How much importance do you place on the unplugged sound of an electric guitar?
Have you noticed any patterns in the keepers or great guitars you've owned?
My own experience is that, whilst it has never dictated which guitars I buy, all my favs have also had a very nice acoustic tone to them.
The worst two I've had for this are unsurprisingly at the budget end of things - a Squier Esprit, scratchy weird tone to it, and a Yamaha Pacifica 311H which was horribly thin and scratchy, I remember even my wife saying that it sounded awful when I was playing it unplugged on the sofa.
What's your take?
Comments
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Quoted for truth. I've only played a few 335's that didn't sound like dobros strung with stockings unplugged. I don't think SG's ever sound that great unplugged either.
With a wooden bodied guitar, the oscillation of the string is changed by the wood type and construction of the guitar. This change is also collected by the pickups.
I quite agree that the electric sound of a guitar is the most important, but the acoustic sound affects the vibration collection of the pickups, therefore the acoustic sound is important.
As an observation, most of my guitars sound warm and balanced acoustically. My 2 HB Tele sounds a bit bright and scratchy acoustically, and that does maintain into its electric tone too - whether its the combo of woods, the bridge or just a fluke of the body, I don't know but I can hear it.
I had two SGs the same year etc recently - one was bright and the other warm and dark, both acoustically and electrically. I sold the bright one...
I believe there is a correlation - but agree it isn't the only factor in how an electric guitar sounds.
Fender solid bodies resonance translates more than Les Pauls is my experience. However, I find SG's relate pretty well. Perhaps it's something about plank versus sandwich body?
Agree about 335's, and add plywood hollow bodies e.g. ES175, ES330 .... unplugged they sound like a banjo, and not a very good one at that!
just because you do, doesn't mean you should.
So my take is if you have a good unplugged sound - resonance, volume, balance etc, then you're on a winner. But it's not necessarily the definitive.