Where Does The Tone Come From? Jim Lill video

[Tele-friend]

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The question is not "where does the tone come from" but "where does the MAGIC come from"

 

[DugT]

The question is not "where does the tone come from" but "where does the MAGIC come from"

Maybe you are confusing magician with musician.

 

[Tele-friend]

Maybe you are confusing magician with musician.

Yeah, when I am reading the tonewood discussions here on TDPRI I am never sure if those posts are from musicians or magicians

 

[57joonya]

This is a great test , and it shows a lot, but the “air” guitar ia still connected to wood, just like a guitar . So to me , this test does not show that body/ neck wood makes no difference in tone. They do and always will in my mind . This test does show that pickups account for most of the sound of an electric guitar . I’ve played to many guitars with different types of wood , to convince me that wood makes zero difference in an electric guitars tone. I didn’t have time to watch entire video , so I’m not sure that was his goal. But I enjoyed it . Smart young man

 

[Mike H.]

So the lesson we've learned is that wood has no effect on Faraday's Law as it applies to electric guitar pickups and amplification.
But if we're talking about acoustic instruments, that's an entirely different conversation.

 

[SRBMusic]

I’ve never seen and heard a more convincing proof that the pickup is most (80-90%?) of an electric’s tone.
I agree about acoustics.
I have two strats, a hardtail and a ‘72 with a blocked trem. You can hear the springs in the 72’s tone, so there is some body interaction, but this experiment tells me the pickup is the most dominant factor.

 

[Bourbon Burst]

I think he proved that tone comes from the mullet.

 

[Linderflomann]

Tone is stored in the balls.

Seriously though, this confirms a lot of my suspicions. Cheap guitar w good electronics is the way to go, and learn how to set it up well. A good setup makes a world of difference.

 

[Wooly Fox]

From the other thread which is closed...

I do like the "air guitar". Not sure on them "sounding the same", the partscaster one always sounded to me through good headphones brighter and the 2x4 plank slightly darker than the Anderson.

To be honest the sound difference I'm likely hearing is a slight winding difference in the SD Stacked Vintages bridge pickups and possibly aging electronics and hardware on the Anderson from being played. Wood didn't seem to matter at all to sound in this example but it does make a difference to you wanting to play the guitar!

I do find the conclusion of pickups and pickup height being the most important factors for tone difference in these tests correct. When I had my Charlie Christian neck pickup in my Tele, it was so sensitive to pickup height, and being installed in Squire scratch plate that wobbled like crazy, it changed tone while playing.

 

[jvin248]

.

Here is a Steel I-Beam guitar, he was searching for 'Sustain' though.




Electric guitars rank order of mods to fix or change the tone:

-Adjust pickup height, pitch bass/treble, screw pole heights.
-Measure and swap Pots 'n Caps. Pots have a 20% tolerance range and Max vs Min matters just like people swapping nominal pots matters (higher=brighter).
-Last is swap pickups and go to the top of the list again.

Acoustic guitar tone is created by the bracing. How much bracing, how deep the bracing, how much carving is done to the bracing. These videos cover tap tuning and may show enough to convince you too (I have to hop to another project so I didn't watch these all the way through again to verify).





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[Linderflomann]

I'm actually surprised how little traction this vid is getting on the various guitar forums. I suspect it reveals some truths many people find uncomfortable.

 

[Happy Enchilada]

O the corksniffers' teardrops fall like rain.
No exotic wood or nitro for sustain.
Just ten fingers and some pedals is all you need
And practice until those fingers bleed.