@@scatto365 If you’ll take time to reread my comment there is a specific & clear delineation between the entry core model guitars & the more expensive wood library/private reserve options being discussed. I’ve played both. The pretty wood doesn’t make the higher end models play or sound better, regardless of the tone wood claims.
@@tacdoc8736
Wood Library isn't necessary just before private stock. Usually Artist is just before private stock. I have just about all levels of core models. From a 90's CE to a private stock. They sound different. My maple artist HB2 artist sounds very different from my spruce HB2. My Tremonti sounds different from my SC245 and original singlecut. Oh...and every SE I've ever played sounds like a joke compared to almost all of the others
@@tacdoc8736 The fact that PRS offers several ranges other than the wood library/private reserve options, under the same branding unlike some companies, seems to indicate a lack of bias rather than a bias. The tone wood claims don't have anything to do with how a piece of wood looks. That's a separate factor that also affects the price. I have never seen a claim of correlation between how pretty a guitar is and how it sounds. No one is saying that a guitar sounds great because it looks great. It's not like every piece of the same type of wood has the exact same grain pattern, or the exact same sound, and it's not like anyone is claiming they do. A strictly high end luthier will have discarded beautiful pieces of wood that sound dead as well as plain pieces that sound wonderful.
Literally nobody is saying that wood doesn’t affect acoustic instruments.
are you being sarcastic? some of the biggest YT guitar chans are by guys making wood doesn't matter vids with thousands of comments in agreement, very sad paranoiid con-spir-acy types with tin ears who think wood is a marketing con, lol. You comment there you get banned. Yet those chans thrive in their bubble of nonsense
@@email3575 please read my original comment. I said ‘acoustic instruments’, as per Paul’s example. The internet debate is focused on electric instruments. Nobody claims wood has no affect on tone for acoustic guitars, or violins for that matter.
With an acoustic guitar, what moves the air you hear (sound) is the wooden soundboard and the chamber of the body.
With an electric solid body guitar the thing that makes the sound is the movement of the paper cone of the speaker and the chamber of the speaker's cabinet. Arguably the choice of wood species of the speaker cabinet will have a more profound effect on what is heard than the species of wood that supports the bridge, pickup and nut
@@williardbillmore5713
So an electric produces no acoustic sound?
What does an acoustic with a pickup, pick up?
Yeah, I don't think that's the discussion they're having. I think Paul is just talking about acoustic instruments like violins as an extreme example.
I feel like Paul is the kind of guest most shows only want to have on once.
I enjoy hearing from him, but I care more about his perspectives, insights and instruments than how well he strokes the egos of youtubers or says what the comment section approves of. Paul has raised the bar of the entire guitar industry and forced the big players to up their game while also opening the doors for small boutique builders to thrive. Even if you don't own a PRS, you've benefitted from them.
Seemed like he had them cowed. They would have agreed with him if he had said the moon was made of cheddar cheese.
I could talk to Paul every day of the week.
This is not True, but the thing is people are letting Paul hear what they think hè wants to hear. But Paul doesnt like that, hè likes people with a mind of their own. And sticking with your opinion. He likes authentic. I discussed with him on 3 occasions (meetings in a guitar store). And the first time he said: you are a strange one of a kind guy. My wife agreed haha, since then its allways fun to see each other (when we do, because i live in the Netherlands)
I guess that's why Paul makes the finest guitars on the planet and you are just a clown running your mouth on UA-cam lmao
Dynamic microphones transform the movement of the air caused by the sound into an electrical signal, guitar pickups are unaffected by the movemet of the air around them, they only pickup the variations in the electromagnetic field caused by the vibration of the strings. So tonewood might affect the final sound because of the way that the strings vibrate, but it's not comparable to a violin played into a mic.
Why not? They're basically all the same parts just in a different arrangement.
@@TOBORtheMighty He just explained why not. Pickups are not microphones. Microphones detect air pressure changes. Pickups detect changes in a magnetic field.
@@cominginsecond Like I said, those are all basically the same parts. When you actually look at how those things you keep repeating work, all youre doing is adding the medium of air between the string and the inductor+magnet. All other parts are functionally the same.
Average Joe reductive takes like "pickups aren't mics" doesn't mean what you think it means. Ever yell in to one?
Obviously that makes a big difference, but it's silly to think it erases everything else from the equation.
Theres a magnet that moves from the air pressure. Magnetism is involved to turn the signal into an electrical impulse. The string moves based on pressure from striking it and vibrates based on what its attached to and the air around it. The pickup turns it into an electrical impulse. It all comes down to magnetism anyway.
I agree, we're talking apples and oranges here, i.e. microphones v. pickups. Clearly PRS must know the difference, so his argument seems disingenuous. Naturally he has an interest in his position otherwise he can't justify using all that 'tone wood' other than for their looks and charging those prices.
Damn good interview. You guys are crushing it lately - keep it up and thank you!!
Great interview! Thanks guys!
Enjoyed the interview, good work, very educational and fun to watch!
Just a suggestion for a beast in the business that you need to interview is Dan Erlewine of Stew Mac! I almost guarantee he's forgot more about guitar than most will ever know. Does also overlay pretty nicely with your sponsor!
Violins and solid body electric guitars are very different. Totally proven that the pick up makes the most difference
Pickups also aren't microphonic. They don't pick up air vibrations, they pick up the vibrations from the steel strings. If you a string an electric guitar with nylon strings, it won't make any sound.
A sonic comparison between violins and solidbody electric guitars barely even makes sense. Much respect to PRS, but...
Actually (according to research) ot's the amp.
I agree...maybe PRS is totally right, but he used wrong comparison. In my experience as a guitar player, pick ups are the most important part of the guitar. Did so many upgrades, that's my conclusion.
@@richardbuchanan5497 It's the strings, the pickups and the amp that affect the tone produced.
Thought that was a good informative fun interview, didn't think I would watch the whole thing when I started but didn't want to stop once it got rolling. Keep up the good work and have fun.
I just ticked the episode to listen on Spotify and now I found this, my Monday got better? Yessss ❤️
if i was selling guitars, i would swear TONEWOOD is Real also. it's MYTH
Wood does make a difference. But most of it is lost by the time it gets out of the amp and you hear it.
They have pretty much lost touch with the music now.
Paul has believed this since he build his first guitar, many years before he started PRS. There is a bit more to Paul than being a guitar salesman. :)
Let's rename this episode to: Paul Reed Smith blows up Dipped in Tone. Watching Rhett having to deal with a strong voice that disagreed with him so succinctly was oddly satisfying as well. I have learned a ton from Rhett, and hold him in high regard, but PRS's opposing point of view was fascinating
Rhett has that BIG condescending attitude. He can rival Grand Moff Tarkin :D. Of course it is satisfying, when authority strongly disagree with him :D :D :D.
@@stanislavmigra Frankly, Rhett might have a condescending attitude sometimes, but I felt his points were more grounded in logic here than PRS'. PRS' responses were more along the lines of : Yes but Hendrix! But you see Clapton used X! Tonewood!!
@@A_Noid Him bringing up violins and microphones is the worst argument on this I've ever heard. He surely must know how dynamic microphones and strings/pickups work on the level of inducing electrical current, so the argument itself seems purposefully disingenuous.
Life pro tip: take anything someone trying to sell you something has to say with a grain of salt.
Everyone is selling something, it's how society works. You sell your personality to get someone to like and trust you. A person will modify their behavior within certain company in order to manipulate the outcome they desire.
You are trying to sell your opinion to people with your comment simply based on your skepticism alone with no list of credentials to make what you say any more valid that what PRS is saying.
It's one thing to be skeptical of arguments people use, but to infer some kind of nefarious intention and calling an argument "disingenuous" is short sighted. Your opinion isn't anymore valid just by being skeptical of something. Are you an atheist?
"Be skeptical of this idea because it's coming from someone trying to make a living." Everyone has a motive. it's human nature.
You don't have to be a guitar maker to have a valid opinion about guitars, but I'm sure the guy with the third most successful guitar company knows a thing or two about this topic. Him making a shaky argument ( according to some) isn't a valid reason to dismiss his opinion. Sure, challenge it, argue against it, discuss it, but dismiss it because it's coming from someone that has a product to sell is ignorance. You brought skepticism without an argument and that is what is disingenuous.
@@stanislavmigra I've never thought of Rhett as being condescending. I've seen Paul speak, many times, and he has a bit of a sarcastic wit about him. You have to tread softly and be unafraid when asking him a question. :)
Great fun! Love to hear Paul’s thoughts, such a personality!
Awesome interview gents. I always love Paul's take on things. It was great to hear both of your thoughts as well.
Thank you PRS marketing for the PRS interview tour. I've hit a ton of stops and Paul is such a wealth of joy to hear talk about the industry.
I loved the huge sneak peek hint when he gave an example of solving a daily problem. He went straight to Tele saddles....
That was one of the best interviews/discussions I've heard in a long time. Great stuff.
This was Awesome! Great episode. Thank you.
Some of the best, most influential, most historic music ever has been created using "cheap" guitars and amps. No amount of money spent on either can turn someone into a captivating musician. A lack of musical craftsmanship or artistry cannot be blamed on the tools.
not the point here, watch the video again
Literally no one is saying that. This is a UA-cam channel for people interested in chasing specific tones and crafting their sound. And you’re right, some great music was played on very inexpensive poverty level equipment. On the flip side, some of the most influential music was/is produced on very large and very technical scale. So that’s not a great argument against people chasing certain sounds and instrumental ability.
Best way to start a Monday.
best way to start your week is by absorbing an hour and a half of misleading, biased, and inaccurate information?
weird comment..
@@PewterBirdit's really not that weird when you look who left the bias comment
Fantastic interview! Thank you!
This was a great show. The banter was terrific and the ending was enlightening.
I love to see Paul in an interview. I wish he would actually answer some of the questions. LOL
Love the episode. Can't wait for the next one. It's gonna be hard to top JB and PRS. Can't wait to see what you guys got coming down the line.
Great chat with Paul...I love listening to him speak about his craft...great job getting him to go deep!
I've got to make my comments here. Paul wouldn't probably remember me and my son when we met him at NAMM in LA 2007. Paul and Joe Knaggs personally picked out all the woods to build me and my son Luc who was 2 years old and battling cancer a custom 22. They built us a 1 piece 10 top artist 22 with a fixed wraparound bridge and Brazilian Rosewood Fretboard guitar that is a violin. It has a soul and is so dynamic. We play it through a Carr Super Bee combo amp. We also have a PRS SE Custom 24-08 and a PRS HDRX 20 amp. Good stuff but NOT EQUAL AND NOT THE SAME. PERIOD. Paul is so talented and real! All the best and much love to you!
Excellent interview! Couple of points. No matter what testing or video examples are out there. What people think about "tonewoods" isn't gonna change. When I have an amp and I plug in 2 diffrent guitars and they both have their own unique sounds? The sounds are always the sum of its parts. Does wood matter as much with electrics? No. I have a cheap, throw together guitar that is very cheaply made and I've gotten compliments on how it sounds. It's all so intrinsic to the sum of the equation. Love him or hate him Paul is always an interesting interview. He even made a comment about a good setup being $180!! I'm like what!? At your factory shop Maybe! Does that setup come with a BJ too! Man! Lol!
It’s just a setup Michael, how much can it cost?
I could see a 180$ set up. It depends what you are getting done. Custom shaped bone nut, complete refret/crowning/polishing, action and pickups raised and put to your exact specifications. I personally wouldn't pay for that stuff but I have a lot of guitar playing friends who would rather give it to a tech and pay money than to just do the work themselves
My favorite guitar is a homemade instrument with chinese hardware, the total cost was 80$, after every concert guitarists come to praise the sound and ask what kind of guitar it is.
This is a great Dip Rhett! I would love it if you would go through the PRS factory tour, especially if Jack Higginbotham would be your guide. That would be so awesome!
I love the banter you shared with Paul! If he didn't like you that wouldn't have happened! Great job you're doing with these podcasts! 🎼🎶🎸
I own 2 PRS's. They are excellently designed and built...but I have swapped pickups many times and that makes them sound completely different. Not saying wood has nothing to do with the sound but in my experience it's not the biggest factor.
This episode was pretty quite. Has it turned up to 90% on my car stereo just to hear! 😂
Great interview guys!!! super entertaining
2 months later and 7am, great cast, nice to be entertained and informed at the same time, good job
This is actually one of the best interviews with Paul I’ve seen.
You both did such a great job moving the conversation, and adding to the overall flow. Wonderful job, and great content
I think I smiled through this entire episode. So fun!
Very nice interview - and full respect to you all three - I might try one of the prs'es out 🙂
One of the best podcasts I've ever listened to. Very revealing. Thank you.
I wonder how many players out there are holding notes longer than 12 seconds, much less 48. In my mind, I feel the need to challenge the importance of sustain when a lot of people out there aren't playing guitars for the "sustain"
Love PRS, but Paul is citing non-empirical “shootouts” that support his beliefs rather than the more empirical video that challenges his beliefs. Mark Tremonti ain’t doing null tests he’s playing with gear he has.
My rare 2011 PURPLE PRS Torero plays like butter and stays in tune FOREVER. Love it.
This is nothing short of an amazing interview/discussion with a master of guitar making/tone/amps/pedals. I miss my '94 PRS CE24 so bad I wish I could get it back. I sold it because it didn't fit into my gigs because I wasn't able to switch between the pickups on the fly. It had the 5 way rotary switch and it made the most amazing tones. Unfortunately I needed to be able to switch between the mellow and the edgier tones quickly. I'm now on the hunt for another PRS that will sing like my old one. Time to sell some of my fleet to fund my next PRS😂🤣
Gotta love Paul, such a character. I don't agree with everything he says but I love his passion and the fact that he pours that passion into his company. I will buy a PRS over a Gibson every time.
Yes! The guy cares about the product.
Why a prs, I’m learning 🤷🏻
I've never met anyone who I agreed with on everything. Including myself.
It's so frustrating how people nowadays eagerly await a single wrong word so they can write off an entire person.
Keyboard warriors can say whatever they want about Paul. His guitars say more than they ever could.
Or you could judge each guitar on its own merits & not what name is on the headstock. For the record I own a Les Paul & Custom 24. Both are fantastic guitars but sound & play completely different & I use them in different ways.
@@panthersoul Might want to work on your diet. (Unless it's just your quiet place. We all need a little break sometimes.)
Without even watching I'm gonna guess that the guy trying to upcharge you for "tonewoods" is gonna tell you it does matter...
Spot on. Lots of rambling, no good arguments.
@@_wayneman_ if all you have is anecdotal bullshit instead of scientific method then your argument isn't worth hearing...
It does matter, though… Unless you only play with heavy distortion. If that’s the case, get a Squier.
We don't see the world as it is, we see the world as we are.
What makes you think Paul would want to 'upcharge' based on bullshit?
@@Lovell93it doesn’t matter, even with the lowest gain. Guitaf pickups aren’t microphonic they are magnetic and only pickup the magnetic vibrations of the strings
Great angle on this interview. Can't say I've listened to a lot of Paul's interviews, since most are product-focused. It was refreshing - and highly informative - to listen to him riff on so much more.
This one of the best videos I’ve seen on UA-cam, really good video
What a fun interview to listen to...also i feel honored that Paul answered my question! thanks for choosing it Rhett and Zach!
Wood is everything to me not pickups though I prefer single coil s PRS doesn't sell any 59 lespauls because that wood doesn't exist anymore the custom shops can try to copy certain things but my cbs strat neck can't be copied ...again it's a peice of figured maple that is tougher to find very lightweight and flamed that was easy to come by 40 years ago it absolutely is the the key to the tone of my strat and of course the ash body
"Paul Reed Smith Ends the Tonewood Debate": Ah, a sophistic screed by a company owner with a vested interest in furthering confirmation bias in customers who have already bought his pricey exotic wood guitars, and a fallacious rationale for those considering them. Nice guitars dude, but if you think this ends the tonewood debate just because you said so, you're delusional.
I didn't hear Paul Smith say that. Are you saying that he chose the title for this video? Before you engage in condescending rhetoric, BrrGrr, you may want to base your premise in fact.
Awesome show guys, really enjoyed it. Realized I don't have enough guitars. Think I'll pick up a couple of PRS's.
Great interview! 👍
Everything impacts the sound of the guitar. The question is just of degree. The wood absolutely does play a greater than 0 impact on the sound. But does it make a bigger impact than the speaker? Does spending $100 on wood make a bigger difference than spending $100 on a speaker?
I think the sound of a guitar comes mainly from the scale length and pick ups but obviously the wood contributes to the sustain.
The scale length, string guage and tension affect sustain, my dude. Not wood.
@@gnarlantlers70 That's wrong...the heaviest and higher density woods will not damp the vibrations of the strings as softer and lighter woods
@@fulviosanna as long as the wood can hold the strings at tension it will be indistinguishable from acrylic and concrete.
@@fulviosannadude just no
@@BOATIE141 No what?Explain...
Awesome show guys. Really enjoyed
This was an excellent interview!
Since you asked... I play bass now. I have multiple Thunderbirds: a Greco and three Epiphones- a Classic Pro, a Vintage Pro, and a basic IV which is my mod platform. I play through a pair of Fender Rumble 100s with a few pedals. For years I played guitar; an old (heavily modified; it was trashed when I bought it for $20) Hagstrom Model 1 was my first and the only electric I still have; I had an Epi Flying V Goth and a G&L Legacy Tribute, which was pretty fantastic (and drop dead gorgeous). The guitars I played through a variety of amps over the years, but in the end through amps I modded or designed and built.
Jim Lill proved some time ago that there is no such thing as tonewood. I can only recommend his videos.
Exactly! Finally, someone in the comment section that knows this to be true. Thank you!
One day he will get the respect he deserves
Listening to salesman is more painful than listening to a heroin addict in need of their fix. I respect the heroin addict more because I know the pain that drives them but salesman just fukin lie.
@@northernthrifter8817 So, you have relegated Paul Smith to nothing more than a salesman and respect heroin addicts more than him. Interesting.
jim lill video doesnt prove anything relevant more than the pickup has his own frecuency response, but he didnt achive the goal of having 2 guitars sounding th esme even with the same model of pickups
If someone would be capable to explain to me technically how a device like a pick up (who only works by converting a "disturbed" magnetic field created by the string vibration into an electric signal) can "feel" and translate the wood resonance into an electric signal, I will change my mind about tonewood. Resonance is created by moving air coming to our ears...if playing an electric guitar unplugged there's a difference in tone with different woods, but when plugged in it's only the pickup to define the tone. Another factor affecting the tone is where the pick up is placed.With a different scale length the pick up will pick the sound of the string in a different place, that's why the same pick up sounds in a different way if placed on a Strat or a Les Paul. Of course different woods with different density will make the string sustain more..but that's it.I'll wait for somebody more expert than me to give me a precise, technical and convincing explanation.
The only effect the wood of a guitar has is in which vibrations from the string it dampens. This is miniscule compared to the change in tone of the speaker in your cabinet or the microphone used to record. Anyone who thinks tonewood matters at all in electrics is absolutely an idiot. They're the same morons who spend $200 on unobtainium coated cables
I even doubt the sustain will be different.
Sustain will be affected depending by the weight and density of the woods...the softer and lighter the wood is it will dampen the duration of the vibrations of the string.
Sustain will be affected depending by the weight and density of the woods...the softer and lighter the wood is it will dampen the duration of the vibrations of the string.
Sustain will be affected depending by the weight and density of the woods...the softer and lighter the wood is it will dampen the duration of the vibrations of the string.
Great guest and another great show!
The best part about the Strat is the sound you get from the single coil pickups! I agree with Rhett on that one. Not that replacing them with different ones with slightly different characteristics bad, but I just love the headroom of single coils, and the noise is not really a problem once you start playing. I had an 82 Strat copy by Aria and most agreed it sounded as good or even a bit better than a Fender, but boy was it heavy. People would ask if the body was carved out of rock when I handed it to them! After the first show I played with it, my neck and shoulder hurt for 3 freaking days, but daaaaaang did it sustain. I dubbed it the 10 minute Stratmoblaster.
A friend of mine works in a well known guitar shop , he told me that they were given a list of questions they couldn't ask for a recent "ask me anything" video with Paul Reed Smith
it is a bummer how "Ask me Anything" has slowly morphed into just a hip synonym for "interview" lol.
I don't believe you at all. In fact, I'm 100% sure you're lying
The comments are almost as fun as the podcast was! Really enjoyed the conversation. Paul isn't an easy guest to keep on track, and you both did a great job balancing letting him speak as well as reigning him in. As far as the "tonewood" debate goes, I believe the fundamental problem is that the loudest voices don't want to have a nuanced view. Yes, wood can affect sound - but generally it's insignificant compared to other variables. Paul even eluded to that in the video. When a string is plucked, a complex series of notes (fundamental and harmonics) are generated. Anything that interacts with the string can change the output and sustain of each of those notes. This is why a hardtail bridge sounds different from a floating tremolo. Wood can do the same thing by way of affecting the components that are touching the string contact points. The pickup can only sense these string vibrations, and it can't create what isn't there. That's why a dead string sounds different from a new one, the oils and oxidation have impeded certain harmonics from resonating and sustaining. It all goes back to the string and the components that affect it.
The only way the wood affects the sound on an electric guitar is the decay of the note being played. You can show this by inducing a vibration on an open string on a guitar with instruments that have wildly different tones. Turns out, the pickup doesn't care that the string is being vibrated by an acoustic source that's vastly different in tone and the guitar will produce the same tone regardless of the acoustics of the tone that's causing the strings to vibrate, because the strings themselves can only vibrate in a way according to their material construction (they simply don't have the frequency spectrum of a microphone membrane). Further, pickups don't pick up air vibrations, they only pick up the vibrations of metal strings (can't use nylon strings on an electric guitar).
What different tone woods do is decay differently and cause the strings to decay at different rates (not actually a huge amount either). They simply can't affect the tone itself, because the tone is a function of how the metal strings vibrate, the proximity and orientation of the pickup to the metal strings, and of course the amp and whatever the electrical current goes through down stream.
@@noonehere0987 for the sake of argument, let's just say your assessment is entirely accurate. When a string decays, it does not decay all frequencies linearly. You can see this easily when using a spectrum analyzer, the higher frequencies decay much faster. So if wood can affect the decay rate, it is still affecting the tone. Again, I'm not even suggesting that this effect is even perceivable to the average person. But if I was to use soft rubber for the body, would you agree that would alter the tone? If there's a difference between rubber and wood, then there can be a difference between different samples of wood - but that difference is generally so small it's not worth worrying about.
Great interview.
How exciting to hear about development of the silver sky when you have the resources and knowledge that is present with PRS! Cool video guys!!! FWIW, I love playing my electrics unplugged.
I picked up a DS-1 used from a local shop for 15 bucks, and I used it all over the place - by itself, in a stack with with an EP booster pushing it, with it pushing a Timmy, and with a rat, the timmy and the DS1 in an insane fuzz soup. I love it. It is totally super versatile, it took the place of several low and high gain distortion pedals.
My first expensive guitar is a 2019 Custom 24-08 10-top. I bought it after watching videos covering it and looking at a photo of it because it was out of state and I couldn’t play it ahead of time. Worth every penny! Played it 2+ hours a day every day for a year and a half and had to have another PRS.
Bought a quilt top 2022 McCarty 594 10-top that I saw listed at a local guitar store. Had the single cut on order already. I went and played it and couldn’t stop thinking about it that night. Next day I canceled my previous order and bought the McCarty I played.
Every PRS I’ve played has been fantastic and they just feel like home!
I don't think there is a more passionate guitar builder out there. In 20 years, PRS guitars will be the vintage classics like the old Gibsons and Fenders we drool over today. The best part is they keep getting better!
Idiots with mouths agape already drool over PRS guitars, because spending $10k on a premium guitar is an easier dopamine rush than actually learning to play the guitars they already own.
I've always liked PRS guitars at stores when I was young. Now I am older, and have the oppertynity to buy one. And in a way, it feels like I'm also buying Paul Reed Smith too. And after listening to this intevjuv, it doesn't feel that bad at all. Thanks, guys!
How did I not know about this podcast? I’ve been subscribed to the main channel for years. The algorithm is working
Always remember, people, the tone wood fairy will only bless wood that's over a certain price point. She would never waste her time blessing cheap wood.
Comparing a concert violin and a mic to a solid body guitar and a magnetic pickup is a false equivalency. It's demonstrably different. And saying something is "just not true" isn't evidence. Respond to the Jim Lill video AND present any evidence that he's mistaken. Smith presents NOTHING other than saying he's wrong. I'm fully open to going back to my old belief of tonewood, but NO ONE has presented any evidence to contradict Jim's video. JUST. PRESENT. THE. EVIDENCE.
Yeah it's a bullshit analogy, but he's in the business of convincing people that expensive wood in a solidbody makes the instrument sound better.
@@Annunaki_0517He wont address the facts b/c the facts aren't in in his favour, and he's well aware of this. he also knows he doesn't have to address anything real. He just needs to assert 'tonewood better' and ppl will be like omg PRS ends the tonewood debate!!'
Exactly. I love my PRS guitars, but my God so many owners are so full of themselves. Tonewoods are the equivalent of high-end audio cables. Sure there might be some minute difference, but literally almost anything affects an electric guitar's sound more than the wood, ie. Pickups, build, amp, speaker, effects, distortion, eq, etc etc. Unless you can identify a tonewood in a blind AB test, you don't actually have the amazing ears you think you have. The nitro finish enthusiasts are even worse...
@@Fsng837 I'll have to re-watch the video, Fsng. What I heard Paul say, is that many, many elements make up the tone of a guitar.
@@wind016 I've not had that experience with PRS owners. The ones that I've met that can afford Private Stock guitars, do so more for atheistics and artistry, not the tone. They have deep pockets, so more power to them. What PRS guitars do you own, Windo?
Everything so nice. Thanks a lot guys. Subscribed.
Thank you Paul for your time!
My personal experience is that although the qualities of a given wood and how the instrument is constructed have a major effect on the tone and sustain of an acoustic guitar, their effect on an electric guitar is relatively minor. You can hear tonal differences in woods if you're really trying to emphasize them, but if what you're looking for is a tone you like, then pickups, strings, amps, speakers and volume are much more important factors. To paraphrase the words of Mr. Smith, in the end it's the musician who makes an instrument musical, not the instrument itself.
So basically you're saying that nothing will change your mind no matter what Paul Reed Smith says?
@@jdl2180 He starts out saying in his personal experience. Why should that change just because of what PRS says? Is he the Pope of guitar? Is what he says just suppose to erase whatever happens in reality? Should we just deny reality in favor of what this guy trying to sell expensive guitars says? Things aren't true just because PRS says them. Tonewood enthusiasts have yet to prove Thier point in anything close to a controlled environment and there are countless debunking videos. The closest thing I've seen to a confirmation of tonewood involved two totally different players. I also have my own experience to go by of playing various guitars made of different wood with the same electronics and I can tell you it doesn't make much difference. And If you understand how pickups work, The science is consistent with the experiments. Tonewood is mostly bunk. It has a mild effect on sustain and that's about it.
On an electric guitar, the only thing the wood affects is the sustain, because the pickups get a current induced by the vibrating metal strings, and the tone those produce are a function of the material and construction, and has nothing to do with anything that might be inducing them to vibrate. A metal string can not pick up and vibrate frequencies that it's material and construction cannot vibrate at. In a microphone, the membrane is designed to have a massive frequency spectrum it can vibrate at, so it's entirely unlike an electric guitar (where the strings are the equivalent of the mic's membrane).
In acoustic instruments, the wood is a MASSIVE part of the tone because it's affect the vibrations in the air being produced, but pickups on an electric instrument do not pick up air vibrations. A current is induced from the strings, so that's where the tone comes from: the strings and the pickup distance and orientation (and the amp and all downstream electrical components of course).
@@noonehere0987 I agree. The irony here is that while Paul Reed Smith drastically overstates the benefits of "tonewoods" in his guitars, he understates how great the pickups and other components are. PRS guitars in general have impressive quality control, playability, durability, consistency, tone, and yes, sustain. That's true regardless of what woods they use or how pretty they are. I think it would be more to his advantage to emphasize these proven qualities, but it's his company, not mine.
@@nathanjasper512 every guitar that you've played has most likely been made of one tonewood or another so all you're saying is that there's very little variation in the sound of guitars made of different toneWoods. I don't see how that proves that tone wood isn't a real thing. I have watch videos of guitars that were made out of cement, plexiglass and other materials and I did not think those guitars sounded like guitars that were made out of Wood.
I believe that tone wood affects only about 10 to 15% of the sound of the guitar but it's the most important part of the sound so it does in fact make a difference. of course this is only my opinion but I do make guitars as a hobby and this is what I've noticed.
No one show this guy what a solid body electric violin looks like
Do the hollow body prs guitars actually affect its sound compared to the solid body ones? If so how?
Im tossing between getting a pauls guitar model or the hollow body prs. (The cheapest versions hehe)
What a great education! Subscribed. Thank you!
This was so hard to watch
I just want to say out loud; there is a part of me that feels lile knocking on a piece of wood and playing electric guitar are totally different ideas. Once the nut , bridge andtuners springs are on the guitar, much of what PRS tests from wood-knocking goes away? Just spitballing out of ignorance.
You guys rock! Keep up the good work!
No recent comments??? I just watched this on my day off, soaking every word and shred* of knowledge for the sheer motivation to continue with excellence and joy in the art of guitar and music. My sincere thanks guys... Paul is just three years younger than me. We thought alike all the way!
Y'all rock!
The way a guitar is constructed matters for sound. Hollow body, Neck thru and bolt on have variance in tone especially acoustically and even electrically. The material your saddles are made of can matter. Whether it has a fixed bridge string thru or not string thru can matter. Scale length and string tension matter. Pickups matter a lot. Single coils, P90s, humbuckers and active pickups all sound very different. Wood type has very little if any effect on the sound of an electric guitar plugged in to an amp. Your pickups amplifier and mainly speaker type matter more than anything. Of course PRS is gonna sell you on tone wood. He is a guitar seller and maker. Guitars have been made from several materials that aren't wood and they still have good tone.
Since 1982, I have only played headless guitars with aluminum or carbon fiber composite necks when I'm on stage. I have played classic rock, country, faux jazz, disco, pop, even show tunes, and those mostly-non-wood guitars have covered all genres. They always sound great as long as I play good enough. lol
I agree. Pickups, pedals, amps and cables have the majority of effects on guitar "tone".
( I could have said that better if I had a little more weed/rum tincture.)
of course wood matters acoustically. the tonewood debate is about whether a metal wire wiggling in a magnetic field can detect those changes. the violin/mic argument is not relevant as that is about the violin pushing air. no-one disagrees that guitars sound different or that the acoustic properties of wood make it ring differently.
Wood matters to how a guitar sounds, plugged in or otherwise. Some people can hear it and some people can't, it's as simple as that. I hear it with my own two ears, wood indeed makes a difference plugged in.
Agree 💯 with you Dave. Acoustically sure, through a pickup, no difference. How a microphone pickups sound and a pickup does are ≠.
@@osuspirit There's absolutely a difference in woods plugged in. I don't understand how people don't hear this.
@@ATX0705 how do you prove it is the wood making the difference and not something else in the chain?
Its hard to get around the fact that a 335 sounds different than a less Les Paul, but the scale length, bridge and pickups are the same. Why is that if the acoustic would not matter. Same goes for string quality, why would a dead string sound dead if it was only magnetics etc. Question is does the owner of the ear differentiate, and what sonic experience does this person have. The more you play different style guitars the more they differentiate. Same with an SG, why does it have less bottom end and more mids than an LP. So many variables interacting. Or we can look at it the other way around, what the strings are attached to affects its frequencies.
Great discussion
Rhett- Great channel! I was watching your show on the Captor X. Being a bedroom player the headphone jack snd attenuator is a great feature. As attenuators go , How would you say the tone is affected ?
if a guitar doesn't sound good acoustically i don't even plug it in.
Wow, now that was an impressive display of self-humiliation if I ever saw one. Don't do that to yourself.
Cracks me up how guitar players admit speaker cabinet woods makes a difference in tone, but refuse to understand how the guitar itself (the source of the sound) is unaffected by its wood density.
Actually Jim Lill proved that material type doesn’t matter in a speaker Cab. And the guitar pickups are magnetic, not microphonic so they physically cannot pick up any BS “tonewood”
@@BOATIE141 Jim is wrong. I'm an engineer. While I think his videos are well done and the effort and process are appreciated think of it this way: what does the pickup do? Does it create a signal on its own? No, it only transforms whatever the string is doing. Now imagine the string is like a microphone. That's why if you don't pluck the strings at all, but instead knock on the guitar body, you will hear noise through the guitar amp. The string kinda acts like a microphone. I like the way Paul Reed Smith put it "Barbara Streisand is always gonna sound like her and she will never sound like Michael Jackson no matter what microphone she uses" (not verbatim but you get the point) a guitar has a voice like a singer. The pickup does s similar thing as a mic.
@@BOATIE141 as far as speaker cabinet. He is probably mostly right, although I think it depends on how it's designed and what it's intended for.
@@BOATIE141 there is another video on UA-cam where a guy makes interchangeable guitar bodes that slide off of the nick/pickup part and he has many different body woods and he proves that you can hear the difference. Although it isn't a drastic difference it's clearly audible. The point if the video was to see if you hear a difference.
Great discussion. And Paul has a great point. A lot of us have never played a '63 Strat. I own a late 70s CBS era Strat and that guitar is one reason I kept buying guitars in search of something that played better and eventually got a PRS. We have played what we had access to and settled on stuff that works for us and gets the tones we're after.
Great point about not really being happy with your playing until you're 60 years old. For me it has been a journey that took decades trying to play to the level I wanted to, and also to get the tones that I was after, but couldn't get with equipment that was around and that I could afford a few decades ago.
38:50 I love that you guys referenced that moment on TPD and followed up... continuity is extremely cool and builds community
Everything makes a difference, but some things make more difference than others.
I built a guitar about 2 years ago with a wraparound bridge close to the centre of a Limba body, maple neck and rosewood board; unplugged it is much louder than any other unplugged solid body I've heard.
I've built two others each with a tele bridge pickup of the same make and model, one with a pine body and the other with an English sycamore body, the sycamore one is way brighter.
Great conversation. Thanks Rhett, Zach & Paul
Welcome to the long line of interviewers that can’t contain Paul Reed Smith. 😂.
Ha! I was at Paul's "lecture" at Chicago Music Exchange that he's talking about in this podcast...he's a unique individual for sure! It was a lot of fun!
Great episode
We should call them "Resonance Woods" or "Reso-woods" because the wood affects the attack and sustain more than the actual "tone".
TLDR: Construction + wood = resonance
This is a more sane answer to this question, though I still think that bridge material/saddles and nut material make a larger difference.
it really doesn’t, but if you want to pretend using really exotic wood makes your guitar sound better than a pine plank, it’s your money to waste.
@@JasonQuackenbushonGoogle exotic woods certainly look better than a pine plank but if you're slapping a coat of paint on a guitar then that doesn't matter at all.
Honestly tonewood only really is a thing with low output, non wax potted guitars played at stage volume where you get some harmonic feedback causing sympathetic resonance in the guitar from the speakers. At that point the guitar's accoustic properties resonate into the unpotted pickups, and THAT makes a small difference. And really only for clean or VERY low gain tones.
Outside of that, yeah tonewood doesn't matter.
@@Eliphas_Elric Yes, but myths sell guitars - which matters to marketeers!
Paul is an expert sales person too 🤯...
My favorite DIT episode so far! Paul is extremely funny, knowledgeable and insightful. I won't deny that the wood matters, but I won't say it's ALL that matters. Everything from your hands to the speaker(s) - wood, pickups, strings, cables - it all matters. Some individual components might have a miniscule effect, but in combination they all have an exponential effect. If you have the same exact rig as your favorite guitarist and you don't sound like them, it's in your hands. How you attack the notes, how you let them decay, how you wiggle the notes, etc. Regarding the "thought experiment" of cheap guitar/expensive amp and vice versa - I had a $175 pawn shop 1960's Supro amp and a $600 T-Style Thinline that sounded heavenly. Conversely, I had a $400 Strat thru a Tweed Twin re-issue that sounded like crap. Both scenarios are guitar/cable/amp - no effects.
I'm a bit of a PRS fanboy. I've got 4 PRS's including a Custom 24 and a Silver Sky. But the biggest surprise from PRS was last month when I bought an HDRX 20 from Sweetwater. I've got 3 Boogies and an AC15...but that HDRX 20 is fantastic, especially thru the Mesa 212 Rectifier cabinet. I bought it based on a UA-cam demo and have not been as stoked about any amp. Thanks Paul.
I love listening to Paul, his passion is infectious
Indeed it is ... however i feel sometimes he is talking over people a little too much.
I finally found a store that really stocks prs and got to play maybe 20. I think I get it now. Every one was great. Well done Paul
56:00 section of this vid was the main reason I bought a PRS guitar (Single cut), pulled it off the wall and it felt good and played like it should not one issue with it! I had played no less than 5 Les Pauls and every single one of them I either had to fight the guitar to play it or it was not setup right or fit and finish was an issue.
Great interview! Paul is hillarious. I have a 2001 CU24 that is my favorite guitar. It took me 20 years before I purchased 3 more PRS's 7-string Holcomb, Semi Hollow Vela, and Hollowbody II SE Piezo. There is a PRS for everyone out there!