Grading Electric Guitar Body

[hackernox]

I am a little confuse with various spec. Can anyone help me to grade/rank these electric guitar body.

Body
a. Alder
b. Hardwood
c. plywood
d. Mahogany
e. Asian Mahogany
f. Maple
g. Basswood
h. Hard Ash
i. Agathis
j. Spruce

 

[Ragus]

You can see this website for more info:

http://www.tonosity.com/Detail/Editorial.aspx?Editorial_ID=26

 

[hackernox]

Hi Ragus

Thanks for the lead. It is a great site to know more about guitar. But I don't quite understand what they mean by low-end, mid-range, high-end and susbstain

Also I could not find any comments on Agathis, Spruce and Hardwood (found this spec in one of the guitar magazine). Any idea about it?

 

[subversion]

there's a subliminal acknowledgement that certain tone woods make better/ more resonant guitar bodies but after years of playing, IMO it's more hype than anything else. once you swap pickups/ switch amps, it'll affect tone regardless of the wood type.

we take the cue from Joe Satriani for instance, an outstanding player who would have tone woods at his disposal but chose basswood as a mainstay material for his endorsed signature models...

however, not to dismiss this perception entirely, wood type does influence sustain.

 

[marshall_law]

The most common wood for guitars are mahogany and alder. You can't really grade which wood is more superior to different species. Gibson uses mahogany and fender use alder for most of their guitar. So you can't say fender is better or gibson is better than fender. Cause each wood have different sound. But you can compare the grade of the same species of the wood. Like a les paul standard wood are AA and the les paul supreme are AAAA. Thus the supreme sound sweeter than the standard.

 

[brundisium]

do correct me if iam wrong, aint those AA or AAAAA stuff is only for the layer of wood on the guitar top? Or it means the chunk of wood?

 

[subversion]

yes brundi- the 'A' grade refers to the cap only not the entire body wood... 8)

 

[repulse87]

AA Maple to AAAAA Maple (highest grade) is graded by how nicely figured the maple is, AA Maple will be less figured than that of AAAAA Maple and may have "dead spots", and discontinuous flame. I disagree on the comment that AAAAA maple will sound sweeter than AA maple. Its basically graded on cosmetics, not sound/resonance. I've heard in some reports that say the more figured the wood is, the less resonant the wood is (go figure). Anyways, main point, grade of wood doesn't constitute to tone.

 

[Ragus]

Hi Hackernox, to answer your question, I'm not too sure about this but I think Hardwood is any kind of wood that is hard 8) Not a particular species of wood....Most musical instruments are made of hardwoods.

Spruce, however, is a softwood and is widely used in acoustic guitar tops. Never seen spruce in an electric yet.

Agathis, I think is a cheap substitute for alder. Agathis can be found in bodies of Fender copies like the lower end Samicks, TGMS...

Anyone please correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks! 8)

 

[Ragus]

Oh yes your other question on the website hackernox: Low end=bass, mid range=mids, high end=treble. 8) It's not referring to the price. Sustain is how well the sound continues to ring after the string is pluckec.

It's true what subversion said, in an electric guitar there are many more factors contributing to tone than an acoustic. Pickups, cables, effects, amps, speakers... Especially with a lot of effects, choice of wood becomes less crucial. If you go direct from guitar to amp, then the difference in woods is more noticeable.

 

[subversion]

Agathis is a distnant family of mahagony. One of my guitars sports this wood, like its mahagony relative, the midrange is more pronounced & the sustain more notable.

As long as it’s a solid make, it’ll generate decent tones. Never invest in plywood… that’s my bottom line.

 

[marshall_law]

As long as it’s a solid make, it’ll generate decent tones. Never invest in plywood… that’s my bottom line.

I agree with subversion. Unless you're really broke and desparate to get a guitar, stay out of plywood.

 

[marshall_law]

AA Maple to AAAAA Maple (highest grade) is graded by how nicely figured the maple is, AA Maple will be less figured than that of AAAAA Maple and may have "dead spots", and discontinuous flame. I disagree on the comment that AAAAA maple will sound sweeter than AA maple. Its basically graded on cosmetics, not sound/resonance. I've heard in some reports that say the more figured the wood is, the less resonant the wood is (go figure). Anyways, main point, grade of wood doesn't constitute to tone.

I've read on the les paul forum that the grade of the wood do affect the sound of the electric guitar. But other say the grade of the wood only affect the sound only in acoustics, not electric. Well, no one knows the correct answer anyway.

 

[brundisium]

imho, the wood does make a different to the eletric guitar tone. But there are other major factors that affect tone, like the amp, pickup, eq setting and thru lots of efx or straight to amp. Sometime, tone is more of a psychology effect. Ever wonder if we blindfold someone and play a epiphone LP and a gibson LP, through a good amp. Will the average guitar player hear the difference?

 

[pickg]

Honestly the IMO the body wood does affect the tone of the guitar a great deal. thats common knowledge among guitar makers

However, to really hear the tonal difference, you need a good valve amp. A good valve amp brings out the character of the guitar. If its a guitar cheaply made of lousy materials, the amp will amplify the quality of the guitar. If the guitar is made of good tonewoods, the amp will amplify the quality of the tonewoods.

granted, much of the tone lies in the player's fingers bla bla blah yes, but we're talking about the the woods, so leaving the player out of the equation.....

apart from the body, the material of the neck, the fretboard, also the pickups and the amp affect the tone as well. i would think that the amp has the greatest effect on your tone, followed by the pickups and the body material. The woods of the fretboard and the neck probably affect it to a minimal degree, which can be offset by equalisation on the amp.

i believe that joe satriani and john petrucci use basswod as the tonewood of choice because of the tone property of the wood itself rather than the inherent cost of the woods. Basswood has outstanding and is very balanced in the high registers.

From personal experience i find the tone of a strat and a gibson les paul to be complete opposites when played through the same amp. the strat, with ash body and rosewood fretboard is very bright compared to the mahogany bodied les paul.

also, the AA/AAAA graded maple tops of les pauls add a little brightness to the tone of the les paul, but whether its AA/ AAAA jsut determines how highly figured the flame maple is, and this i beleive will have no effect on the tone of the guitar. [/quote]

 

[marshall_law]

I read on the les paul forum that the grade affect the tone as the vibration on the wood is different. But some argue that it does not affect much as it is not an acoustic guitar. So i guess since most agree that the grade(aa/aaa) do not affect the tone, so it is only the the species of the wood affect the tone.

Honestly the IMO the body wood does affect the tone of the guitar a great deal. thats common knowledge among guitar makers

I agree with this. A strat can't be mod to sound like a les paul and a les paul can't be mod to sound like a strat. Even with the same pickups, the strat will still have the 'twang' sound and les paul will still have the bouncy sound.