I've often seen it said that unlike a guitar, material choice doesn't matter for a Stick. Turns out it doesn't matter for a guitar, either. It's all in the pickup, distance from pickup to strings, and circuit. https://youtu.be/n02tImce3AE

I’ve listened live to Kevin keith and afterwards He let me try his stick…. The tone was 100% different… I have played Greg Howard’s stick we do no sound the same…. And; I have had many folks play my sticks …. No one sounds like me…. How the notes are created with the fngers/hands/larger muscles on the instrument has a HUGE impact on tone and sound..:

Agreed.

However this video is about a different thing.

This is one guy comparing the tone from different equipment setups while trying to keep his input to the tests (playing style, etc.,) as similar as possible across the equipment changes.

Last year, I purchased over 100,000 IRs (impulse responses) to use with my Helix Floor. If you don't like the tone that your instrument creates, try using IRs. I've managed to create some amazing tones and they're a lot of fun.

I got into IRs because I was in a struggle between the Helix modeler and the Kemper profiler. Each had it's own way of doing things, but the Kemper tones had the edge over the Helix. However, the Helix was more flexible with effects and fine tuning the amp model. Using IRs on the Helix actually works very well and is comparable to the Kemper tones.

As for the tone wood debate, I can hear the difference. I can also hear the difference between brands of cables and strings. A lot of this depends on the type of music that you play and the quality of the equipment that you play on.

My own opinion: as both a collector and connoisseur of vintage electric basses and tube anmplifiers [1960s/1970s...] there is definately a difference in sound if you are keeping things pure - just the instrument and the tube amplifier.

I know when I play my Steinberger L2 prototype - that sounds almost like a grand piano due to the bridge design, the graphite body and neck, and the strings being used [exposed core Rotosound strings].

While the EMG's and electronics may count for something, I feel the overall construction plays a factor as well.

On the Stick front, oddly enough I have never thought to compare my Ironwoods to my SB-8 to my RB-8 to my NS Stick, although my amplification set ups for each instrument are very very different.

I'll now watch the video, as I just realized there was one in the original post.

ok - completely disregard my last comment, now that I've watched some of this video - here's the comment I made to the video, and the comment I should have made here in the first place, although now that I think of it, I think the materials used will account for things like sustain....


Interesting.... reminds me of when I took a 1960s Vox Phantom IV and converted it to EMG Jazz bass pick ups and pre-amp, wow did it sound different !! but then I went back to the original Vox pick guard and pick ups, because it had a great underwater sound, almost like a Muton, I seem to think I converted it to fretless too around the same time.

There was a Ric 4001 at the Mojo Guitar Shop in NYC back during the early 1990s that someone put a Jazz bass pick up in place of the pick up that's supposed to be in the horseshoe, and I was told that it still sounded like a 4001, which I kind of find hard to believe, but that's what I was told.

Good video, I'll have to read all the fine print later when I get some time.

As if by order, his next video in the series (which I've not had time to watch yet) is "Tested: Where Does The Sustain Come From In An Electric Guitar?"

https://youtu.be/muVzwbkUUnM