Doug said: Love this Mustang thrreeaadd...cultural geography, vintage, and tonewoods...sort of are connected. My two cents:
I agree, my understanding is that drying, some shrinking and tightening over the years accounts for what we think of as superior tone. Tone unique to old wood anyway, which we hear clearly in acoustic instruments. Not sure if it produces a reliably noticeable difference in an electric guitar, noticeable to the average ear that is. But I'm pretty sure I've read it can be measured scientifically. That's one cent.
Following the thread...there's an interesting assumption in referring to the USA as "America". North, Central, and South America are all America. Was it our economic power that led so many worldwide to accept that "America" means this one country? Not sure if that's ignorance or stupidity. But it's two cents worth.
When it comes to the old wood thing, I can't really hear a difference between old or new wood, just different types, though I'm sure a guitar's sound changes in time. I find wood has the most effect on sustain than actual sound. A Maple bodied guitar with a maple neck and an ebony fretboard is going to have a "harder" attack and more sustain than a basswood bodied guitar with a mahogany neck and rosewood fretboard. There is a small tonal difference, but it just basicall helps what's there. I can hear a difference when parts of the body are cut out, most of them are because the wood is not there to act as a harmonic enhancement. A good exmaple of this is Edward Van-Halen's Ibanez Destroyer he hacked up with a Chainsaw to make it look crazy (or "The Shark" as it's more often referred to as). That was his FAVORITE guitar before he cut it up, because it sounded huge due to the large chunk of wood the Explorer style is, then he cut out that wedge in back (among other bits), and it robbed the guitar of it's low-end heavy tone. However, it was also poorly executed, so it did not promote a strong harmonic/vibrational property like a Flying Vee or Dean ML would have.
The biggest parts to me that seem to change things happens to be the bridge and pickups.
- The lighter the bridge mass, the more low end
- The more of your bridge/tailpiece touches the top of your guitar, the warmer/thicker it's going to sound. You will also have more sustain as the guitar is working more as one piece.
- Stronger Magnets = more high end, like the Ferrite Magnets in G&L and 80's Peaveys
- More Winds = More Low End, that's why the average metal guitar has a 14.5K powerhouse
- Different Magnets give different tone, but they are not so important as it's hard to tell unless you are someone like Eric Johnson
- Pot Values in your axe make a HUGE difference. That's one reason the Jaguar and Jazzmaster sounds so thin to so many people, the 1meg pots.
- A smaller electronic difference is the presence of a Tone control or not. Without the Tone control, the guitar will sound a little tighter and brighter.
- Pickups screwed into the wood are good for harmonic feedback. That's one reason my Jaguar and Jazzmaster sustain like mofos with heavy overdrive on them. The Feedback assistance is getting the body and neck into the act with the body. A pickguard does not give as good transfer of sound, but can come close if the part tolerances are high enough (My Kramer, Jag-Stang, and Jagmaster all have that level of Synergy between pickups and body).
- Pickguards can really add some resonance with a large routed cavity. My Jagmaster and Jazzmaster both have some amazing resonant frequencies due to the huge chunk of chambering for the electronics. When doing long stretches of feedback without effects, the guitars both vibrate a HUGE amount on the treble side of the pickguard, right where the inch and a quarter deep cavity for the toggle and volume/tone knobs is.
I can imagine that Mustang COULD sound good in good hands with the right EQ, but not with the Single Coils Mustangs originally had. The reason old Mustangs can sound fairly thick and warm is because there's a lot of body for what it is and a low bridge mass. I could imagine this body would rob those much needed benefits from the design and make it sound thin and tinny.
