http://www.mylespaul.

com/forums/luthiers-corner/123681-apparent-luthier-statin-
wood-makes-no-difference-its-all-about-pickups.html

ugh.... here we go again....

I used to be a wood non-believer... as a guy with a egg head science background..

its hard to believe that someone could tell the difference between a guitar made
with an eastern maple top and hide glue to one with a western maple top and
titebond...

HOWEVER.. years ago, mostly just to satisfy my own curiosity, i built two guitars
that were identical in every respect save for the body wood... one was honduran
mahogany and one was black walnut..

Each got a JB/ jazz set and each got a set of 10-46's..

they BOTH sounded GOOD

tuned normally.. the walnut one was DEFINATELY more brittle sounding and the
mahogany one warmer... it was very subtle... and it was most obvious when playing
clean...

then.... i tuned them both to drop c..... THATS when i noted a HUGE difference....

the mahogany guitar turned to mud... the walnut guitar sounded very similar to the
mahogany guitar tuned normal....

I put a brand new set of strings on the guitars and tuned them to drop c from the
get go just to make sure it wasn't a crappy set of strings... same results...

And thats when I became a "wood believer."

Yes.... its a metal string moving in a magnetic field... BUT.. the WOOD is going to
make a difference in HOW that string vibrates..

Personally.. i feel that the biggest difference comes in the first 100th of a
second that the note is played... in the attack... and to a lesser extent, in the
sustain as the note trailes off.... the center part of the note.. not so much..

Still, i would rate the woods affect on tone in the 25% range... however... its
like the icing on the cake.. its only 25% of the cake.. but.. who wants steak
flavored icing on their yellow cake???

When customers start asking about wood choices... I give them my opinion and tell
them the 25% theory... find out what kind of music they play, even WATCH them play,
and then give suggestions on wood choice, but, ultimately, i will build the guitar
out of any wood they want, as long as that wood is mechanically sound...
__________________

Aging

Science has shown that the tone does change. The vibrations traveling though the
body loosen the cells of the wood, which in turn increases resonance, etc. If I
find the article I'll post it.

http://www.ronkirn.com/quest.htm