what contributes the most to the tone?

a nagging question but a good good question nonetheless..
which factor really guarantee a good tone for a guitar ? ..
your opinion and why do you think so

 

personally i think its a tie between pickups and wood ... but i'll go for the wood

 

imo most of the factors u mentioned, if not all, contribute to the tone of the guitar ... for example ... the quality of the wood defines the sustain and also the overall characteristic of the sound while the pickups define the sharpness of the sound ... i guess the choice among the above two would also depend on the type of music u play ... like for example if u r into a lot of metal the pickups would matter more than the wood i guess ... coz humbucker pickups lend a lot of crunch and power in the sound ... if someone is more into classic rock then i guess the wood might seem more important e.g. in the Les Paul guitars ...

i don't think i made a lot of sense there ... i would leave the rest of the interpretation to you though

:rockon:

 

btw ... shahrukh y haven't u voted yet ??? :think:

 

I'll vote for pickups. Nice thread by the way.

 

thats the problem!! ... yesterday i was changing my strings and had an idea... i swapped the bridge pickups on my gibson LP and the custom LP .. i thought since the bridge pickup on gibson LP gives me good fat mid-tones on gibson it should do the same on the cusotm LP and the custom LP's pickup should give me good treble on the gibson ... but guess what happened? ...
the guitars sounded almost exactly the same as before i had swapped the pickups!!!.... the custom LP still lacked the beefy mid-tones and the gibson wasn't screaming like a metal monster ... i dont understand ... on my guitars the pickups seem to have no significant effect on the tone of the guitar ...
weel there is some effect but too subtle to notice... so it down to wood?

 

Well dude..all factors are important:
> Pickups and body woodbviously
> Pickup positioning shud matter I guess..after all its a vibrating string with nodes and antinodes..so pickups shud be placed at the proper locations
> Also, the fingerboard matters...maple fingerboards are supposed to have a certain 'twang' to the notes..Rosewood..the notes sort of 'bloom' after hitting
> I dun think the body shape matters....
> I see nobody mentioned the kind of neck joint...thats important too
eg..Strat->bolt-on neck on single piece body
LP->set(glued in) neck with 3 piece body
Jackson,some Ibanez->neck through body
All this should contribute to the tone..
> Also I have read of direct mounting of pickups(no glue or paint in between) onto the neck can lead to great improvement in tone..
> The kind of bridge also matters.....A stopbar tailpiece kinda bridge,say,the tun-o-matic(as oppossed to a FR or tremolo kinda bridge) wud transfer more string vibration to the body...

Ok..let me state here that all this info is from various articles..I dont own an elec myself..:..he he..

 

shahrukh..check out ibreathemusic.com , theres an article there by a guy named Eric Vandenberg named 'The quest for tone' ...u might find it useful.

 

Surprisingly nobody talks about fingers. Fingers can make a lot of difference in sound. In my previous band, when me and my other guitarist play the same lick even on the same guitar and set up, we sounded totally different. We went as far as to actually sit down and check it out.
Remeber Marty Friedman who once said Tone Comes From Your Fingers.
The Great Leslie West of Mountain :nw: is one guy who has played on Fender, Gibson, Steinberger and several guitar and still continues to keep changing his guitar and amps (Wierd Guy). He doesn't use much processing too and almost always he gets the same sound irrespective of the guitar or amp he uses. In an interview he was asked how he manages to get the same great tone irrespective of guitars and amps for which he replied that the tone comes from Fingers, Heart and Soul. :nw:
I am not sure how many people with agree on this.

 

yeah...even that article dennis mentioned says this..the tone is unique to the player....
I thought Shahrukh was asking for the effect of the guitar construction, material etc on tone.....I had seen some luthier sites which gave fundaes on this....
Getting exactly the same tone from any guitar and setup...hmm...I dunno..:

 

hmmm ...wow! .. you guys are taking this seriuosly ...goooood ...we needed some goood hardware talk at IGT ... well @nebuchadnezzar ... the thing is that there are several other factors which contribute to the tone that i haevnt mentioned ... the plectrum, the bridge (as you mentioned) the hardware meterial (aluminium, steel or nickel) ...the NUT (bone, china or graphite) the frets ...thier hieght ...etc ...but that would have made things very comlpicated ...so thats why i left them .. but yeah i gotta give it to ya on the neck joint point ...neck joint do have an effect on guitars tone ...
well i always thought that the shape of guitar has effect ont he tone ... no reason why luthiers spend ages developing and patending guitar shapes ..but i can be wrong there ...
thanx for your input guys

 

*CLAP CLAP CLAP*
Totally agree with U.
A good example is Jeff Beck. Minimum equipment but brilliiant tone. Plus this guy never plays with a pick(GENIUS).
1) Fingers
2)pickups
3)AMP
4)postioning
5) wood and strings

 

really interesting and enlightening thread .... keep up the good work guys ... good reps for u ... :rock:

 

i shoulda been more specific ... special reference to ... ronnieanand, nebu, shahrukh and dennis ... :rockon:

 

its wood
its wood
its wood
come on guys
its wood noting else
baaki sab dhoka hai

 

really intersting article. .. i am conviced that fingers have a very important role ... thnx a lot dennis ... good reps for ya!

 

fingers

pickups

the wood and the construction!

construction of the neck matters a lot mostly for sustain, as do the fingerboard, the nut and the bridge.

the amps and the sound processing done(if any).

the plectrums, strings, cables etc.

 

hey thanx shahrukh..im convinced its fingers dude. So many guys have strats but they all got their own sound..jimi,clapton,eric johnson,gilmour etc.

 

i think for a Acoustic...Material n Quality of the strings Matter
n for Elec.. Amp matters

 

1. the way u play
2. the wood
3. pickup
4. amp and pedals
5. strings

in order of importance