You go tell Nigel from Spinal Tap that you don’t need infinite sustain. You go tell him that.

@HighlineGuitars

5 ай бұрын

Best comment on this video so far!

@mattleblanc4377

5 ай бұрын

What if I gotta leave for a while to go grab a sandwich 😂

@JagStar

5 ай бұрын

"Go out 'n 'ave a bite n' aaaaahhhhhhhh, you'll still be 'earin' that one" LOLOL

@Bob-of-Zoid

5 ай бұрын

But it goes to 11, that's one louder!

@stevelaferney3579

Ай бұрын

So What! said the Fender amp players.

I learned some of this stuff the hard way, finally realizing that the components of the signal path are far more important than wood species, finish, or alleged "mojo". This is one of the main reasons I don't get the whole relic guitar trappings. If you want a relic guitar, buy a guitar and beat the snot out of it yourself, lol.

@unclestubs8377

3 ай бұрын

I've never understood why a person would pay extra to make a guitar look used, it's like paying for a lie.

The sustain idea goes back to a time when only acoustic instruments existed. The build quality was measured largely from note quality, strength and sustain, simply because there was no amplification. If an instrument was "dead" or had no sustain it was an inferior instrument/inferior build quality.

@HighlineGuitars

5 ай бұрын

I think you are absolutely right and thanks for sharing this.

Very well said and articulated. I happen to agree on all accounts. I’m an audio engineer (aside from guitar player), and we have a ton of myths as well. My personal MO is: if you can’t tell the difference blindly in a test, it’s not significant enough to worry about. But before everyone starts replying, I also get the visual & inspiration aspects too. At the end of the day, whatever helps you create your art the best way, is the best for you 👍

I agree completely. My main guitar for about 10 years and hundreds of shows was a Frankenstein Strat with one piece maple Tele neck, lock nut and Floyd Rose. The body of the guitar was plywood, the pickups were Seymour Duncan. This guitar sounded absolutely great.

@Jbuginas

5 ай бұрын

Can’t up vote this enough! Guitars made of shipping pallets or plywood are indistinguishable from guitars made of the finest imported and exploited ebony.

@Vykk_Draygo

5 ай бұрын

I recently sold an old Cort Effector Explorer that had a plywood body. It looked awesome and it sounded just as good as my Gibson V. I only sold it because I was gifted a new guitar for my last birthday (I can only play so many guitars).

Thanks for an interesting topic of guitar building. I don't build guitars but I do build furniture and comments around CNC are often similar. For things like pickup, electronics, tremolo pockets, or fret kerfs, a CNC is amazing. But even on a highly sculpted violin top style carve, a CNC is only going to get you in the ball park. It will do the heavy lifting, but there is still a crucial bit of hand work that will determine how nice your instrument looks. Many shops will not offer custom work, based on the fact that it would require CNC down time to retool and reprogram. This does not help a bottom line for a company trying to pay off its new CNC investment. This is where a shop that works "by hand" or in conjunction with a CNC shines. At the end of the day the CNC is a tool and tools have always been around to make a task easier. I wouldn't want to give up my surface planer and rely on hand planing and the CNC should be looked a no differently.

Excellent points. Thank you! One thing you always hear is that the guitar, as an extention of the player, sounds pretty much like the player. The way a player sounds at any given time is a result of many factors. One of these is how they feel about the instrument they are playing. If you are playing a beautiful instrument made with exotic woods, your pride of ownership will come through in your playing. If you have perfect settings on your amp and effects, you create a wonderful feedback loop which makes you feel and play better. Find the guitar, no matter the brand or build materials, that makes you feel great about letting your art and creativity flow freely. Take the time to learn how to set each part of your chain to find the sound that brings you to life, and live in that joy:)

@Mike_D_5150

5 ай бұрын

I agree 100% here with you. You can have an es335, but if it doesn't inspire you to play but a tele does or vice versa, well..

At last....someone talking absolute sense regarding tone woods and finishes ! Thank you

In regards of sustain, I think it´s a matter of preference. As I prefer clean sounds, I value an instrument with a lot of sustain. If it´s too much, I think it´s a matter of playing technique, you have to be able to mute the strings you don´t want. When playing high gain with much distortion, you can return to the conventionel solution: crank up the amp til the speaker feeds back and get infinite sustain 😁. Concerning the wood I totally agree, it has no influence in tone, but I believe it has a measureable influence in sustain. Therefore my favourite choice are ash an mahogany. But this is only an option when you appreciate real heavy guitars😁

@Jasonmakesvideo

5 ай бұрын

I wanna try ebony

I dropped the cash for a cnc machine after having a guitar body frisbeed across my shop from the router table.as i shaped the outter edge. I'm rather fond of my fingers and plan on keeping them. Same reason I have a Sawstop table saw.

Great insight and expertise from your experience. Much appreciated!

Great video! One thing I would like to add with respect to using different woods is how the player experiences the instrument. For example, I built one guitar body from solid spruce, and another paulownia. They both sound very similar through the amp. But when played without the amp they do seem to resonate very differently, a difference that appears to disappear when amplified. The interaction between the player and instrument is one of those subjective factors that I doubt can ever be studied scientifically. Another example is a guitar I built from Douglas fir plywood as an experiment. It was painted black so no-one knew what the wood was. One professional player preferred paulownia guitar and another preferred the plywood guitar. Go figure…

@johnosborne3187

5 ай бұрын

Absolutely!

Settling up the guitar carefully makes all the difference. Checking the fret level and ensuring the fret ends aren’t sharp or poking out will definitely make playing more enjoyable.

@johnosborne3187

5 ай бұрын

Yes!

@insufferablethrashelitist9305

5 ай бұрын

Yeah, every guitar player should know how to setup and keep it tightened up. Great point.

YES! Someone finally speaks the truth about "tonewood" and "finish" on solid body electric guitars!

Thank you for sharing your experiences.

I love your videos! Thanks for beeing down to earth! :)

Great honest review 👍

Great job explaining the reality of tone!

One luthier extraordinary was Georg Bolin. He was Swedish and passed away in 1993. When he had built an acoustic guitar he would sit down in a quiet room and tune up the with a special scraper he put through the sound hole and then scrape away wood on strategic places inside the guitar. This process took longer time than putting the guitar together. He also made some lightweight pianos with far fewer parts than a regular one. He also made some panels you could use to trim the acoustic in a room to get the maximum of the band that was playing there.😊

Wow, this is an awesome and interesting espisode. I will need to watch more than once.

Great points here and great channel. I can’t help but note the weight and shape outweigh the “tonality” of the wood on an electric guitar. I even understand the use of laminates even in the neck. I have an entry level Martin acoustic circa 2008 with a laminate neck that is rock solid to this day. I am wondering how long the glue will last ;-)

Good show!

Good stuff! I knew CNC made guitars were really good as my first good guitar was a Peavey T-60, the first production CNC guitar. Still have it, great guitar. Also big thanks for the mojo thing, that one gets on my nerves. It's just an excuse for poor QC in my opinion.

Hi Chris, Another very intriguing video. I always learn something from you. I do have a question for you regarding sustain. Does the density of the body on a bolt on guitar have a noticeable impact on sustain? For example, if you used the same neck, same hardware and electronics, and the same body shape and thickness for bodies A and B, with body A being solid poplar and body B being solid Bolivian Rosewood, would you expect a noticeable difference in sustain? If so would you expect the longer sustain to be on the denser guitar body? (And yes I know that a body made of solid rosewood would be prohibitively heavy) Thanks, Keith

I have a hollowbody electric where the notes decay faster than a solidbody, but it still has more than enough. I do play it a bit differently, and there are times I will choose the hollowbody and times I will choose a solidbody, and times either will work. Of course technique enters into it, as do the amp, pickups and effects.

Please take this as a compliment... I've watched many of your videos and I think you improved a lot on how to treat polemic topics. You seems nicer, more credible and less arrogant now. It's great to see that! ;)

Perfect description of solid body guitars and wood’s minimal impact on tone.

An excellent video, Chris. I can't help but agree with everything you said. Even solid body guitars made of packing crate ply, (God forbid) can sound great, if a little heavy.

honestly if i heard a guy complain that a guitar had too much sustain then he's just admitting he isn't a very experienced guitar player ...any good player can mute, it's like second nature. I think wood on the neck has a relevance regarding tone and the wood and density in a body effects sustain.

@HighlineGuitars

5 ай бұрын

I know many highly experienced and extremely famous guitar players who shun sustain because it interferes with their ability to shred at high speed. Whether you agree or not is irrelevant since it’s a reality that exists regardless.

@bepitan

5 ай бұрын

@@HighlineGuitars ..which famous players shun?

I'm a beginner in the instrument building world and I thoroughly enjoy the video! I'm on the same page as you with all of these myths, but I'd never thought about sustain like that. That's going in the mind locker lol

@qua7771

5 ай бұрын

The fact that you are humble enough to admit being a beginner, suggest to me that you'll likely to learn. People who think they know it all rarely do, and close their mind.

Oh my. While I agree with every point you made and I applaud you for making them. But Gibson is going to put out a hit on you for calling them out for their back breaking 3000lb LPs.

@rshizuya

5 ай бұрын

Boat anchor ⚓ 😂

@bluglass7819

5 ай бұрын

That is funny. After I built my first that I was truly happy with I took it around and had loads of people give me feedback. The one that stuck with me was that it was heavy and nobody would want it on there shoulder for 2 plus hours. I have been on a journey since exploring all kinds of different levels of chambered, semi and hollow. I love seeing people grab them and get surprised by the weight.

@dw7704

5 ай бұрын

One thing about weight is that how heavy is too heavy varies from person to person So if you are making a custom build for a specific person, and they like a 10+ pound guitar,sure. But if making guitars for anybody it makes business sense to make them lighter I have a 10 pound guitar that I am comfortable with, but I also have light guitars I love And my bass is lighter than a couple of my guitars.

@cutofthejib

5 ай бұрын

Haven’t seen them that heavy. I got a 12lb Les Paul and I can have it in for hours and it is not an issue. But the 20 year old kids today complain about 5lb guitars claiming they are too heavy. This is why we will never win a war ever again because our society is a bunch of wimps

@shanewalton8888

5 ай бұрын

If Gibson wanted to make decent guitars, they would spend less money in lawyers and more money on luthiers

Thanks!

@HighlineGuitars

4 ай бұрын

No, thank you Tom!

Middle of the road average player's have known it for years, we call it Somestain. Even though we age and get Alder and Alder we pick wood for different reasons such as neck pocket strength, weight, appearance and generally prefer something average. I'm finally putting together a build and what I want is a mahogany body with a Rosewood top, but what I'm ordering is an Alder body with a Spruce top. I figured the Alder will likely be lighter than Mahogany, make a good joint and resist buckle rash some, and since Rosewood is heavy maybe I better Spruce it up instead. Basically I'm having an Alder body experience at the moment!

What I like watching Chris's channel for is that he is very skeptical about most guitar myths, and that's RIGHT. Chris, my respect for you!

Thank you for talking about the wood etc. what about for semi-hollow, hollow and chambered solid body guitars?

@HighlineGuitars

5 ай бұрын

Same as an acoustic.

Great list and you pretty much nailed it. As a bassist, I add high mass bridges as a #6. The difference in a bent metal Fender bridge and a heavy high mass bridge is minor compared to pickups, signal chain, and speaker. In a mix most of the nuances get lost, if they were even ever there to begin with.

@maxonmendel5757

5 ай бұрын

does it make a difference with playability or tuning stability? tone isn't the only thing to think about

@sunn_bass

5 ай бұрын

@@maxonmendel5757 I've used fender and wilkinson bent metal bridges and many high mass ones like Leo Quan, ABM, Hipshot, Schaller and others. Never had any difference in tuning stability or intonation issues with either type. However I will add that many high mass bridges use zinc and I've seen many saddles with frozen height adjustment screws on those after a few years of use, but not on many bent metal fenders types with steel or brass saddles. Now esthetically high mass look great on some basses.

@maxonmendel5757

5 ай бұрын

@@sunn_bass word. thank you. I have bent metal saddles on a strat but im thinking of getting different saddle for palm muting. I also already have shorter screws though, that might beall I need. bent saddles wit low action and palm muting cuts up my hand

@sunn_bass

5 ай бұрын

@@maxonmendel5757 These are a bit pricey, but Highwood Contoured Vintage Saddles for Strat keep the stock strat saddle look but solve the jigsaw effect of the screws cutting your hand. Stewmac has those in different string spacings and finishes.

@baileywatts1304

5 ай бұрын

If you are plagued by "neck dive" and would rather spend money on a new bridge than a new strap, a high mass bridge can be a fine solution.

Hello! I would just like to say: 'Thank you very much for your help!!!!' I made two functional and beautiful guitars with Your help. I was afraid of spraying and sanding, but everything ended beautiful!!! Thank You again!!!

@HighlineGuitars

5 ай бұрын

Glad I could help!

I wanna know more about reducing sustain for sure... love it but its also a creative choice to have or not want sustain so OF COURSE there should be both options in guitar building

Great and helpful video. One question I have is with regards to the GRADE of wood used or the number of pieces used. I've read that import guitars with their mahogany three piece bodies are not the same as a full slab of higher grade mahogany. I can't say how much that matters but care to shed any light sir? I was choosing between a US made Les Paul and a Korean LTD and many said the Gibson will have better "grade" of wood. How much does that matter I have no idea. I own nearly twenty guitars and I really can't tell much difference except that the Japanese and USA instruments just have overall better fit and finish.

Hi, Chris. Yet another excellent and provocative video. Agree on all five points, but I would add this about Point #1: I am a bass player, and at first I was deep into Prog Rock (Geddy Lee of Rush, Chris Squire of Yes). I played with a pick, and bought a Ric 4001. I desperately wanted big sustain: notes that would "ring out," and so forth. Then, like every other bass player of my age (b. 1964), I came under the spell of jazz and jazz fusion and Jaco. That's when I switched to "finger style" playing, and I played hard on the bridge pickup, like my new idol Jaco. That shift is absolutely epic: to go from an attitude of "the more sustain the better" to one of "no, I need this thing to be totally dead. Zero sustain." I guess all I'm saying is: Player, know thyself. And understand that these marketing "yardsticks" ("Great Sustain") are often angled at someone who doesn't know any better. If I had continued on with my youthful Prog Rock obsessions, I probably would've continued to seek out basses with great sustain (like, Warwick has totally captured that market, and they excel at it). But I went in another direction musically, and that means I have to completely dismiss descriptions like "great sustain." If I hear that in an advert for a bass, I immediately say, "Well, that's probably not for me."

@BrantleyAllen

5 ай бұрын

I also fell in love with Chris and Geddy when I was learning (b. 1963). I have continued to love that style and have owned a '74 Ric since 1995. I also have a Jazz bass that, more often than not, has flats on it. I don't believe it's one or the other. Basses are tool. Different tools for different jobs.

@thomasbreene893

5 ай бұрын

@@BrantleyAllen Agreed: Player, know thyself (in my case b. 1964). I can think of so many times I didn't consider this, or failed to appreciate that my needs have changed over the years, or that very small, specific details can make a huge difference. Two examples: I have a Modulus Q6 that I bought in 1992. Absolutely beautiful bass that I played for years and years. I wasn't aware of it when I purchased it, but one of its big selling points was its sustain and its 35" scale. I just loved the bass and was a lot younger then (and arguably a different player). As the years went by, I realized how much effort I was putting into a bass that wasn't designed for where my style was going. Still have it, still love it, but I converted it to a bass with a GraphTech bridge and MIDI interface. Because that was a tool I became interested in. Second example, I bought this really excellent Marusczck 6-string bass and it's pretty perfect in every way. Except: it turns out the bridge pickup is too close to the bridge for the kind of sound and playability I want. So 10 mm farther away from the bridge would probably do the trick (I've tested it using a dummy pickup). But until I mod the thing (e.g., swap out the J-bass pickup with an MM pickup with twice the surface area), I'll continue to mostly play other basses instead.

I have huge respect to any guitar builder that admits that tone wood on a solid body guitar is not the factor to consider regarding tone

I would like to share one what about shielding your pickup cavities.

Would love to hear what you think about the set neck versus screwed on neck debate. My experience is that it doesn't matter at all and I love both styles of building but there is a huge divide in opinion out there.

@HighlineGuitars

5 ай бұрын

In my experience, most guitar related debates are fueled by teenagers who haven't been around long enough to understand the world they live in or poorly educated adults who want people to think they're as smart as they think they are.. Set necks vs screw-in necks doesn't matter. It's how well executed they are that matters.

Tonewood. There are very scientific videos out there showing exactly what you say. Now we just need to get the manufactures to come out and say it.

Great discussion. I agree. Another point to consider: would you rather hear Clapton play a Squire, or my daughter play Clapton's favorite Strat?

@HighlineGuitars

5 ай бұрын

I'd rather hear your daughter play Clapton's favorite Strat only because I hate Clapton himself.

Very few guitarists understand the difference between attack and sustain. Attack is the initial sharp transient that transitions to sustain after the first couple of hundred milliseconds. You see this confusion all the time when people claim to measure sustain of two guitars and then end up just comparing the attack amplitude. Same with claims about humbuckers adding "compression" or affecting sustain when they just filter out more of the initial attack than single coils and there's no absolutely no compressor or difference in sustain (assuming pickups aren't too close to strings).

The thing that I've noticed about the wood is a body can kind of sound "dead" or vibrate. I prefer a body that is lighter and vibrates well, or sounds "alive" when I play it. I wonder if it has to do with the density of the wood.

@TeleCaster66

5 ай бұрын

Funny, I have a lightweight ash body on a Strat now that resonates well unplugged but has no bite or balls plugged in. Sounded much better with the original body but it was so ugly I was embarrassed to play it out and when I did play it out it never failed to get comments that told me to change it, I hated that thing. However, I put a different body on it 6 months ago and don't /won't play it anymore until my new body arrives in a weeks, sounds like crap. So yeah, wood doesn't matter... Oh yeah, it has Ron Ellis pickups (stellar!) Raw Vintage bridge saddles and springs (they can make more of a difference than I would have thought) and basically really high quality everything, but the body wood sucked all the good tone out of the thing.

Hey Chris, thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. To me the ultimate eye opener (ear opener rather) with regards to the tone of an electric guitar was Jim Lill's air guitar in his KZread video "where does the tone come from in an electric guitar". His air guitar doesn't have a body or a neck and still sounds exactly like a normal guitar with the same strings and pick-up.

@HighlineGuitars

5 ай бұрын

I had hoped Jim's video would deep six the whole tone wood debate, but it didn't.

@vw9659

5 ай бұрын

@@HighlineGuitars but when you ask someone who says that Lill didn't prove anything to explain their objections to his methodology, they can't come up with any reasonable arguments. It's usually just something like "well his air guitar wasn't really an 'air' guitar - it had two big benches". Which of course meant that he had a regular tele, a "2x4" tele and a tele made from two huge benches - vastly different mounts of wood - and yet they sound rather similar. Ask them to explain what that says about "tonewood".

Re tonewood, I couldn't agree more! I've had that argument for years. What gets me is the guys who won't plug the guitar in. They'll compare two guitars acoustically like no one would ever plug an electric guitar into an amp. LOL I do think the type of wood affects the sustain, and I think a lot of people perceive a difference in sustain as being a tonal component. A guitar with less sustain does have a duller sound to me than one that sustains forever, but I think that's due more to the factors limiting the sustain than the actual tone of the wood.

#1 guitar myth in my mind is that owning better/more expensive gear makes you a better musician. If Richie Kotzen can play a cheap Squire at his shows, what's your excuse? One thing I'll say about your point on infinite sustain: I could see a scenario where a guitar player wants to play really atmospheric music live where he rings out notes or even chords and has the bandmates layer on top of him, etc. BUT I would also say that EVEN in that VERY SPECIFIC case (which is NOT a majority of guitar players) there are other things you can do to achieve that result in an electric guitar -- sustainers/sustainiacs, e-bows, and even a compression sustainer in a stomp box. There are TONS of options in addition to that -- reverb, delay, loop pedals, etc. -- that can expand on that even further but the point is the SUSTAIN is something you can change after the fact without any serious modifications to your cherished instrument. Also, I agree with Chris that having notes ring out longer than you want is a player issue, not a gear issue -- learn to mute the notes when you're done! :) (I hope I'm still learning things after 30 years of playing, otherwise I might as well stop...)

This really makes me feel better about refinishing my Epiphone Les Paul Special. I got the thing for $50 15 years ago, for the sole purpose of getting it to work on. Sanded off the face so I could put a cool flat black then thought I may have ruined the tone. It’s just a cheap solid body electric so glad to know I haven’t ruined it. Paint is curing right now and can’t wait to put it back together. And by the way, I have a Les Paul Standard made on a cnc machine and it has mojo and soul for days!!! In fact, so does my cheap ass Epiphone. In my humble opinion, soul and mojo come from a good bridge, good neck, good nut, good strings, and a good PLAYER. Mostly the player.

Unfortunately a number of solid body electric guitar manufacturers still insist that the body wood makes a noticeable difference to the tone. Since it doesn't make a difference (and I think they know it doesn't) the reason they do this I believe is to sell more guitars. Making them in different colours or in different shapes also sells more guitars. But none of this affects the tone. This is an example of marketing over riding science.

@2216sammy

5 ай бұрын

Incorrect , tonewood makes a BIG difference in electric guitars despite what this guys opinion is . John Suhr , Tom Anderson etc... know it . Good luck telling the great George Lynch that the type of body wood of an electric guitar doesn't make a difference .

@HighlineGuitars

5 ай бұрын

@@2216sammy It's all marketing nonsense and you've fallen for it.

Jim Lill does a really good A B test asking where the tone comes from in a solid body electric guitar. Basically comes to the same conclusion. I assume tonewood matters with piezoelectric pickups but I'd still like to see a similar test with them

Thanks, Chris, for another of your generous videos! Machining the wood (body and neck) is a time consuming and error prone part of making a solid body guitar. Hand routing, pin routing, hand carving - a lot of firewood is produced if you slip. CNC allows you to get reproducibly reliable and accurate in this - which is why after hand building and then building building a pin router, I switched to CNC. Philip McKnight recently had a very nice (long) video on his channel about a tour of the Kiesel factory. Really worth watching. That clearly showed that the wood machining was a trivial part of the process, and that all the rest (material selection, finishing, fretting, pickup design and manufacture, setup, QC...) was skill, craftsmanship and above all process. On tone - after reading Helmuth Lemme's papers and books, and reading the 2020 released English translation of the monumental 1000+ pages "Physics of the Electric Guitar" www.researchgate.net/publication/344300656_Translated_Physics_of_the_Electric_Guitar, all of the pickup manufacturers' sales guff is dispelled. And with respect to Jim Lill's videos - nothing better out there on the tone wood subject! Please keep up the much appreciated good work.

I agree with you on every point. I'm getting old and don't like heavy solid body guitars anymore. The last partscaster I built I used paulownia wood for the body. Super lightweight and I can't tell any difference in the sounds from my other guitars made from ash or alder. If you want sustain, buy a sustainer pickup!

Can’t upvote this video enough!

Mojo is all in my mind?! I guess I buy that, but how come I can play two CnC guitars from the same model, year, etc and find them quite different? Is it my mind, the wood, manufacturer, or all of the above? Some guitars are just particularly amazing and that's always what I attributed to mojo. Tech me I want to learn. Cheers

As you know I've been slowly learning a lot about luthiery, but I've also been on a bit of a woodworking kick lately. Forgive me if you said it already, but any concept of "tone" when building something out of solid wood should go right out the window, especially something you are going to but under tension. I think you've addressed it in other videos, but workability and stability are HUGELY important, not to mention weight. Hardwoods are stable but the hardest of them can be a bitch to work with, or just be absurdly heavy. I can *almost* believe that in some cases perhaps the neck wood might be slightly more noticable in affecting the feel of how resonant the strings are, perhaps in some cases the sound, but that's about it.

I'd like to know your opinion about scattered wind pickups , it's this a myth too ? Thank you !

@HighlineGuitars

5 ай бұрын

No, it's not.

Great video! I agree with everything you said. After having been around guitars for 60 plus years, one thing I have learned is that 80% of what is considered "conventional knowledge" is just BS.

About the wood on an electric guitar and the pickups is where the tone is for the most part, I look at it this way, I make Pickups, and my pickups sound different in different guitars with different tone woods. The same pickup in a basswood body and a maple fingerboard, sounds noticeably different in an alder body with a rosewood fingerboard. I am also a guitar tech, and of the hundreds of clients I have worked with never had one who wanted less sustain. They all want more and more. So, that is just a very rare occurrence perhaps.

@HighlineGuitars

5 ай бұрын

Marketing is a powerful tool for convincing people to believe anything.

@guitarman...

5 ай бұрын

@@HighlineGuitars No idea what you're talking about. Whilst the right kind of marketing can indeed be a powerful tool, I don't see anything of marketing significance in my post. Just my observation.

@HighlineGuitars

5 ай бұрын

@@guitarman... Marketing makes you think you hear a difference between different woods and marketing makes people think sustain is king.

@cockysonuvaB

5 ай бұрын

​@@HighlineGuitars (Though I agree on most of what you said...) by your own words, SUSTAIN is a real, tangible perceivable difference achievable by the Luthier. Whether players want this should NOT be a dismissive topic on the part of the builder. The DYNAMIC FEEL and SOUND of the guitar directly affects and inspires the player and it's not just PLACEBO.

@collegeofcool8109

5 ай бұрын

This is an interesting conversation. One party hears a difference using the same pickup identically shaped bodies of different woods. Of course the necks, tuners, electronics, strings, nut, bridge, set-ups have to be identical. Rather than using ears, the only way to prove Chris is right or wrong would be to measure these tones with scientific measuring devices. I would welcome such a video study. Barring that proof, I’m in Chris’ corner until proven otherwise.

If you took 1000 identical cnc built guitars could you pick out a few that feel better to you? That is mojo to me

@gearViewmirror

5 ай бұрын

Absolutely! 🎸🤘🏼🎸

The music genre I play necessitates a decent amount of sustain. My friend's solid body electric bass guitar has forever sustain while mine has a small amount of sustain. Both are of the same manufacturer and same line and while his has a RG body style and the Jackson neck and headstock his has high output humbuckers while mine has medium output ones. My Boss GT1B processor pedal is tweaked a little in more signal volume to counteract that descrepency but mine sounds more defined while his has too much low end and sounds muddy to my ears. Also I believe that his needs a neck shim so that the pickups will be farther away from the strings because they're too close and the pickup adjustment won't take them down any further. Even the other bass player with a slightly less costly electric solid body bass has more sustain just by tweaking the processor pedal that they use.

5:24. hi chris love your channel and your articulation was wondering if you could help me with a clean up solution for solarez i can’t believe its not laquer

@HighlineGuitars

5 ай бұрын

How can I help?

@patrickdonnelly5267

5 ай бұрын

@@HighlineGuitars hi chris was wondering if you could point me in the right direction for which solvent you would use in cleaning up after working with solarez products

@HighlineGuitars

5 ай бұрын

@@patrickdonnelly5267 solarez.com/eco-friendly-clean-up-solvent.html

Spinal Tap needed ultimate sustain lol. I firmly agree with your points. The comments are great too.

I hand cut and shape all mine.. I only do about three a year😊 I’m a hobbyist and give them away. I would like to do more for charity so I’m looking at a cnc setup to streamline the process. But even then, I’ll still make some by hand. Yes most guitars in the pay 40-50 years have been made using automation. You can tell by the uniformity in the component cavities and milling processes. Great video!! Thanks for the post!!!

Pickup height debate....Specially from old school players or builders using normal pickups. that old "PICKUPS MUST be X.xx mm from strings at all times" mentality. I found EVEY pickup has a sweet spot where it gives the best clarity as well as decent power. (not to be confused with the knuckleheads that set them for best power) Power is why we have amplifiers. Like the people that say you can not get a good clean tone from an active pickup.. They are the ones that continue the myth pickups MUST be close to the strings to be their best. Just like pickups both have to have the same power output...that is what volume knobs are for.. Understandable some builds have single volumes so there is that quandary but for the most part balance them with the volume controls not height. Find the sweet spots where they are at their best.

I've never had a guitar that can't sustain long enough for a whole note, and that's really all I need (vibrato can extend if needed).

The tonewood part is very interesting, the difference I can perceive is that there's a filtering effect to the sustained tone that changes from guitar to guitar (even two of the same guitars with the same pickups). The test I usually do is to play a chord with lots of low harmonic entropy intervals, like A2, let it ring and put my ear to the guitar. Eventually an arpeggio of frequencies will form, the same arpeggio will be able to be heard through a clean or hi gain sound, this changes from guitar to guitar (including the relative loudness of each frequency). Does this have any tangible impact on tone? No, unless you're purposely using pedals to augment the effect somehow. Changing the pickups, the wiring, the preamp, the speakers, the mic, the pedals all will have a much bigger impact on tone, but I'd still argue it's a perceivable difference. That is what I can say for sure because I can hear it

@johnchase3920

5 ай бұрын

I’d have to agree from experimentation as well. A guitar’s most resonant frequencies will soak up a bit more energy in those pass bands, or ranges in the bandwidth. The person who hears 1/8-1 dB of EQ in small areas when electrified is spending way to much time analyzing things, rather than playing an instrument.

@johnchase3920

5 ай бұрын

I’d have to agree from experimentation as well. A guitar’s most resonant frequencies will soak up a bit more energy in those pass bands, or ranges in the bandwidth. The person who hears 1/8-1 dB of EQ in small areas when electrified is spending way to much time analyzing things, rather than playing an instrument.

Great views on these myths. Ha, notice how a good portion of comments are on the wood myth. Most people are so closed off to technology in the guitar world it's crazy, it has to be wood, it has to be vintage, it has to be analog, etc... I have a lot of beautiful guitars made from a variety of beautiful woods and love them but the guitar I play for hours every day is the one with a carbon fibre neck, modern technology, and as far from vintage as one could get. It is a shame companies that push the boundaries of technology in the guitar world are not well-received but in other industries such as automotive only one small example is and I am sure that the people in the guitar world with those ideas don't drive model A Fords! Such a shame for Relish Guitars! You can always improve your playing technique if you want to have a variety of skills on the guitar and not be stuck in a rut. 42 years of playing and still working on bettering my technique to enjoy my advancement on the guitar! Sustain is a great thing on an electric guitar for the notes to bloom, get expressive with bending the notes, and find your own sound, but I guess it depends on what style of music you play!

The type of wood used in the neck has an definite affect on the tone. Mahogany has a lower fundamental resonance than maple. Maple necks can be brighter and improved sustain. Pretty subtle granted, but there.

@HighlineGuitars

5 ай бұрын

I’ve had Mahogany that sounded like Maple and Maple that sounded like Mahogany. That’s wood for you. Reliably unreliable.

I've changed bodies on Fender style guitars without changing anything else and come out with a very different sounding, and feeling, guitar. I've changed necks too a bunch of times and same thing, it changed both the sound and feel of the guitar quite a bit. I know you have built more guitars than me but I've put together quite a few (in sort of a Dan Strain/Danocaster way) and have had success in that took several years and loads of pickups, different bridge materials, and many bodies and necks put together in every way possible and the difference in different pieces of same wood type (like Alder) sound different and a wood like Ash which sounds quite different typically, is worth noting. I don't understand how you can say wood doesn't matter.

Finally! Someone that believes that sustain is overrated. I'm a metal player. I don't need notes to be hold longer than three to five seconds. And even that might be unnecessary.

CNC lutherie is an extension of Henry Fords production philosophy. Modern music and its production are in many ways a reflection of that philosopy. That machines can do most things better, faster, easier is beside the point.

If I want to know about a guitar's tone, all I need to know are the following: What pickups are in it, along with it's complete specs (pup type, magnet, dc resistance, henries, wire gauge, ect). What potentiometers are used, their value, how it's wired, and what capacitor is used if tone knobs are involved. That's it. Pickup details and pots. Everything else is white noise.

Regarding the tone wood thing, then why do Les Pauls all have a thick maple slab top? Is that all meaningless? If so they go to a lot of trouble for nothing.

My first build was a les paul. Countouring an archtop with a router and orbital sander is an absolute nightmare. So anyone using a cnc machine is more likely to get better lines, more precision cuts and way less room for errors. So one could argue that a cnc machine is better quality.

Long sustain seems to reduce the punch/attack of notes- something I don’t want in a bass. The handmade factor may be psychological but it’s something I value none the less. Great video!

@Vykk_Draygo

5 ай бұрын

I like when my bass can ring out forever before muting. I feel like punchiness comes from things like string age (newer strings have more punch), pickup placement, EQ, string attack, and plucking finger / pick position (higher up the neck, or closer to the bridge). And obviously, amp and speaker have a huge effect.

@carlton1390

5 ай бұрын

I agree that those things contribute/detract from punchiness, however a bolt- on or set neck will be more punchy (also have less sustain) than a through neck I believe. Likewise the original Fender bridge vs a Badass. Just my perception

Are CBC machines a good thing for quality guitars?

@tsmerk

5 ай бұрын

I meant CNC

I hear you about sustain but would separate it from "ring". An electric guitar well setup will "ring" acoustically as there is nothng impeding the strings from ringing on in the way theya re supposed to. Lots of guitars are dead or have deadspots because they are not setup properly (nut, saddles, frets , action etc). Players can call this "ring" sustain or I've even heard it called "singing". This one "sings".

@HighlineGuitars

5 ай бұрын

The scientific term is resonance.

Don't the woods of an electric guitar affect the sound of the pickups? I do not agree. I sold a Blade Levinson because the treble E didn't resonate enough (not amplified). Even when amplified, the E treble didn't sound, and it seemed strangled. I tried changing the strings, raising the pickups, adjusting the action, but it didn't improve. If a solid body sounds good when turned off (balanced sound and volume with all strings), it will sound or it will be easier to make it sound when amplified.

I think you just saved me a lot of trouble.

I use mahogany for my guitar bodies, not because of the tone but i like a natural oil finish on the guitar

I totally agree with you 100%

I’m pretty new to guitar building and one thing I’ve always wondered if it is a myth or not is capacitors. Is there an actual difference in tone between say an orange drop capacitor vs. a paper-in-oil capacitor? I could be totally wrong, but does an electrical signal really care how .022uF is achieved?

@qua7771

5 ай бұрын

They would all be the same if capacitors were purely capacitive. You have to take in to consideration that different compositions have different ramp speed, ESR, internal inductance, etc... If you don't believe me, compare white papers.

@vw9659

5 ай бұрын

@@qua7771 ... none of which have any been shown to have any real sonic effect in a passive guitar circuit, either in bench tests or blinded listening tests.

@qua7771

5 ай бұрын

@@vw9659 Not in the test I have conducted, and seen. I think you have done selective learning based on a bias you have. Your comment is inaccurate.

@RobertEarlGuitars

5 ай бұрын

In a typical passive guitar tone circuit the capacitor simply passes the unwanted frequencies to ground so any effect on the output signal is negligible. In more complex tone stacks and rc crossover networks, where the signal passes through the capacitor, is where you would notice a greater effect on signal quality. Also, power supply caps in amp circuits can greatly affect signal quality and noise. That being said I prefer to build my personal guitars without a tone circuit at all.

@heinrichpeffenkoffer4894

5 ай бұрын

​With a superhifi low capacity cable treble can be over the top in my ears without tone and volume pots. But w​ith most cables I also prefer the sound with tone and volume pots bypassed. @@RobertEarlGuitars

Does the guitar sound different because you stripped the poly? Or because you took it apart and put it back together and now the pickup height is .003" different?

@HighlineGuitars

5 ай бұрын

Who knows. However, if you don't like the new sound, there are so many easy things you can do to make it what you want.

@POOKIE5592

5 ай бұрын

@@HighlineGuitars I laugh when I read forum comments about people stripping the finish off to "let the wood breathe".

Heres a couple of weird phenomena .. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️ 1. How come with some guitars (with the same basic scale length , setup ,bridge type and model) with the same string guage and the same string tension), feel stiff and hard to bend and play some guitars feel loose like you're playing on loose rubber bands ? 2. Why is it on some guitars you can play a note ,even hard pinging off the frets pretty hard, and the note stays true after .Then on some guitars, sustained notes have an oscilated type sound to them, almost like your pickups are too high, or u have crusty strings?

@HighlineGuitars

5 ай бұрын

1. The looser feeling guitar has probably been played more often and for longer than the stiff feeling guitar. 2. If a note starts to oscillate as it decays, adjust the tuning of the offending string every so slightly and you’ll find a sweet spot where the oscillation diminishes.

some more thoughts on the whole CNC/Machining process... People tend to have this image in their mind of CNC Machines just spitting out finished products, which couldn't be further from the truth. Just takr into consideration all the steps necessary AFTER the initial routing has been done in order to get a finished guitar. It needs to be sanded, grain needs to be filled, tear out might still be an issue here and there, it needs to be finished, assembled and set up, none of which a CNC is capable of in the year 2024. On the other hand, even "Handmade Guitars" are usually CNC-machined nowadays, but "Handmade" (in my opinion at least) is more synonymous with "Boutique" quality or "Custom" or whatever you may want to call it, which offers a far greater quality control, rather than mass production, which heavily relies on the accuracy of used machinery and (usually) only samples are put into quality control, since the rest of the manufacturing has been standardized. CNC-machining definitely has it's place and the amount of accuracy you get from a well set up and maintained CNC-Machine operated by a skilled and knowledgeable technician can't be overstated, but that is only the tip of the iceberg and usually just the initial step of actually building a guitar. That's what people tend to not understand.

While Mojo is in the player's head, so is whether they like a guitar. So perhaps Mojo is when the overall objective, emergent properties of an individual guitar (filtered through the player's technique) meets the subjective perceptions of the player in a favorable way and therefore inspires them.

@zeusapollo8688

5 ай бұрын

Well said

CnC is mojo AF 🤘

There is s huge difference between my hand built guitar and your cnc guitar mainly that yours is way better because I still suck.

If you get into better "shape" (health) and become a better person, it will help improve your guitar playing.....?

This isn't another myth, however i'm all the same interested to hear your considerations regarding ergonomics and balance and how they affect choice of materials, shape of guitar, positiong of strap pins, etc. I find that hardly anyone talks about it. Most likely coz hardly anyone cares. rather

I heard Phil McKnight say recently that manufacturers tend to focus on their formula, ie design and manufacturing processes. Players tend to focus on ingredients, ie magic diodes or exotic woods. I think he's right and the formula is far more impactful to the final product.

11:53 Yes, but not just because the machine literally operates faster than a person with a router. I've worked for a guitar manufacturer, and that is only part of the savings. And for acoustics, only a small part. It's more to do with the consistency and tolerance of the parts and how that effects subsequent human hand operations like assembly, fretting, finishing, and set up. For large manufacturers it also means that a part made on 10 different machines can be very accurately similar. However, this relies on good machines, good tooling, good programming. The best CNC programmers are also good hand-tool wood working luthiers. You really need to go and do a few factory tours to see just how much human effort is used to create a "CNC'd" guitar.

@HighlineGuitars

5 ай бұрын

I’m not interested in the mass production factory perspective. Instead, I’m trying to advise people who are trying to decide whether to buy a band saw, drill press, planer, and a jointer or just buy a CNC machine. That said, I’d say a good 50% of the work I do is by hand and the rest by CNC.

I agree about 90% with this. The biggest thing I disagree about is tone wood. And to each his own. But I have had experiences that have shown me that it matters. But.... only to an extent.... and probably only to certain players. Take stratocasters, for example. I am a strat guy. I can pick up and play 5 strats off the wall, through the same amp without touching the controls and they would all sound completely different to me. Now okay.... "completely" might be an over statement to some. But I'm a strat guy, and therefore, the nuances matter more to me. I will definitely have a preferred guitar of the 5 and a least favorite one. A one piece maple neck strat and a rosewood board is a really big jump for me. I've taken the same body, pickups, bridge, whole shabang.... swapped necks.... maple for rosewood...Drastic difference before and after.... to me and what I'm looking for. Mind you, this is also with a clean Fender style amp, maybe overdriven, but typically not very much gain at all. Now to a non strat guy.... yeah they'd probably be like ...yep still sounds like "a strat" And I'll agree that every other piece of the signal chain has a MUCH bigger impact than the wood. But I don't think the impact the wood has on tone can be discounted so quickly. Especially for clean and nearly clean tones. But my experience tells me there seems to be a certain portion of a guitars BASELINE eq that seems to follow the neck, if you move a neck from guitar to guitar. Maybe... and this is an estimate based on nothing but my experience... maybe about 50% as much Baseline eq as would follow a set of pickups from one guitar to another, goes with the neck. It's like coffee. Light medium and dark roast. There will definitely be a preferred one, but they are all in the same family. Maybe it's not THAT different. But there will definitely be one they'd you would pick to drink everyday vs another. And then there are people who chose to roast thier own beans. Those people in this analogy... would be the "tone wood snobs" to whom it makes a difference. Now look.... high gain.... I don't think anyone would be able to tell the difference of wood just listening. To use the coffee analogy, it's like pouring French vanilla and all kinds of sugar and creamer in the coffee. It'd be hard to tell if you started with light medium or dark roast. And body wood??? I feel like it's a lot less impact. But to be fair.... I have no evidence for this personal or otherwise. And I've never taken the same neck, same pickups, bridge etc, and switched all that onto a different body. But I have with necks, and I firmly believe in the impact a neck has on tone. And I agree that the tone is variable, one piece of wood to another, even within the same species. And you are sort of stuck with however it comes out after construction. I'll also add that the wood isn't the only thing that vibrates. Choice of truss rod makes a difference as well. I have definitely NOT figured all this out yet, but I'm working on it.

@HighlineGuitars

4 ай бұрын

I don’t understand what you’re disagreeing with me about. I agree with everything you’ve mentioned.

@daveydacusguitars9033

4 ай бұрын

Referring to comments at about 3:30 or so I'm only saying that I believe wood choice is indeed worth consideration by the builder, and the person having the guitar made. It will only be a small part of the final sound. But a small important part I think. To some players. I build guitars, yes, but I always try to think from the players' perspective. There are a lot of tools out there to manipulate tone after the fact. But I figure.... if a player is advanced and dedicated enough to order a custom instrument... I'd venture a guess that they already know what they want from the rest of the signal chain. They've been experimenting for years with that part already and found what they like. On top of that, they've already had possibly dozens of guitars through that signal chain and figured out what they like and dislike as far as guitars go. The hard part as a builder is working out why the player liked those 2 guitars, and not those 2.... Assuming they plan to take the guitar home and plug it into the same thing they've been plugging into for years... as a builder, we have control of only the guitar it's self. How we make it. What we make it out of. The pickups and electronics. Given that... I don't see wood choice as something we can overlook. Just my opinion of course. Awesome content by the way! I've been watching and picking up nuggets from you for years. I value your opinions and thoughts very much. I see you are a seasoned builder I can learn a lot from. Thanks for all the free info you put out there! I'm particularly fascinated with that cnc pickup winder!

@HighlineGuitars

4 ай бұрын

@@daveydacusguitars9033 In my experience, wood is way too inconsistent within each species to be able to accurately predict the tone of a completed guitar. The belief that wood always has a certain species-specific tone ignores the reality that tone can change wildly between multiple boards of the same species. I learned a long time ago to NEVER rely on wood species to help shape the tone of the guitars I make. Instead, I rely on the component selection to nail the desired tone.

I would imagine you have to charge a significant amount to pay for the CNC machinery.

@HighlineGuitars

19 күн бұрын

I’m sure some builders do, but not me.

of course the myth of the country of origin for the guitar build equals a blanket "better or worse" in quality.

My guitar is loaded with mojo… DiMarzio Mo Joe pickups!

Re: Sustain. Well if you're a shredder with poor damping/muting technique I understand that you hate sustain. Have you tried the rubber/foam under the strings trick? But if you, like me, Robert Fripp and David Gilmour, use a lot of long, single string notes, it is a blessing. So, I guess it's horses for courses, as most aspects of an instrument. I think your guitar swapping story illustrated that. Happy ending indeed😀 People have different approaches and aesthetics. And, to me, that's what makes music exciting and worth studying. Viva la difference, as the French puts it. Thanks for sharing. I try to learn at least one new thing every day 𝄢🎶