Does Tone Wood Matter on Electric Instruments?

That time when Ibanez made a guitar out of f’ing brass to make a point :joy:

76lbs :open_mouth:

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That would be heavy as !

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The obvious miss here is they should have made a bass out of brass

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This one came out yesterday. Thomann guitar guys talking about tonewood :wink:

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Someone once explained a concept to me in these terms:

Anything that can be conclusively proven has very little argument.
Anything that relies on opinion will never be settled.

I wasn’t able to fully understand that when I first heard it, but later when I became involved with a massive online computer gaming forum, I became aware of a certain status that came from owning the latest high performance video card.

At a certain point, it was impossible for humans to discern the difference between two cards, so they relied on testing software to tell them which was superior.

At that point, I realised the depths of how truly dumb humans are and realised why entire organisations exist to harvest money from the population.

Copious testing shows that people’s opinions are not based on scientific evidence. This alone should tell you that arguing about tonewood is a complete waste of time.

As a photographer, I would be constantly told that my preferred camera brand was inferior and that better photos were taken with other brands.

So I realised that if this statement is true, then It needs to work both ways. When people told me this fact, I said that all they had to do to prove it to me absolutely was to identify which of the random group of photos that I supplied for them to peruse were taken with each brand.

Every single person challenged to do this publicly, elected to suddenly find something immediately more important to do, forever.

So my method of escalating someone’s opinions about tonewoods being a matter of fact would proceed in a similar fashion.
For someone to identify tonewood characteristics as a matter of infallibility, they’d need to put their belief up against some serious consequences of getting things wrong.

If this was a James Bond movie plot, it would go like this. James would be blindfolded and made to stand on a platform over a shark tank. He’d be handed basses of various wood and told to tell by playing it, what wood it was made of. Failure to get it correct would be death.

Of course, you could just make yourself a lot of money by getting people to risk their cash on their ability to make the right choice.

I mean, there’s always someone prepared to risk their ability to back up their opinion to make or lose money.

If I had my life over again, I’d get on the gravy train doing this, rather than hate the entire concept.

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I think I could make a whole list for this category.

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I think about it often :slight_smile:

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If you could go back in time this is the guy you need to have a word with. Thomas Midgley, Jr. introduced the world to both leaded gasoline and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). He’s a walking Armageddon :face_with_monocle:

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Captain Cataclysm! or Captain Catastrophe! XD

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IMO, “Captain Catastrophe” has a little nicer ring to it, @Koldunya . . . :thinking:

:wink:

Cheers
Joe

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Some cameras definitely are/were better for certain types of photography when you’re either shooting action or in low light. Canon was way behind in dynamic range for years and sony/nikon sensors were significantly “better” but this only matters when you’re pushing the limits which most people aren’t. A camera maybe be technically better but that doesn’t make “better” photos, that’s up to the person behind it. like Ansel Adams said, there’s nothing worse than a sharp photo of a fuzzy concept.

Virtually any camera can from the last 10 years can produce any photo, the main thing that changes is the amount of effort required to do that. If you shoot raw, the look of the photo has more to do with the raw processor than it does the camera. Some people love canon colours and hate sony and for OOC jpegs, I do find that Canon has the edge. Really, who cares what other people shoot or what they think of what you shoot? That’s like worrying about what people think about the knife you use to slice a roast.

Most people can’t tell the difference between a photo shot on a phone and one from a high end camera. If you’re not viewing photos sufficiently large, the difference will be small. The average person is not very discerning when it comes to photographs and that’s probably because the content is more important than the technical aspects of an image. If you have to A/B something to tell the difference, then the difference doesn’t matter. Similarly, most people can’t tell the difference between “good” audio and crap. That’s why there are so many bass heavy headphones out there that sound horrible.

There is definitely a difference in tone woods, just like there is a difference in image sensors. The question, which can only be answered by the individual is does that difference matter? It does to some and not to others. Some people think consumer headphones sound great and audiophiles will tell you that they’re pretty much all garbage. Again, if you have to A/B something to tell the difference, it’s not enough of a difference to matter and you can probably turn some knobs to make up for it. People make the same dumb comparisons with raw converters… it doesn’t matter how they look with all the base settings, it matters if you can get something that you like when you turn some knobs.

Whatever the “right” choice is depends on what you like and how much money you have. I’m happy with Epiphone guitars, some people think it’s worth it to spend $5K on a Gibson. I have a LP that i bought just because I love the top on it and it’s very difficult to find one; i rarely even play it. I’m still shooting 10 year old cameras because they still produce great photos and i’m not going to gain a lot by spending $20K on all new stuff. If i had money falling out of my pockets, i’d buy all new bodies and lenses because they’re better in pretty much every way. All the basses i have, i’ve never much cared what body or fretboard wood they have except for how they look. I don’t worry too much about pickups unless they’re total garbage. My hands and the audio mixing/mastering have a much greater effect on tone. We all experience/perceive the world in slightly different ways; if someone thinks tone wood matters, I don’t care, it doesn’t make any difference to me.

I’ve spent dozens of hours looking at reviews and comments on open back headphones and you get totally opposite opinions from people on models because their preferences and use cases are different and nobody can tell you what you’ll like or what will be important. Everything matters, only you can tell if it matters enough to you.

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In case you’re interested, another vid

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I think in part the tonewood debate is caused by a weird, unhealthy combination of OCD minmaxing, geekish obsession and winesnobbery. In other words, it has a lot in common with all other religious debates on the internet.

My take remains more or less the same.

Do they make a difference? → Yes, of course.

Is it very much? → No.

Is one always better than the other? → No.

And most eye-opening to me, but also the most clear to me now:

Is the originating bass tone really that important? → Not nearly as much as we think, especially after EQ and compression in the mix - which is gonna happen whether or not you own a compressor and EQ yourself.

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@eric.kiser nice work fella. When you set out on a fishing trip you never know whether it’s going to be a bust or bonanza. But only a few more replies until the century on this one.
I think you should get some kind of badge :wink: :fishing_pole_and_fish: :shark:

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Yeah this one is really exceeding expectations :slight_smile:

Happy to help it along myself of course.

And it’s never going to end, of course :rofl:

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So a sort of tonewood mobius strip then?
twm

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So far i’ve decided to buy (and changed my mind) about 6 different headphones based on videos and forum posts on the “best” open back headphones in my price range :joy:

I already gave up on a new espresso maker and grinder and accepted that what i currently consume is probably “undrinkable” and I’m find with that :smiley:

I actually don’t see that much of a tone wood debate much anymore, most guitarists have got the memo that it doesn’t matter, bass players are a bit behind the curve :slight_smile:

It’s like people who argue germanium vs silicon transistors for guitar pedals. Whatever… sniff all the corks you like :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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A mobius strip is surface that only has one side so I’m not sure that’s a good analogy :slight_smile: It’s more like a tone wood treadmill or merry go round :smiley:

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I used the analogy because just like a circle it’s an infinite loop. But with the added bonus of appearing to see both sides of the loop, only to end up exactly where one started.

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I am reminded of this thread, where no amount of “listen to them yourself and decide” worked.

Wonder what happened with that guy.

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