Rapid-fire questions

[Roland777]

1. Could someone please explain the tonal properties of different body-woods for guitars? Mahogany, ash, alder? Please explain using basswood as a benchmark.

2. What impact would a maple top have, soundwise, on a basswood body?

3. What does the A-rating in flame maple top indicate?

4. What would be the effects of stripping down the paint of my RG7321 and giving it an oil-finish instead?

5. How is a body-binding "made"?

Some of them are a bit noobish, yes, so don't rip. Please.

 

[Shannon]

1. Could someone please explain the tonal properties of different body-woods for guitars? Mahogany, ash, alder? Please explain using basswood as a benchmark.
Well, I'll give you a place that explains this shit pretty well. How's that?
http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/options/options_bodywoods.cfm

2. What impact would a maple top have, soundwise, on a basswood body?
Maple usually brings us the brightness in tone.

3. What does the A-rating in flame maple top indicate?
You can find descriptions all over the net. Basically, the more "A"s there are, the higher the wood grade.

4. What would be the effects of stripping down the paint of my RG7321 and giving it an oil-finish instead?
Well, the guitar would look different. The guitar would be slightly more resonant now that the tone-killing polymer-based paint has been shed.

5. How is a body-binding "made"?
With plastic and/or woods.

Some of them are a bit noobish, yes, so don't rip. Please.

 

[Roland777]

I knew I should typed have "the sound-related effects of stripping the paint". Dont think that you can slander me because you gave me a buckload of Kari Byron-pictures!

Thanks for the links and info!

 

[Shannon]

I knew I should typed have "the sound-related effects of stripping the paint". Dont think that you can slander me because you gave me a buckload of Kari Byron-pictures!

Thanks for the links and info!

No problem, man. And regarding those Kari Byron pics, I figured I wouldn't see you hear for at LEAST a week after you got them. You know where I'm going with this.

 

[Roland777]

I just gave them a quick glance-over. Gotta pull myself away and take it easy on that front now that I'm alone again, during the Christmas-weekend, or else I fear I'm buying myself days in purgatory.

 

[DTUNED7]

I just gave them a quick glance-over. Gotta pull myself away and take it easy on that front now that I'm alone again, during the Christmas-weekend, or else I fear I'm buying myself days in purgatory. :

Who is Kari Byron ?

 

[Shannon]

Who is Kari Byron ?

The chick on the show, Mythbusters. Roland is a diehard fan of the show.

 

[FoxMustang]

The chick on the show, Mythbusters. Roland is a diehard fan of the show.

I think there's something hot about a chick that knows how to weld

 

[Elysian]

aren't there 2 hot chicks on mythbusters?

 

[Metal Ken]

aren't there 2 hot chicks on mythbusters?

On some episodes. The blonde girl who isnt as hot isnt on there anymore, to my knowledge.

 

[bostjan]

1. Could someone please explain the tonal properties of different body-woods for guitars? Mahogany, ash, alder? Please explain using basswood as a benchmark.

2. What impact would a maple top have, soundwise, on a basswood body?

3. What does the A-rating in flame maple top indicate?

4. What would be the effects of stripping down the paint of my RG7321 and giving it an oil-finish instead?

5. How is a body-binding "made"?

Some of them are a bit noobish, yes, so don't rip. Please.

shannon handled this one beautifully, but if i may opine a little further, it may or may not be insightful.

1. basswood is nice and light. it is not very bright in tone. personally, i prefer lot's of brightness. solid maple guitars are awesome (if you like brightness), but weigh a ton and are limited in availability. in the eastern hemisphere, woods seem to be lighter. i have no clue as to why this is. ?!

2. maple tops are awesome. you bring out the brightness without the weight or expense. laminated guitars tend to have different tonal qualities than one-piece guitars, though, so some people shun the idea of a top. if you are going to do option 4, especially with a nice piece of flamed or quilted maple for a top, you'll definately have a guitar that looks and sounds great.

3. the a's don't mean much, in real life. the more 'a's' the better the quality, but different manufacturers use different numbers of a's on the same wood. it's like saying a=good, aa=better, aaa=great, aaaa=super great. it means nothing, really. most lumber yards will let you pick the wood you like the best, but good luck finding anything decent unless a fresh batch has just come in. the guys i buy wood from charge the same price for maple, no matter how beautiful or ugly.

4. basswood really looks like crap, i suggest stripping down, only if you are going to a) use another opaque finish or b) laminate a decent-looking top on the guitar. due to the production methods ibanez & many other manufacturers use (don't hate me for saying this, it's the truth) the wood often gets wet under the finish, and is very likely to contain ugly brown spots.

5. binding can be bought from a luthier supply pretty cheap, but application can be tricky. most bindings these days are plastic, because it is much less brittle and easier to work with. best to glue to the guitar with 'duco' acrylic cement. bone bindings have to be soaked and cloven or split, and may become nightmarishly hard to work.

i think the fretboard dictates the tone of the guitar as much as the body. this is my opinion. many people disagree. i prefer ebony for it's dark look and bright sound. next is maple, which sounds much like ebony, but is very light visually. rosewood gives a darker tone. pau ferro is nice too, with a slightly darker tone, but not as dark imo as rosewood.

hope this helps somehow

 

[Roland777]

Superb info, bostjan. Thanks a bunch!

As far as Kari Byron goes - she's the redhead on Mythbusters. The blonde welder-chick, Scottie, quit the show at the end of season 2 along with the seemingly lesser-known Christine. But I must say, I seem to be a sucker for natural redheads, and DAAAYUM, Kari Byron is fine! Just do a Google picture-search.