TONE- that four letter word

Just wanna hear everybody's opinion about tone. What percentage of a guitar's tone is accounted by the type/quality of wood? for gauge of strings? for type of pickups?

Depends on the guitar. Pickups can have a pretty big influence.

how big? (ie. percentage)

Depends on the pickups. Your average pickups might have like 20% influence, hotter pickups (like EMG) might have up to like 80%, and if you have something like really crappy brand-x active pickups it might be closer to the full three digits. I personally prefer very transparant pickups for the neck, but I'm sad to say I've never found one I really like. All those percentages are rough guesses, btw. Different people also have different degrees of influence. Some people sound the same through pretty much all pickups, and some people almost exaggerate tonal differences and subtleties when they play (which can be very good).

difference pickups can make in the tone of your guitar. I always thought it was only really the amp that made the difference. I'm sure lots of people dont like certain amps and i bet if they just changed their pickups they would realize their amp isnt all that bad. I have heard about some pickups sounding very similar on any guitar and other pickups having a very different tone depending on the actual guitar.
The strings can have a difference in tone...

thicker strings will make your tone sound more heavy and add more bass to it. Thicker strings also give you more sustain. They will produce more volume too.
There are also bad things about thicker strings which effect your the playability of the guitar which you probably know about anyway.
The wood will have a slight effect. Guitars designed for lead players and rythem players will be made of different wood. I dont know which type of wood is used for what though. I think the type wood may effect how some pickups work too.

etc etc .... i dont know what i'm on about.

Hope this all helps ;)

(dont you hate it when you just finish writing something and you accidently delete the last paragraph.. well that just happend to me)

I didnt know there are guitars made for lead playing and rhythm. whats the difference between the two? and also, do they use different strings? Is the lead guitar suppose to sound more treble than the rhythm guitar?

Depends on personal taste. Maple necks are more commonly used by lead guitarists, mahogany is more commonly used by rhythm guitarists. That's not across the board though, it's largely personal preference.

Guitars also depend on the specific wood used. You can make two identical guitars from identical species and set the up the exact same way and they'll feel and sound different. When talking about wood it's always important to remember that characteristics of a species are generalizations and differences do occur.

That's one reason when you're buying a guitar like a strat or tele it's important to try out as many as possible and find the one you like best, because specific chunks of wood can and do have a huge influence on the finished product.

As far as lead guitars having more treble that depends on the pickups. Woods like maple are brighter, but the balance between the treble and mids and bass is going to be mostly interpreted by the pickups. To continue generalizing, lead guitarists tend to use thinner strings and rhythm guitarists tend to use thicker, guitars made more for lead work can have thinner necks (such as the Ibanez JEM) and rhythm guitars tend to have thicker necks (although exceptions are very common due to personal tastes in feel and hand size), and lead guitars tend to have less complex electronics because the more wiring the sound goes through the less bright it sounds.

wow! thats very informative. thnx hammurabi. i didn't know that lead guitar players have less electronics. no wonder why my sound became less treble!. I used to play lead until my rhythm player left the band because he found it hard to commit and go to practices beacsue of his work and his obligation to his wife and kids so I have to replace him. I haven't played pure rhythm for a long time- my guitar was set up as a lead guitar with 8's. I never knew there was a difference between lead guitar and rhtyhm guitar- no wonder why my tone sounds awesome when I play lead but sounds so thin, twangy, and crappy whenever I play power chords/ 5ths, strum chords etc. I actually thought it was my korgax1500g distortion effects thats thin, until a friend adviced me to use thicker strings. I tried the elixir 11s, and I found a very big difference in tone. However, I must admit, my only grudge is that I have to sacrifice speed because its been a long while since I played with thick strings and I'm still getting my fingers to be familiar with it. I also find the thick strings better with the piezo system because I found the sound more boxy.

And no wonder why i had this change in tone when I added a lot of electronics in my guitar. I didnt think that electronics can make your guitar less treble. That explains the change of tone in my guitar!

I think long instrument cables can also have a similar effect, depending on their construction. I've never used anything except generic 15 foot cables so I can't say for sure how much of a difference it makes.

I use an 18 inch metalic gold dimarzio EP1718GM cable patch. what's your opinion about these overbraid cables? does it matter if they have gold?

Upgrading my guitar cables gave me the biggest shock, good quality cables are essential otherwise your good amp n guitar will sound average.

Originally posted by the fool
I use an 18 inch metalic gold dimarzio EP1718GM cable patch. what's your opinion about these overbraid cables? does it matter if they have gold?

I've never used that particular cable, but dimarzio makes good products and gold is awesome :) I'm not sure if or how differently gold would conduct the signal than a normal cable, but I doubt it would hurt anything.

but it would hurt your wallet *LOL*

however - every unit thats between your guitar and your amp, every millimeter of cable, every little thing actually affects your tone to a certain degree. its not just for fun that some of the best hi-fi systems out there work with cables that cost as much as a brand new car!

In my line of work (check my profile), I deal with characteristics that can be measured and quantified. A lot of the claims made by "high-end" manufacturers amount ot nothing more than the Emperor's new clothes. No-one is willing to admit that they can't hear the difference, but electronic equipment has no sense of embarassment, so it is unafraid to tell the truth.

Let's start with the conceit that some systems handle high frequencies better than others. Even when such claims can be verified by careful measurement, it is not possible for anyone to hear the difference between a 10 kHz sine wave (pure tone) and a 10 kHz square wave!

What kind of schooling do you need for a job like that? :confused: I've never seen anything like that around here.

Originally posted by Hammurabi
What kind of schooling do you need for a job like that? :confused: I've never seen anything like that around here.

If you plug an electric drill into the same outlet as a TV set and see what happens to the picture when you run the drill, you get some idea of the issues my lab deals with.

As far as I know, there are no post-secondary school courses focused on preparing graduates for a carreer in EMC (Electromagnetic Compatability). You would do well to start off with a good understanding of physics as it relates to the propogation of Radio Frequencies. Some training as an electrical engineer might be useful as well. But it still comes down to what amounts to an apprenticeship at an accredited test laboratory. Since you can't graduate from any school ready to do the job, you have to "learn as you earn" by getting a job at the bottom of the ladder at a test lab, and acquiring the necessary skills on the job.

If you poke around on the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) website, you can find a list of test labs that are recognized as sites that provide test data acceptable for assessing a product's marketability. You could approach one of these labs about a summer work-term.

You aren't likely to get rich in this line of work, but it is interesting. You get to see and examine high-tech products before they come to market. Sometimes you get to work on secret stuff that you can't talk about. But EMC is a small world. An individual can make a noticeable difference in this field. The key is to see your goal as not making an applicant fail, but to prove that a deserving applicant passes.

I'm not quite sure what you mean. I don't have a TV and I never have.

Secret stuff you can't talk about..that sounds interesting. It would probably be stupid of me to ask for an example. :) Physics is pretty much the only major I haven't taken classes in. Oops.

Originally posted by Hammurabi
I'm not quite sure what you mean. I don't have a TV and I never have.

I like to use that example because the motor in a drill that plugs into the wall creates a lot of electrical noise, both conducted along the power cord to the AC outlet and into the TV set, and radiated through the air to the TV set. The result is a seriously messed-up picture.

Originally posted by Hammurabi
Secret stuff you can't talk about..that sounds interesting. It would probably be stupid of me to ask for an example. :)

Because products must be tested to prove that they meet the regulatory requirements [u]before[/u] they can be marketed, we can't talk about what we've been working on. If the product happens to have military applications, the need for discretion becomes imperative.

Originally posted by Hammurabi Physics is pretty much the only major I haven't taken classes in. Oops.

A knowledge of physics helps you to understand what goes on during the tests we perform, and why. You could learn about what we do from scratch, but it would be harder to grasp.

how about guitar wireless systems- do they sound any better than good ol cables?

Originally posted by the fool
how about guitar wireless systems- do they sound any better than good ol cables?

A really good system could be as good as a cable. There's likely to be some added noise, and interference can also be a problem. These things are low-power radio transmitters and receivers, so quality is important (and expensive).