Zero Tone Differences: 2012 Gibson tops: Maple vs Mahogany

  • I have a 2012 Maple top Gibson LP and recently bought a satin mahogany only LP from 2012.


    Same year, only difference is the Maple top on the one. The rest, pickups, hardware, etc, the same.


    Well I hooked up to the KPA and played them on all 3 selections both chorally and single note, and dang if they didn't sound EXACTLY the same. Not one bit of difference.


    So it seems the Maple top is just for looks and imparts nothing tangible in the way of tone alterations.


    Anyone else notice this with guitars if they had such a perfect pair (same year, etc?)

  • There's a huge debate on this topic on YouTube, with some people insisting that the wood of a (solid) guitar has an influence on the tone, whilst others say that the pickups can't possibly tell what material the guitar is made of so therefore only the pickups themselves dictate the sound of an instrument, with perhaps some help from the strings, nut, bridge and fret wire.

  • Well the bulk of the wood in both guitars is mahogany. The top of Maple is just a "top" of Mahogany in the Satin one (they still have to drill the relief holes and not have them show, right?)


    I figure that if I can't a difference while I'm playing them, then that's all that matters for choosing a guitar for me.


    You'd think someone would have done it scientifically with comparison EQ charts highlighting the differences. I think it's for show. Maple looks better than Mahogany for a shimmering top. If it sounded different, no one would buy an SG (even though they DO sound different than an LP of course, thinner mahogany)

  • The debate about the tone wood myth is very heated in some youtube videos.
    To me tone wood and thin nitro claims are just not noticable in tone in an electric guitar (plugged in) in any form that matters.
    If claims like "superior tone wood, thin breathing nitro" and some other mojo claims actually mattered for electric guitars (plugged in) then the ultimate marketing for every guitar brand would be to demonstrate their guitars with A-B sound comparisons showing how much more "air or tone" they have. There are severeal obvious reasons why they don't make such videos. I can get great spanky and "airy" fender tones from both poly, nitro, alder wood, even heavy plywood bodies.
    I prefer to pick a low weight body wood for comfort, some nice body color, maple fretboards look nice, and I prefer poly on my guitars because it offers much better protection. To me the pickups and their position, strings, scale, bridge, setup, build, and how you play simply matters far more in an electric guitar. In an acoustic instrument tone wood absolutely matters but that's another thing.


    Some videos of various funny entertaining nature on the tone wood subject.
    :)



    Electric Guitar Wood Myth Busted?
    http://www.guitarsite.com/news…-guitar-wood-myth-busted/


    Last Time, Does Wood Type, Finish, Mass Matter On Electric Guitar By Scott Grove

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    Tonewood and resonant frequency myths debunked
    "...the guitars resonant frequencies have little to no affect on what the pickup registers.
    I have done tests and proved that tonewood in electric guitars has little to no significant difference."

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    Tonewood Evidence Roadmap

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    The End of the Tonewood Debate? Science, Idiocy and Scott Grove.

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    Electric Guitar Resonance: Relevance to Tone, Sustain, Tonewood etc

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  • I have 2 Anderson strats (Drop Top) different tonewoods on both maple tops, Basswood and Adler. A bit different coils, but HB is the same in both! its a big difference in sounde tones and sonic characteristics
    Density, type of amp, playingstyle and pickups will also be parameters...more transparent cleansounds will be more different than a very distorted heavy metal sound! You already know, but guitarsound is happening very much in the middle freq.

  • I used to own a variety of PRS guitars. Some were identical pairs with the exception of the addition of the maple top, and I swear I could hear the difference, particularly with clean or semi-overdriven tones. I know for a fact I could feel the difference in the resonance of the instrument, especially when hitting those big power chords or sustaining notes. The difference was more pronounced in a live setting through a big ol' tube amp at high volumes.


    I cannot speak for other brands or models, this is just my experience with PRS guitars.


    Speaking of wood, I am down to two guitars these days: an alder Strat and a Tyler Burning Water which is made from jelutong. Alder is a very common wood for guitars, but jelutong is another beast entirely. It's ugly and difficult to work with, but it's also lightweight and surprisingly resonant and well balanced. When I picked up my Tyler for the first time it felt like a toy. Then I plugged into a very loud boutique AC30 clone and strummed a few clean chords and instantly fell in love.


    That said, I know there are some people who cannot discern an audible difference between my Tyler and my Strat.

    Husband, Father, Pajama Enthusiast

  • the day I bought my LP std from 2005, I went to my place biggest store and played all LPs. I tried many LPs std. none had an identical tone, and I got surprised how important the difference can be. Now I can't tell if they were all 2005 std ones with exact same construction, but they were all std models from close year of production.


    among them all, one was much better sounding than all others. that's the one I picked up. that was in 2007 and I have only played this guitar since. that does not mean I have no more temptation for guitars

  • I have 2 EVH Wolfgangs, one the Chinese made Special and the other is the full Standard made in the Jackson/Charvel Custom Shop in Fender's factory USA by Joe Williams.


    Here are the only differences in the two guitars bar the £2000 price difference:


    USA has:

    • 2 graphite rods in the neck
    • Real binding on the body and headstock rather than painted.
    • Back angled headstock
    • And maybe the most important thing - a carved quilt maple top as opposed to a thin veneer

    Now I'm under no illusion that the quality of the maple and basswood these are made of will be of a much higher grade on the USA version but here is what we apparently know regarding these tone woods;

    • basswood is a warm wood, with good strong mids and a smooth top end
    • maple is a bright tone wood

    Now when I compare the two I hear two things, the USA has a tighter bottom end and a brighter top end in essence an increased tonal range over the Chinese Special which is a warmer sounding guitar, not as tight in the bass and not as bright on top. That to me fits 100% with common conceptions of these woods, that if the same guitar has a cap of brighter wood attached to a warmer wood the result would be a brighter guitar.


    But.......... we also know that you could play 10 identical looking Les Paul's for instance and not one may sound the same so who knows.

  • Here is a video from Andertons in which you can hear the difference between two Chapman guitars of the exactly same construction and same hardware, pickups and electronic but with different tonewoods.


    To my ears there is a difference no doubt! But it's no big deal like in an acoustic guitar where it totally matters.


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  • I must admit I never played two guitars that sounded exactly the same, even if they were identical in the specs.
    I once had the opportunity to compare 5 or 6 seemingly identical, brand new guitars, and learned that just because something is called 'Swamp Ash' (<- or substitute any other tonewood here), it is in no way a 'standardized material', but that each piece is unique.
    I kinda like that, actually ;)

  • I really don't buy the "tone woods don't matter argument". Otherwise we would be seeing remarkably consistent guitars. While that can partly be attributed to wiring, the difference should not be so pronounced.


    This mainly applies to passive pickups. With active pickups, there is hardly any role played by the body, other than sustain.

  • One interesting aspect Will mentions in videos, that some other forget mentioning when testing on YT, is that each piece of wood is unique when measured even from the same wood species. Ten alder body guitars will all be a bit different (at least when measured) and no piece is identical even if cut from the same tree, and if one piece is split in two then we have two different wood pieces with different properties. That goes for both the wood body and neck. Nobody can listen to an electric guitar (plugged in) and say what wood it's body and neck are made of.


    It would be very interesting to see an experiment showing differences with ten guitars with same specs and parts, with body and neck all made of the same composite non-wood material that would provide constant density and properties without any of all the variations that wood always have. Even then other factors like the pickups will cause variations since they will have some different magnetic properties and variations even from the same brand model.


    Some more interesting videos from Wills channel.


    what does change your guitar's tone? (WillsEasyGuitar)

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    The FINAL word on tonewood: basswood vs maple (WillsEasyGuitar)

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    debunking sound engineer's "how to test guitar tonewood" video (WillsEasyGuitar)

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