Jump to content

Can you tell playing an unplugged electric how it will likely sound amped?


Chordite

Recommended Posts

  • Members

Strumming along the rack at the local store I was stuck by the question "How much can I actually tell about an electric guitars tone whilst playing it unplugged?" I don't mean the intonation and action but the actual tone.

In a quiet store they do sound different to each other in frequencies accentuated but does that correlate to 'plugged in' tone? Maybe like running a pick across the strings of a grand piano it isn't telling you much, Or maybe it is a good representation the amped guitars characteristics but highly attenuated.

Putting a guitar back because it sounds "tinny" or seems to "lack sustain" unplugged could be a mistake.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 83
  • Created
  • Last Reply
  • Members
Strumming along the rack at the local store I was stuck by the question "How much can I actually tell about an electric guitars tone whilst playing it unplugged?" I don't mean the intonation and action but the actual tone.

In a quiet store they do sound different to each other in frequencies accentuated but does that correlate to 'plugged in' tone? Maybe like running a pick across the strings of a grand piano it isn't telling you much, Or maybe it is a good representation the amped guitars characteristics but highly attenuated.

Putting a guitar back because it sounds "tinny" or seems to "lack sustain" unplugged could be a mistake.

 

Yes. It could be a mistake as long as tuning, intonation are correct.

 

Robin Trower has said ' date=' if a guitar does not sound good unplugged it will never really sound great plugged in.[/quote']

 

Was he speaking of acoustics or electrics?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I am a believer that if a guitar has good bones acoustically, it will sound great plugged in. Case in point:

While in a vintage store, a guy was playing a 64 Tele acoustically. Each note, each strum was bell like. You could hear it across the room, crystal clear and clean. When he plugged into a Twin Reverb, it was the same, but amplified. Sweetest sounding tele ever! He then did the same with a 77 Tele. Sounded dull in caparison, and even the mighty Twin, couldn't give it the same life as the 64.

I always choose my guitar on how they sound without an amp. Well, after how they feel of course.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I've got to play Devil's Advocate here - for the sake of argument, let's say Guitar Center has a Custom Les Paul on the used rack, 5A top, the epitome of perfection, but the previous owner removed the Burstbucker Pros and installed ArcTec pickups in it. I guarantee this guitar will resonate well unplugged, but it's no longer going to sound like a $3500+ guitar plugged in.

pickups account for the majority of an electric' s sound. I'm not saying wood doesn't matter, I believe it does, just not as much.

my Evo Dragster resonates like crazy unplugged, but does not sound great plugged in, at least dirty. Single note runs sound good, but chords lose the mids, they mud up and don't ring through well.

I guess if unplugged one sounded like hitting a brick against a 2x4, I may keep looking, other than that....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I think we have to remove the grade of the pickups from the equation because we all know they make a big difference to the sound. Same with set-up and action.

 

When you play an electric unplugged I think you can get a good idea of how it'll sound amplified. Some guitars have more or less sustain by design, so that's not the big tell. It's the strength and sound of each note.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
I've got to play Devil's Advocate here - for the sake of argument, let's say Guitar Center has a Custom Les Paul on the used rack, 5A top, the epitome of perfection, but the previous owner removed the Burstbucker Pros and installed ArcTec pickups in it. I guarantee this guitar will resonate well unplugged, but it's no longer going to sound like a $3500+ guitar plugged in.

pickups account for the majority of an electric' s sound. I'm not saying wood doesn't matter, I believe it does, just not as much.

my Evo Dragster resonates like crazy unplugged, but does not sound great plugged in, at least dirty. Single note runs sound good, but chords lose the mids, they mud up and don't ring through well.

I guess if unplugged one sounded like hitting a brick against a 2x4, I may keep looking, other than that....

 

You can build a great looking house on a weak foundation but its weakness are only hidden from the eyes.

 

Same thing for an electric instrument. Good acoustic tone (in my 53 years of experience playing) is the foundation for good electric tone.

 

If an instrument has good acoustical tone then it has the "potential" to sound good amplified, its not a given because the electronics, pickups amp and speaker still have to facilitate its amplification.

 

Bad pickups can of course mask good acoustic tone by simply failing to reproduce it. So will a bad amp or speaker.

 

Good pickups by themselves cant invent frequencies that don't exist.

 

Its no different then sticking a bad singer in front of a great mic. If the source of frequencies is flawed, then its not much different then having a good singer in back of a bad mic. Both will fail to sound as good as they could if the best of two is combined.

 

Maybe a better analogy would be to place a low end acoustic guitar in front of a great mic compared to a high end acoustic in front of a bad mic when played by the same performer. Good string tones never existed to begin with by the first, and the great string tones of the second are masked by the poor mic.

 

If you want to rule out the movement of air as being a factor simply use a magnetic sound hole pickup. I guarantee you the high end instrument will still sound better given all other factors being equal.

 

Even primitive logic would tell you the best mic combined with the best acoustic tone is going to give you the best results. Just because an inductive transducer is used instead of a mic has no bearing at all when it comes to generating a signal. It simply removes the air from the process.

 

An electric can generate a signal in a vacuum. So can an acoustic guitar when a magnetic pickup is used.

 

If you want the best electric tone possible tone you simply match the best acoustic tone to the best pickups. The problem is purely what you may define as being the best.

 

We know an electric, especially a solid body isn't designed to move air, but that doesn't mean it isn't putting body/neck tone back into the strings. Just put your ear against the body and its wood tone is clear as day. Wood has a filtering effect on the vibrations that pass through it.

 

Some instruments bodies/necks tend to absorb more bass frequencies and allow treble tones to pass back into the strings and sound brighter then others, like Fenders. Others tens to absorb more highs and pass more bass like say a Mahogany or Rosewood Gibson.

 

Whether that filtering effect is judged to be good or bad is the real question. You can debate that issue all day long and never come to a consensus because its in the ear of the beholder.

 

It doesn't change the fact string tones are mechanically EQed by the woods ability to resonate certain frequencies back into the strings better then others. Its what makes a Strat sound like a Strat and an LP sound like an LP. (Before they are plugged in)

 

The instruments vibration can also be felt in the hands and rested against your body. A player tends to feel the vibrations and transients when he picks the strings.

 

Once amplification is added (which includes the Pickups, Amp, Speakers and any pedals used) then tone is a matter of how well that amplification chain, does or doesn't amplify.

 

This is the point where most electric guitarist's judgment becomes bass ackwards. They know what high fidelity is and they know distortion is considered low fidelity, but they don't agree one what "good" low fidelity actually is and tend to get emotionally involved instead of understanding what's being achieved by driving an instrument into saturated levels which strips it of its high fidelity.

 

Before driven guitar was popular, a speaker cab was the substitute for an acoustic guitars chambered body which moves air. The goal in the early days was to make the amplifier produce high fidelity tones which sounded very acoustic like. Les Paul fooled many with his first solid body by strapping sides on it that made it look like a Jazz Guitar, which only tells you how easy it is to fool peoples ears.

 

Once the first drive tones were added to an electric then the judgment of how "good" an electric is became impaired. Playability was still important, but many questioned body tone as even being a factor. The more drive you add to an instrument the fewer overtones survive to tell the ears just how good the instrument is acoustically. You can also add the pickups, pedals, amp speakers ability to EQ and drive the signal into saturation levels.

 

For me there's more then just good tone delivered by an instruments acoustic build. Dynamics and Sustain are linked to the quality of the wood, but even more importantly is how the body resonates when its placed in front of loud speakers. When the body vibrates from loud speakers, the strings become self sustaining and an instrument either does this well or it doesn't.

 

In my experience the strings of a guitar that sound good acoustically will regenerate self staining tones that are musical and harmonic (Think Hendrix and Santana tones when gained up) If the body lacks good resonance the self sustaining resonance may be unpredictable or non existent. While this may not be an inhibiting factor for players who don't use sympathetic string vibrations when they play loud, I can insure you it would be a major handicap trying to use those tones to your benefit.

 

Drive guitar has in fact become its own art form built upon an instrument that has acoustic tone in its strings. Of course you can take it even a step farther and convert acoustic vibrations to midi and take acoustic tone completely out of the picture if you want. Its what they've done to Keyboards after all. I think most guitarists value a guitar that can produce both clean tones and driven tones well.

 

When the clean tones are dialed up you simply hear acoustic tone from the speaker best. When its driven it becomes a very different instrument. We just don't realize it because we grew up listening to those drive tones and considerer them to be normal, not a loss of fidelity.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
. . . If you want to rule out the movement of air as being a factor simply use a magnetic sound hole pickup. I guarantee you the high end instrument will still sound better given all other factors being equal. . . .

No it won't. That's why amplified acoustic guitars normally tend to sound generic. The pickup, magnetic, piezo, etc., only picks up the vibration of the strings. Those strings can be attached to a guitar or a cinder block and they'll sound essentially the same.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Oh dear, the dreaded cinder block has arrived :rolleyes2:

Lest we drift into a standard tonewood discussion the question was whether the sound of an unplugged electric represents the plugged guitar. I'll try to put the question in one line.

 

Are frequencies that are less audible 'from the body' actually still there at the string/pups just out of phase resonance with the surface of the body but still circulating 'within' the core of the guitar with less energy lost making audible sound.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I spent decades playing steel-string acoustic flat-tops. I’d hear players and luthiers argue tone woods make little or no difference to an ACOUSTIC guitar’s sound. I’m really surprised the argument continues among so many players of solid-body electric guitars.

 

To my ears, solid-body electrics don’t really have an acoustic tone I can discern outside of strings, tuning, intonation. I guess it all depends on what one considers an acoustic tone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

You can build a great looking house on a weak foundation but its weakness are only hidden from the eyes.

True, but there are many forms of Foundation - block on footers, slab-built, piers, reinforced wall, etc. Electrics are no different, alter body/maple neck/rosewood board, mahogany body/walnut neck/ebony board, and then the various forms of plywood, generally frowned upon, though i do recall a whole line of Gibbys from plywood.

 

Same thing for an electric instrument. Good acoustic tone (in my 53 years of experience playing) is the foundation for good electric tone.

not saying it doesn't, just that the effects are, at best, minimal

If an instrument has good acoustical tone then it has the "potential" to sound good amplified, its not a given because the electronics, pickups amp and speaker still have to facilitate its amplification.

Exactly, and ones choice here makes all the difference in the world. Cable choice as well.

Bad pickups can of course mask good acoustic tone by simply failing to reproduce it. So will a bad amp or speaker.

 

Good pickups by themselves cant invent frequencies that don't exist.

No, but the majority of the tones we hear are from the hardware, and our choice of strings. Phosphor bronze would probably give better acoustic tone, but suck plugged in with magnetic pickups.

Its no different then sticking a bad singer in front of a great mic. If the source of frequencies is flawed, then its not much different then having a good singer in back of a bad mic. Both will fail to sound as good as they could if the best of two is combined.

 

Maybe a better analogy would be to place a low end acoustic guitar in front of a great mic compared to a high end acoustic in front of a bad mic when played by the same performer. Good string tones never existed to begin with by the first, and the great string tones of the second are masked by the poor mic.

 

If you want to rule out the movement of air as being a factor simply use a magnetic sound hole pickup. I guarantee you the high end instrument will still sound better given all other factors being equal.

 

Even primitive logic would tell you the best mic combined with the best acoustic tone is going to give you the best results. Just because an inductive transducer is used instead of a mic has no bearing at all when it comes to generating a signal. It simply removes the air from the process.

 

An electric can generate a signal in a vacuum. So can an acoustic guitar when a magnetic pickup is used.

 

If you want the best electric tone possible tone you simply match the best acoustic tone to the best pickups. The problem is purely what you may define as being the best.

Now we have to define best - SM57, 58, maybe a Blu vocal mic, cardiod.....

We know an electric, especially a solid body isn't designed to move air, but that doesn't mean it isn't putting body/neck tone back into the strings. Just put your ear against the body and its wood tone is clear as day. Wood has a filtering effect on the vibrations that pass through it.

and that acoustic wood tone Might be picked up were you to Mic the unplugged instrument very closely. Once plugged up, it's coloration, with subtle undertones at best.

 

Some instruments bodies/necks tend to absorb more bass frequencies and allow treble tones to pass back into the strings and sound brighter then others, like Fenders. Others tens to absorb more highs and pass more bass like say a Mahogany or Rosewood Gibson.

Agreed, though routing and weight relief/lack thereof probably plays a part here as well

Whether that filtering effect is judged to be good or bad is the real question. You can debate that issue all day long and never come to a consensus because its in the ear of the beholder.

 

It doesn't change the fact string tones are mechanically EQed by the woods ability to resonate certain frequencies back into the strings better then others. Its what makes a Strat sound like a Strat and an LP sound like an LP. (Before they are plugged in)

which has a minimal effect, if any, other than darker/brighter

The instruments vibration can also be felt in the hands and rested against your body. A player tends to feel the vibrations and transients when he picks the strings.

 

Once amplification is added (which includes the Pickups, Amp, Speakers and any pedals used) then tone is a matter of how well that amplification chain, does or doesn't amplify.

Also the point at which acoustic unplugged characteristics no longer matter, for anything more than coloration

This is the point where most electric guitarist's judgment becomes bass ackwards. They know what high fidelity is and they know distortion is considered low fidelity, but they don't agree one what "good" low fidelity actually is and tend to get emotionally involved instead of understanding what's being achieved by driving an instrument into saturated levels which strips it of its high fidelity.

 

Before driven guitar was popular, a speaker cab was the substitute for an acoustic guitars chambered body which moves air. The goal in the early days was to make the amplifier produce high fidelity tones which sounded very acoustic like. Les Paul fooled many with his first solid body by strapping sides on it that made it look like a Jazz Guitar, which only tells you how easy it is to fool peoples ears.

 

Once the first drive tones were added to an electric then the judgment of how "good" an electric is became impaired. Playability was still important, but many questioned body tone as even being a factor. The more drive you add to an instrument the fewer overtones survive to tell the ears just how good the instrument is acoustically. You can also add the pickups, pedals, amp speakers ability to EQ and drive the signal into saturation levels.

 

For me there's more then just good tone delivered by an instruments acoustic build. Dynamics and Sustain are linked to the quality of the wood, but even more importantly is how the body resonates when its placed in front of loud speakers. When the body vibrates from loud speakers, the strings become self sustaining and an instrument either does this well or it doesn't.

In my experience, hardware and pickups play a much larger role in dynamics and sustain. obviously, a hollow body has a different response and sound than a solid. Solid bodied electrics are, by nature, minimally influenced by such things, again, other than coloration, or EQing as you put it.

 

In my experience the strings of a guitar that sound good acoustically will regenerate self staining tones that are musical and harmonic (Think Hendrix and Santana tones when gained up) If the body lacks good resonance the self sustaining resonance may be unpredictable or non existent. While this may not be an inhibiting factor for players who don't use sympathetic string vibrations when they play loud, I can insure you it would be a major handicap trying to use those tones to your benefit.

 

Again, hardware issue more than tonewood

 

Drive guitar has in fact become its own art form built upon an instrument that has acoustic tone in its strings. Of course you can take it even a step farther and convert acoustic vibrations to midi and take acoustic tone completely out of the picture if you want. Its what they've done to Keyboards after all. I think most guitarists value a guitar that can produce both clean tones and driven tones well.

 

When the clean tones are dialed up you simply hear acoustic tone from the speaker best. When its driven it becomes a very different instrument. We just don't realize it because we grew up listening to those drive tones and considerer them to be normal, not a loss of fidelity.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

No it won't. That's why amplified acoustic guitars normally tend to sound generic. The pickup, magnetic, piezo, etc., only picks up the vibration of the strings. Those strings can be attached to a guitar or a cinder block and they'll sound essentially the same.

 

 

Are you serious? Come on man, Even I give you more credit for being more intelligent then that, even if you haven't used them before.

 

A pickup for an acoustic is no different then having one on an electric, except the acoustic can move air.

 

Would you also say a guitar like an Epiphone Dot sounds the same as a Gibson ES335? You're going to tell me they both sound Generically the same if you have the same pickups in both? Ridiculous.

 

There's absolutely no differences between an acoustic and electric when using a magnetic pickup. The tone comes from the strings and the strings get their tone from what they are connected to, the body and neck.

 

Vibrations don't begin and end at the bridge and nut, they pass into the body and back into the strings just like sound being conducted through water, in fact sound moves faster through solids then they do through the air. If electrics can sound better or worse depending on the quality of the build, then so do acoustics.

 

Back when I first started playing they hadn't developed Piezo pickups/or on board preamps and mics for acoustics yet. The best you might have is a crude stick on transducer which sounded like garbage, a mic or a sound hole pickup. If you want to call those stick on transducers generic sounding, I'd agree. The fidelity you got from them was quite horrid, and that's mainly because they didn't make the miniaturized preamps needed for them yet. That technology didn't start kicking in till the 70's when Barcus Berry became a leader in acoustic amplification.

 

Acoustic players who needed to compete with electric players typically used sound hole pickups because they produced the least amount of feedback and got them loud enough to compete with electric guitars. PA's for micing acoustics for most bands sucked beyond belief too. Ever try and mic an acoustic with a Shure Vocal master before and no monitors? I have, its like playing air guitar with an electric band. You had to use sound hole pickups just to be heard.

 

The most popular magnetic pickups were the DeArmond which were actually balanced quite well and to compensated for the acoustic strings used. The frequency response could get well up into the vocal ranges of 7K and the bass was quite full and rich.

 

[ATTACH=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","title":"A111.JPG","data-attachmentid":32147818}[/ATTACH]

 

You found many similar removable pickups on arch tops. (I suppose that all sound generically the same too by your logic).

 

They weren't nearly as good as a Piezo transducers used today, but you'd truly have to have tin ears to not recognize it was connected to an acoustic guitar, and if you think a quality instrument didn't produce better tones, then I can only assume you lack the experience to even know what you're talking about.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
Are you serious? . . .

 

. . . There's absolutely no differences between an acoustic and electric when using a magnetic pickup. The tone comes from the strings and the strings get their tone from what they are connected to, the body and neck. . . .

 

. . . Ever try and mic an acoustic with a Shure Vocal master before and no monitors? I have, its like playing air guitar with an electric band. You had to use sound hole pickups just to be heard. . . .

I'm at least as serious as you are. The lack of difference is part of the problem. A magnetic pickup only responds to the magnetic part of the string, in the case of acoustic strings the core. To a listener phosphor bronze and 80/20 strings sound different. To a magnetic pickup they don't because the pickup can't "hear" the bronze part. That means a generic sound. A listener can hear the difference between, say, a parlor guitar and a big dreadnought. A magnetic pickup can't so you get a generic sound. There are magnetic pickups like the Fishman Rare Earth Blend with its built in mike and the Baggs M1 that supposedly "senses" the vibration of the top but most are straight up magnetic. I'm not saying the guitar's body/wood/neck/ doesn't contribute at all but the contribution is much more minimal than you seem to think.

And as it happens I have miked an acoustic. It used to be SOP back in the 70's and it actually worked much better than you seem to remember.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I'm at least as serious as you are. The lack of difference is part of the problem. A magnetic pickup only responds to the magnetic part of the string, in the case of acoustic strings the core. To a listener phosphor bronze and 80/20 strings sound different. To a magnetic pickup they don't because the pickup can't "hear" the bronze part. That means a generic sound. A listener can hear the difference between, say, a parlor guitar and a big dreadnought. A magnetic pickup can't so you get a generic sound. There are magnetic pickups like the Fishman Rare Earth Blend with its built in mike and the Baggs M1 that supposedly "senses" the vibration of the top but most are straight up magnetic. I'm not saying the guitar's body/wood/neck/ doesn't contribute at all but the contribution is much more minimal than you seem to think.

And as it happens I have miked an acoustic. It used to be SOP back in the 70's and it actually worked much better than you seem to remember.

 

This video is much better than that cinderblock nonsense. If you can't hear a difference you truly have tin ears.

[video=youtube;nrEar7dgVwI]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I'm at least as serious as you are. The lack of difference is part of the problem. A magnetic pickup only responds to the magnetic part of the string, in the case of acoustic strings the core. To a listener phosphor bronze and 80/20 strings sound different. To a magnetic pickup they don't because the pickup can't "hear" the bronze part. That means a generic sound. A listener can hear the difference between, say, a parlor guitar and a big dreadnought. A magnetic pickup can't so you get a generic sound. There are magnetic pickups like the Fishman Rare Earth Blend with its built in mike and the Baggs M1 that supposedly "senses" the vibration of the top but most are straight up magnetic. I'm not saying the guitar's body/wood/neck/ doesn't contribute at all but the contribution is much more minimal than you seem to think.

And as it happens I have miked an acoustic. It used to be SOP back in the 70's and it actually worked much better than you seem to remember.

 

Sorry, there's a huge difference between thinking you know something and knowing you know something based on first hand experience.

 

A magnetic pickup obviously isn't as natural sounding as a piezo or mic for high fidelity which is the main reason they aren't as popular as they used to be.

 

Insisting they sound so awful you cant tell the difference between one instrument and another has no basis in fact, especially to someone like myself who used them regularly for many years. Like I said Its obvious you either have no experience using them or you have tin ears.

 

Did you even listen some audio clips of them being used? Maybe you should.

 

Here's one where a Piezo and Magnetic pickup are compared.

 

[video=youtube_share;_TQcYUdiZCM]

 

Here's a different guitar with a different pickup. By you're logic the two should sound the instruments in the two should sound the same, unrecognizable as acoustic guitars. Performance aside, I hear stark differences between them myself, but I didn't even need to hear these clips because I already knew the truth.

 

[video=youtube_share;tsl2LJot1IQ]

 

Obviously the pickups and instruments are different. You'd need the same pickup in two different instruments doing an A/B comparison recorded exactly the same to hear the differences in quality between the instruments. The results would be no different then what Mr. Brown Posted, except with acoustic guitars having tonal differences.

 

There is wood tone in those strings because they do sound like acoustic guitars, not electrics. So much for your Bronze vs steel string garbage too. As I said, the pickups are balanced to accommodate the bronze wraps and pickup the steel cores.

 

Of course if you added a drive pedal you could mangle the sound enough to sound like an electric guitar. I've said that all along and its where people seem to get it wrong every time.

 

You cant "hear" the quality of an instrument when its signal has been gained and turned into a square wave.

 

Distortion does have a dictionary definition too. Look it up, its quite accurate.

 

2. the action of giving a misleading account or impression

 

We're mislead to think distortion is high fidelity instead of it being just the opposite. For some reason people think electrics are only capable of sounding good distorted and the pickups are responsible for all tone instead of connecting the dots and realizing pickups are only part of the amplification system.

 

The pickups are simply mounted on the guitar for convenience purposes and they have nothing to do with what is being generated in the strings itself before amplification.

 

Analog pickups and effects can't manufacture tone, they can only manipulate what comes from the strings. You can use things like filters (EQ) which can be used to remove the bad and leave the good, or remove the good and leave the bad. You can decrease and increase dynamic levels using automated volume devices, You can add drive to flatten the signal, repeat the sound, add reflection, phase shift the sound and any number of electronic tricks which create aural illusions "after" the signal has been generated. None of actually change the vibration patterns of the strings themselves.

 

Its only when you digitize a signal when you can actually manipulate the binary samples and add something that didn't exist in the string to begin with.

 

Analog effects can be most pleasing to the ears of course, but when you are focus on the science in back of how its done its "all" subtractive. So far perpetual motion has not been possible so all energy decays as its given off and is transformed into something else. Audio amplification is no exception to that rule.

 

Its the same for all mechanical instruments. The source of sound is responsible for the tone and timber of the sound. From there on you can do things to "manipulate" the good and bad aspects of it, but none change what's the string is actually doing. This is why starting with the best string tone is preferred by most players because they know less manipulation in the signal chain preserves the original signal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

You could also run that video's audio track through a frequency analyzer and actually see the difference in frequencies being generated.

 

Granted, the neck is providing 50% of the string tone because one end of the string is connected to it. If the pickup was mounted closer to the neck, it would likely give you more string tone from the neck and less metallic tone from the bridge. Its still good enough to tell you the wood is providing a mechanical filtration to the string vibrations just like different bodies on acoustic guitars do. Other then that, its purely a matter of preference of which wood you prefer.

 

If he cranked those pickups up and distorted them then the difference in the two woods would exponentially become less as the harmonics get flattened. you may still have differences in total amounts of bass, mids and treble but the finer details become harder and harder to identify.

 

Anyone who builds instruments knows the materials used are a key factor in an instruments build and it exactly why many coveted instruments cost more. You not only hear the differences but you do feel them as you play too. Even if I were blind folded and have ear plugs, I could simply strum it and determine if its built well from quality materials by the way the instrument feels when it vibrates. From that aspect its not much different from taking a car for a spin and "feeling" how it handles the road.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...