does wood affect playability?

I played a squire tele the other day and i had so much fun. it may have been the strings but it was so smooth and I was wondering if the unstained maple as opposed to rosewood affects the fretplay of a guitar?

I don't know. I was about to ask the same question and I also wanted to know if it somehow affects the tone though I seriously doubt it would. Is it just which type of wood you think looks good?

Wood type most definately affects the tone and playability. I first realized this when I got my SG with an Ebony fretboard. Ebony is really dense, and it just seems smoother to the touch...

My Ernie Ball has an unfinished maple neck and fretboard. It's very smooth also, but Ebony seems to be the slickest...The maple is smoother than the Rosewood fretboard that is on my Strat.

I'm also not so sure about this. Some guitar books claimed that wood doesn't affect tone in electric solidbody. The pickups are what really matters since the coils on the pickups translates the string vibration into electricity directly.

Then again, lots of expert guitar player insist that wood does affect tone quality.

I don't doubt that wood affect playability, especially the fingerboard. However, my logic dictates that wood doesn't affect tone since the pickups are not microphonic (at least in good electrics). Anyone got a better explanation?

[font=trebuchet ms]An important step in selecting an electric guitar is playing it [u]without plugging in to any amp[/u]! A guitar that does not sound good on its own will not sound better plugged in - just louder.

Choice of materials very definitely has an effect on the sound of an electric guitar. A pickup can be designed to shape the inherent sound of a guitar by enhancing or reducing parts of the frequency spectrum, but it can only work with what the guitar produces in the first place.

That's why another important selection step is to play with the amp set up [u]clean[/u]. You want to assess what the pickups are doing to the original sound of the guitar.

If you use massive amounts of gain to get huge distortion, then the pickups and the amp become the dominant factors in the final sound, and the guitar itself is almost reduced to irrelevance.


... Which is kinda sad, I think...[/font]

to Strings... i'm not concerned right now about the tone. I really just want to know if an unfinished maple fretboard is going to feel a lot smoother when bending notes and such as opposed to rosewood. Or am I just imagining things??

[font=trebuchet ms]If feel is your only consideration, then maple will probably be your choice, simply because it has a tighter, less open grain. You might also like ebony.[/font]

Originally Posted by: Lordathestrings[font=trebuchet ms]An important step in selecting an electric guitar is playing it [u]without plugging in to any amp[/u]! A guitar that does not sound good on its own will not sound better plugged in - just louder.

Choice of materials very definitely has an effect on the sound of an electric guitar. A pickup can be designed to shape the inherent sound of a guitar by enhancing or reducing parts of the frequency spectrum, but it can only work with what the guitar produces in the first place.

That's why another important selection step is to play with the amp set up [u]clean[/u]. You want to assess what the pickups are doing to the original sound of the guitar.

If you use massive amounts of gain to get huge distortion, then the pickups and the amp become the dominant factors in the final sound, and the guitar itself is almost reduced to irrelevance.


... Which is kinda sad, I think...[/font]

you mean the type of the wood used in the construction does affect the way the strings vibrate? or does the vibration of the wood itself is captured in the pickups?

I did notice that Les Pauls have a rigid body, while Strats (at least the ones I played) tend to vibrate with the strings when played, which is not the case with Les Pauls (again, the ones I played). However, Ibanez JEMs & RGs don't really have that strat-type body vibration when played, probably due to their tremolo design.

I always thought that strat & les pauls have different tone mainly due to humbuckers & single coils used in them.

The type of woods used in the construction of a guitar are one of the three determinants of the tone of the guitar... and is equally as important as pickups. To start with I will explain the question regarding fretboard woods then I will explain the guitar woods as a whole... The most popular fretboard woods are rosewood and maple... ebony IS rosewood... its just a choice cut that is taken from the center of the tree instead of near the outside... making it slightly denser. There are different types of maple as well as different types of rosewood which vary in densities, price, look and so on... but to alleviate confusion I won't get into that... Maple is the more dense than rosewood. Dense woods transfer vibrations through all frequency ranges better than less-dense woods because the fibers of the wood are closer together (obviously) giving maple a brighter tone than rosewood. Rosewood is less dense and therefor transfers less vibrational frequencies due to the more spreadout fiber/molecular structure... this gives it a low frequency range and gives the wood a deeper, warmer tone... Also, you have to look at the neck wood in itself... if the neck is a one piece maple, maple with rosewood fretboard... or mahogany with rosewood fretboard... it makes a difference in tone. As for playability... its an opinion thing. Most blues musicians like the rosewood because its "softer" than maple. Maple... in my opinion plays faster than any type of rosewood... As for the overall tone of a guitar... the same applies. Mahogany, Ash, Basswood, Poplar, and Alder are all popular tone woods for electric guitars... there are others but those are the main ones used by all manufacturers... Mahogany is the most dense which makes it very heavy... this also makes it the warmest souding... and the brightest sounding... this is slightly different than the neck woods. The density of the wood also carries the vibrational frequencies better throughout the wood giving it the best sustain of all woods. Still, some people dont like the sound of mahogany or the extra weight on the shoulder... The other woods I listed are all pretty similar to each other... they're less dense than mahogany but all are very good tone woods. Adler, Ash, and Poplar are known to get the Strat tone... and Basswood is a light wood that is used in a lot of shred guitars to substitute for the heavier mahogany.... thats a simple breakdown of how wood reflects tone... if you want to know more about the science of it all contact me... but I don't feel the need to go into it further.

Not sure about it's tonal qualities, but my Korina SG is alot easier on my shoulder anyways.

Diggin the new Avatar Rusty!

Originally Posted by: bigbudaDiggin the new Avatar Rusty!

The ole' Lone Star...not many other states could pull that off. , but someone in Japan could recognise the Texan Flag.

Those are pretty cool. Where did you find all of them?

Every state in the Union...plus a few more on other pages.

Dude, that Texan Flag is so awesome

Originally Posted by: alucard0941Dude, that Texan Flag is so awesome

Well of course us 3 think so, but we're just a little biased, being the natives that we are :)

aschleman, that was probably one of the most detailed and accurate desciptions of what exactly the wood does that I've ever heard. You definitely cleared up a few nagging questions I've had. I will say that as far as tone, I think the pickups affect it more than the wood though. I don't think pickups and wood affect tone equally, but you probably can back your reasoning up better... thanks for the info