Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/12/17/some-guy-made-a-super-mario-gu.html
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Another wonderful thing!
But surely there must be a use for 16,000 chopped-off lollipop stick curved ends?
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I really thought this was going to be like every other “guitar out of X” thing, but it was jaw-dropper to see him make the NECK out of popsicle sticks, and then had to pick up my jaw a couple more times after that.
And then on top of that, I can’t decide whether it’s more incredible that he did it, or that he managed to film and edit it all. It’s great!
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We’ve gone over this before…these things are very cool and very unique…but the sound is sub par compared to far better wood choices.
Popsicle sticks are solid white birch. Not mahogany, for sure, but not exactly a bad wood choice. Is there some source documenting the differences between wood types in electric guitars? The primary sound source is a piece of metal moving through a magnetic field. I would think that the string quality, the type of pickup, and the amp, pedals, reverb, EQ, etc., would all have way more effect on the sound than the type of material allowing the strings to hold tension. But I’m a clarinetist, not a guitar player or luthier.
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I give him special credit for not simply making another Stratocaster copy.
Yeah, I call bunk on the whole idea of “superior wood for solid body electric guitars”-- the first Telecasters were made out of pine, and Leo Fender only switched because players complained the soft wood was too prone to damage at gigs, however once you surround even soft wood with modern thick clear coat resin that issue is solved.
Arguably an electric guitar made of birch, rosewood, pine, maple, plexiglass or glued-sticks might sound a little different in terms of sustain, but the electronics are the primary tone (and there’s no accounting for taste either.)
The Beatles made the Epiphone Casino popular, and it’s a laminated wood hollow-body electric-- very little sustain and acoustically a much more dead tone than a hollowbody like a Gibson Super 400. But with a good amp and a good musician. . . .
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What did the guy who made the guitar out of a popsicle stick to?
Yes, we have gone over it before: the material used for solid-body electrics is far, far down on the list of factors that affect sound, and (within reason) will be nigh on indistinguishable all other things being equal.
Well, we could test it.
We have Fender Custom Shop build us Telecasters with identical necks, hardware and electronics, but make all the bodies out of different woods. Then we do a blindfold test.
As a mind experiment I’m imagining only a negligible difference in tone.
In an acoustic it matters, in an electric not so much.
Again…opinion.
I would argue it matters for one simple reason above all others…Fender, Epiphone, PRS, Gibson would all use the absolute cheapest materials imaginable if it had no effect.
This is not up for debate as fact vs fiction…it’s your opinion…as it is the other individuals. You want to argue it, seek out someone else to do so with.
I think it’s just business: they are playing to the belief that tonewoods matter, as well as the simple fact that people see cheaper wood and don’t want to pay as much (another reason Leo Fender stopped using pine, supposedly.)
I don’t really want to argue it with you either. And I appreciate your opinion-- I used to share it.
“We’ve gone over this before…these things are very cool and very unique…but the sound is sub par compared to far better wood choices.”
Do you have examples of said material samples?
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