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Edit. Just seen that you are up to almost 10,000 'frets'. 'I've got a life to live'. Gotta love the irony!
The pickups are screwed to the thing that's vibrating whilst the strings are vibrating too.
Also the difference in density of the wood - especially in the neck, altering the tension when a string is strummed must make a difference too. There's a significant difference between mahogany and maple there.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Where it stops nobody knows.
Quasi-science bullshit will always beat those dare to have opinions that don't tow the line. I tend to let my ears tell me if something sounds nice, not a lab report.
I'm sure that science can go a long way to explain the overall system and how this is affected by the material that the guitar is made from.
My argument above is simply that there is a coupling between the vibration of the string and the vibration of the guitar body.
And this can be proven by a simple experiment - placing your ear on the guitar when plucking the string.
Therefore the reverse is also true - i.e. that any vibration in the body of the guitar will be passed back to the string (including vibration caused by the sound generated by the amp and speaker).
It is also highly likely that guitars made from different materials will generate different resonant frequencies, depending on the density and stiffness of the materials used and the specific construction. This could be proven fairly easily, with the right experiment.
My hypothesis would be that these different construction materials allow different harmonics and overtones to be produced, via resonance. In some cases those resonant frequencies will correspond to the most 'popular' frequencies used in modern music - whether by luck or design, art or science.....and that those different resonant frequencies probably have a different impact on the subjective assessment of 'tone'.
All of this could be tested quite easily using a scientific approach. I suspect the overall system is somewhat more complex than what I have described above, but the basics are there. I don't know why there aren't many academic references. Maybe it hasn't been studied enough (unlikely) or maybe they are harder to find than you would assume. Or maybe its hard to get funding to mess around with guitars ;-)
Of course, the extent to which the overall tone is driven by the materials that the instrument if made of vs other things (e.g. pickups etc) is a different question. But I see no reason to believe that the body materials have no effect on the overall tone.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
OK, I have found some real academic research on this topic, overseen by a Professor of physics and acoustics. I have also found a TV clip about their research, a full text copy of their paper and also some discussion by the leading author of other research they have done into this topic, including some blind listening tests. This will do for now. It's in Portuguese, probably because any English speaking academic putting a research proposal forward to study such a topic would risk becoming the next Eric Braithwaite! Looks pretty rigorous, using a mechanical picking device to avoid the problem of human players 'unconsciously' altering their picking technique in order to get the tone they expect.
Sobre o acoplamento corda-corpo em guitarras elétricas e sua relação com o timbre do instrumento. Physicæ 9, 2010, pp. 24 - 29
'String-body coupling on electric guitars and its relation with the timbre of the instrument.'
Rodrigo Mateus Pereira(1), Albary Laibida Junior, Thiago Corrêa de Freitas.
(1) Tecnologia em Luteria, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil.
Abstract.
Nine electric guitar bodies were built in the form of the Telecaster model by the author RMP. These were assembled using the same neck and pickup assembly. Once each body was assembled two strings of the electric guitar were mechanically excited and the sound, obtained directly from the instrument, was recorded for later analysis. Also recorded was a musical piece played with each electric guitar. These sounds were analysed via a Fourier transform in order to obtain the component harmonics of the sound, these harmonics are responsible for the timbre of the instrument. The harmonic spectra of each electric guitar were compared to each other and there were no significant differences between them. Thus the variations of timbre of electric guitars, according to the results obtained here, depend on other factors than the wood of the body itself, a fact that arises from the absence of a significant coupling between the string and the body of the instrument. Also proposed is a modelling of the string-body coupling, which shows that only a negligible amount of energy from the vibrating string reaches the body of the instrument and that a smaller amount still returns up the string.
http://physicae.ifi.unicamp.br/index.php/physicae/article/view/physicae.9.5/116
http://youtube.com/watch?v=AuIqNmVNNuA
So it was just guitar / string interaction, right?
i.e.
i) string vibrates
ii) pickup turns vibration into electrical oscillation
iii) amplfier / speaker reproduces this
iv) some of the energy from the speaker is transferred back to the guitar body
v) guitar body resonates at certain frequencies and returns these to the string
vi) pickup turns these new vibrations into electrical oscillation
The guitar body material may be important is stages iv/v
I say may because its just a theory. Anyone looking to do a PhD on this?
For example, one of the main claims of those who believe in 'tone wood' is that the quality of an amplified guitar's sound can be deduced from what it sounds like when played acoustically, with maple being 'bright' and so on.
Secondly, if a mahogany guitar only sounds like a mahogany guitar when the amp is 'turned up to 11', what does it sound like when played more quietly, Maple? Basswood?
Volume certainly affects tone as the amp is driven harder, but I have yet to hear of anyone setting their volume whist listening to their guitar going "No, still bass wood, a bit louder. No, now it sounds like alder, louder still. Yes that's it, now we have the 'mahogany tone'."
The more you pay for wine, the better you think it is. Even if it isn't.
http://freakonomics.com/podcast/freakonomics-radio-do-more-expensive-wines-taste-better/?c_page=7
I'd like to see a repeat of the Brazilian study, using an amp / speaker this time.
In theory it would be quite easy - just run the signal from the guitar jack through a splitter - one split goes to the amp, the other to the spectrum analyser. Keep the amp cranked and near the guitar to maximise the chances of observing the interaction.
If what you said is a factor, most recordings would miss these 'sympathetic resonances' as most guitars are recorded in the control room separate from the amp/cab.
From here:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-causes-feedback-in-a/
"Unlike microphones, guitars (both acoustic and electric) can vibrate and these vibrations occur at particular frequencies. In fact, the structural vibrations of an acoustic guitar and the acoustic resonances of the guitar enclosure are coupled and serve to "color" the sound of the guitar. These harmonics are what distinguish the sound of a particular guitar. The top surface of more expensive acoustic guitars is typically made from solid woods such as sitka spruce, whereas less expensive guitars are frequently constructed from laminated wood. The surface vibrations of laminate guitars die out more quickly than those of solid surface guitars. "
and this....
"...when amplifying the output of an electric guitar. Structural vibrations induced by acoustic feedback can magnify the signal generated by the sensors embedded in the guitar to "pick up" its sound, which leads to instability"
Isolated recordings, silent stages etc all would have prevent this. But it's only a small proportion of the guitar playing population who find themselves sitting in a control room with an isolated cab in another room.
PS Thinking about it this might be one of the reasons why I much prefer playing through a speaker, rather than headphones.
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.