Freedom Custom Guitar / Tone Shift Plate SP-JP-01

Tone shift plate from Freedom Custom Guitar (Freedom Custom Guitar Research). Color is chrome.

■ Tone Shift Plate
■ Color: Chrome
Thickness: 2mm
Approx. 51mm Wide x 65mm High
Hole Pitch: Approx. 38mm Wide x 51mm High (Center-to-Center)
*Screws not included

~From the manufacturer's website~
■ Brass has proven its highly musical resonance, as evidenced by its widespread use on wind instruments, snares, and a variety of other instruments. Compared to standard steel neck plates, this plate adds more overtones to the sound, resulting in a mellower, more expansive, and more mellow sound.
""Sound"" is ""vibration."" In other words, the type of ""vibration"" is a key factor in determining the ""tone."" Striking a large bell produces a low, ""gong"" sound, while a small bell produces a high, clear ""tinkle."" The differences in pitch and timbre of these bells and chimes arise from differences in their characteristic vibration frequencies (natural frequencies of free vibration) and the amplitude distribution at each frequency (amplitude spectrum), which depend on their size, shape, and materials. In other words, ""timbre"" is a complex interaction of natural vibrations.

When a stringed instrument, whether electric or acoustic, produces sound, the following mechanism occurs:

① Picking (vibration input) → ② String vibration (primary vibrating body) → ③ Vibration of the neck, body, etc. (secondary vibrating body). This is not a one-way process from ① to ③; immediately after ①, ② to ③ cause ""resonance"" and ""phase phenomena"" and influence each other's vibrations.

In other words, immediately after picking, the string becomes a ""tertiary vibrating body,"" vibrating in a way that is influenced by ③ rather than the primary vibration from ① to ②. Electric guitars and bass instruments produce sound by disrupting the magnetic field of the pickup through the vibration of a magnetic material, generating induced currents. In other words, the final ""tone"" is determined by the way the strings (magnetic materials) vibrate, which is influenced by point ③. This is where the ""tone shift plate"" comes in.
The neck and body are the largest vibrating bodies. The joint plate that joins these two vibrating bodies has a major impact on the way the neck and body vibrate. In other words, by changing the material and mass of the neck joint plate, you can change the way the strings vibrate and actively alter the sound.