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Which parts most improve guitar tone.

57Strat777

Member
Joined
Jun 10, 2015
Messages
347
A great setup that is tailored to you is the most important thing you can do to extract maximum tone from your guitar. You'll never experience that unless you learn to setup your guitar for yourself.

I have taken many guitars to different luthiers over the years to get a refret and other work, and the setup provided by any luthier I've ever dealt with is never suited to my preferences. Most luthiers leave too much relief in the neck adjustment and then adjust the bridge to compensate for that, which makes the strings too close to the higher frets and causes buzzing. The best setup for an electric is achieved by adjusting the truss rod until the neck is nearly straight, then you adjust the bridge until you get no buzzing when you hit the strings the hardest you'll ever play. Every player hits strings differently, so the right string height is different for everyone.

Pickup height is another thing you can easily adjust yourself and it makes a HUGE difference. Most luthiers leave pickups too far from the strings for players that like to drive their amp into distortion when they hit the strings hard. Here's an example: My brother recently bought a used Les Paul Classic and he took it to a luthier to set it up and install some Seymour Duncan Antiquity pickups. He lives out of state but I recently went to visit and he offered to let me play the guitar thru his Marshall 18 watt clone with no master volume. The signal from the pickups was obviously weak because it should have been driving that Marshall into some sweet distortion. Also, the volume balance between the two pickups was way off. I looked at the pickup height and they were both way too low. I raised both pickups quite a bit which made a HUGE difference, and then fine tuned the two pickups heights to get both pickups about the same volume. My brother could not believe the new sounds he was getting and he loved it.

When you're working on your guitar, don't forget to check and make sure every screw and nut is properly tightened, especially tuners which loosen up frequently. Loose screws and nuts can affect tone in a negative way.

Use mineral oil on the nut, string trees, saddles, and tremolo pivots points (if applicable) after changing strings to add a little lubrication. Mineral oil can also be wiped on the strings and neck to make sliding your fingers across the strings silky smooth. Mineral oil is food grade, so no worries about it harming you. You can get a big bottle at the grocery store for a few bucks.

I also wanted to add that if I can't get good unplugged acoustic tone from an electric guitar, I sell it. If the unplugged acoustic tone isn't there or achievable, then nothing you do to the electronics is going to make it into a sweet guitar.
 
Last edited:

enharmonic

New member
Joined
Feb 24, 2016
Messages
7
In my experience, it's a little different for every guitar. The only thing close to a universal upgrade is a pot swap, and even that isn't always necessary.

A great setup goes a long way. If after a pot swap and a setup things aren't where you want them to be, it's best to figure out what is bugging you about that specific guitar and address that...which might be a completely different "tweak" than another guitar of the same make and model would need.

Some guitars need very little help at all. Others need a little bit of help, and then there are the few that need a lot of help. YMMV
 

Gold Tone

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 2, 2002
Messages
6,825
Dear OP;

To answer your question it would be parts such as pickups, pots, strings, and (if you use your tone controls) potentiometer values (NOT type...ie paper in oil, Mylar, ceramic)

Those parts would have the most noticeable affect on tone.

I hope you are able to ignore the responses recommending more practice. These are ignorant comments that serve no purpose other than to be arrogant. Obviously practice, hard work, passion are key to becoming a better musician. Those responses ignore your question and are nothing more than posturing.

I hope they haven’t turned you away from asking questions as you have, they are more than welcome and some of us are happy to reply without acting the part of a self appointed music guru.
 

Zakmichael

New member
Joined
Mar 23, 2015
Messages
37
Tone-wise, I’d say Pickups, pots, and strings. Overall sound wise, hands, amp, then guitar.
 

roxrob

Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2003
Messages
221
I'd say the best parts I have is my aged hands...….the tone of my guitars have definitely got better over 47 years of playing....



Rob
 

Big Al

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 24, 2002
Messages
14,537
LOW WIND PICKUPS

The latest fad and new buzzword for the hippest cats to utter just before initiating the new secret handshake.:laugh2:

This has been going on since the forum started and groups gathered to discuss on the interweb. Flavor of the week, latest secret rediscoverd overhyped sacramental holy relic of heavenly tone praise the lord hold hands and sing kumbyah!!

I lived through the 8K craze, when a Burst book misquotes a famous Burstaholic with "The Rule of 8's", leading to a manic scramble for 8lb guitars with 8K pickups.

Then it was overwound madness. PAFs closest to or greater than 9K.

Then came the "Scatterwound" madness. Those overwound 9K pickups now had to be scatterwound to be the coolest of the cool.

The MAGNET WARS!!!!
Dun duh daa! Had to be Alnico II.
Forget that coolio. Alnico IV is the hippest magnet to power that pickup.
Not this week, Moondoggie! UNORIENTATED Alnico V is the true cowabunga!!
WAIT! WAIT JUST A DOG GONE MINUTE!!!!!

What is all this magnet nonsense?

All the hepcats know it's not about magnets. It's all about mismatched coils!! The real way to get great tone is OFFSET COILS!!!

Yep, Coil offsets were the new buzzword and post after post touted this spec as most important for great tone. Just like all the previous specs and combinations of were.

Now it's UNDERWOUND. Underwound how? Just another poorly understood aspect of pickup design touted and shouted out as the latest and greatest, coolest of the cool, all the cool kids have 'em, FLAVOR OF THE WEEK PICKUPS.

I am amazed, truly dumbstruck that no one has thrown out ALNICO III magnets. Most often used in these "underwound" pickups and are the magnets used in Custombuckers!

Regardless the hyperbole, they are just pickups. Touting any as a required component misses a critical point.

All secondary tone items are part of a tone chain. A series of components that, CAREFULLY CHOSEN, and working together with other similarly well chosen PARTS, form a tone chain that is tailored for that individual. Alone any component, no matter how vital, is merely an unconected link.

Underwound, (weak, meek or mild), pickups may be vital in some tone chains, for some specifc music styles, for some specific people.
They spectacularly fail in other chains for other people and this FOTW is nothing more than a weak link for many.

I'd say a well chosen pickup, based on your needs and the combatability with your chain is most important.

Read 57Strat777's post #41. Lot's of true dat and good honest info.
 

renderit

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 19, 2009
Messages
10,951
LOW WIND PICKUPS

The latest fad and new buzzword for the hippest cats to utter just before initiating the new secret handshake.:laugh2:

This has been going on since the forum started and groups gathered to discuss on the interweb. Flavor of the week, latest secret rediscoverd overhyped sacramental holy relic of heavenly tone praise the lord hold hands and sing kumbyah!!

I lived through the 8K craze, when a Burst book misquotes a famous Burstaholic with "The Rule of 8's", leading to a manic scramble for 8lb guitars with 8K pickups.

Then it was overwound madness. PAFs closest to or greater than 9K.

Then came the "Scatterwound" madness. Those overwound 9K pickups now had to be scatterwound to be the coolest of the cool.

The MAGNET WARS!!!!
Dun duh daa! Had to be Alnico II.
Forget that coolio. Alnico IV is the hippest magnet to power that pickup.
Not this week, Moondoggie! UNORIENTATED Alnico V is the true cowabunga!!
WAIT! WAIT JUST A DOG GONE MINUTE!!!!!

What is all this magnet nonsense?

All the hepcats know it's not about magnets. It's all about mismatched coils!! The real way to get great tone is OFFSET COILS!!!

Yep, Coil offsets were the new buzzword and post after post touted this spec as most important for great tone. Just like all the previous specs and combinations of were.

Now it's UNDERWOUND. Underwound how? Just another poorly understood aspect of pickup design touted and shouted out as the latest and greatest, coolest of the cool, all the cool kids have 'em, FLAVOR OF THE WEEK PICKUPS.

I am amazed, truly dumbstruck that no one has thrown out ALNICO III magnets. Most often used in these "underwound" pickups and are the magnets used in Custombuckers!

Regardless the hyperbole, they are just pickups. Touting any as a required component misses a critical point.

All secondary tone items are part of a tone chain. A series of components that, CAREFULLY CHOSEN, and working together with other similarly well chosen PARTS, form a tone chain that is tailored for that individual. Alone any component, no matter how vital, is merely an unconected link.

Underwound, (weak, meek or mild), pickups may be vital in some tone chains, for some specifc music styles, for some specific people.
They spectacularly fail in other chains for other people and this FOTW is nothing more than a weak link for many.

I'd say a well chosen pickup, based on your needs and the combatability with your chain is most important.

Read 57Strat777's post #41. Lot's of true dat and good honest info.

A masterstroke of thought!

Each chunk of wood has a combo of iron and plastic and copper which speaks to it.

One size don't fit all.

(Unless super distortion is your bag.)
 
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