{"id":3067,"date":"2014-12-28T20:54:19","date_gmt":"2014-12-28T19:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/guitarworks.thestrandbergs.com\/?p=3067"},"modified":"2014-12-29T07:51:29","modified_gmt":"2014-12-29T06:51:29","slug":"the-impact-of-wood-choice-in-an-electric-guitar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/guitarworks.thestrandbergs.com\/2014\/12\/28\/the-impact-of-wood-choice-in-an-electric-guitar\/","title":{"rendered":"The impact of wood choice in an electric guitar"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are continuous debates on various topics that I am often asked to contribute to with my opinion. I usually decline, because it’s rarely important what my opinion is when it comes to the instruments I produce – it has to be the musician’s opinion that counts. So let’s start by the question “Which tonewood is the best” and just answer it with “The tonewood that gives the musician the sound and feeling he or she is after” and then we can leave it at that.<\/p>\n

My son David did a school project about a year ago now, and I have been meaning to publish it for a long time. What prompted me to do so, was stumbling onto a “myth debunking video”\u00a0the other day, which draws all the wrong conclusions in the name of science.<\/p>\n

Here’s what David did:<\/p>\n

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  1. Created four identical test rigs out of scrap wood from my workshop. They are all 725 x 35 x 47 mm in size, and weigh 651 grams (Alder), 618 g (Koa), 537 g (Swamp Ash), and 818 g (Zebrano). They obviously don’t exactly mimic a guitar, but should for the sake of the test resemble the type of tensions and forces that a guitar body with a neck is subjected to.<\/li>\n
  2. Fitted two .strandberg* bridges, a .046″ low E-string and a .010″ high E-string on a 25.5″ scale, and a Lace Aluma X-bar pickup 125 mm away from the bridge. The same bridge, pickup and strings was used in each test.<\/li>\n
  3. Created a simple rig to hang a plastic ruler from, to strike the strings with an equal force each time, simulating a pick hitting the string. (As you can hear in the recordings, the pick attack between the samples is somewhat different, but less different than the results, I would argue.)<\/li>\n
  4. Recorded two sets of samples of each rig on different occasions, to isolate issues with repeatability.<\/li>\n
  5. Created Fast Fourier Transform snapshots 2 seconds into each clip to provide a visual comparison.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Here’s what what you can hear and see in the video below:<\/p>\n

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    1. A 5 second clip of the low E each on Alder, Koa, Swamp Ash, Zebrano – first recording<\/li>\n
    2. A 5 second clip of the low E each on Alder, Koa, Swamp Ash, Zebrano – second recording<\/li>\n
    3. A 5 second clip of the high E each on Alder, Koa, Swamp Ash, Zebrano – first recording<\/li>\n
    4. A 5 second clip of the high E each on Alder, Koa, Swamp Ash, Zebrano – second recording<\/li>\n
    5. Alternating first and second recording of the low E and then high E of Alder, Koa, Swamp Ash, Zebrano<\/li>\n
    6. Alternating first and second recording of the low E of Alder, Koa, Swamp Ash, Zebrano<\/li>\n
    7. Alternating first and second recording of the high E of Alder, Koa, Swamp Ash, Zebrano<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n