Form or Function

[gardo]

Frees it up to do what? It's attached to the body of the guitar.

 

But it's rubber mounted to the body,and the pickgaurdi is rigid and lays against the pickup

[DeepEnd]

But it's rubber mounted to the body' date='and the pickgaurdi is rigid and lays against the pickup[/quote']

So you want what, the pickup to be isolated from vibration? Are you thinking that a rigid connection between the guitar and the pickup will somehow affect the sound of the guitar? That seems unlikely (to me). Sorry but I really want to understand what you're thinking.

[gardo]

So you want what, the pickup to be isolated from vibration? Are you thinking that a rigid connection between the guitar and the pickup will somehow affect the sound of the guitar? That seems unlikely (to me). Sorry but I really want to understand what you're thinking.

 

What I originally said was, I'm surprised no one suggested this,not saying I believe it

[WRGKMC]

That article has allot of voodoo in it. For example - 7. Fender has an interesting little detail on the Eric Johnson Strat. They sand away the paint on top of the inertia bar (a.k.a "tremolo block") that is attached to the bottom of the tremolo bottom plate for a better tone transfer.

 

That's a really bad idea. I have a Strat that I removed the finish on and had the bridge setting flat on the wood. I had issues with it returning to pitch.

You cant lube it either because whatever you use will leach into the wood. On a finished guitar you can use a thin layer of petroleum jelly mixed with some graphite powder and get the Tremolo to recoil back to pitch. It wont harm the finish or soak into the wood.

 

Also A fulcrum needs a completely flat surface to function properly. Bare wood winds up wearing and getting dent marks over time which causes recoil issues. I been down that road do I know for a fact, its better to leave that finish in place. A guitar is what it is.

 

You want better tone, magic solutions like that just don't amount to much. Just focus on playing the hell out of the instrument and you'll get all the tone you need. Once you have the basics, a decent amp and guitar, you have the essentials you need. Its like watching a good football player. The player may feel better having that gold plated helmet, but will it inspire him to play better? People can listen to a guitarist on crappy AM transistor radio with a 1" speaker with zero fidelity full of static and yet instantly recognize a talented player. They want to hear and see a showman and be inspired by the notes they play. So long as your gear isn't offensive sounding to the ears, what we as musicians consider to be great tone means little to the masses because their ears just wont hear it.

[gardo]

I chase tone to please my own ear,realizing that the average person can't tell the difference. I'm inspired by the tone and as a result play better. A lot of articles are written on better tone. Some ideas are good but many just don't show me anything.I'm not afraid to try,that's the advantage of having a cheap guitar. It's a mule ,mod one thing after another and hopefully learn something along the way

[GAS Man]

Well, that's certainly a position held by Eric Johnson. His signature strats ship without a back plate.

[GAS Man]

When I've seen guitars like this, I've always thought the extra PG would dampen the tone a bit.

 

[gardo]

^^^^

If you want to see a tone killer,how about Elvis's famous leather clad guitar

 

[catscurlyear]

don`t know if anybody suggested this yet but why not just paint a pickguard on then lacquer it ,come to think of it you could paint some more knobs on aswell an extra tone knob. lol

[Chordite]

His leather jackets used to damp his voice too.

Aficionados can tell you what he was wearing in the studio from the sound of the albums

[gardo]

We did joke about that. Or maybe I could turn my teenage daughter loose with her fingernail decorating ideas?

[gardo]

Probably because the leather jacket was too warm in the studio,so it really could make a difference

[1001gear]

A local music store had some aluminum Strat bodies and I'm like this has got to suck so I asked the guy and he said most of the tone is the neck.

[catscurlyear]

i`d consider it because your right the tele don`t look right without the pickguard. if the paint job didn`t look right you can always cover it back up with the real thing.

[WRGKMC]

Looks like its elevated off the top of the Elvis guitar so only the sides are dampened.

The back side rests against the body so I don't suppose that matters either way.

[Out of the Past]

I think there is a 1% chance removing a pickguard from a tele will effect the "primary tone"

(whatever that is-this suggests there are secondary and tertiary tones as well))

I play my tele(s) sans pickguard all the time and never heard a difference.

When dialing in the neck pickup I keep the guard off until Im sure I have the PUP

height set right. This can take a few hours or several days.

 

that whole article and anything that guy dick wacker writes is suspect.

 

example:

 

"Take care of your neck cavity. ..it should be absolutely free of any paint, dirt and other things. Over the years I''ve found a lot of funny things there -- credit cards, paper, cardboard, etc..."

 

um its called a shim

 

If you feel that the neck does not fit the cavity because the cavity is too wide or too low, get your guitar to an experienced luthier who will "shim" it.

 

yes, shim it. Credit cards, picks, cardboard (what Fender uses), plastic shirt stays work great as shims.

 

also he suggests removing all paint from the neck pocket, sides and everything.

totally not neccessary. Fender always painted bodies using a paint stick that would leave

a small area unpainted, but the rest was painted.

not to mention he says to remove paint from everywhere you cant see it.

[Chordite]

It is sensible to leave the backplate off because otherwise changing strings is like eating spaghetti through a hedge.

[Phil O'Keefe]

It is sensible to leave the backplate off because otherwise changing strings is like eating spaghetti through a hedge.

 

This.

 

The main reason most people have cited for leaving the spring cover off the back of their Strats, at least in my experience, is due to it being harder to change strings with it on. This is particularly important if you happen to be on stage, don't have a backup guitar and need to do a quick string swap.

 

In my nearly 40 years as a guitarist, this is the first time I've ever heard someone suggest that removing the rear plate makes their Strat sound better. If it makes such a big difference, you would think someone would have noticed it long before now.

 

Having said that, my partscaster Tele has a Nashville body with the swimming pool route. I got that so I could try installing a "hidden" middle pickup under the pickguard. I am thinking of replacing it with a different body... one reason is because I really want a double bound body, and the other is that I find myself tapping the pickguard in the course of playing, and I don't like the soft audible thump I hear from the unsupported pickguard when my fingers hit it.

[Grant Harding]

I'll have to find the back plate for my Anderson and do some blind taste tests for y'all.

[Out of the Past]

yeah the only reason people leave the back plate off is for easy access.

I dont even think the amount of springs make a difference , but i know others do

(or where they are hooked up (straight across, or diagonal etc)

 

this one offhand remark (taking the plate off drastically changes the tone)

could easily be interpreted as anything you remove will change the tone

but its simply not true

 

[DeepEnd]

To me, a Tele looks better without a pickguard but that's me. I love the look of the FMT Tele.

[DeepEnd]

For the most part the folks on the acoustic side would agree. But we're talking electrics here and the primary source of the guitar's sound is the pickups.

[GAS Man]

To some degree, I was baiting that kind of response. But I'm a believer that the subtleties to the body and neck do affect the vibrations of both the pickups and the strings which gets picked up by the transducers. I've just got a lot of guitars kicking around where even if they have the same pickups, there can be a lot of variation to the tone. My best example is that I own two Fender Strat Deluxes, both made around the same time period, both having SCN pickups. One is alder with a maple fb, the other is made with a denser ash body with an ebony fb. And I'd guess most folks here could easily guess which one sounds substantially brighter and thinner than the other.

[GAS Man]

That was actually the guitar I was looking for, but was failing to find an image to copy. :-)

[GAS Man]

I've been aware of the "better sound with no trem cavity cover" topic for a number of years now. It's one of those things where, "Eric Johnson says so, so it must be gospel". I have an EJ guitar and they don't even include a cover with that guitar, so it's also "sans screw holes". I can't swear to it, but then again, I can't hear the differences between batteries in my stomp boxes either. ;^) But I do believe that the trem cavity in general contributes to the tone of a Strat. Sometimes referred to as its own internal spring reverb chamber. But that said, I kinda like leaving my trem covers on. I figure I'm less likely to get something caught in there, which is why I figure Leo put the cover there in the first place. Or maybe he just had the 50s mentality that a finished product should look neat.

 

And on a side note, I recently got a new Strat where I can tell by the sound and feel that it has to have a swimming pool route underneath its PG. I'm not liking what I'm hearing from that extra routing. But overall, the guitar has some saving graces.