Zachary guitars: wtf?

[speedfish]

i like that he points out that.
1.) fancy wood does not make a guitar sound any better
2.) thick poly finishes are very plastic like
but he kinda double fucks himself in the ass in the article by stating that wood doesn't matter, and proves it by using discaded pine(leo started out using pine)
and the goes on to say that pine resonates and tries to imply that an oil finish will let the tone of the instrument ring thru.
BULLSHIT!
ITS A SOLID BODY, BOLT ON GUITAR.
YOUR "TONE" COMES IN THE FORM OF A POTENTIOMETER VALUE!!!!
im fucking sick of hearing that crap. there is more tone in your picking style and playing style than there is in the difference of wood or finish, IN THE CONTEXT OF AN ELECTRIC SOLIDBODY BOLT ON GUITAR.
as far as acoustics go, thats another ballgame. different wood and finishes will affect the sound. as well as bracing styles. body depth etc etc.
the guy has a few points. but he uses them to stab himself in the cock.

I respectfully disagree. Two of the same make/model/wood will not sound/resonate the same through the same amp. Your personallity/picking style will ring through, but the guitars will not be necessarily sound equal in quality when heard. In my experience the guitar that sounds better unamplified sounds better amplified.

[Dave]

With all due respect, these kinds of statements are only valid when you have done so in a completely blind test with as physically identical gear (wood excepting) as is controllable in our hypothetical experiment.... or you are more likely to be subject to the clinically observed cognitive phenomena called 'Confirmation Bias'.

Do I think wood would make any difference? Yes (difference always equals a difference), but its effect would be so microscopic that I doubt that it is noticeable consciously to most. in fact difference might be so small that minor inconsistencies in the manufacturing of any given pots or capacitors might equal as great a difference between two 'identical' guitars. How tightly the neck screws are done up might yield similarly tiny variables. It really is the realm of the uncontrollably small you're talking about.... Either opinion is pretty much just hypothesis without some hard scientific tests.

[BearBoy]

The idea of people with phisical (sic) disabilities buying Zachs just bugs me.

Nice bloke.

[SKC Willie]

Either opinion is pretty much just hypothesis without some hard scientific tests.

A dude on TDPRI did a recording of a bunch of different guitars, with different woods, different pickups etc. and asked people to guess what they were. Most people could tell the difference between a strat and a les paul or a tele and an SG but it was tough to tell the difference between a strat and a tele on a recording. And these were people who played/listened to guitars all the time. So, if you're telling me the guitar sounds better when it's not plugged into an amp, I would somewhat agree but when you use the power of EQ, the type of wood has so little effect, it can't be noticed. It's hard to tell the difference between ash, pine, or plywood.

Anything in the electronics can change tone. RobOG is totally right. The pots in your guitar effect the tone much more than wood ever will.

[robert(original)]

the j.s. body i built for.... shit i don't remember who. but it was hardtail and ash. anywho. i took apart my j.s. and put all the parts on the ash hardtail body.
and guess what. it sounded exactly the same.
so ash hartail vs basswood top load trem system= same fucking sound.
thats about as good as it gets. same electronics. same player. same neck, same string gauge. everything really. except for the bridge style and the wood. which supposedly make the most difference(depending on which guitar wanker your listening to)

[paul_]

Robert is right but I would add that all the "tone" of a bolt-on (i.e. resonant properties and timbre) is in the neck. THIS is what's different on every guitar, even two consecutive production line imports.

I've swapped this MIM Classic '70s RI Strat's neck around on a GFS paulownia and an old Squier alder body (I converted it to a 4-bolt), it always sounds the same. It's a distinctively bassy and boomy sounding Strat. Everyone who plays it unplugged kind of raises an eyebrow. I want to put it on a VM Jazzmaster body so bad.

[speedfish]

Here ya go:



I bet it would sound better made from red brick