Why are Teles just...more toneful than Strats?

[redb]

To me the sound of solid body electric guitars are almost ALL the PUs and amp.

You think so? I personally think almost everything matters, though to what degree can vary greatly. Pickups are definately at the top, but I think electronics, wood and overall resonance (which is affected by lots of things itself) all have a huge impact personally. I dont think what brand of strings you use or the angle of your tail peice and posistion of your knobs matter all that much D:

I am all about swapping PUs til the guitar/amp/setup sounds good. I have done it so many times I know it works.

But then again, I play LOUD... :-)

As long as you have a good base, thats a winning strategy.

[Gris]

You think so? I personally think almost everything matters, though to what degree can vary greatly. Pickups are definately at the top, but I think electronics, wood and overall resonance (which is affected by lots of things itself) all have a huge impact personally. I dont think what brand of strings you use or the angle of your tail peice and posistion of your knobs matter all that much D:

I used to buy into that before I started making guitars and amps and dissecting them in the process. These days, I kinda have the opposite opinion of you. I think the string/bridge interaction is of second most importance, right behind the PUs. I put body wood at the bottom of the equation.

Like I hinted, I think how loud you play probably has a big impact on how people feel about this. I mean, sure, if you're playing an electric solid body at bedroom volumes then maybe its 'acoustic nature' actually means something. But, if you play loud, then you are hearing the amp through your Pus mostly.

FWIW, I get a kick out of people who get all hung up on nut material and the BF system. Only even comes into play when playing open strings.

[redb]

I used to buy into that before I started making guitars and amps and dissecting them in the process. These days, I kinda have the opposite opinion of you. I think the string/bridge interaction is of second most importance, right behind the PUs. I put body wood at the bottom of the equation.

Like I hinted, I think how loud you play probably has a big impact on how people feel about this. I mean, sure, if you're playing an electric solid body at bedroom volumes then maybe its 'acoustic nature' actually means something. But, if you play loud, then you are hearing the amp through your Pus mostly.

I think we are getting towards the same point though.

The sound the guitar makes is the interaction between some peices of of nickel / steel and some low powered magnets right?

I think the reason we have different woods, neck joints, headstock angles, all of this stuff is that it affects the vibration of the strings and therefore what is picked up by the magnets. I think that stuff matters a LOT when the pickups are good too. I think nearly everything on the guitar affects the way in which the strings make sounds. I feel a well rounded approach to getting tone is important.

Go for whats most important first (wood) and then replace the most important things you can replace (pickups, electronics, anything that the strings touch) and then worry about the specifics later (tuner mass, deeper bridge posts, that sort of thing)

You can change pickups, its hard to change wood. Maybe Im just wasting money, time and effort, but I want to start from the best base and build on top of that. That may all go out the window loud, but I dont think thats 100% true. I think that good pickups carry the charecter of the instrument through to the amp.

Maybe Ill change my mind in the future, I dont know. But I dont think that putting custom shop 54s and a callaham strat bridge will make an ibanez sound like a custom shop 54 (and dont ask me how you get that bridge into that guitar, just an example lol).

Dont mistake me for a tone first guy though, if I had to chose between a guitar that was a 10 player and a 7 toner and another that was a 7 player and a 10 toner, all things equal I would take the one that plays better everytime.

I also think that a good amp can make any halfway decent guitar sound much better than it deserves to sound.

[Billy Porter]

I used to buy into that before I started making guitars and amps and dissecting them in the process. These days, I kinda have the opposite opinion of you. I think the string/bridge interaction is of second most importance, right behind the PUs. I put body wood at the bottom of the equation.

I agree about the bridge. I recently replaced the hybrid Ibanez PowerRocker twem on my Bitsa for a Floyd, which totally changed the sound. I lost lots of resonance and sustain but I can live with that for the ease of playing (you couldn't get your hand around the old one to mute). But I'd say all three are equally important; the wood, pickups and bridge - plus of course the nut (the one playing that is )

[Gris]

I do think the neck affects tone a good bit, but the body is last on my list. I believe this both from my own putting together of guitars as well as an experiment I did with pickguards (and lack thereof).

Plus, I saw Todd Rundgren get incredible tone at a concert many years ago from a guitar that was as close to having no body as possible. It was a metal (aluminium?) ankh shaped guitar where the PUs just appeared to float in the air in the middle of the metal circle. OTOH, his amplification was a killer traditional setup, with guitar into a Princeton, then into another larger amp (a Fender twin maybe?) then into the PA (it looked like).

Also, around the same time, back in the '70s when I got my real '62 Strat to replace my original brand new '68 Strat, the difference was night and day. Same thing with some Teles I owned. I attributed this to the PUs and neck as all else was fairly similar. Later endeavors swapping PUs and necks on Strats and Teles confirmed his.

[Kap'n]

Plus, I saw Todd Rundgren get incredible tone at a concert many years ago from a guitar that was as close to having no body as possible. It was a metal (aluminium?) ankh shaped guitar where the PUs just appeared to float in the air in the middle of the metal circle.

That was a custom Veleeno.