Is it more important to you how an electric guitar sounds unplugged or plugged in?

[G.Rotten]

I prefer a guitar that I enjoy playing unplugged. I rarely plug in at home & just play on the couch. The ones that sound good unplugged get played more often & the others get sold to pay for other guitars.

That being said IMO what is heard out your amp is mostly due to the basic guitar construction style (Les Paul vs SG vs Strat vs Tele etc...), the pickups, & then everything after the pickups including playing style.

Since I pretty much modify everything I decide to keep for a while I don't buy new guitars. I have never chosen one over the other in a store based on the unplugged sound. If I'm in a store checking out guitars I'm probably killing time.

 

[Yuro]

As a person with a serious electric guitar acquisition problem, I have come to realize that guitars that don't have nitro finish, weigh too much or don't resonate unplugged will not stay long. The either this or that question misses the point. The reason a guitar has to sound great unplugged is that you can easily change the pickups etc, but you can't fix dead wood. Some guitars just sound bad and no amount of expensive pickups will fix them. Just trade em off and get one that feels good to you. THEN make it sound good electrically if necessary. I like Palir single-coil guitars and Knaggs or Collings HB. Not cheap, but they can be found used if you look. Try them first. Mind the weight too. A 10 LB LP type guitar will sustain all day but it's no fun to have on your shoulder for hours at a time. Generally, the heavier the guitar, the more moisture in the wood. That makes them thud rather than sing. Not a rule but a rule of thumb. Too light and thre's no meat to them. 7.5# is my target for Strats. Low to mid 8s is for LP. Semi-hollow are all over the place and you just have to be comfortable with it. For me, size is also a thing. A full sized 335 doesn't fit in my gig bag. That means it gets played at home but not taken to gigs (I'm lazy, OK?). These are dumb practical things that you should think about when shopping. Neck shape is also a big factor. If you have huge hands, a slim taper might not make you happy. Small guys probably won't want a Tele with a baseball-bat neck. I've had several of mine pleked after using them a while. If I get the neck adjusted and it still isn't right, I go to the guitar shop and have it put on the cool machine.

Sometimes you find the right, resonant guitar with the right weight with pickups that really sing...If you can do that without paying the world, you're doing great....and you really don't need another guitar ever. That, unfortunately, has not stopped me!!!

 

[Telenator]

this is just another of the many variants on the "resonance" conundrum, pursued by guys that don't have a clue how resonance factors into the calculus in play. "you" guys are as brain dead consumed by that resonance "ideology" as a "tribe" of whacko "hippie" cult members living in a compound in some obscure, remote dump somewhere.. completely cut off from, and absolutely ignorant of anything resembling reality. . . wondering why "he's" mixin' up a 55 gallon drum of "kool-aid"..

Bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Hey Ron, no need to be delicate here. Bwah ha ha ha! I am on record as well as stating that acoustic resonance has no bearing on the sound of an electric guitar when it's plugged it.

People! When you introduce an amp into the equation, a whole new set of rules applies. My #1 guitar is pretty much dead acoustically, but plug it in and it sings like nothing else I own. (I own 24 guitars) AND, y'all better sit down for this. The body is basswood with a 3/16" maple top. I know. I know. SHOCK! HORROR! HOW CAN THIS BE?!

For those of you who just gotta have that acoustic resonance factor in your sound, I created this pedal and swear by it. It's "true bypass" so nothing gets in the way of your acoustic simulation.

 

[Anacharsis]

I play plugged in every single time. I'm not concerned in the least with how it sounds unplugged. And I own 4 Thinlines, 2 center block semihollow Gretches, and 4 chambered Pro Jets, in addition to an equal number of solid bodies.

In over 25 years' worth of playing them, I've never heard, played, or felt an electric guitar that doesn't sound more than plain old unpleasant to me unplugged, including (and perhaps especially) ones that my fellow players tell me "really sing/ring/resonate" unplugged. But that's just me. Those friends aren't "wrong," because we're talking about aesthetics, about our hedonic responses to stimuli.

If you are confident that guitars that sound good to you unplugged are going to sound good to you plugged in, go with that.

 

[gregulator450]

What they said. I've always been on the "must be acoustically resonant" before I'll even consider buying it team, the idea there being that tone would translate through the pickups. And a good, resonant couple of slabs of wood are your (hard to acquire) foundation, electronics and hardware can always be swapped. (Then of course we could add the debate of pickups being screwed directly into the body wood vs pickguard or bridge mount). I heard Keith shops for his electrics this way, not that I took it as a cue.

A livelier guitar makes you wanna play it more, definitely. But over the years I inadvertently created a "couch bias", the idea being that 9 times outta 10 I'm strumming unplugged electrics on the couch, so I'm focusing more on the acoustic feel of it rather than the electric tone. I kinda realized this when I took a pretty dull sounding Tele to band practice because my main one was in pieces, and once plugged in I realized it actually sounded pretty awesome. It was loaded with Duncan Broadcasters so I'm certain that helped.

Ultimately I'm still gonna choose the more resonant guitar for the simple fact of it making me wanna play it more, but I've given less steam to the idea of it being a primary factor in what I hear coming out of the speaker, unless we're talking sustain alone. It's like the tonewood argument, or light vs heavy. I thought light ash was the way and the light, but I recently picked up an Alder partscaster that's a smidge on the heavy side and it slays every other guitar I own. Plugged in, blindfolded, I'm not sure these tinnitus-laden ears can tell.

For me, the unplugged thing is simply how it feels. That said, I don't buy guitars based on the acoustic feel. When I buy a guitar, I make sure it's structurally sound, the truss rod works, and that it has whatever features I'm looking for that day (I haven't bought a new guitar in 15 years).

If anything, the quieter an unplugged guitar is at my house, the longer I get to noodle undisturbed. So as far as sound goes, it's all about what it's like plugged in. If that doesn't work, I start swapping components. Example, I play an 8-string in a band. Before it was mine, the guy I got my 8 string from dropped in the latest, greatest-at-the-time Duncan pickup purported to put your guitar into Norwegian black metal territory. It sounds like turd through my amp, sounds great through his. So, I am in the process of trying out different pickups. The unplugged sound of that guitar has zero effect on whether or not I'd buy it if I was buying it again, and now that I think of it, the unpluggedness of the guitar really hasn't ever come into play in a buying decision for me. A resonant guitar simply feels more fun to play when it's unplugged.

 

[MilwMark]

I’m surprised and confused by the amount of unplugged electric playing that apparently happens.

I can’t understand the point of that. There are amps that will play at conversation volumes. Or headphone amps.

Do y’all play catch with baseball mitts but no ️?

 

[KW1977]

I’m surprised and confused by the amount of unplugged electric playing that apparently happens.

I can’t understand the point of that. There are amps that will play at conversation volumes. Or headphone amps.

Do y’all play catch with baseball mitts but no ️?

It's a great big silly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ contradiction that's for sure. For me I've noticed I play very differently on acoustic vs electric, and thusly sorta write differently. And I don't know why but most acoustics don't hold my attention for very long. But with electrics, even on the couch unplugged, I'm able to kinda run free without disturbing the rest of the household. (My natural playing style is pretty heavy-handed/Townshend) Plus I don't need any more hearing damage. I'm sure I'm super overdue for a mini headphone amp type of scenario.

 

[Festofish]

I play electric guitars so they are usually amplified electrically using electricity so...did I mention they are built to be amplified?

 

[BrettFuzz]

My $.02 - the unplugged sound does not matter on a (solid body) electric. They are designed to be played plugged in. If acoustic sound mattered on a solid body electric nobody would play them; everyone would just slap pickups on an acoustic guitar and call it a day.

But the really bad thing about this is that if you play them unplugged you will tend to strike harder (because they are not loud enough) and if you practice this way it will make you play too hard (overplay) when plugged in, i.e., you are creating a bad habit that will affect both the tone and your technique. Also, for a guitar to sound its best acoustically it would have to be set up differently than for plugged in playing. Even the strings are a different material.

 

[maxvintage]

I've never yet played a gig with an unamplified electric guitar.

I think you can learn some things from the un-amped sound--like you can hear dead spots or weird resonances. But you'll hear those things when it's amped as well.

 

[MilwMark]

My $.02 - the unplugged sound does not matter on a (solid body) electric. They are designed to be played plugged in. If acoustic sound mattered on a solid body electric nobody would play them; everyone would just slap pickups on an acoustic guitar and call it a day.

But the really bad thing about this is that if you play them unplugged you will tend to strike harder (because they are not loud enough) and if you practice this way it will make you play too hard (overplay) when plugged in, i.e., you are creating a bad habit that will affect both the tone and your technique. Also, for a guitar to sound its best acoustically it would have to be set up differently than for plugged in playing. Even the strings are a different material.

Totally agree.

 

[Ronkirn]

It was Bill Lawrence that said years ago.. An Acoustic guitar is designed to do one thing.. Move Air... An Electric guitar is designed to do one thing.. Move Electrons...

Beyond that it's all just an Academic discussion, and anything guys wanna get in a huff about can be negated by excellent playing .. even on a dog...

r

 

[KW1977]

But the really bad thing about this is that if you play them unplugged you will tend to strike harder (because they are not loud enough) and if you practice this way it will make you play too hard (overplay) when plugged in, i.e., you are creating a bad habit that will affect both the tone and your technique.

Cue the Jane Goodall gorilla sounds.

 

[hemingway]

I can't believe this thread even exists.

It's an ELECTRIC guitar.

Does it matter how your synth sounds when it's not turned on?

Or an electric drumkit?

 

[LetItGrowTone]

With the same pickups and wiring, a Strat sounds exactly like a Tele, and an SG sounds exactly like a Les Paul. Ok, thanks.

 

[Tjeppen]

An acoustic unplugged, an electric plugged in

 

[erobillard]

No pickup or amplifier can make a bad guitar sound good. Like everything in the signal chain - including your performance - it's all about having a good sound to begin with. Everything else you add to the chain can only do it's job with the signal it's given, it can't work with what isn't there. The guitar is the skeleton, you layer up the body of your sound around it. If a guitar won't stay in tune, if the neck doesn't feel good, if there's a rattle, if frets are dead or buzz, if it sounds dead with a new set of strings, you can figure all these things out without plugging it in.

Sure, a guitar with problems can sound great. Jack White built the White Stripes sound around a red Supro that he chose because it was a difficult, limiting guitar. Kurt Cobain played a Jagstang and couldn't keep it in tune any more than you or I can. What makes a guitar difficult or different can make it inspiring, it can guide the sound, but it still needs to be something you can use musically. The order of importance is still: performance (you), guitar, strings, pickups and controls, effects, amp, speaker cab, mic, and so on. Listen to every stage, and let your taste guide you.

To everyone here who says they go purely on what a guitar sounds like plugged in, you're missing out on some great finds. If a guitar feels good and plays great but sounds like crap when you plug it in, change out the pickups. I play a '68 Tele where someone had swapped the neck pup with something I really didn't like. I had a new one wound up and that guitar got a whole new life.

 

[tfarny]

All electrics sound like garbage unplugged! I mean, who cares what it sounds like unplugged? That's not what it's for.
Some of you guys must have never heard an acoustic guitar...

 

[MilwMark]

With the same pickups and wiring, a Strat sounds exactly like a Tele, and an SG sounds exactly like a Les Paul. Ok, thanks.

Don't even get @Ronkirn started on this topic.

For the record, in my experience an SG with the same wiring and pickups as a LP will sound very similar. For that matter, so will a Tele with that same wiring and pickups.

 

[LetItGrowTone]

Sorry I spoke sarcastically. Really hopeless to talk about it anyway.