All these guitar makers and companies talking about tonewoods changing the tone of electrics. Yes, all components of a guitar contribute to the tone -- it's just a matter of DEGREE. What the tonewood deniers are saying is that the difference in Alder or Swamp Ash or Poplar is SMALL compared to other factors like the pickups, electronics, pot values (and tolerances) as well as any filter circuits, capacitor values, etc.
What people haven't discussed so much and every guitarist knows, is that the GUITAR PICK has a huge effect on the tone, typically how the attack and transients sound. And by physics, this is completely understood. The pick material, thickness, density and even how the pick angle is executed all impact how the initial impulse is applied to the string, and this defines the initial transient attack and tone. You can easily see this on an FFT and frequency spectrum of the string after it's plucked. And physics predicts this. It is clear to even the most beginner guitarist that using a thin pick as opposed to a thick pick will make the tone brighter. You can hear this in an electric guitar pickup played clean, and very clearly on an acoustic guitar. It's that prominent.
So -- actually changing your guitar pick material, thickness, and attack angle, or shape has MORE of an effect than changing the electric guitar body wood from Alder (tonewood) to Poplar (non-tonewood).
Now I would argue that material stiffness (likely correlates to thickness) of the pick as well as shape are most important, not necessarily the material. Tone material for picks gets ridiculous, but it all boils down to the material properties which affect the pick attack and damping. And that is significant when it comes to sound through a pickup. Also significant is the design of the edge of the pick and shape. This determines a lot of the transient and how the string is plucked.
What people haven't discussed so much and every guitarist knows, is that the GUITAR PICK has a huge effect on the tone, typically how the attack and transients sound. And by physics, this is completely understood. The pick material, thickness, density and even how the pick angle is executed all impact how the initial impulse is applied to the string, and this defines the initial transient attack and tone. You can easily see this on an FFT and frequency spectrum of the string after it's plucked. And physics predicts this. It is clear to even the most beginner guitarist that using a thin pick as opposed to a thick pick will make the tone brighter. You can hear this in an electric guitar pickup played clean, and very clearly on an acoustic guitar. It's that prominent.
So -- actually changing your guitar pick material, thickness, and attack angle, or shape has MORE of an effect than changing the electric guitar body wood from Alder (tonewood) to Poplar (non-tonewood).
Now I would argue that material stiffness (likely correlates to thickness) of the pick as well as shape are most important, not necessarily the material. Tone material for picks gets ridiculous, but it all boils down to the material properties which affect the pick attack and damping. And that is significant when it comes to sound through a pickup. Also significant is the design of the edge of the pick and shape. This determines a lot of the transient and how the string is plucked.
