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Topic: Moisture and its affect on tone |
Bo Legg
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Posted 23 Jan 2010 7:57 am |
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| Would the amount of the moisture still retained in the capillaries of the wood after the drying process as well as where and how the wood was dried affect the tone of the cabinet thereby greatly affecting over all tone of the PSG for better or worse? |
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Ken Metcalf
From:
San Antonio Texas USA
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Posted 23 Jan 2010 8:18 am
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I would think over all weight and type of wood would play a larger part than wood humidity at the time of manufacture.
Wood can dry out over time if kept in a dry climate.
Different Telecasters sound different even made out of the same material.
Most instruments have to be evaluated on a one by one basis.
With 6 string guitars it is easy for me to tell with out even plugging it in to a amp.
PSGs I think have a lot of factors. mostly involving personal preference, what amplification, and then how it sounds out in the audience vrs on stage.
So the answer is definitely maybe. 
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MSA 12 String E9th/B6th Universal.
Little Walter PF-89.
Bunch of stomp boxes |
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Bent Romnes
From:
London,Ontario, Canada
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Posted 23 Jan 2010 8:58 am
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Air drying wood normally only takes it down to maybe 10%
To get it down further it has to be kiln dried. Kiln drying properly takes the moisture down to 6, maybe 5%
Kiln drying makes for an even drying of the wood and once that's done, the wood stabilizes and is for all intents, dead, capillaries and all. I believe that once this wood gets treated with sealer and 6 to 8 coats of finish on all sides it quits moving and changing character.
Once this is done properly, it should be stable enough to not make changes to the tone.
One exception would be the "aging" process the wood goes through over the course of 30 or 40 years. Some say this has a positive effect on wood in instruments of all kinds. I could maybe see this in an old Stradivarius or a Martin acoustic guitar for that matter. But in those, the wood is super thin and finished only on one side so the wood has the opportunity to "breathe". So far I can't see how this can have any effect on a steel guitar body that is finished on all sides and 3/4" thick.
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BenRom Pedal Steel Guitars
https://www.facebook.com/groups/212050572323614/ |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 23 Jan 2010 9:53 am
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Moisture has a HUGE effect in speaker tone, and in the tone transmitted through the air to your ears. But it's hard to evaluate what percentage of weight humidity might add or subtract from a steel guitar? It seems like weight, ultimately, would be the factor that would define the tone. What does a moist board weigh, vs. a dry board? What percentage of a steel's tone is due to the aluminum parts... water transmits sound pretty well, right? oh great, something more to worry about.  |
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Per Berner
From:
Skovde, Sweden
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Posted 24 Jan 2010 5:46 am
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Moisture differences as a result of the humidity in the surroundings have an enormous effect on acoustic instruments - but probably not much at all when it comes to solidbody electric instruments with all sides finished.
On very dry winter days (like today), my otherwise wonderful Gibson J200 sounds totally lifeless, won't play in tune and is no fun at all – and the string height goes wrong as well, all down to variations in humidity. |
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Billy Tonnesen
From:
R.I.P., Buena Park, California
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Posted 24 Jan 2010 1:19 pm
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| Moisture can also greatly affect the Speaker Cones which in turn can affect your Tone. If you are playing in high humidity your Tone can be somewhat Mushy. |
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