I am very interested in what are the things that make guitars sound clearly different from each other. Of course everything has an impact, but by and large most changes that players seem to accredit much in sonic quality are rather small or easily counteracted. These include body wood type, which really seems to have very little effect (it seems layers/combination structures, seams etc. make much more of a difference than wood material itself), bridge type (a floyd can definitely sustain just as well as a gibson type bridge although few seem to believe it) and, in many cases, pickup differences are often exaggerated.
BUT it seems to me neck materials and construction can have a surprisingly strong impact on an electric's sound.
I would really want to find out what makes my two strats so different in sound, but it does appear that the one with all-maple neck is clearly spankier and lively and cuts thru better, while still has just as warm and good a sound otherwise.
The two are identical in all but these aspects:
- All-maple vs. maple/rosewood neck
- superlight zinc block vs. zinc block
- no pickguard, 1 pickup vs. two pickups with hardware inside.
It could well be that the neck is what makes the biggest difference. In that, though, I wonder if that is due more to it being one piece vs. two piece than the fretboard material, really.
It would make a LOT of sense to me that a neck made of a single piece of wood would vibrate much more freely and consistently, and better transform the sound throughout the instrument/affect the way strings vibrate with the vibration. And conversely a glued on fretboard would act as a vibration dampening layer as the two wood surfaces don't vibrate exactly the same and thus dampen each other. This would seem to be confirmed by my other guitar that has a maple neck BUT not one piece, but maple/birdseye maple glued together AND headstock also glued, so it's 3 piece really. And even with same pickup, not nearly as spanky as the one with 1-piece maple.
This effect, I believe, is what makes a Les Paul sound different from the others, the maple cap vibrates differently from the body mahogany and dampens certain higher frequencies giving the les its signature midrangey warm sound.
All in all, it is my belief that the biggest changes in electric guitar sound (aside the action and intonation, pickup height and the actual pickup position and tone etc. controls - these are the key aspects always) - can be found in things directly related to string vibration and the way strings act in relation to the rest of the hardware. These include:
- Pickup type (single, bucker, active, passive, p-90, power etc,)
- Scale
- Headstock and bridge tilt, i.e. is it straight and 90 degree at one end like strat or 20 or so degrees cantilever like on gibsons
- nut installation and material
- bridge material, including the block
- and now, the neck construction it seems...
