“You could argue that the pickups are the most important thing. But in the end, there’s nothing more important on the guitar than this”: Paul Reed Smith on a guitar’s most crucial feature – and how it dictates your tone

Few topics can split the guitar community quite like the genesis of tone. Some will argue it comes from the hands, others the pickups, or the overdrive pedal that’s slapped in front of a tube amp.

After championing Guatemalan fence posts as viable tonewoods, Paul Reed Smith has now weighed in on which aspect of the guitar is most crucial to good tone, and it’s none of the above.