...and I'll try and stay away from opinion and anecdotal evidence. Having said that, I do believe my own personal experience with literally tens of thousands of instruments has given me an "informed opinion" ...which leaves no doubt in
my mind that these things do matter more than most give them credence for.
It's a common misconception that the sound of the electric guitar mostly comes from the pickups.
The electric guitar is first and foremost an acoustic instrument. It merely uses electronic means for sound
amplification, unlike acoustically amplified guitars, which use mechanical means or true electric/electronic instruments which use electronics for sound
generation. Many of the same resonances of the acoustically amplified guitar are there in an electric, just not as many and at a reduced level (to avoid feedback at high volume). The modern solidbody guitar was developed
primarily to reduce those resonances, but does
not succeed in eliminating them altogether.
The primary source of sound from an electric guitar (other than amp and speaker, which is a
whole other discussion), is the strings (don't believe me? Take the strings off and play it, see how much tone you get then ?), and the pickups merely capture that sound. They do this with some inaccuracy, which does colour the sound (mostly by subtraction and a little bit added by the resonant peak of the coils), but the sound is still very much the sound of the strings.
It follows that anything which colours the sound the strings, affects the tone that the pickups "hear". This can be something to do with the playing technique (picking closer or further from the bridge, using different plectra, etc.). Similarly, what the strings are mounted on has an influence on the sound they produce. Simple mechanics - stiffness, resonant frequencies, et. al. all come into play.
On top of this,
every single guitar pickup is microphonic to some degree - the vibration of the body causes the coil to move around the magnets, which has the same effect as the magnetic field fluctuating around the coil, and this generates current in the coil. Try this: plug an electric guitar in, dampen the strings then tap the pickguard (if there is one) and the body - you will notice that you can hear the percussiveness through the amplifier. Interestingly enough, the vast majority of the most highly regarded electric guitar pickups are
extremely microphonic.
There are lots of smaller influences on an electric guitar's tone, because of the influence the acoustics have on the vibration of the strings and the microphony of the pickups: pickguards, pickup surrounds tailpieces and dozens of other smaller factors. Consider that the
shape of the guitar has been
proven to have an effect on the tone (Google the research of Dr Russel of Kettering University).
In isolation some elements of an electric guitar (microphonics, et. al.) have a small effect on the tone, but taken in to account with the guitar amplifier they actually become more important. Consider that an amplifier does not only amplify the sound, making it louder - it also compresses it radically. What's one effect of compression? Quieter elements of a sound become louder.
At the end of the day, one has only to compare the amplified tones of different guitars to hear the huge difference the wooden body and neck make to the tone. Compare a Les Paul with an ES355 for instance (same pickups, scale length, bridge, etc. different tone). If it were all pickups, would this have any effect on the tone? No. Compare a Steinberger (or any composite instrument) with a wooden one (apples to oranges I know, but still a usable example). Change the neck on an electric guitar and the tone can change radically (ever try a Moses Graphite neck? I have...). If the pickups were wholly responsible for the tone, the only difference between different electric guitars would be the pickups and we would have long ago moved to synthetics and composites.
Bob Dubery wrote
Alan Ratcliffe wrote
I respectfully disagree.
...as do I. Only rather than beat my own head against a wall. I'm going to conduct my own experiment by striking a length of tonewood against a hard object and observing the resulting tone.
What does that prove? Surely the question is how much of the vibrations in the wood get transferred down the cable to the amp?
You missed the point of that. Read the words, look at the smiley...
