posted 03 September 2005 10:08 AM
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Is there a (commonly accepted) method of design and use of materials for building an electric steel guitar that can predict, to a great degree, the harmonic characteristics (timbre) of the instrument? Here, I mean all parts excluding the amplifying and tone shaping circuits.Acoustical instrument design, I know, follows a more rigid formula than electrified instruments. The violin seems to have the most rigid formula of all. Except for size and finish, violins all look the same. Almost all violins utilize the same type of woods. Acoustical guitars, mandolins, banjos, etc. vary in the way they appear even to a casual observer.
Thought Experiment:
SCENE: Three discerning, well experienced, steel guitar players sitting tenth row center in an auditorium. Steel guitarist (electric inst.) center stage, acoustical bass, acoustical guitar and uke.
Three steel guitars are (for want of a better word) tested:
The guitars all look the same, including color of course.
Identical pickups mounted the same way in each instrument, with the same type and guage of strings, utilizing the same tuning, same scale length.
Same amp, cord, and same amp settings.
Each steel guitar body is made of a different kind of wood and the parts are made of varying materials and mounted in varying ways.
If the quartet plays the same arrangment of the same instrumental selection on each of the three steel guitars:
IS IT PROBABLE THAT THE THREE LISTENERS WOULD DISCERN A DIFFERENCE IN THE TIMBRE OF THE INSTRUMENTS?
Mr. Clean (always looking for the cleanest of the clean) 
[This message was edited by Rick Collins on 03 September 2005 at 10:11 AM.]
The Steel Guitar Forum
posted 03 September 2005 10:08 AM
