Everyone knows the most important part of tone is the plugin.

I just wished they'd be transparent with that buying expensive guitars made by fine craftsmen and fine materials is like buying designer furniture. You can buy a cheap chair and sit just fine, but you will feel better sitting in an expensive designer chair. The function is still the same though, and super basic. Drag that signal through effects (or even AI-simulate a complete different guitar), all you want from your guitar is sine waves.

And I thought that Jim Lill buried the whole tonewood discussion for good with his bodiless guitar video. 🤷‍♂ But boy, that PRS bit with the violin and the Neumann mic made me cringe.

At one Children of Bodom concert, I remembered Alexi shouting into the pickup in his guitar. It was possible to understand the words. LOL A 20dB difference is a lot with no signal processing at all. But DI signal is squashed mercilessly by a series of couple overdrive devices and even weak signals come out to the surface. As one plays through plug-ins or anything containing ad/da conversion( and therefore generating latency) under controlled conditions at low volume, even serious microphonics of pickups is not a problem. But with high enough gain and fully analog signal path and a lot of physical volume, even relatively micing-proof pickups sometimes start to play themselves. Everything has some resonant frequency. Matter of the amount of gain is when it starts to self-oscillate. Any attempt to become a mythbusters is pointless. Seemingly, everyone relies on scientific methodology, but everyone also makes the wrong initial assumption. Namely, that the comparison should be made from the perspective of the listener. What is forgotten is that the guitar-guitarist-amplifier-cab circuit is a feedback circuit and the guitarist is the controlling element inside its loop. As he plays, he listens to what comes out of the speakers and, based on that, he adjusts the way he plays to match the result to his imagined good sound. The struggle with a given instrument is real from his perspective. But the listener is unlikely to hear it if the guitarist is good. Although if the instrument responds as he expects, it is more likely that the played part will sound more confident, better, with braver articulation and better control. One more thing: all the tests are reduced to playing on a clean channel where you can't hear anything or primitive chugga-chugga with heavy overdrive. I'm not saying that a given wood has some strictly defined tonal signature, because that's obvious nonsense. But the mechanical properties of the instrument as a whole somehow translate into what you hear from an amplifier. Well, how do you explain the fact that similarly constructed guitars with the same scale, the same pickups but different woods can respond differently to some notes? Try playing all the notes from the three thickest strings with light muting. Why is it that one guitar will have a boomy or even beating decay on one or two notes and another guitar will not exhibit it or the effect will appear on completely different frets? Or why is it that on one guitar the violins play smoothly and on another at one of the higher frets the string sounds unpleasantly harsh? With different guitars, why is it sometimes necessary to change the frequency of the dynamic Eq or its intensity? Or cutting different frequencies with an ordinary Eq despite the fact that except for the guitar the remaining part of the chain is still the same?

Wood wasn’t chosen to make guitars because it sounds good. I was chosen because it was cheap, readily available and easy to work with basic tools. I 3D printed a guitar body out of plastic. I stripped down a Tele and used all the parts to put on my plastic body and what do you know? I sounds pretty much exactly the same as the Tele did! My conclusion is, there’s no such thing as “tone wood”…it’s just wood! The concept of “tonewood” is very important to guitar builders marketing plans. It’s important for them to keep this myth alive, that’s how they sell all their “expensive models”.

Full disclaimer: I love PRS guitars; they are my go to for gigging and recording. I bought my first core model about 10-11 years ago, and while it was one of the most beautiful and playable guitars in my collection, it was the 85/15s I had installed in them that was 90% of the tone. I got to test this myself when I sent an SE model to Maryland to have 85/15s installed. I later did this with an S2 model as well. So, I owned a Core Custom 24, S2 Custom 24 and SE Custom 24 with the same pickups, with a differing quality of tuners, nuts, and bridges. Since I had the same pots installed during the pup installation, these were all the same. The guitars sounded identical. $4500, $1800, and $1000 and nearly identical in sound quality, with the only difference being the comfort and playability of the Core model being superior, but only marginally so. This gap is even less now, as the S2 and SE models are seeing features like rounded frets, violin carves, etc. While I love my core models, they do not improve the sound and only improve playability by small degrees. And if I have the choice to bring my $4500 guitar to a show, where some drunk bachelorette is likely to spill her Irish Car Bomb on my rig when requesting a second round of “Suck my Kiss,” better believe I’m bringing that SE model with me.

i think tonewoods is just a marketing tactic that guitar companies use to try and convince us to buy their guitars 🤷🏻‍♂️

You're very polite. Clearly Paul Reed Smith is talking out of his ass.

I wonder if finding the primary resonant frequency of different guitars would be useful data. Im thinking transducer physically attached to the body and a contact mic/piezo a standardized distance away. Sweep the frequency range a few times and record the results. The only conceivable effect wood could have on a magnetic/induction circuit would be damping the strings oscillation on some frequencies more than others, and thus seeming to enhance it on other frequencies. One assumes differences would be minor but measurable. Once that sound hits an amplifier and speaker that is designed to crush the fundamental into the harmonics, any difference is very likely inaudible.

Mikko, have you seen Jim Lill’s videos on the subject? I think they’re very informative.

I know this isn't even remotely related to the point of the video, but I was distractedly impressed by how seamlessly you lined up the slow zoom out during the intro... Beautiful! Looking forward to your upcoming videos on this topic Mikko!

Fully agree on the bridge being massively important. I own three Fano guitars, and they are the clearest sounding of all my guitars, which include some excellent instruments by various makers. I recenlty realized that the one thing in common with these three is the Fano made short bridge. And of course, they also have wonderful pickups from Lindsay Fralin and Lollar. I'm now a firm believer that the bridge is the most important element in creating the initial sound. Then pickups and then frets. Great video, thank you!

Micro-phonic pick ups ie: unpotted will pick up more body vibration than potted! Body/neck material will influence HOW the strings vibrate, & then modulate the magnetic field, BUT it IS minimal. Maybe 10-20% max, the rest is the pick up and the quality of wire and pots used in the circuit!

I have a prs c24 that seems to resonate better for A notes. On the B string, it feedsback quickly like it sings. Only of my 18 guitars that do this. I have an acoustic and the it dampens with G notes and the note dies quickly.

actually one time I’ve drilled my guitar pickup cavity being absolutely sure it would fix the muddiness if I move the pickup slightly closer to the saddles. it didnt. but thinner strings did the trick. its not as simple, many people experience unlikely low end guitar having the mojo, while high end sometimes sound flat and muddy in comparison. Hoping for your scientific test using a couple of wood blanks of different wood types attached to a neck and a bridge/pickup. just an idea for a future video!

The thing is if a properly built and set-up 3d printed/crapwood guitar that results in the strings to vibrate longer/with more amplitude, thanks to the bridge saddles, nut and frets, is probably equally the best tone"wood", for the magnetic pickups

I absolutely love my core PRS CU22 for its ergonomics and stability, swapped out the pickups for more versatility. the materials a guitar is made of affect the sound, but in a negligible and often unpredictable way. all of that snappiness of a maple top or mapleness of a mahogany body - or however they describe stuff - is nonsense that is meant to sell guitars. none of it matters compared to an amp, the pickups and your ability to actually play.

Wood exists in electric guitars only out of inertia from how we built acoustic stringed instruments in the past - but it's entirely the wrong material to use for electric guitars, since what we want is string resonance. Aristides for instance use a custom designed composite material which is resonantly superior to wood in every conceivable way for electric guitars, and this is why Aristides makes the best sounding guitars in the world. You can even hear it when the guitar is not plugged in, they sound louder (more resonant) than any other wooden guitar when you play them unplugged. But it would be very interesting to hear what difference one of their bridges makes on an electric guitar made of wood...

Looking forward to these videos! That comment by PRS is hot garbage xD

awesome video, looking forward to the next one!

Naa, pickups don't Pick metal, but magnetism (Nickel or other magnetized metals). When the strings oscillate they generate a small ac voltage. The wood and hardware interact with the strings and certain waves (superposition) + and - interference. (German to English). Pickups without waxing react microphonic.

Man, you are putting out some of the best content for musicians on the internet. I’d love to see a couple in depth dives into setting up your DAW with the various tools you offer to record music. I’m a home guitarist setting up my first studio and I’m using reaper at the moment, will likely stick with it. And guitar is dead simple but setting up drums and other things is pretty challenging. Especially since you have to as far as I can tell manually name all the notes on the piano roll if you program drums. Also don’t have an E Kit yet to trigger the drums. But that’s part of the plan.

my first soviet guitar could catch the radio!

how about this. string vibration is affected by the wood vibration sympathetically, hence the difference in eq shape. mahogany especially unfinished dampens the high frequencies noticeably both acoustically and in DI in my tests

Thone wood is about the vibrations you feel when playing. I happen to love Mystery Woods, such African black wood. So, a Harley Benton would suffice for me. Black Dimond Richlite is cool... also. 😎

Thanks for putting this video together and interesting discussion. I agree that pick-ups are not microphones, but the mechanisms as to why wood may have an influence on solid body guitar tone are slightly more complex. Let us ignore the effects of electro-mechanical coupling between the guitar and the pickups that you discuss and consider only the mechanical components of the solid-body electric guitar (body, neck, frets, tailpiece, nut, strings). The tailpiece is not a rigid termination and will transmit string vibration into the body, despite the jump in mechanical properties between metal and wood. This can be verified by strumming a chord or open strings and placing your picking hand on the guitar body while the strings ring. You will feel the wood vibrating. This means that your strings, tailpiece and wood are all coupled mechanically. This implies that the material properties of the wood will have an influence on the way in which the strings vibrate [1]. I agree that in a solid body electric guitar, these interactions are likely to be much less important than in a violin or acoustic guitar, but they nonetheless exist and have to a certain extent been shown in a study to affect the timbre of the instrument with differences in harmonic content quantitatively measured and also identified by non-musician listeners [2]. This study is not exhaustive, as the authors acknowledge, and for sure factors such as the metal components of the guitar, the amp and cab used, the mics and the room will most likely have a much bigger impact on the overall sound. Anyway, I look forward to the follow-up to this video. I’m sure I’m biased, but I still love my Les Paul Customs! [1] Jasiński, J., Oleś, S., Tokarczyk, D. and Pluta, M., 2021. On the Audibility of Electric Guitar Tonewood. Archives of Acoustics, 46. [2] Puszyński, J., Moliński, W. and Preis, A., 2015. The effect of wood on the sound quality of electric string instruments. Acta Physica Polonica A, 127(1), pp.114-116.

By the way... any update planned soon for ML Drums? I think it's definitely becoming your flagship... at least Mikko will tell us more about that "secret mixing plugin" he mentioned in a video hahahaha... But yes, please, keep creating tools and perfecting the ones we have, working on the niche that exists among the thousands of options available.

Everything matters and nothing matters. For example, the Les Paul's neck angle affects TONS of things, among others: - Bridge height off the body (changes the resonance of the bridge). - Pickup angle against strings (makes coils sound more unbalanced, usually that's good). - Length of pickup legs (the legs ALSO resonate, so that affects tone too). Everything is tiny, and then everything adds up into one big "system" that has its own sound. I agree that PRS have probably nailed the consitency of build quality the hardest, but yet my 5 PRS all just sound completely different (not surprising). As for tone wood, that's hard to isolate as a factor, but I think that Warmoth are the guys that got closest to doing it so far, and it matters a bit. But they also showed how neck construction almost matters more than the wood itself. Truly it's maddening.

You got even more of my respect by having balls.

So this is only for guitars made of wood, to state the obvious, yes? An all aluminum guitars from EGC, I mean there’s a very clear difference in the sound that materiel makes, regardless of bridge of nut type.

Good video! In my opinion, if tone wood on electric guitars really made that much of a difference, then there wouldn't be a debate. The fact that people are still talking about/debating the topic after all these years means there isn't enough of a difference (if there is a difference at all) for me to worry about personally. I have a rosewood fretboard on my Tele because I prefer the way it looks an feels over maple. Not because it's "darker" sounding.

You used the Key word “damping”. I am a seismic engineer and damping plays a massive role in buildings vibration. One major variable nobody talks about is the damping given not only by guitar materials and joints, but also by the actual player who’s holding the instrument. A player with a bigger mass and a stiffer hold will damp string vibration in a different way than a lighter one with a softer hold. I think this is a major factor in the final sound of the instrument and also the main reason why “the hand” of every player is unique (it is a very physical reason and not only feeling). Mikko I would like to hear your thoughts about this thread as I’ve never seen it discussed before and I think it would be great to see some experiments in a future video (I’m of course available for any further explanation) Thank you

How do my guitar pickups amplify the sound of music coming from my smartphone?

Duhh . The strings vibrate carrying energy . The body vibrates absorbing energy from the strings via the bridge , mostly.The amount of energy absorbed over time will alter the harmonic recipe of the energy on the string left to drive the pickup. So the instrument structure alters the tone and ADSR of the guitar output. The point of a solid body instrument is to reduce the crosstalk between the body / environment and the strings . This provides the possibility to play in louder environments with less colouration and more sustain. To say that the instrument structure does not effect the output is silly reality denial.

Very interesting... Good videos to broaden our knowledge! Thanks for that Kai and Miko!

Ash tele particle board tele.I picked particle bd tele, just sounded better,bigger and fuller.😊

1:53 The main takeaway: "Everthing that is Metal matters way more than what is not Metal." 🤘

I need more nut information. I almost exclusively play open strings. The bottom two mainly.

Dude, are you seriously saying that your bridge or your frets will affect the treble/mids/bass? EQ graphs or its not true. I do find your discussion of scale length to be VERY interesting though. I must investigate. Good video sir.

Excellent scientific points, no more tone voodoo

Pickups pick up vibrations and resonance. Wood resonates.

Somehow I can agree that the wood from which guitar is built does matter. "Somehow" because I believe it's a same thing as with tubes in amps, if we set the end result to be the same, it doesn't matter but if we change things up, there will be differences but they aren't directly what we say it would be. As in, I have 60's Japanese Fender clone amp which doesn't have any kind of bias in the power tubes, there is no resistor to change or tune to limit the plate voltage and in that case the tubes will affect the tone because it's up to the tubes whether they run hot or cold or do they just die. But that is something far different and bigger "problem" than just the tubes themselves because the amp is running the tubes as they are not considered to be ran. With tonewood the same would be that if the wood allows hardware to move significantly, it will affect the tone. If we made electric guitar from thin carbon fiber or plastic that allows hardware to move around because it's not solid guitar and will resonate, it will affect the tone because it will allow also the pickups to move compared to the strings and that's what creates the tone (not the vibration of the strings, but the vibration of the strings compared to the pickup). But unless you go to the extremes like piece of railroad vs. hollow plastic shell or oak vs. balsa, it doesn't matter at all because we are talking so small differences between different woods. The hardwood vs. softwood however do affect things that may move up to the tone. Like if the wood allows the bridge to move so the strings aren't that solidly anchored, it will affect how long the strings can store energy as the bridge will dampen the vibrations, as in the sustain will be worse. How much between different woods? Probably just as much as one EL34 tube from the second made to the spec, nothing notable unless you go to the extremes. But the differences are probably more in the stability of the wood (temperature changes), durability and workability (making the guitar), but tonally? Nothing notable as long as everything is solid and there isn't anything that would be considered a lot bigger problem than just the wood (like vibrating bridge can be caused because the wood allows the bridge to vibrate, but that isn't tonewood, that's vibrating bridge).

What debunks tonewoods on electrics is that the listener cannot tell the difference between a $150 piece of mahogany and $20 worth of laminated plywood. At best there will be a slight tone difference that can be "corrected" with a slight adjustment to tone controls on the guitar or amp. I keep seeing videos where they make sure to keep all the settings the same. Why? Adjust the settings. That is what they are there for. Of course Paul Reed Smith pushes the idea of tonewoods. He needs to justify charging thousands of dollars for his high end lines. He is never going to say that a $250 Mexican Squier Strat can sound exactly like a $2000 PRS with upgrades to the pickups, the bridge, and a proper setup.

I also love PRS guitars, but I can't stand Paul's rambling on this topic. He always uses these ridiculous comparisons to try to prove his point.

Ofcourse PRS wont come out and say that woods dont matter, I mean, that's the whole secret of their private stock.

I love how more and more people do these videos. Especially people with actual experience with audio, like Mikko. Providing actual data instead of just spreading the same theories that someone made up back in the day. I love PRS aswell though. These myths just need to be debunked.

Great video and really good points made here!!

There is a cool vid from @Jimlill "Tested: Where Does The Tone Come From In An Electric Guitar?" where he reduces the guitar to a bridge, headstock, strings and pickups and the results are fascinating! It's worth the watch. I also own 3 different PRS guitars, one being a Core the others SE, and yes, when changing the hardware, like bridge, pickups and maybe tuners, the difference between Core and SE are reduced to a minumum!

Insert passionate overly insistent comment here:

Cool video man!

Guitar pickups are a type of microphone. WTH are all these dumb shit coming from? 🤣 Of course the wood matters, it just don't matter as much as it does if it's a fully acoustic instrument.

I love your content but listening to the intro sound at 0:09 through my studio monitors makes my brain trick to think I'm about to get struck by a lighting.