Maple fretboards on Strats

[john_p_t]

How does the resonance of the neck actually get to the pickup aperture in any meaningful way though? The sound of an amplified electric guitar is not a louder version of the acoustic resonance you hear unplugged.

[yz250f49]

 

But I was reading in previous posts that the neck could affect tone....

 

 

 

If your guitar's tone is affected.....feel free to adjust your amp settings.....:poke:

[AlexMC]

 

How does the resonance of the neck actually get to the pickup aperture in any meaningful way though? The sound of an amplified electric guitar is not a louder version of the acoustic resonance you hear unplugged.

 

 

Remember that the pickups are vibrating (through transferred energy from the strings, carried through the body and pickguard) along with the strings, so the output signal is a sum of the vibration of both the strings and the pickups.

 

Depending on the resonant frequencies of the guitar body/neck/pickguard/pickups, you will have a slight difference in output, as some frequencies will be enhanced and some will be cancelled.

[john_p_t]

Sure. But if you grasp that, you can see that the string is vibrating a lot and the pickup is hardly vibrating at all. Indeed, it needs to be that way, else the pickup begins to behave microphonically. By necessity, the body resonance has to have little effect for the fundamental design to work.

[john_p_t]

Look at this way. You could say that the shaking of the ground is the sum of my footsteps and the earthquake that's happening at the same time. Now, that's actually true, but it's not especially useful given the relative significance of the two factors.

[lefchr]

I prefer maple fretboards on strats. I see quite a few of both maple and rosewood.

[metalheadUK]

I'm not fussed.

 

I have both maple board and rosewood board Strats.

 

If pushed I probably prefer to play on a rosewood board...Maple feels like Ebony to me, but Maple boards look pretty.

 

[WRGKMC]

 

How does the resonance of the neck actually get to the pickup aperture in any meaningful way though? The sound of an amplified electric guitar is not a louder version of the acoustic resonance you hear unplugged.

 

 

Its calleed Symphathetic vibration.

 

When you stand in front of a high gain amp, the sound from the speakers hit the body and cause the sympathetic vibration of the strings to occur. This is a technique that has long been used by nearly every guitarists like Santana, Hendrix, etc to get sustain. You use your body as a sound blocker then you can turn slightly, stick the ass of the guitar out or the neck towards the speakers and get different notes and overtones to sustain.

 

Different neck and body woods will resonate at different pitches. One of my last builds which was a combination of walnut, maple and rosewood in a semihollow Tele build had a resonant tone of a high B note which was very unusual. Most guitars tend to resonate more with G, A, E, D open strings. the open B string tends to be the weakest of the bunch for self resonation.

 

This is completely different from actual microphonic feedback where a pup acts like a mice and feeds back directly. In ether case there is a small amount sound transfered from the wood directly to the pickup depending on the pup type and mounting system. Tap on the pup turned up and you can usually hear some kind of a muffeled thump. Its mild in comparison to the actual magnetic string generating a signal like a generator or mic diaphram does but it is there.

[john_p_t]

 

In ether case there is a small amount sound transfered from the wood directly to the pickup depending on the pup type and mounting system.

 

 

No. Magnetic pickpus cannot pick up sound from wood.

[LARRY L]

I prefer the rose wood yet I had a all maple, (American Strat.)

The maple will turn gray with wear but has a nice feel. I spent 2 hrs with a magnifier and honed down all the sharp fret edges then added some fret board oil to the rose wood. Now my new Strat has a great feel and tone seems to be slightly warmer than the all maple.

[john_p_t]

 

When you stand in front of a high gain amp, the sound from the speakers hit the body and cause the sympathetic vibration of the strings to occur.

 

 

Well, again, no. The sound from the speakers that hits the body also hits the strings. One of these things is extremely light and prone to vibration (strings) the other is considerably heavier and far less prone to vibration (body).

 

Why would the sympathetic vibration of the strings be a result of the far heavier body, rather than simply vibrating themselves? Any sound wave hitting a guitar will move the strings many orders of magnitude more than the body.

[Mush]

Strings vibrations are transmitted to the body at 2 points. The bridge (or tremolo) and the frets. In a strat, the frets are put on the fretboard that can be rosewood or maple and they behave differently to vibrations. So theoritically, fretboards can transmit sound differently from the frets to the neck.

 

Mush

[WRGKMC]

 

No. Magnetic pickpus cannot pick up sound from wood.

 

 

First thing you learn in electronics like any science is there are few absolutes. This isnt one of them.

How much sound is transfered to a pup directly Depends on the type of pup, how loosely the coils are wound, weather it has metal covers etc. A potted pup for example will have very littel outside vibration getting through the wax to the coils and setting up any kind of vibration.

 

Next time you change your strings, plug your guitar in, crank it up and tap on the body. Theres usually some sound that will get amplified directly from the wood or the pickguard in the case of a strat to the pup directly in the low frequency ranges.

 

If you cant hear it then you might have extremely isolated pickups. Some manufacturers use neoprene pade under the pups to act as springs that prevent direct transference and microphonics too. If its your typical unpotted HB or single coil mounting, and you cant hear anything when you tap on it, well I guess your amp must really suck or you got some major hearing loss happening.

[Citizen_Insane]

Meh, on Teles I like maple, on Strats I like rosewood. It's probably just how it came out that the best ones I played were like that.

[john_p_t]

First thing you learn in electronics like any science is there are few absolutes. This isnt one of them.

No, sorry, this is completely wrong. There is no transference of sound from wood to pickup, and the phenomena you are describing does not indicate that there is.

[john_p_t]

 

Strings vibrations are transmitted to the body at 2 points. The bridge (or tremolo) and the frets. In a strat, the frets are put on the fretboard that can be rosewood or maple and they behave differently to vibrations. So theoritically, fretboards can transmit sound differently from the frets to the neck. Mush

 

 

Quite true. How then, though, do those vibrations "get into" the pickup aperture? What properties of the vibrating wood remain at the amplification stage?

[FoonkySteve]

Maple for Prez! Nah, ive always been a fan and a player of maple boards, its the first thing i take into consideration with any guitar.

 

I prefer the smother, harder feel. Rosewood for me i have never got comfortable with, i think the natural oils eat through strings quicker, and i hate playing with rusty worn strings coz im a freak.

 

Just my experience;)

[liko]

 

Thanks for the history lesson. You can really see the difference in the grain in the quarter sawn neck, that would have to be more stable. It seems that if you want a maple fretboard you just have to wait until your baby pops up.

 

 

Pretty much. Mexis IME have been 95% rosewood (you can get any finish with any neck, but most shops stock rosewood cause for some reason that's what moves). Highway-1s and Americans tend to be maple more often than Mexis but still predominantly rosewood. I have a maple-necked Highway-1 and I love it, but I have many rosewood-necked instruments that do just as good a job, or better, at the slides, bends and other things maple's generally preferred for.

[WRGKMC]

No, sorry, this is completely wrong. There is no transference of sound from wood to pickup, and the phenomena you are describing does not indicate that there is.

 

You've never tapped directly on a pickups with the strings removed and heard the sound coming from it through an amp?

 

You must be a rookie or dont own a guitar.

 

Its probibly a waste of time, but you should visit Seymour and read all 850 Q&A posts http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/faq/seymours-q-a/

You really need to educate yourself on your basics. They also have a forum for beginners where you should spend some time till you understand whats going on.

 

 

Then you can get your degree in electronics and spend a a good 40 years repairing and building instruments and winding your own pups you can explain to those who buy your guitars why they hear sound through a pickup with no strings on it. I suppose guitars will have optical pickups by then anyway, so it will likely be a moot point by then anyway.

[liko]

 

No. Magnetic pickpus cannot pick up sound from wood.

 

 

The vibrations are transferred directly through the wood to the coil, which as previously explained causes a change in the signal as the pickup is also vibrating relative to the string.

 

In addition, the string is anchored to the instrument in at least four places (tuning peg, nut, bridge, tailpiece). The vibrations of the string will vibrate the body through these anchor points, and those vibrations come back into the string through the same points, causing summations and cancellations. It's a complete instrument. Makers over the years who have theorized that the body materials are secondary to strings and pickups have generally found out otherwise when their acrylic, metal, styrofoam or other "alternate materials" don't sound the same as wood.

[john_p_t]

You've never tapped directly on a pickups with the strings removed and heard the sound coming from it through an amp?

Plenty of times. What I'm saying is, that sound doesn't represent what you think it does.

 

You must be a rookie or dont own a guitar. Its probibly a waste of time, but you should visit Seymour and read all 850 Q&A posts http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/faq/seymours-q-a/ You really need to educate yourself on your basics. They also have a forum for beginners where you should spend some time till you understand whats going on. Then you can get your degree in electronics and spend a a good 40 years repairing and building instruments and winding your own pups you can explain to those who buy your guitars why they hear sound through a pickup with no strings on it. I suppose guitars will have optical pickups by then anyway, so it will likely be a moot point by then anyway.

 

So that's basically a series of insults rather than any shred of explanation of what you claim is happening. Yet despite this inability to put any kind of basis behind what you're saying, apparently I'm the guy who doesn't know what he's talking about. Whatever.

[mortkort]

black block inlays on maple =

[enuenu]

The fretboard/neck combination ties in with questions I have about the truss rod. I think the truss rod void can be drilled, routed from the top or routed from the back.

 

I have heard that if it is drilled through, the truss rod is not contoured properly along the channel and thus will not change the neck shape as effectively during set ups.

 

I have read that even where rosewood fretboards are used Fender still route the back of the neck to put the truss rod in.

[DaveAronow]

Fender used one-piece maple necks ONLY until '58 or so. In '59, facing complaints from dealers and players about finish wear on the fretboard, Leo switched to rosewood "slab" fretboards on everything (maple boards were NOT available). Skunk stripe was dropped because it wasn't needed anymore. Sometime in the mid '60's, Fender switched to a thinner "shaped" laminate fretboard rosewood fretboard to save material costs. No skunk stripe . In the late '60's Fender started to offer a shaped laminate maple fretboard as an option. This was the first time a person could order either rosewood OR maple. No skunk strip because the neck wasn't one piece. Sometime around '69 or so Fender started offering one piece maple necks again, when they introduced the bullet truss rod. Skunk strip was a different size. I don't think they added a skunk strip to a rosewood boarded neck until the late '80's or later as an aesthetic option. The difference between a slab fretboard and a laminate one....

 

Hi, Wyatt, first time caller long time listener.

 

So, which is it? Skunk "strip"? or Skunk "Stripe"?

 

I have always used and heard others say stripe. I would tend to take your word over most others, but which one do you mean?

 

 

Ill hang up now and continue listening off the air.

[Wyatt]

Hi, Wyatt, first time caller long time listener. So, which is it? Skunk "strip"? or Skunk "Stripe"? I have always used and heard others say stripe. I would tend to take your word over most others, but which one do you mean? Ill hang up now and continue listening off the air.

 

I would say stripe.

 

Skunk strip wouldn't make sense. Skunks don't have strips, they have stripes.