View source for Tonewood

{{a|crime|{{guitar tone factors}}}}{{quote|
{{dsh a little learning capsule}}
:—{{otto}}, {{dsh}}}}A decades-long debate rages amongst electric guitar fans about how the material from which a solid-body guitar is made affects its ''tone''. There are similar debates about hi-fi interconnects, real ale, chalk-content in soil for vineyards and [[Lucy Letby|tests for the presence of exogenous insulin]], but [[JC]] happens to know more about electric guitars than those other things, so the humble axe will serve as an example.  

The argument runs like this: 

For:
{{quote|The shape, size and composition of a solid-body electric guitar will meaningfully affect its ''tone''. A guitar’s tone and harmonic resonance will depend, among other things, on what it is made of, the grain and density of that material, whether it is varnished and with what.}}
Against:
{{Quote|Bullshit.}}
There will then ensue a long and increasingly hostile flame war — sometimes multi-handed but, as they descend into the unfathomable depths of the Pierian spring, usually reducing to two combatants, who will angrily joust over the importance of climactic considerations, the fibrous composition of different woods, moisture content, and even the resonant frequencies of ''varnish''.<ref>This is not a joke: it is widely contended, by tonewood aficionados, that modern polyurethane “suffocates” the tone in a way that nitrocellulose lacquer does not, which explains why vintage instruments, which were varnished with the latter, sound more “open”.</ref> 

Now: all stringed instruments ''do'' rely on the vibration of a string anchored between fixed points. The string’s vibration ''will'' depend on the sympathetic vibration of the materials it is constructed from. ''To some extent''. In the same way that every object exerts a gravitational force, there will always be ''some'' sympathetic vibration, whatever the material.

So there is, if you will excuse the expression, a grain of truth in the tonewood argument.

''But no more.'' 

For these “harmonic vibrations” would be so minute as to be imperceptible even in laboratory conditions. They would be “as the flappèd wings of a Latin papillon” when set against all other factors affecting how an electric guitar sounds in real life. See the panel — you needn’t read this in detail: it is included to make a point. But the state of the cleanliness of the strings ''by themselves'' would drown out any “tonewood” contribution. That is not even to mention the amp, pickups or room.

Yet that grain of truth is all one needs to sustain an epochal battle between good and evil on an internet forum. And once you engage in that debate — once you accept the question is not ''whether'' tonewood affects the sound, but ''by how much'' — there is no end to the argument. You have completely lost.

The tonewood argument is a form of [[prosecutor’s tunnel vision]]. It is — if you will again excuse a pun — to fail to see the wood for the trees.

{{sa}}
*[[Prosecutor’s tunnel vision]]
*[[Lucy Letby]]
{{ref}}