Hi all…
I was just sitting around Esplanade that day in the library section, browsing the books when it suddenly hit me that there’s precious little information to be found on the technical aspect of guitar:
Questions such as- ‘what in the world is a Floyd Rose Tremolo Locking system?’ ‘What kinda wood do I want my guitar to have and how does the type of wood affect my tone?’ and ‘What do all these weird thingamy effect thingies like compression and noise gate mean?’- are seldom answered for newcomers to the guitar in a manner that is comprehensive and easy to understand.
I haven’t been contributing much to the community, and I don’t pretend to have an encyclopedic amount of knowledge on guitar tech and tone, so this is just my humble attempt to help beginners who have some questions regarding the different types of guitar, and which one would suit their personal style, or perhaps even some brothers who have been woodshedding for a long time, but who, like myself until just recently, wouldn’t know the difference between a Seymour Duncan pickup and an Ernie Ball guitar strap.
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What’s the diff between semi-hollow body electric guitar and a regular electric? I can’t strum the damn thing without an amp anyway!
Basically, a semi-hollow body (semi-solid body) guitar has an internal chamber that causes it to resonate more like a traditional acoustic guitar. A general rule of thumb is that amplified semi-hollow bodies produce a warmer tone, but may tend to feedback more easily than your typical solid bodies.
Does the wood that makes up my guitar body affect the tone?
Definitely! Here’s a list of different tonal characteristics you may find useful. Do note that this applies to electric guitars as well as acoustics, but more so for the latter:
Alder- Light weight, full tone and balance. Common material for guitar bodies
Ash: Light weight, warm and bright tone. Fender Stratocasters bodies are constructed from Ash.
Basswood: Light weight, warmer tone.
Mahogany: Medium weight, full tone with nice sustain.
Maple: Medium weight, bright tone. Actually used more for guitar fretboards but can be seen in guitar bodies as well.
Poplar- light weight, full tone.
Rosewood: Heavy weight, warm tone with fewer highs. Often used in fretboards.
How about strings?
Stainless steel: Brilliant tone, anti-corrosive (duh…~_^)
Nickel-plated- bright tone, highly magnetic
Pure nickel- round and fuller than nickel-plated
String gauges (ie. sizes) affect your sound too, besides affecting the ease of playing and personal preference. Light gauges give you a bright tone, make string bending easier and go easier on your finger tips. Heavy gauges give a fuller tone with better sustain but may be a real b!tch to bend.
Pickup selectors:
The pickup selector switch position dictates the kind of tone you get from your pickups
Bridge position: bright, thick sounds. Great for overdrive rhythm and distortion
Middle position: Thinner and trebly. Some shred-heads I know call this the half-f@(#*@ position, but alternative some crazy ass guys love the sound. Whatever rocks your boat, although you’ll find this more on rhythm playing with clean tones.
Neck position: Warm with more emphasis on the bottom. Nice for leads in overdrive and in clean tones. ( Try rolling the tone knob all the way down for what Slash and Clapton call the ‘woman tone’ on the guitar- a really mellow and rounded kind of sound.)
Does the shape of the guitar body affect the tone of my electric?
Well, sure! It’s the reason why Flying Vs are said to have that distinctive, cutting sound. It’s pretty difficult to categorize all the different kind of body shapes and their tones here, but the idea is that the more ‘harsh’ the lines of the guitar body, like on a Warlock or a Dimebag’s’(RIP) custom , the more harsh the tone, which is why you see all the metal-head carrying around those satanic shaped guitars. ~_^
This is partially due to the guitar designer wanting the visual aesthetic to suit the type of sound the guitar makes, too of course, so…
Generally you’ll want to have a look at other factors like the wood, the type of pickups, the type of neck to body setup and the distance of the strings from the pickups, before you have a look at the body. (Any guitar tech experts to correct me on this please?)
-----
So this is part 1 of the series, mainly having to do with the guitar bodies- their parts and the respective effect that each part has in making up the overall tone of the guitar. Hope you guys enjoy and find this post helpful! More to come soon.
Next post: Jumbo frets, singlecoil pickups? Floyd Rose Tremolo bar, Neck sets, distance between pickup and strings, action
(Feel free to correct or add on any information that you guys think would be useful!)
I was just sitting around Esplanade that day in the library section, browsing the books when it suddenly hit me that there’s precious little information to be found on the technical aspect of guitar:
Questions such as- ‘what in the world is a Floyd Rose Tremolo Locking system?’ ‘What kinda wood do I want my guitar to have and how does the type of wood affect my tone?’ and ‘What do all these weird thingamy effect thingies like compression and noise gate mean?’- are seldom answered for newcomers to the guitar in a manner that is comprehensive and easy to understand.
I haven’t been contributing much to the community, and I don’t pretend to have an encyclopedic amount of knowledge on guitar tech and tone, so this is just my humble attempt to help beginners who have some questions regarding the different types of guitar, and which one would suit their personal style, or perhaps even some brothers who have been woodshedding for a long time, but who, like myself until just recently, wouldn’t know the difference between a Seymour Duncan pickup and an Ernie Ball guitar strap.
----
What’s the diff between semi-hollow body electric guitar and a regular electric? I can’t strum the damn thing without an amp anyway!
Basically, a semi-hollow body (semi-solid body) guitar has an internal chamber that causes it to resonate more like a traditional acoustic guitar. A general rule of thumb is that amplified semi-hollow bodies produce a warmer tone, but may tend to feedback more easily than your typical solid bodies.
Does the wood that makes up my guitar body affect the tone?
Definitely! Here’s a list of different tonal characteristics you may find useful. Do note that this applies to electric guitars as well as acoustics, but more so for the latter:
Alder- Light weight, full tone and balance. Common material for guitar bodies
Ash: Light weight, warm and bright tone. Fender Stratocasters bodies are constructed from Ash.
Basswood: Light weight, warmer tone.
Mahogany: Medium weight, full tone with nice sustain.
Maple: Medium weight, bright tone. Actually used more for guitar fretboards but can be seen in guitar bodies as well.
Poplar- light weight, full tone.
Rosewood: Heavy weight, warm tone with fewer highs. Often used in fretboards.
How about strings?
Stainless steel: Brilliant tone, anti-corrosive (duh…~_^)
Nickel-plated- bright tone, highly magnetic
Pure nickel- round and fuller than nickel-plated
String gauges (ie. sizes) affect your sound too, besides affecting the ease of playing and personal preference. Light gauges give you a bright tone, make string bending easier and go easier on your finger tips. Heavy gauges give a fuller tone with better sustain but may be a real b!tch to bend.
Pickup selectors:
The pickup selector switch position dictates the kind of tone you get from your pickups
Bridge position: bright, thick sounds. Great for overdrive rhythm and distortion
Middle position: Thinner and trebly. Some shred-heads I know call this the half-f@(#*@ position, but alternative some crazy ass guys love the sound. Whatever rocks your boat, although you’ll find this more on rhythm playing with clean tones.
Neck position: Warm with more emphasis on the bottom. Nice for leads in overdrive and in clean tones. ( Try rolling the tone knob all the way down for what Slash and Clapton call the ‘woman tone’ on the guitar- a really mellow and rounded kind of sound.)
Does the shape of the guitar body affect the tone of my electric?
Well, sure! It’s the reason why Flying Vs are said to have that distinctive, cutting sound. It’s pretty difficult to categorize all the different kind of body shapes and their tones here, but the idea is that the more ‘harsh’ the lines of the guitar body, like on a Warlock or a Dimebag’s’(RIP) custom , the more harsh the tone, which is why you see all the metal-head carrying around those satanic shaped guitars. ~_^
This is partially due to the guitar designer wanting the visual aesthetic to suit the type of sound the guitar makes, too of course, so…
Generally you’ll want to have a look at other factors like the wood, the type of pickups, the type of neck to body setup and the distance of the strings from the pickups, before you have a look at the body. (Any guitar tech experts to correct me on this please?)
-----
So this is part 1 of the series, mainly having to do with the guitar bodies- their parts and the respective effect that each part has in making up the overall tone of the guitar. Hope you guys enjoy and find this post helpful! More to come soon.
Next post: Jumbo frets, singlecoil pickups? Floyd Rose Tremolo bar, Neck sets, distance between pickup and strings, action
(Feel free to correct or add on any information that you guys think would be useful!)
