Down pick with the thumb and pick at the same time and your guitar will squeal like Billy Gibbons…
[/quote]
Not quite, but yeah. You have to touch a harmonic on the string with your thumb, but not mute it.
Hundred percent the cause I think too, particularly when I look at the angle I’m hitting the string when it happens. Down and rotating toward the floor, with an emphasis. So I’m bringing the string up to touch the meaty portion of the front of my thumb, rather than the side like the instructional videos show.
Easy now. Don’t believe everything that guy rants about on the Innerwebz.
While I think the ‘exotic wood’ factor and fixation on wood with electric guitars is a bit overplayed, it’s not meaningless. In this case species is a proxy for density-- Maple vs Pine. There is a sonic difference. The electronics play a lot in the signal off the strings.
Every piece is different. Two guitars made from the same slabs might have different tonal qualities. One may have the mojo and one may be flat.
[quote]countingbeans wrote:
I should be clear.
Species of wood is meaningless, likely even acoustically. It’s density that matters. And even then, it ONLY acoustically. Once you plug in what kind of wood is irrelevant. There is a youtube out there with this Swedish (or some other European) guy makes a guitar on top of a fucking beer crate, and it sounds… Not that fucking bad lol, once plugged in.
You can make a guitar out of any wood, once plugged in, won’t make a lick of a difference.
And pickups aren’t microphonic. They will only* ever create current with the vibrations of magnetic metals. (*assuming they aren’t pieces of shit that have the coils moving from you screaming into it. lmao) So if you’re “screaming into the pickup and can hear it through your amp” you’re either wrong, or vibrating the strings by yelling. The pickup isn’t picking up your voice.
[quote]SteelyD wrote:
Easy now. Don’t believe everything that guy rants about on the Innerwebz.
While I think the ‘exotic wood’ factor and fixation on wood with electric guitars is a bit overplayed, it’s not meaningless. In this case species is a proxy for density-- Maple vs Pine. There is a sonic difference. The electronics play a lot in the signal off the strings.
Every piece is different. Two guitars made from the same slabs might have different tonal qualities. One may have the mojo and one may be flat.
[/quote]
Yeah, I’ve been reading more and should walk back that post.
If there is wood attached it isn’t meaningless, not by a long shot. In fact I’ve seen zero people claim it doesn’t effect sustain, or that a soft shitty piece of wood could house a better sounding guitar than a hard good piece of wood.
Here’s where I’m at:
Does wood matter? Yes if there is wood on the thing, it does. Everything matters as it’s part of the whole.
Does species matter? No. Everything else equal if the quality of the woods are the same, a different species won’t change tone.
Do certain species TEND to have certain properties that create X effect? Yes. However, you can make 4 guitars out of slabs from the same tree and each will sound different, for many different reasons. Are you more likely to get a certain result from a certain species? Yes, but you’re going to have to filter out the shit wood just like with any other species.
Do I think more than 100 people on the planet could listen to 50 guitars played blindfolded and tell you with better than 50% accuracy what type of wood the body is? No. Do I think more could tell you what the neck is made of? Yes.
How much of an effect does wood species have on “tone”? None.
How much of an effect does wood quality have on “tone”? Some. Utter shit piece of wood is going to lose out to a very high quality choice.
Does any of this matter to anyone other than cork sniffing guitar players? Nope. The masses that buy a record aren’t going to know the difference, maybe even between a Tele and a LP. They just want you to play shit that sounds good. And people that can play can make any guitar that is playable sound good(ish).
I still don’t see how the fuck a pickup could be “microphonic” unless:
a) I completely misunderstand what being microphonic is (very possible)
b) people are using microphonic to describe “susceptible to interference”
I’m no scientist, but I can’t see how a pickup can turn anything other than metallic vibration or electrical current into sound. (If B is the case above, not withstanding. I understand how the 60hz hum happens.)