Resonance
When a string is plucked, the guitar and all of it's various components resonate sympathetically. Not at a specific frequency, but through a range of frequencies with lots of harmonics and various non-linear effects brought on by all of the various elements interacting. Now, the argument is that electric guitar pickups only detect the vibrational energy of the strings through the magnetic field of the pickups. Therefor, the resonant 'signature' of a guitar is meaningless because electric pickups are not affected by the vibrational energy of the body assembly, but only by the vibrational energy within the string.
However, the energy that is resonating through the various components of a guitar originated from the strings. In fact, given that there is little argument that differences in guitar assemblies lead to differences in sustain, there is then a noticeable difference in the rate that this energy is absorbed from the strings into the guitar.
So, even though the pickups do not directly detect the acoustic energy in the guitar assembly, this energy has been removed or subtracted from the energy in the strings. Such that, the subtractive effect of the guitar assembly affects the vibrational characteristics of the strings, which in turn is detected by the pickups. In the same way that a passive equalizer can affect the characteristics of a signal by notching out various parts of the signal's spectrum.
So the pickups are affected by the guitar body and components not by directly detecting the vibrational energy in the body assembly, but by the way the body assembly removes energy from the strings from the moment of the initial transient through the final ebbing of the sustain period. The guitar assembly is applying its 'signature' to the signal by absorbing energy from the strings in a way that is specific to that particular assembly.
The above method by which the body assembly affects the tone of an electric guitar or bass only requires two assumptions to be accepted:
- Different guitar body assemblies produce different vibrational characteristics.
- The amount of vibrational energy lost to the body assembly is significant in relation to the amount of energy introduced into the strings.
Read on…
http://www.acoustics.org/press/137th/fleischer.html
http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=499922
http://www.stormriders.com/guitar/telecaster/guitar_wood.pdf
http://www.cpp-home.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12520&sid=175d596220b005e9b6839d962b01b035
…and on and on and on…
http://www.google.com/search?q=electric+guitar+wood+vs+tone
…correct me if I'm wrong.
Got gonged on an unsigned band radio show… just as the blistering guitar solo was starting… nice…
The broadcast is -> here
If you want to hear the entire song, it is -> here
If you want to request my music again, instructions are -> here
White Fluorescent Tubes
I write these lyrics hurriedly
My boss will soon be watching me
Peering over shoulder
And sneering at my words
My lungs are filled with filtered air
And my coffee is black as crude
My tupperware is sealed up tight
To isolate my food
I said goodbye to the world outside
And goodbye to the night
And now I live under a sky that's filled
With white fluorescent tubes
This chair has curved my spine
Into ergonomic design
As the world beyond my desktop screen
Fades until I'm blind
Solo
I said goodbye to the world outside
And hello to the burning light
Of a sky that's filled
With calibrated white fluorescent…
