Wood and sound ... electric guitars as well as plexiglass and packing cardboard
The reason for this post was the abundance of publications in the network and the gloss of music about the influence of the type of wood from which the deck is made, on the sound of electric guitars. Numerous discussions on forums, tables distributed by some custom workshops, and also (which is of particular concern) the statements of RAS scientists (I enclose a link ) try to convince readers that:
What ultimately leads to significant changes that are important for the performer and the listener (frequency, timbre, etc.). Information about the significant effect of wood on guitar sound of electric guitars was called “wooden theory,” and currently has many supporters and opponents. Meanwhile, I want to note that the texture of the tree looks very cool, and the aesthetic qualities of electric guitars largely depend on the material from which the decks are made.
The basis of the post is a personal interest. It is significant that since the year 2000 I have not changed the instrument myself, and here I attended to buying something, as an alternative to my old yamaha. As a person who is not a senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences, but for a certain number of years of couch-playing, having mastered the instrument , he doubted the authoritative conclusions of theguitarist from the Russian Academy of Sciences.
After listening to a few guitars, I thought involuntarily, perhaps my poor knowledge of physics is the cause of my misunderstanding of the effect of wood on sound. I believe that a detailedanalysis of the flight of the bumblebeeA review of opinions on guitar sound will be useful to readers of our blog. The post presents an analysis of the judgments of the supporters of the wooden theory, the counterarguments of its opponents, as well as my personal conclusions.
Once upon a time ... when the sun was shining brighter, the water was clearer, the grass was greener, and people's thoughts were cleaner, two great guitar mastersGiuseppe Stradivari and Andrea Guarneri Leo Fender and Ted McCarthy lived . In the year of 1950, enlightenment descended on Leo and Ted, and they realized that they would achieve heights of skill if they started making guitars with magnetic pickups, without acoustic cavities. Guitar decks were to be made of wood, for this material was simple to process, durable, and lay in abundance in warehouses.
And Fender took pine and ash from his warehouse, and McCarthy took red mahogany wood from Orville Gibson's warehouse. And they began to cut six-string guitars with magnetic pickups and rheostat timbre blocks. These instruments, having heard, the musicians of that time, accustomed to acoustic instruments, not trained in physics, became puzzled. They began to say: “From what does Gibson Ted McCarthy mumble low, and do Fender guitars mean the middle? It is necessary to think, in a tree a different matter! It can be seen in different types of wood that the frequencies absorb, and this is reflected in the sound! ”
Thus was born the wooden theory, which almost unchanged has reached our days. Today, a table of an unknown author is widely distributed, in which are presented, used in the manufacture of guitars, wood species, and their influence on the frequency spectrum reproduced by the instrument is reflected:
Despite the abundance of data like this table, they are not confirmed by research and remain unproved. The question involuntarily arises, for what reason, a factor so essential for sound and performers has not been investigated.
I will not dwell on the views of guitar members of the forum who put their fantasies into pseudoscientific messages. At the same time, several quite authoritative people in the guitar world ventured to prove that the wooden theory was correct. Among the latter, Chappers (Rob Chapman - characteristically - the founder of Chapman Guitars) and Captain (unknown guitarist), who in their videos try to prove the difference in the sound of similar guitars from different wood species, distinguished themselves.
One of the significant "scientific" contributions to the wooden theory is the post of a certain Dmitry Razorenov, the link to which is given above. The author claims that he is a senior researcher at INEOS RAS, a chemist, radio amateur and musician. For those who are lazy to read everything, here are a few quotes:
The author also notes that the old wood for electric guitars is much better, since in the process of aging, moisture comes out of the wood, and accordingly: “the differences between the dips and resonances become less”.
If one can read about the Fourier series and the “big theme”, then the “image of the sounding object” and the “acoustic pattern” of the tree with its resonances, which becomes a part of the image, is, I think, brute force. In the bottom line, apart from appealing to the Fourier series and discourse on the dryness of a tree, the senior researcher did not provide an evidence base.
There is no doubt that the guitar body absorbs / reflects sound waves from oscillating strings to some extent. It remains to think about the extent to which this is captured by the pickups and subsequently with our ears.
As the experiment of guitarist Paul Graham, who in the recent past was one of the adherents of the wooden theory, shows, it is impossible to find a difference in the sound of a wooden stratocaster and the same guitar, but with a plexiglass deck (we recommend masters of blind tests to master it):
It is characteristic that part of the video, where the guitar is disassembled and assembled with a new deck, was shot without editing in order to keep the experiment clean. After the demonstration, Graham suggests that everyone evaluate their own abilities in recognizing the pure sound from the stratocaster from wood and plexiglass. It is not possible to distinguish the "acrylic" sound from the "wooden" sound.
Even more interesting and revealing is the experience of Dave Lee and Mark Verenga, who visited one of the Fender facilities, where, not without the help of the company's specialists, they implemented an ambitious project - a stratocaster from ... drumming ...
packaging cardboard.
The video is certainly advertizing, but it is valuable in that it vividly demonstrates the position of the manufacturer. Who does not hesitate to say that the material of the deck is something related to the design, but not to the sound of the guitar .
The miracle did not happen again and the magic texture of the mahogany will not be able to significantly absorb the averages and enhance the low ones. The basis of the electric guitar sound was, is and, most likely, will be:
Wood also has a very significant value, as part of the supporting structure of the instrument, and can also seriously affect aesthetics (in cases where it is not painted in the “automobile style”).
I sincerely hope that the faithful "woodworkers" will forgive me for my ignorance and skepticism. I hope that attempts to explain and prove the influence of the tree on the sound of electric guitars will take place in a decent form, with a sufficient amount of weighty evidence, and an acceptable amount of mat. Theoretical discourse on the properties of a material is of little interest to me, as many on this resource. I am always ready to change my opinion under the pressure of irrefutable facts.
“The wooden case acts as a rather complicated filter that absorbs and reflects different frequencies from the oscillating string in different ways”
What ultimately leads to significant changes that are important for the performer and the listener (frequency, timbre, etc.). Information about the significant effect of wood on guitar sound of electric guitars was called “wooden theory,” and currently has many supporters and opponents. Meanwhile, I want to note that the texture of the tree looks very cool, and the aesthetic qualities of electric guitars largely depend on the material from which the decks are made.
The basis of the post is a personal interest. It is significant that since the year 2000 I have not changed the instrument myself, and here I attended to buying something, as an alternative to my old yamaha. As a person who is not a senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences, but for a certain number of years of couch-playing, having mastered the instrument , he doubted the authoritative conclusions of the
After listening to a few guitars, I thought involuntarily, perhaps my poor knowledge of physics is the cause of my misunderstanding of the effect of wood on sound. I believe that a detailed
The legend of the deck or chronicle of wooden obscurantism
Once upon a time ... when the sun was shining brighter, the water was clearer, the grass was greener, and people's thoughts were cleaner, two great guitar masters
And Fender took pine and ash from his warehouse, and McCarthy took red mahogany wood from Orville Gibson's warehouse. And they began to cut six-string guitars with magnetic pickups and rheostat timbre blocks. These instruments, having heard, the musicians of that time, accustomed to acoustic instruments, not trained in physics, became puzzled. They began to say: “From what does Gibson Ted McCarthy mumble low, and do Fender guitars mean the middle? It is necessary to think, in a tree a different matter! It can be seen in different types of wood that the frequencies absorb, and this is reflected in the sound! ”
Thus was born the wooden theory, which almost unchanged has reached our days. Today, a table of an unknown author is widely distributed, in which are presented, used in the manufacture of guitars, wood species, and their influence on the frequency spectrum reproduced by the instrument is reflected:
Despite the abundance of data like this table, they are not confirmed by research and remain unproved. The question involuntarily arises, for what reason, a factor so essential for sound and performers has not been investigated.
I will not dwell on the views of guitar members of the forum who put their fantasies into pseudoscientific messages. At the same time, several quite authoritative people in the guitar world ventured to prove that the wooden theory was correct. Among the latter, Chappers (Rob Chapman - characteristically - the founder of Chapman Guitars) and Captain (unknown guitarist), who in their videos try to prove the difference in the sound of similar guitars from different wood species, distinguished themselves.
One of the significant "scientific" contributions to the wooden theory is the post of a certain Dmitry Razorenov, the link to which is given above. The author claims that he is a senior researcher at INEOS RAS, a chemist, radio amateur and musician. For those who are lazy to read everything, here are a few quotes:
“The effect of this filter is most noticeable (deck wood - auth.) At the moment of attack, when a pulse comes from the string, containing at the same time quite a wide range of frequencies, and not just the fundamental tone and harmonics (here you can read about Fourier series and convolution, but in general it is a very big topic) "
“The electric guitar is not an acoustic instrument, but still our consciousness is trying to recreate a sound from a sound by some kind of object ... But this“ acoustic pattern ”of a tree with its resonances - it also becomes a part of this image.”
The author also notes that the old wood for electric guitars is much better, since in the process of aging, moisture comes out of the wood, and accordingly: “the differences between the dips and resonances become less”.
If one can read about the Fourier series and the “big theme”, then the “image of the sounding object” and the “acoustic pattern” of the tree with its resonances, which becomes a part of the image, is, I think, brute force. In the bottom line, apart from appealing to the Fourier series and discourse on the dryness of a tree, the senior researcher did not provide an evidence base.
Reaction of the doubted
There is no doubt that the guitar body absorbs / reflects sound waves from oscillating strings to some extent. It remains to think about the extent to which this is captured by the pickups and subsequently with our ears.
As the experiment of guitarist Paul Graham, who in the recent past was one of the adherents of the wooden theory, shows, it is impossible to find a difference in the sound of a wooden stratocaster and the same guitar, but with a plexiglass deck (we recommend masters of blind tests to master it):
It is characteristic that part of the video, where the guitar is disassembled and assembled with a new deck, was shot without editing in order to keep the experiment clean. After the demonstration, Graham suggests that everyone evaluate their own abilities in recognizing the pure sound from the stratocaster from wood and plexiglass. It is not possible to distinguish the "acrylic" sound from the "wooden" sound.
Even more interesting and revealing is the experience of Dave Lee and Mark Verenga, who visited one of the Fender facilities, where, not without the help of the company's specialists, they implemented an ambitious project - a stratocaster from ... drumming ...
packaging cardboard.
The video is certainly advertizing, but it is valuable in that it vividly demonstrates the position of the manufacturer. Who does not hesitate to say that the material of the deck is something related to the design, but not to the sound of the guitar .
Disappointing conclusion
The miracle did not happen again and the magic texture of the mahogany will not be able to significantly absorb the averages and enhance the low ones. The basis of the electric guitar sound was, is and, most likely, will be:
- guitarist hands
- pickups
- string properties
- timbre block circuit design features.
- amplification and cabinet (radiators, design)
Wood also has a very significant value, as part of the supporting structure of the instrument, and can also seriously affect aesthetics (in cases where it is not painted in the “automobile style”).
I sincerely hope that the faithful "woodworkers" will forgive me for my ignorance and skepticism. I hope that attempts to explain and prove the influence of the tree on the sound of electric guitars will take place in a decent form, with a sufficient amount of weighty evidence, and an acceptable amount of mat. Theoretical discourse on the properties of a material is of little interest to me, as many on this resource. I am always ready to change my opinion under the pressure of irrefutable facts.