I've been building my own guitars off/on since high school. I'm 41. I build most of mine out of cheap disused woods from pallets,construction sites, fenceposts...etc. Have not had a single one that sounded "bad" because im using Oak, Cedar, Southern Yellow Pine, pressure treated lumber, chipboard, or plywood in construction and crafting grades. Only time anyone complained about the wood "tone" is when some cork sniffer with a Gibson or PRS, or other "prestigious" brand is listening with their eyes. Just built a quick and dirty offset for $10 using Cedar from a rotting planter I upcycled...sounds awesome even with repaired and upcycled cheap pickups. Even have a vid slated for Saturday. The difference wood makes on a solidbody is so minor that it's not even worth arguing about.

really nice to hear someone finally talking sense about this. The manner in which the string vibrates in the magnetic field determines the sound of the guitar, and what the string is attached to influences how the string vibrates...

As a physicist with some experience and background in acoustics, I would say that, as long as the material of a solid body guitar is sufficiently stiff so as to allow for a suitable output from the pickups, you can get a nice sound out of it.

I’m in the Fricker camp. Makes a difference if playing unplugged or quiet enough to hear the guitar acoustically in combination with amplification. But, once amplified or distorted enough so it’s just what’s coming through the speaker that you hear, tonewood doesn’t translate in a meaningful way. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter, in particular if you fall in love with the guitar or song in the first setting to be able to express the music in the second setting.

I could hug you right now, been making the exact argument for ages, no two pieces of timber are the same, a species name is not a control measure, etc etc. Well done mate!

If there is so much debate by experts it’s quite clear that the contribution of wood can’t be THAT important.

One thing that tone wood camp people are never doing is a double-blind test. I wonder why.

Paul Reed Smith is an amazing marketeer and manufacturing engineer. His ability to refine manufacturing process to not only produce high quality instruments but have those processes be teachable to a variety of staff has defined his instruments. But his tonewood argument is nothing more that marketspeak and has no actual scientific basing.

Agree on all your points. Appreciate the calm rational discussion here. What turned me off about Mr. PRS was how he insulted me as a basement dweller in my underwear for not sharing his view. Doesn't get me too excited to buy any of his products. BTW, I choose wood based on its appearance, durability, weight, and cost. If I were a luthier, machinability would also be a factor. Even if I could detect the tone differences, I would guess there's almost as much variation within a species as there is between species.

I’m very specific about my tonewood. I grow my own trees in a controlled environment and cut specifically from the core of the tree to get a very consistent warm rich guitar body which I then cover in a half inch thick coat of poly paint.

“Electric guitars may have either a sold wood body or a hollow body. Vibrations of the body are RELATIVELY UNIMPORTANT, and since the strings TRANSFER RELATIVELY LITTLE energy to the body, electric guitars are characterized by long sustain.” From “The Physics of Musical Instruments” by Fletcher & Rossing page 227 (Added emphasis mine)

Imagine what would punk rock would be without the careful and judicious application of tone woods?

Back-of-the envelope physics: the signal is determined by the movement of the strings in the magnetic field of the pickups. "But the body vibrates as well!" Well, the body weighs some 4 kg. The strings weigh a couple of grams. So even if you transferred all of the string's vibrational energy into the the body, the velocity of the body's vibrations would be lower by a factor of a 1000 or so... and how much of that energy goes back into the string? Not a whole lot, seeing how guitar bodies don't resonate very long. And does the pickup move along with the motion of the guitar body? Seeing how it typically sits on a piece of dense foam designed to dampen vibrations - probably not. For those interested in the nitty-gritty, there's a book by Prof. Manfred Zollner, "The Physics of the Electric Guitar" - you can probably find it for download somewhere. He argues that the parts of the guitar (apart from pickups and electronics) that do influence the sound are the ones that are in direct physical contact with the string - the bridge, the nut, the frets. He has not been able to measure any impact of the wood of the body in properly designed and performed tests (which are harder to do than one would think).

The point: As a consumer, beyond the basic feel / playability / stability of the construction, should we be paying premium prices for specific tonewood in solid body electric guitars with the idea it'll affect the sound? In my opinion, no. Not at the drastic markups that are being asked and specifically not when you can put a relatively inexpensive EQ pedal into the signal chain and create much more significant changes in your tone. If money is no object, do what makes you happy, but when you're trying to find a sound on any kind of budget at all, there are much better ways to spend your money.

I've been playing electric guitar since 1985 and have never once selected a guitar based on the wood. What's most important to me is the scale length, build quality, ergonomics and to some degree the color. I do prefer light weight guitars so I may have unknowingly chose certain woods just because of their weight. Exactly as you stated, I have always changed pickups, wiring, amp settings, pedals and software to get the tones I like.

Thank you! At a certain point the most important thing is playing and enjoying music. It’s like we are arguing about the precision of shades of orange, can some people perceive slight differences and others not yes. Can they all agree the fall foliage is beautiful?

I’m open to having a “tone pickup” debate lol 😂

Your take is EXACTLY what I've always believed. Each piece is totally different. I do believe different wood affects tone, but IMHO it has to do with how much frequencies and overtones are absorbed by a particular piece, and of course the construction of the guitar. THEN, that becomes ONE factor in tone. You also have the contact area on the crown of the fret, how the finger holds the fret, the nut, the bridge, the pickups, wiring/caps/pots, etc.

I won’t fight a never ending battle but it was said right here. All though wood may make a difference in sound on an electric guitar the difference is minimal. The electronics have a bigger effect than the wood. The whole wood thing was done by the manufacture for marketing and to drive the prices up on the wood. Eddie Van Halen used guitars made out of bass wood to lighten them up to play for hours on end

I thought you made some great points that I’d never thought of. We spend all this time trying to decide what species avoid to get, but never think to ask ourselves, “is this piece of (insert species) I’m ordering online going to be from a 40-year-old tree that has grown on a farm? Or a 160-year-old tree that has grown in the rain forest?” I would think the age and conditions around a tree would have as much or more of an effect on its tone then even the difference in species might! I sort of feel dumb for not thinking about this earlier, simply given the huge difference between pieces of Ash I have built with in the past. I have built Ash guitars that felt like bricks and ones that felt like feathers and never questioned whether or not they would sound the same (probably because they had different pickup types installed). Thanks for the video 👍

Great explanation, I saw a person use a body that would accept different type of wooden necks and with a analyzer showed barely any difference whatsoever between the woods.

I get all my guitar blanks blessed by a tone witch doctor on the new moon if I want a darker tone or a full moon if I want brighter tone. It always works like at least 33% of the time and 100% of the time for marketing.

Thank you Chris 👍🏻

My first bass was a B.C. Rich Eagle, NJ Series. I put an EMG in it in 1985. I took the paint off and discovered a piece of butcher block style slab. I later put a Kahler tremolo on it. Later I replaced the body with a Warmoth Eagle copy made of solid figured maple. Everything was transferred on to the new body. I did add a J pickup (never played it). In the end, I hated the sound of my new old bass. It had a thin cold and overly bright sound. I wish I could find that old body.

I agree with you 100%. Thanks!

I haven't seen that particular video so I went to check it out to see if Paul has changed at all over the past few years. Nope! Same old argument, "If Stradivarius did it for his acoustic violins, then I should do it for my solid body guitars." Completely missing (or maybe deliberately missing) the point that acoustic instruments are also the speaker. When you want to record an acoustic instrument (violin, saxophone, trumpet, drums, piano, xylophone, flute, more cowbell) you put a microphone in front of the instrument. When you want to record an electric guitar, you put the microphone by the amp speaker. It's like Casio saying they need to make their keyboards out of ebony and ivory because that is what Steinway did it back in the day. Chris asks, "What's the point?" When someone pays $3,000 for a basic electric guitar, they feel a need to justify it when they could have gotten a very similar sounding and appointed guitar for half that price. PRS make BEAUTIFUL guitars. But for some people the aesthetics are not enough. It has to be BETTER to justify that cost. So, tonewood. The rest of us refuse to be gaslit by that nonsense and we're outraged (okay, somewhat annoyed) that someone is trying to grift people out of their hard earned money by making ridiculous claims about dead trees.

I agree with your stance 💯% But division is the name of the game. Keep the people divided and fighting about trivial matters, and they won't have time or interest to look for the cracks in the foundation. I feel like our best move is to stay out of the "debate". Roll our eyes and move on to the next guitar build. Nice job Chris! I greatly respect your perspectives (though sometimes I feel your "bedside manner" could use a little refreshment, lol). Ciao.

You're absolutely right. In terms of making music it doesn't matter. I'm terms of science and facts however it matters alot because you have businesses and companies selling a "belief". How an electric guitar produces sound through an amplifier is very well known and the concept of tone wood has been tested thousands of times at this point. We don't believe that tone wood does not impact the tone of the guitar, we know. Now if the look and feel makes the playing more enjoyable then sure. Make that argument. Also vibrating pickups do not impact frequency because it's mechanical not electrical. It's 100% the fluctuations of the magnetic field caused by a conductive material moving through it. The one exception is in semihollow bodies that are able to produce enough vibration in the air to affect the magnetic field essentially becoming microphones

What matters: misinformation, mis-selling, predatory practice in pushing something that doesn’t matter. The ones who should stop arguing should be those who have financial gain in pushing the agenda

I knew you were going to do a response video as I read the article on this.

To me, all guitars sound a little different to each other, often, even the same exact model. That small difference to me sounds about the same as 2 made with different body woods... which is to say, usually not very different.

The point is they are shredding the rainforest for no reason. The tests are all made wrong: A/B and if the guitar is made badly you maybe can hear a micron of a difference. It has to be done like this: Listen to a guitar and you tell me what wood it is. Suddenly silence? That much to your huge impact, Dudes!

Great way to view this topic, and it’s absolutely true, it doesn’t matter 😊

another great video, you made a great point! We would be throwing guitars away like crazy

Well said! As a builder, I have used maple, mahogany, basswood, ash, etc to make bodies over time. I couldn’t ever really tell a difference. Its the type of pickups, bridge and other hardware than has made the tones I get.

Great video. When I buy a electric guitar l play it and listen to the sound. I don't plug it into a amp till I get home.

I agree it's silly. Paul went to the school of "Always be Marketing"! My favorite is the "I can hear the difference" people that put their ear next to the speaker and listen in isolation. You can "hear the difference", so what?

Other than tweaking the guitar controls I tweak my bass processor,combo amp,PA system for the sounds I want

I'd be more interested in a tone bridge/ tone metal debate. On my 2nd guitar build, I was super disappointed with how lifeless I found the tone. One of the easiest and cheapest changes I could make was the bridge, so I gave a few different options a shot. I was quite impressed by how much difference switching from a TOM to a roller bar to something approximating a mastery I made from $40 of parts, made in the tone (the roller bar and fake mastery weren't drastically different but intonation was better with FM). I do wish we had smarter conversations, where we discussed how to brighten a dark sounding guitar, or best highlight the innate characteristics of an instrument.

In solid guitars wood matters more for stability and how well it will handle changes in environments way more than sound

Thank you.

It matters because we want to know whether or not we should pay or look for certain types of wood in our guitars. If it doesn’t make a difference then any old wood would do and we should stop caring about it.

I own way too many guitars of various brands and wood types, the one thing that I like about the various wood types isn't the TONE, it's the LOOK.., I usually get a certain Vibe while playing one type(shape, style, etc..) and a lot of times I change the ELECTRONICS-Pickups-Controls to try and achieve certain tones, more than being that it sounds a certain way because of the wood choice, but I do love the look of certain woods Like BLACK LIMBA, which I find gorgeous, or really nice Swamp Ash too.. But I Appreciate your video and it makes sense :)

For me it does not matter, what matter is if the guitar is an instrument, if stay in tune and plays and feel good in my body and in my hands, if the intonation is perfect and if i can low the action. i have preferences like the kind of frets, stainless steel for sure, and i like mounting pickups, i like wood cause the colors and paterns and the smell. Wood is a noble material, no need to refine. Tone wood is a topic that i sometimes listen my friends asking me about what i think. I always say that the tone is on the fingers, and i proceed to play jazz in a advertized metal guitar. People grew with fantasies that a ultimate tool made by the gods is real. It is writen all over our documented history, in all eras.

i have a jackson js 22 with black winter pick ups and a treble bleed its made of poplar and it is un believable it was the cheapest guitar i played that day and the sustain is so insane that the guitar if you dont mess up and keep it vibrating it laterally rings like a bell it sounds sooooooo coool its like natural shimmer

Tone wood is an important variable in an acoustic instrument not so much in an electric instrument. So many other factors involved in an electric i.e. saddle material, nut material, bridge material, magnet make up (size, shape and strength and winding etc.), string gauge and material, flat wound, steel, p/up height ect. ect. ... Point is play what YOU like and don't worry 'bout it. Make music not arguments.

Perfectly well said. I totally agree with your well made points. You mentioned changing cables. How can that affect tone?

Well reasoned. My opinion is pretty much yours, that the wood vibrates the strings which impacts the tone but only to a small degree. Never really considered the other points you brought up, so thank you for exploring that.

If tonewood mattered, every major maker would have one or more lines of guitars where all the hardware is the same and only the wood is different between the versions.

I have a generic tele with Fender American Standard pickups. I guarantee that if Eric Clapton were playing that guitar to a crowd, exactly no one would be complaining about the tone of the poplar body. Even if the wood affects the tone, it would still sound like Eric Clapton. On the flipside, if I were playing Eric Clapton's guitar to a crowd, people might be complaining.

Wood isn't conductive and pickups that are mounted on a scratchplate (Strat) aren't in contact with any wood then maybe you need to get a tone scratchplate. Maybe a aged plate or one twice as thick.

It’s all in the fingers baby!

12.26 'the trees were cut from different trees in different environments'...the primary instructor in the Finnish guitar building school in Ikaaalinen Rauno Nieminen said the same wood grown in different locations will produce a different sound..yes, but the tone difference will be minor..mostly noticeable when playing clean..when you add distortion of some kind then the added harmonics will basically hide the differences. There was a video once done by a guy that put strings onto a steel beam in his building..there you notice a significant difference in tone from different types of wood.

I always enjoy watching your videos. As a luthier that has built a sizable number of acoustic archtops with suspended magnetic pickups, I have this to add. "If all solid body guitars had bridges carved from a dense wood like ebony - that rested solidly on the top, there would be no debate about whether or not tonewood matters in solid body guitars." Metal bridges - especially ones with spring tremolo systems, act as a frequency buffer and block the majority of the wood's tonal frequencies from reaching the strings/pickups. Wood and metal do not vibrate in the same inherent frequency ranges. I built a guitar that proves it. The guitar has an aluminum "frame" body, but an Indian rosewood bridge with a Brazillian rosewood saddle. It does not sound metallic through the pickup, and it can be heard on video on my channel if you're interested in hearing it for yourself. The guitar is called the "AlumiJet".

Whenever Paul starts off saying "Look"... You know a tidal wave of BS is coming

Thank you

My experience with "tone"wood so far has been similar. Does it have some effect on the overall sonic character of a solidbody? To a certain degree of course yes. Can you deliberately shape and form that by selecting the appropriate breed of wood? No. Does it really matter that much? Not at all. I do wanna say, I appreciate your unagitated perspective on the matter, Chris. Obviously it's not the preferred thing to do on the internet, which is being as loud, dumb and opinionated as possible. Some people have figured out that it's best to stir a quasi-religious war of opinions around certain topics to keep their audiences engaged. There are very similar pseudo-debates surrounding pickups, also EQ effect plugins etc. It's really quite pathetic most of the time.

I agree, it's much more about the actual piece of wood than about the species. And body wood will mostly affect the dry, unamplified sound and feel of an instrument. You won't hear much of a difference in the electric signal. Unless it's a (semi) hollow body which affects the way the strings ring out. Neck wood, especially fingerboard wood might also have a bigger influence on the sound because it's much more likely to interact with the strings' vibrations. Because it's in more direct contact with them and has less mass. But again, not the species of wood, more the actually selected piece (and neck shape and treatment, e. g. roasting). But here's what has the biggest influence on sound by far: 1. How you play your instrument, so which frequencies you actually trigger 2. Your strings (!), so how frequencies can ring out 3. Pickup placement, decides which overtones are actually picked up and which are cancelled out 4. Pickup selection and electronics, like pot/cap values, which decide the overall EQ curve and loudness, and also the captured harmonic content 5. Maybe another thing that's contributing more than wood: Hardware (high-mass vs. low-mass bridge) and the frets - they are in direct contact with the strings All of the above have a way bigger influence on (electric) sound than wood choice.

Fancy wood adds to the furniture/collectable value, and adds little functionality over the pickups. It adds weight, durability, and ability to stay in tune.

PRS needs to review his Don Quixote - he is tilting at windmills...

Well said!

Fancy wood is pretty. PRS makes pretty guitars. The only wood that matters on electric guitars is the back of the neck. Wenge and maple feel different on the thumb.

"Why can't we stop arguing about wood and its effect on tone?" - I and lots of people agree, but PRS keeps saying stupid stuff and throwing gasoline on the fire.

Tone comes completely from the electronics and signal chain. Feel and vibe though vary a LOT depending on the wood. I built an offset body out of reclaimed lumber from an almost 200 year old barn, and the resonance when I strum that one approaches the vibes of an acoustic electric. Plugged in tone the mini humbuckers I build it with don't sound any different than those in my buddy's Gibson. Great content as always!

This is all total truth! I saw a video where a guy used poplar for the body wood, and in my "old school" mind, I thought will sound like garbage. But it didn't, because he used high grade electronics - pickups and knobs. In this example, he used a Les Paul pickup in the bridge, and a Gretsch pickup in the neck. The guitar sounded just fine, but had the tonal qualities of the respective pickups. Middle position was a little weird though, and I like weird sounds - so it was cool to me. Wood tone is an old school thought process, and a marketing ploy.

From everything I've learned, the speaker is the most important (even a virtual speaker) then the pickups, then everything else. Strings play a part, saddles, cables, wood etc all affect tone, but how much you can hear each one is relatively unimportant. I'm glad I learned it because it saves me a ton of money. Changing to a different IR on my amp sim is way cheaper than new pickups.

Amazing point of view. That's perfect... If the sound of the guitar is influenced by wood, what are you doing specifically to adapt this guitar to this wood in your hands? If the don't do anything, the reality is that it doesn't matter. There is no point in discussing this topic.

6:08 The tone is not determined by the species, it's determined by the specific board...... 😲 wiser words were never spoken wise guitar maker.

There is a You Tube video about where the tone comes from in an electric guitar. Very enlightening. One needs to be very careful when making statements about tonewood. I have often heard that maple acoustic guitars lack bass. The best sounding acoustics I have ever heard were made from maple. Yes, there are some differences in how solid body electrics sound depending on the wood used. But, that difference is slight.

JS Bach wrote some of the greatest works in the history of music without even specifying which instruments should play them. This is how much tone matters in music. People who discuss tone do not understand music.

Well said, tragically both sides are right, does wood contribute to the sound, absolutely. Anything vibrating on the guitar contributes, but it is not enough to impact the overall sound coming from the electronics. The reality is Fender and Gibson used the wood that was easiest to get and was readily available and if wood was that important then why are we still using the same wood today and not other species we have available, we couldn’t have got it right on all of the woods we used by dumb luck.

I still think the most impact to tone is the neck, it’s stiffness/ hardness / resonance , and the strip of wood between the neck and pickups

it indeed clearly does not matter because every guitar will be sold.. that is the gist of it. BUT for those who are interested, I learned a long time ago to play the guitar (or bass) you are trying for without the amp, listen to the sound the guitar is making, if it is good, you can definately hear it. It does not sound dull, the vibrations in the body and neck are vivid and abundant. I once oned a very expensive Van der Ende bass guitar, made of swamp ass and a maple neck, This is a very common combination. But the slap, the thumb was outstanding, the luthier had dried the wood and search for the perfect combination and that makes a difference. On the other side, I owned a Squire stratocaster which I made into a reclic. I used a airheater/blower to get rid of some of the paint and it further dried the wood I reckon, afterwards sprayed it with a nitro laquer and the sound was much better than with all the paint on it out of the factory...

It's the wood. NO...its the pickups. NO....its the pots. NO...its the caps. NO....its the neck. NO... its the strings. NO...its the nut. NO...its the tuners..... need I go on? I build with what I find around the house. Hardwood flooring, spruce, pine, laminate I beams...you name it. Each is its own work of art/theme. No matter what I pick up with my hands....I jokingly say.... "I can make a guitar with that".

My favorite tone wood is carbon fiber.

people should focus on riffs and songwriting and keeping the good music alive

Absolutely right that it doesn't matter. It's electronic, and you can manipulate the signal so that it sounds like dogs barking if you want to. I think that obsessing about tone is essentially sonic masturbation. If you're playing for an audience, they're more concerned with the taste of their beer than how you sound, anyway. I'd be happy if I could just play better.

I'm convinced wood weight affects tone more than species, but I negate the wood species question by adding a substantial amount of solid metal directly under or in close proximity to the bridge. The wood is there to hold everything together.

The whole tonewood discussion implies a control over the outcome of a finished guitar, that no manufacturer or builder has. In the end, there is just one super tool to shape the final sound of your whole rig: The Boss GE-7 equalizer pedal

Only the finest vintage, black plate RCA tubes can truly bring out the tone woods true properties. 😂🤣

There is an aspect of how the guitar feels (and sounds) to the player (me), that others may not notice. Some guitars feel dead to me. When you spend hours playing your instrument every day, you become fantastically familiar with it. I have 2 guitars with exactly the same woods and pickups and wiring, and they don’t sound the same - one has considerably more lows. Actually anyone could hear this. Bottom line: some care, some don’t.

Commented a few minutes ago on a link you posted on this subject, asked what you think, asked and answered. So thanks, your thoughts and perspective are fascinating. You're uniquely qualified to attest that you've heard mahogany sound like maple and vice versa. I was surprised by that. As a cabinetmaker I'm familiar with the wide variance within species regarding color, grain pattern, stability, etc. It I can't help wondering if you can't spot and select pieces from withing a certain species that best exemplify the traits you're looking for? I totally get where you're coming from, when you say it doesn't matter, just get on with doing the thing. But you haven't said it's impossible to obsessively search out the perfect materials for a certain tone..

once you have the speaker, pickups, amp, strings, guitar pick... most of the tone is pretty much set and the wood won't contribute much in relation, makes more sense to decide by weight or grain texture/appearance

His rant was nonsense, though. He talked about rubber saddles and nuts, dead strings covered in Vaseline etc. These are arguments that nobody is making. And nobody is talking about putting a Fender bridge on a Martin. He seemed to be ranting at shadows. Tone-wood debate aside, he seemed a bit lost in the high weeds.

Thank you for taking this debate to the next level. As I’ve stated in previous discussions, let’s move on from the “if” to the “how” part. Assessing guitar tone at the end of an active pedal board with the coloration of a tube amp is not a valid test, in my opinion. To make a scientifically valid test you need to eliminate as many variables as possible. A short low cap cable through an extremely clean amp with a properly calibrated monitor system. So I guess the heavy rock and metal heads doesn’t have to worry too much about tone wood. But if you’re doing Wes Montgomery stuff you might. I would also argue that sustain is part of the tone. Or maybe that’s just me. In my experience most lighter guitars has more, physically detectable, body resonance and therefore sustains better. And sustain isn't just about the duration of the note. It's also about how the different frequencies interact and fade away. Some very interesting modulation stuff going on there. I believe that the louder a guitar is without an amp, the better it will sustain. Caused by the feedback loop between the strings, the metal parts and the wood. An amp/speaker will contribute to the feedback loop depending on volume/sound pressure. An extreme example would be an Epiphone Casino though a really loud amp. Now that is sustain (feedback). And it takes a lot of practice to keep it under control. Gary Clark Jr has really nailed that one. And I think Paul R S made a valid point in that a guitar is the sum of it’s parts. I’ve personally used the strategy of, mostly, buying cheap (50 bucks for a functioning electric guitar, anyone? Twice!) and mid priced guitars, that resonate well and doesn’t require too much luthier work (by me). Then I mod the cr.p out of them, using a mix of high end and low budget replacement parts. I now have a considerable collection of very nice guitars, for about the third of the price of the major brands. In my experience the difference in quality lies mainly in the finishing touches and the set up. And that is what really separates the adequate guitars from the great ones. There are a lot of unfinished guitars out there for the taking, if money is an object and manual labor is not. Just my 2 cents 𝄢🎶

Thanks!

Chris, just a safety reminder: your oscillating sander's lead cable needs attention epair - just where it's attached to the machine itself!

I feel like you can feel the vibrations while playing a guitar, and less dense woods feel more resonant. But yeah, there isnt likely a whole lot of difference when plahing through an amp. At the same time, certain guitars just have "it", and that special something has to come from somewere. Maybe just a cumulative effect of lots of little things done right. I think these differences make guitars magical

The only reason continued discussion is warranted is that PRS continues to use tone wood as a marketing tool. Whether it's guitars, cameras, tennis rackets or golf clubs, beginners (and beyond) fall prey to idea that it's the equipment that's holding them back. Nevermind that Beck, Bettencourt, Cooder, Vai and Van Halen could pick up anything with strings and make it sound awesome. Until you park PRS in a blind listening test and he can identify the woods only by ear, this will continue. Even then he'd fabricate some lame excuse like audiophiles do when they completely fail double blind tests.

Tone is in the eyes... it's very personal otherwise, guitar like Danelectro did not survived the test of time. Like you said, pickup is mostly responsible for the tone your guitar can produce. The rest is wood choice and construction methods. We talk about solid body electric guitar not the acoustic family of stringed instruments because that's where the debate should be...

I prefer response to reaction every time.

I think one of the points of contention may come from conflating acoustic sound (i.e. the sound you hear when not plugged into an amp) with what you expect to hear amplified. And then there is the whole "muse factor". A guitar that looks different or feels different can inspire you to play different material and in a different way. It doesn't mean the cause of the different sound was shaped by the choice of woods or the body shape, but I do believe these can have a psychological impact on a player's approach, which can be heard.

Physics folks. A guitar pickup is not a microphone - it doesn't have a moving diaphragm to "hear" everything. A guitar pickup can only be affected by metallic movement of a metal string, creating a galvanic effect by moving electrons in the coil. A nylon string on and electric guitar will make no sound. It makes no iota a difference what tone you may hear when the guitar is unplugged, the guitar pickup cannot "hear" that tone. String vibration only impacts the frequency (how fast), amplitude (how loud), and sustain (how long) - which is why neck pickups sound different compared to the bridge. The heaver the guitar, ideally more sustain (again, physics - mass , transfer of energy and all that stuff). The capacitance, impedance and inductance of the pickup DO affect the tone as to the pots/caps used for the volume and tone knobs. There is no "whistle" that is "heard" by a standard well-made guitar pickup. I've seen guitars made from 100% concrete that sound just like a Les Paul.

My PRS CE-24 is probably the best guitar I have owned … beautiful flame top .. I honestly don’t care if it matters or not . I like beautiful things including beautiful woods !

I believe wood is for looks durability and weight only. I definitely would not want a guitar made from mdf LOL!

The tone from an electric guitar comes from the pickups and the amp, if you can hear the wood over the speaker of an amp then you probably have the greatest ear on earth. Any tone can be infinitely modified by an EQ pedal so the whole argument is really pretty weird. I remember one guitarist arguing they could hear the difference between the shape of an electric guitar body (Les Paul vs Flying V) which is just even more bonkers.

The real debate is who gets raided for their wood depending on who they donate money to

Well reasoned opinion. It probably has some effect, although marginal. As you stated, every other aspect of the guitar contributes as well and can be replaced or adapted, so why even waste time considering it. I find it even a bit sad, that we focus so much on the specific species of trees, that some species of trees become endangered. Instead be open minded about the wood choices. I would love to see more European builders use native woods from quality sources. How about a cherry tree tele? Or a plum/birch les paul? Would be very interesting to hear and see...

Yeah Chris, it really doesn't matter. I remember someone, about 40 years ago that told us all: "Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar"!