Members goatman Posted December 25, 2008 Members Share Posted December 25, 2008 hey dudes i bought a guitar case that came with a free lp copy. I haven't got it yet, but i'm curious at what tone to expect from the plywood body. has anyone got any plywood experience? http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=200288286719 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rock-lobster Posted December 25, 2008 Members Share Posted December 25, 2008 not good. some may say it's acceptable, but IMO a guitar can never sound "right" with plywood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BoredGuitarist7 Posted December 25, 2008 Members Share Posted December 25, 2008 Lawl. It will sound fine. It will have no sustain. Sound like staccato, or popcorny popping sustain. Other than that, I am one of those people that believes a electric guitars tonewood has a very small effect on the way it sounds... Acoustics, it relies entirely on the sound of the wood. Wait... Literally, plywood, or just a 10 piece body. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members goatman Posted December 25, 2008 Author Members Share Posted December 25, 2008 yea literally plywood.. like a skim board... sustain is already killed cause it's a bolt on neck. so sustain like a ash tele? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BoredGuitarist7 Posted December 25, 2008 Members Share Posted December 25, 2008 yea literally plywood.. like a skim board... sustain is already killed cause it's a bolt on neck. so sustain like a ash tele? Lol, bolt on necks don't kill sustain. Look at stratocasters! Run it through some effects/put in some GFS pickups, and it will sound decent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members twotimingpete Posted December 25, 2008 Members Share Posted December 25, 2008 bolt on necks don't kill sustain. maybe poorly constructed bolt on necks do -- but generally speaking it's not a problem! les pauls have more sustain than a strat for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is a thicker neck. if the guitar is built well, the joint will be fine whether it's glue or bolts, it's not dramatic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cassette Posted December 25, 2008 Members Share Posted December 25, 2008 I've got a plywood epi. its not that bad. people make it sound like they are totally unplayable. It will be alright, especially free Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members NotDead Posted December 25, 2008 Members Share Posted December 25, 2008 Ash teles are GREAT sustain, some are better than SOME les pauls. Anyway, plywood can be great or terrible, 80's squiers and some epi les paul special IIs have a megical sort of plywood that weighs about 10 pounds an ounce but radiates tone. Whereas the crapo first act plywood, well, the guitar is a sum of its parts. I think bridge design, pickup height, neck material, setup(higher action=more sustain), headstock/tuner mass, and tremolo are about 75% of the sustain factor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soundcreation Posted December 25, 2008 Members Share Posted December 25, 2008 I think it depends. I had an epiphone special II LP type and it was pure ply wood bolt on. And no not even close to an ash tele. Look If your comparing it to a nice Honduran or African Mahogany guitar or a nice alder or ash guitar....they sound like {censored}. End of story. But if you accept it for what it is then they are alright. My Epiphone played OK...sounded OK and was all around an OK guitar. It did what it was meant to do....be a decently constructed somewhat easily playable first guitar. But no amount of mods was going to turn it into a great guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jrockbridge Posted December 25, 2008 Members Share Posted December 25, 2008 I played plywood guitars in the 80's. I still own one Hondo body that's plywood and it is a complete tone killer. My Hondo plywood body makes a great pickup sound like a complete dog! But, I read somewhere that they learned how to manufacture much better quality plywood for guitars. There are some people here on HCEG that have reported much better experiences with plywood than my own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members goatman Posted December 25, 2008 Author Members Share Posted December 25, 2008 Ash teles are GREAT sustain, some are better than SOME les pauls. ok, i'm not a tele expert but i thought since they're light they'd sustain less. i played an epi custom mahogany last sunday and i could not get over the xylophone tone on the neck pickup when strings are semi bridge muted. so is there any chance i could get the xylophone tone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members NotDead Posted December 25, 2008 Members Share Posted December 25, 2008 Ash isn't very light...I'd say good 'hog is lighter than ash. Maybe swamp ash is different, I'm not sure.Alder sure is lighter.Anyway, weight doesn't mean sustain, to a point, mahogany sustains better heavier, and to a point, lighter. Neck and body, a perfect(sustain-wise), mahogany w/ maple cap les pual should be about 8.5-9 pounds. A 13 pound les paul or a 7 pound les paul will sound poorer in a solidbody electric guitar. As woods go, mahogany is fairly light. Oak, rosewood, maple, ebony, are all significantly more heavy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BoredGuitarist7 Posted December 25, 2008 Members Share Posted December 25, 2008 Lol. Pores and heartwoods affect sustain. Swamp Ash is grown underwater, so it leaves phloem and xylem (nutrient) tubes open, and that is what makes the swamp ash lighter than the regular ash. And Ash is also lighter than Mahogany... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SPONGEBOB Posted December 25, 2008 Members Share Posted December 25, 2008 If you buy a $45,000 1958 ES 335, you have bought a plywood top guitar... Lower end Yamaha acoustics have plywood tops and sound magnificent.. Many older US made Guild acoustics had plywood tops and sound beautiful.. There are great sounding plywood guitars, and horrible sounding guitars... Great plywood, and crap plywood... Try building a guitar with "furniture" maple... although it will look great,It will sound exactly like a guitar made out of wet newspaper... bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Preacher Posted December 25, 2008 Members Share Posted December 25, 2008 I got a great mid-90s MIK squier - didn't know it was plywood til I popped it open. I've played some plywood dogs too - but I would say it depends on the guitar. I'm not saying plywood has superior tone - just saying a good plywood guitar can hang with some that are constructed with "better" tone woods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Coralkong Posted December 25, 2008 Members Share Posted December 25, 2008 Nothing like a good Christmas day Plywood body debate. M2CW,If you're going to try to record clean, woody jazz tones, you're going to have trouble. If you want to plug the guitar into a distortion pedal and bust out some power-chords, it will sound fine. Cheap pickups in the guitar will probably lend for some nice "HOT" feedback-laden angst. Not a bad time at all..... I think that about sums it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Citizen Cain Posted December 25, 2008 Members Share Posted December 25, 2008 Well...I had a plywood Harmony Tele copy from the '80s (I think) and it sounded great. Sustained as long as you wanted, nice snappy neck pickup tone, bridge pick rocked. They were Lawrence Black Label pickups (the other Bill Lawrence). I'd get those again anytime! The guitar weighed a ton though! Also, my plywood Epi LP Jr with bolt-on neck has surprised many people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stormin1155 Posted December 25, 2008 Members Share Posted December 25, 2008 I still have a "plywood" acoustic that I bought back in 1973. It's tone rivals my solid wood acoustics. I also have a plywood tele with humbuckers that sounds quite decent. I don't think it will be the plywood or bolt-on neck that will be a tone killer on your free guitar. It will be the fact that it is a.... well, a free guitar. How much can you expect? It might suprise you though. I got a free guitar with a case one time.... I saw this old 1960's Japanese piece of crap in a pawn shop for $20. I asked about it and was told it came with a case... turned out to be a 1970's Gibson Les Paul case. I sold the guitar for $70 on eBay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frets99 Posted December 25, 2008 Share Posted December 25, 2008 Sustain is over-rated. Play more notes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members charveldan Posted December 25, 2008 Members Share Posted December 25, 2008 Plywood for building materials= Win..... Plywood for guitar= fAiL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dabbler Posted December 25, 2008 Members Share Posted December 25, 2008 ok, i'm not a tele expert but i thought since they're light they'd sustain less. A reasonable assumption. But if I remember correctly, which often I don't, one of the things Les wanted in the guitar that was going to bear his name was sustain that was more than anything out there. And the most prominent solidbody at the time WAS the tele. That said, the tele string-through-body bridge/pickup combination does a good job of not killing sustain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.