To (mis)quote Ron Burgundy, “It’s kind of a big deal.” If you haven’t come across this yet, don’t worry — you will. And if you have, you probably have the scars to prove it.
It’s perhaps the biggest, most heated debate of them all when it comes to electric guitars. If dueling were still a thing, many guitarists would be wielding revolvers and dodging lead on a regular basis.
I’m speaking, of course, about the tonewood debate.
If you’re ever in need of an argument, tonewood is a great choice. There are two camps, and if the internet has any bearing on reality, they are willing to fight to the death — maybe even “to the pain” a la The Princess Bride.
But what are the facts? Why is there such hoopla in the electric guitar community around the role wood plays in an instrument’s tone?
Today I want to wade into the deep end and give you my thoughts on tonewood. Although I have no pretenses that a single blog post will end this debate once and for all, hopefully it will help at least a few of us understand the actual role tonewood plays in an electric guitar’s sound.
Use this information at your own discretion, by the way, and if you happen to find yourself on a discussion board, proceed with extreme care.
Tonewood and Acoustic Guitars
First off, let’s get one thing clear. When it comes to acoustic guitars, tonewood absolutely matters. There is total, complete agreement about this in the guitar world. This is due to how an acoustic guitar produces sound. It’s essentially a natural system that takes the vibration of the strings and, via the materials and shape of the body, amplifies the sound so we can hear it. Given that it’s a completely physical process, the materials involved dramatically affect the end result. A spruce-top guitar tends to have a brighter sound, while a cedar-top has a warmer sound, for example. The material used for the top, the bridge, the back and sides, and the neck all work together to create a unique vibration pattern that results in a particular sound.
This doesn’t mean that any wood is better than any other wood when constructing or choosing an acoustic guitar — just that you have different sonic options to choose from. There are high-quality guitars made from all kinds of materials, including non-wood materials like carbon fiber. But the materials used definitely produce different types of sound, even if they all fall under the recognizable umbrella of “acoustic guitar.”
Tonewood and Electric Guitars
Now we get to the rub.
People will make all sorts of claims when it comes to tonewoods and electric guitars. And by “people,” I don’t just mean keyboard warriors on the internet. Guitar brands use these claims in their marketing materials all the time. Maple fretboards are often marketed as being snappier and producing a brighter sound than rosewood. Likewise, maple caps (a piece of wood glued to the top of the main body, which is usually a wood like mahogany) are said to brighten up the sound or provide more sustain.
But it’s important to remember that electric guitars are not acoustic guitars in one key respect: they do not produce sound the same way. Acoustic guitars are basically analog echo chambers; electric guitars rely on magnetic fields. When you strum an electric guitar, the steel string vibrations interrupt the pickup’s magnetic field, and the resulting signal is transmitted to your amp, which amplifies the sound. This is a significantly different process from an acoustic, even if the input (i.e., a vibrating string) is the same.
Does It Matter?
In my opinion, it’s the confusion surrounding this distinction that gets guitarists all riled up. Some claim that the characteristics of the wood and the vibration of the body still affect the sound of an electric, while others argue that physics proves it just isn’t so. But who is right? Does tonewood matter for an electric guitar or not?
It seems to me that the best answer is “yes,” with a caveat.
If the vibration of a steel string over a magnetic field is how an electric guitar makes a sound, it makes sense to believe that anything that affects a string’s vibration will, in the end, affect the sound too. And since the guitar string is attached to both the neck (at the nut) and the body (at the bridge), it makes sense to think that the materials the guitar is made from do interact with the string and alter how it vibrates.
This line of thought leads me to believe that yes, tonewoods do matter on an electric guitar. But compared to many other factors, they matter very little.
The Signal Chain Is Where It’s At
There are many inputs along an electric guitar’s signal path. From the point where you play (vibrate) the string to the point you hear the sound, that signal has had to flow through:
- One or more guitar cables
- One or more pickups
- The internal components and wiring of the guitar
- Any number of pedals specifically designed to alter the signal
- The amp’s preamp, components, and wiring
- The speaker and speaker cone
Ideally, some of these inputs (wires and cables) shouldn’t change the sound at all, but others (pickups, pedals, amps) are specifically designed to impact the sound. And these things mold and shape the sound of the guitar orders of magnitude more than what wood(s) the guitar is made from.
My Experience
As an example, I have a Danelectro 59M NOS+. It has a bright, sparkly tone with great mids — it’s a guitar that really cuts through the mix. Based on the tonewood theory, you would think it must have a maple fretboard and cap, right? Sorry to disappoint, but the fretboard is rosewood and the body is masonite — that’s engineered wood made from wood chips!
The same is true for all of my other guitars. Each one has a unique sound, but honestly, the biggest differentiator is the pickups. My single-coil Strat sounds like, well, a Strat. My Epiphone with P90s has that signature growl common to all guitars with this type of pickup. My PRS can seemingly do anything. As far as I can tell, the guitars’ materials have little to do with how they sound.
And, of course, as soon as I step on my overdrive pedal, the sound changes completely. And the same can be said for my amp — the EQ can significantly alter the way any of my guitars sound with the simple twist of a knob.
In the end, if I were to put a percentage on how much tonewood affects the sound of an electric guitar, I’d put it at 1 percent — on a good day. Yes, it probably has some impact on the sound, but any pickup, pedal, or amplifier is going to affect things much, much more because that is what they are designed to do.
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