> In the spring of 2027, the museum will open a permanent gallery devoted to the evolution and cultural impact of the American guitar.
This is fun, it looks like they have many important prototype and early production guitars.
atoav · 1h ago
As a guitar player (20+ years) and a audio engineer/electrical engineer/dsp programmer one thing that really keeps baffling me about the field of guitar playing is how much myths about what affects the sound in which way exists. With people trying to get the sounds of their stars by buying products that were made in the 60s and somehow assuming the wild quality fluctuations and effects of the recording chain during that time don't matter all that much. Meanwhile you can get extremely good (studio quality) sounds with a 200 Euro guitar and a 250 Euro amplifier and the rest you can do with 2 or three effects pedals and (crucially!) the correct strings, instrument setup and above all playing.
In each hobby you will find people that are in it for the gear more than anything. I play the same guitar since the past 15 years and I know exactly how to play to make it sound a certain way. I wonder how the people who buy a new guitar each month even manage to get to know theirs..
There is a German youtube channel by a former university professor of acoustics that picks many of the myths surounding electrical guitars (especially those repeated in the press) apart scientifically (website: https://www.gitarrenphysik.de/). I am not aware of any english resource on that topic that goes into the topic even at a fraction of the depth. He made laser measurements of various parts of the electrical guitar to measure power dissipation and model it, influence of the whole electronic chain, etc. If there is an aspect to the guitar, he probably measured it.
Like did you know that strings don't just vibrate up/down, but also left/right and how this directional change plays out when you pluck a string differs depending on the guitar? Yeah me neither.
Did you know wood has next to no influence on the sound of an electrical guitar, despite being called "tonewood" by the press?
lrmunoz · 3m ago
What is a "a 200 Euro guitar and a 250 Euro amplifier" setup that you recommend? Honest question.
mrob · 20m ago
Jim Lill has several excellent videos on Youtube testing guitar tone myths:
The "air guitar" demonstration in his first video memorably shows that the wood doesn't matter.
One non-obvious thing that does affect the sound is the type of pick (a.k.a. plectrum). Both the shape and the stiffness of the pick affect the sound, and playing with fingers sounds different too. I don't see a lot of discussion of this, even though it's cheap and easy to experiment with (you can buy sample packs of many different picks). I recommend trying it if you haven't already.
This is fun, it looks like they have many important prototype and early production guitars.
In each hobby you will find people that are in it for the gear more than anything. I play the same guitar since the past 15 years and I know exactly how to play to make it sound a certain way. I wonder how the people who buy a new guitar each month even manage to get to know theirs..
There is a German youtube channel by a former university professor of acoustics that picks many of the myths surounding electrical guitars (especially those repeated in the press) apart scientifically (website: https://www.gitarrenphysik.de/). I am not aware of any english resource on that topic that goes into the topic even at a fraction of the depth. He made laser measurements of various parts of the electrical guitar to measure power dissipation and model it, influence of the whole electronic chain, etc. If there is an aspect to the guitar, he probably measured it.
Like did you know that strings don't just vibrate up/down, but also left/right and how this directional change plays out when you pluck a string differs depending on the guitar? Yeah me neither. Did you know wood has next to no influence on the sound of an electrical guitar, despite being called "tonewood" by the press?
https://www.youtube.com/@JimLill/videos
The "air guitar" demonstration in his first video memorably shows that the wood doesn't matter.
One non-obvious thing that does affect the sound is the type of pick (a.k.a. plectrum). Both the shape and the stiffness of the pick affect the sound, and playing with fingers sounds different too. I don't see a lot of discussion of this, even though it's cheap and easy to experiment with (you can buy sample packs of many different picks). I recommend trying it if you haven't already.