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jzeijen

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Sep 6, 2010
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Love the tone from my black sugar / roasted neck AL HH. That was the main reason for me to order a PDN Y2D and that one is awesome too. It has been said many times, nothing as subjective as tone.. But what about mahogany bodies with a maple top? Same wood combination and widely used?
 

uOpt

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The way that I see it the specific sound of a neck is to a large part determined by a whole range of construction details (kind of truss rod, whether it's 1-piece or separate fingerboard, rods, size of frets). That makes the wood species somewhat less important.

Plus what we label as "mahogany" can be one of several species and even within the same species mahogany's sound can be all over the place. It's probably the most inconsistent wood used for electric guitars after ash.
 

jvh

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Aug 29, 2010
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I don't really know how to respond to this thread, but I paid a lot of money for my pdn guitar... I am very happy with it and it's a very bad a$$ instrument. I hear nothing wrong with the wood combination.
 
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musikarero

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Feb 1, 2004
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I must be "tone wood deaf" because every guitar I own ends up sounding pretty much the same. I hear more electronic differences such as pickups or speakers long before I would hear what wood the guitar is made out of.
 

Tollywood

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I must be "tone wood deaf" because every guitar I own ends up sounding pretty much the same. I hear more electronic differences such as pickups or speakers long before I would hear what wood the guitar is made out of.

That's because alot of your tone is in your fingers and the way you play. I usually sound the same, too.
 

uOpt

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I must be "tone wood deaf" because every guitar I own ends up sounding pretty much the same. I hear more electronic differences such as pickups or speakers long before I would hear what wood the guitar is made out of.

Once you make a habit of trying each of your new guitars with the same set of pickups things change.

If you don't even use the same speakers now it's hardly surprising you can't hear one piece of maple from the next :)
 

jvh

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Once you make a habit of trying each of your new guitars with the same set of pickups things change.

If you don't even use the same speakers now it's hardly surprising you can't hear one piece of maple from the next :)

My mind is boggled. I wish things wouldn't get so technical with woods pickups etc. I bet Mr. Petrucci could widdle a guitar out of a tree branch and use his hair for strings and it would sound good. Sometimes people get to into what they like or don't like about a guitar, but I think emotion is probably the most important aspect of the instrument.

In all honesty, I guess it's everbodys perogative to question whether this was a good combination. I think overall most of us are happy with the guitars.
 

JCottle

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Dec 24, 2012
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So I rewired and installed passive pickups in this guitar (I can hear the gasps) and I have been quite pleased. Now having had it for a while I've stumbled on something interesting. When I cranked up the volume, the undesirable aspect that was bothering me significantly faded. I soon came to the realization the this honky kind of tone was due to the fact that the incredible resonance of the wood was reverberating through the trem cavity and into the back plate.

So I think holding the guitar and that plate pressing against you, you tend to really hear it (acoustically), even feel it. It's actually quite impressive. It however doesn't translate very much through the pickups so the louder the amp, the more it sort of drowns out what I hear and feel acoustically. So my initial sadness has indeed turned to happiness thanks to some key input from you here on the forum and fine craftsmanship.
 
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