Quality with "Unplugged", "Resonant"?

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InLimbo
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Quality with "Unplugged", "Resonant"?

Post by InLimbo » Wed Nov 29, 2017 5:48 am

I've noticed quite a few people talking about the sounds of their electric guitars - in particular the "resonance" of them - when not being plugged in. I've never really paid attention to this, aside from the obvious differences like the volume of hollow bodies versus solid bodies.

Is this a legitimate mark of quality for you? I don't really get it. I've not met any guitars that sound anything remotely close (okay, fret buzz and setup issues ignored) to how it sounded before I turned my amp on. As a matter of fact, I couldn't tell the five of my guitars apart if I was only listening to someone else playing them unplugged.

For those of you who do mark it as a good sign when you enjoy the unplugged sound - why? Does it actually translate a certain quality to the sound that's already mediated by pickups, pedals, amps, speakers, and the room? If so, what does it say?

Disclaimer - if it's not obvious already, I'm not convinced that it says anything, but I'm genuinely interested in why this seems so important to some people.

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Re: Quality with "Unplugged", "Resonant"?

Post by CorporateDisguise » Wed Nov 29, 2017 5:58 am

I think the resonanace of the wood on a guitar can effect the harmonic overtones of the the note being played. Every piece of wood resonates diffently, and amplifies different harmonics.

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Re: Quality with "Unplugged", "Resonant"?

Post by stevejamsecono » Wed Nov 29, 2017 5:59 am

For me it sometimes can be a sign that it's just going to play well. My Highway 1 Tele has a thinskin finish and is a lot less plasticky feeling than cocurrent Fender guitars. The first time I picked it up and gave it an unplugged strum is seemed very lively so it made me want to play it and eventually buy it.

Then again, my Yamaha SG is dense as all get out and fairly acoustically dead, but it still sounds and plays awesome, so I think it really depends on the guitar.

All that being said, I have yet to play one that "felt" lively that in fact wasn't.
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Re: Quality with "Unplugged", "Resonant"?

Post by Logrinn » Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:01 am

If I had played exclusively plugged in to an amp every time I play, I probably wouldn't have thought much about it.
But since I personally play a lot and perhaps only 10% of that time plugged in to an amp, I enjoy the sound of my guitars the way they sound acoustically. And some of them are more resonant than others and I enjoy them more.

If someone here say it doesn't matter what their guitars sound like acoustically, then such factors as wood, finish and so on mustn't be that important to them either. Right ..? ;)

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Re: Quality with "Unplugged", "Resonant"?

Post by _nash » Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:05 am

Keep in mind your going to get a lot of opinions with this one ;D

Yes, I think it matters quite a lot. The pickups can only "pick up" the sound the guitar makes acoustically. So if that sound is bad or good, that's what the pickups translate. I care more about how the body and neck sound unplugged than I do what pickups are in the guitar. You can always change pickups. You can't make a body/neck sound better.

I was in Guitar Center once with a friend and we were just picking up random guitars and strumming them a bit unplugged. Huge difference in sound/tone. Especially the lower priced Gibsons. This was a couple years ago, but I bet you could do the same today. I think you'll notice immediately. One would be full and warm and the next would sound, literally, terrible. Hard to even listen to... I'm not plugging a guitar like that in or contemplating "what if I swap pickups?" Play around on the neck a bit too.

It's the foundation. You have to have a good foundation to build on. All that to say, I think in the day or choices in pickups, amps, pedals as you mentioned, this will only be very apparent in the extremes. The really bad sounding will just be bad. Though, even that cardboard Strat Fender made sounded pretty good, oddly enough.
Last edited by _nash on Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:13 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Quality with "Unplugged", "Resonant"?

Post by parry » Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:06 am

Inlimbo, I'm wondering if the resonance is lost on you because you're not using custom short, gold Mogami cables with platinum George L plugs into a KLON and in to a Dumble.









In short...

Duh. ::)
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Re: Quality with "Unplugged", "Resonant"?

Post by MechaBulletBill » Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:24 am

I often notice the sound of an unplugged electric, but I never relate that in my mind to any amplified sound.

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Re: Quality with "Unplugged", "Resonant"?

Post by InLimbo » Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:39 am

Logrinn wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:01 am
If someone here say it doesn't matter what their guitars sound like acoustically, then such factors as wood, finish and so on mustn't be that important to them either. Right ..? ;)
My #1 is finished in poly with a maple body and neck, which is pretty atypical compared to the materials usually considered important.
_nash wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:05 am
I was in Guitar Center once with a friend and we were just picking up random guitars and strumming them a bit unplugged. Huge difference in sound/tone. Especially the lower priced Gibsons. This was a couple years ago, but I bet you could do the same today. I think you'll notice immediately. One would be full and warm and the next would sound, literally, terrible. Hard to even listen to... I'm not plugging a guitar like that in or contemplating "what if I swap pickups?" Play around on the neck a bit too.
I can totally understand that there are differences in the unplugged sonic quality - but when you say that it sounds bad unplugged, which is the foundation, how does that translate to the amped sound, especially compared to one that sounds good unplugged? Is there a parallel between between a good unplugged sound and a good amped sound? It seems like that's what people are getting at when they're talking about it.
parry wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:06 am
Inlimbo, I'm wondering if the resonance is lost on you because you're not using custom short, gold Mogami cables with platinum George L plugs into a KLON and in to a Dumble.
Ha - good one :whistle:

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Re: Quality with "Unplugged", "Resonant"?

Post by shadowplay » Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:48 am

parry wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:06 am
Dumble.
I was glad when he died in Harry Potter. Fuckin' hippy.

D
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Re: Quality with "Unplugged", "Resonant"?

Post by Logrinn » Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:57 am

_nash wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:05 am
... The pickups can only "pick up" the sound the guitar makes acoustically ...
Say what? ???

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Re: Quality with "Unplugged", "Resonant"?

Post by Embenny » Wed Nov 29, 2017 7:02 am

shadowplay wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:48 am
parry wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:06 am
Dumble.
I was glad when he died in Harry Potter. Fuckin' hippy.

D
SPOILER ALERT.

As for the question of acoustic resonance of electrics - it absolutely has an impact. A fully hollow Gretsch, a centre block Gibson, and a solid body Fender could be built with the same scale length and woods, and they'd still sound and respond differently in terms of their amplified tone.

The question is, at what point do these differences becoming imperceptible? Do two Fenders of identical woods, but one resonates slightly louder acoustically, have any difference in their amplified tone?

That, I'm not so sure.
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Re: Quality with "Unplugged", "Resonant"?

Post by InLimbo » Wed Nov 29, 2017 7:16 am

mbene085 wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2017 7:02 am
As for the question of acoustic resonance of electrics - it absolutely has an impact. A fully hollow Gretsch, a centre block Gibson, and a solid body Fender could be built with the same scale length and woods, and they'd still sound and respond differently in terms of their amplified tone.
Well, yeah. That's an audible difference for me as well. I was thinking more about solid bodies in general, people talking about the one lively Jazzmaster versus another, etc.

There's another thread going on at the moment that inspired this one, asking if neck binding made a difference whatever. Which, no offense to the poster or anyone, but seems like an absurd thought.

Not to get too far off track, but aside from the pickups, amp, and pedals, am I the only one that really takes into consideration the room that I play in and how it responds? Neck binding and the amount of unplugged resonance seems literally in another dimension of tone obsession, yet is rarely discussed here.

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Re: Quality with "Unplugged", "Resonant"?

Post by Logrinn » Wed Nov 29, 2017 7:30 am

InLimbo wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2017 7:16 am
Not to get too far off track, but aside from the pickups, amp, and pedals, am I the only one that really takes into consideration the room that I play in and how it responds?
A very valid point. And not to mention what kind of speaker(s) you're using and how your ears are placed in front of said speaker(s). These things play a big part in what the electrified sound will be. Probably more so than how resonant the guitar is acoustically.

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Re: Quality with "Unplugged", "Resonant"?

Post by Larry Mal » Wed Nov 29, 2017 7:39 am

Logrinn wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:57 am
_nash wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:05 am
... The pickups can only "pick up" the sound the guitar makes acoustically ...
Say what? ???
He's correct. A pickup is basically a microphone, although a different type, and it can only pick up and send what information it is being fed. Same as if you had a microphone in a room with no sound, there's not much to output.

So a pickup captures the vibration of a guitar string and if anything is preventing that guitar string from vibrating freely then the pickup can't capture what isn't there in the first place. Put a mute on the bridge. Put your finger on the string. If you do anything that reduces the vibration of the string, then the pickup can't capture a sound that the string never made.

An electric guitar is an acoustic instrument, most people forget that. Even the most solid-bodied guitar possible is an acoustic instrument and not an electric one.

So same as an acoustic guitar or a violin or anything else, you want the string to be able to ring out unimpeded and with the full range that the string can.

To take it to the most extreme, imagine that you had a nice Martin acoustic guitar in front of a microphone, or you have an acoustic guitar made out of concrete in front of a microphone. What will provide the microphone with a more full range of sound? What will the microphone be able to output better?
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Re: Quality with "Unplugged", "Resonant"?

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Wed Nov 29, 2017 7:49 am

I've had issue with this but only really with my hollow body Vox. Switching out the old rattly bridge for a bar bridge made a world of difference to the volume, brightness & resonance of the guitar. Unplugged & plugged in it's like a different guitar now.
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