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Hydrolith posted:Thanks! That gives me something to go on, I'll do some digging. Nothing serious, just most stock pickups in budget guitars are a little weak/muddy. What really sucks is you either get the lame OEM pickups or once you get to the $5-600 range EMGs or occasionally those active Duncans. Both of which have those larger bass pickup housings, so when you get around to replacing them (since pretty much everyone eventually gets over their active pickup phase) you have an extra large rout in the body and likely an extra one in the back where they put the battery holder. It's just silly. Alec Bald Snatch fucked around with this message at 10:29 on Oct 9, 2013 |
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Oct 9, 2013 10:26
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comes along bort posted:Nothing serious, just most stock pickups in budget guitars are a little weak/muddy. What really sucks is you either get the lame OEM pickups or once you get to the $5-600 range EMGs or occasionally those active Duncans. Both of which have those larger bass pickup housings, so when you get around to replacing them (since pretty much everyone eventually gets over their active pickup phase) you have an extra large rout in the body and likely an extra one in the back where they put the battery holder. It's just silly. I believe they found a solution to this problem: http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/electric/humbucker/78-string/7_string_nazgl/
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Oct 9, 2013 10:32
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Does anybody know of a good resource for learning about pickups? I'm currently using Cort X6 strat with bluebucker pickups, whatever that means. I want to have a rich, full sound that's clear, but I don't know how much of this is related to pickups vs amps vs effects vs strings, etc etc etc. I've thought about switching out the pickups, but I'm not really sure what I'd be switching to and why.
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Oct 9, 2013 10:37
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duckfarts posted:Does anybody know of a good resource for learning about pickups? I'm currently using Cort X6 strat with bluebucker pickups, whatever that means. I want to have a rich, full sound that's clear, but I don't know how much of this is related to pickups vs amps vs effects vs strings, etc etc etc. I've thought about switching out the pickups, but I'm not really sure what I'd be switching to and why. Most of your clean sound is going to come from a mixture of your pickups and amp. Amps are expensive though so pickups aren't a bad place to start  Really all the companies have such wide and differing ranges of pickups you'd be better off just looking over the websites and listening to their samples. The Seymour Duncan website actually has a lot of great articles on the subject too. Ask yourself what don't you like about the pickups you have, can you describe how they sound? RillAkBea fucked around with this message at 10:47 on Oct 9, 2013 |
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Oct 9, 2013 10:43
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Another thing about pickup swapping is that while the internet is great about telling you who uses what, the internet is very lovely about recommending you stuff that you don't need. For baby's first hotrodding project, I wouldn't spend much more than GFS, to figure out if A. It's something you like doing, and B. If it's something you'll notice on other guitars GFS pickups also tend to have a pretty high resale value relative to the purchase price (but most pickups do anyways, guitarists are incurable tinkerers). They're also good pickups blah blah blah Anyways if you go on YouTube and look for "[insert pickup type] demo" you'll find people playing whatever it is you might dream of, which if nothing else should give you an idea of if it can handle the stylistic demands. The last thing is don't change your pickups just because the internet said so. The internet is silly. Spanish Manlove posted:The biggest irony to me is that I like Ernie Ball as a company but hate their strings. I saw a video of Sterling showing some guitar magazine reporter around one of their factories and Sterling seemed like a genuine gear nut. Just so much enthusiasm for his product and took pride in their basses when he played one off the line to test it. The basses and guitars are cool and they make good other nick nacks, but their strings just die within a few days for me. I always hear really lovely things about Ernie Ball.
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Oct 9, 2013 13:16
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Declan MacManus posted:Anyways if you go on YouTube and look for "[insert pickup type] demo" you'll find people playing whatever it is you might dream of, which if nothing else should give you an idea of if it can handle the stylistic demands. The last thing is don't change your pickups just because the internet said so. The internet is silly. I never changed anything other than my clothes. I loved reading people talking about how congested the Burstbuckers were compared to the Lollars and blahblah, it was awesome.
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Oct 9, 2013 15:13
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They've had terrible strings for as long as I can remember. Even back in the early 90s when I started playing and thought my Peavey Raptor was a decent guitar I thought they were trash.
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Oct 9, 2013 15:40
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iostream.h posted:Yeah, be careful about that too, several years back I won a bet by putting up a few demos of different pickups in the same guitar using the same amp. As a relative newcomer, it seems there's a lot of overlap between the audiophile crowd and guitarists in that respect. It's just magnets and copper wire, yet there are people who will pay ludicrous sums of money for some undefinable tonal property. There's definitely differences in how pickups sound based on where they're mounted and what type they are and how they're wound, but aside from changing pickup types and replacing shoddy cheap pickups with something that's better made, I don't see the point of it all.
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Oct 9, 2013 16:00
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Gonna sell the Eric Johnson if I can find a Pink Paisley Tokai Les Paul.
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Oct 9, 2013 16:22
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Zonekeeper posted:As a relative newcomer, it seems there's a lot of overlap between the audiophile crowd and guitarists in that respect. It's just magnets and copper wire, yet there are people who will pay ludicrous sums of money for some undefinable tonal property. There's definitely differences in how pickups sound based on where they're mounted and what type they are and how they're wound, but aside from changing pickup types and replacing shoddy cheap pickups with something that's better made, I don't see the point of it all. There ARE benefits to changing pickups, different sound characteristics and all (I just swapped some Seymour Duncan Alnico IIs in to replace some Burstbuckers for this reason) and there ARE some great winders out there (I love Wolfhead pickups cause the dude is awesome) but you really need to use your own ears. My recommendation is to try to always buy used and just swap the drat things out and see what you like, you'll rarely lose money that way. So much of your sound is in your fingers that I could show you a demo of one of my guitars through one of my amps, you decide you like it and buy it, then you're disappointed because you still don't sound like the clip I uploaded. I dunno what I'm trying to say, maybe you get it tho'.
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Oct 9, 2013 16:36
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Zonekeeper posted:As a relative newcomer, it seems there's a lot of overlap between the audiophile crowd and guitarists in that respect. Let me tell you about tubes.
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Oct 9, 2013 18:21
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Zonekeeper posted:As a relative newcomer, it seems there's a lot of overlap between the audiophile crowd and guitarists in that respect. Guitarists believe the silliest things about "tone". It's a hilarious aspect of being a guitar nerd. Spend more time practicing and less time worrying about different pickups, tubes, and strings, and poo poo like that. You will be better off in the end.
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Oct 9, 2013 19:06
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Dirt posted:Guitarists believe the silliest things about "tone". It's a hilarious aspect of being a guitar nerd. Pickguards change the tone of a Les Paul. Discuss.
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Oct 9, 2013 19:26
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Declan MacManus posted:Let me tell you about tubes. B-b-b-b-but my $400 winged c set totally brings out the clarity of my overtones!  Zonekeeper posted:As a relative newcomer, it seems there's a lot of overlap between the audiophile crowd and guitarists in that respect. It's just magnets and copper wire, yet there are people who will pay ludicrous sums of money for some undefinable tonal property. There's definitely differences in how pickups sound based on where they're mounted and what type they are and how they're wound, but aside from changing pickup types and replacing shoddy cheap pickups with something that's better made, I don't see the point of it all. There's subtle differences, but it's the sort of thing to worry about after you've already tackled the big stuff like your amp and guitar. Listen to the massive tonal changes here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFjMGHuNpOg Alec Bald Snatch fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Oct 9, 2013 |
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Oct 9, 2013 21:36
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Dirt posted:So a buddy let me borrow his Joyo JF-01 (tube screamer clone for 30 bucks). I have the JF-01 and it is a drat good pedal. The only thing that distinguishes the sound from my friend's Ibanez TS9DX is that his has a few extra settings like "turbo" that I guess give it more gain. IMO a tube screamer is all about that low gain sound so I don't think I'm missing anything. I've been thinking about getting a delay lately (I was never wowed by the one on my Roland Cube and now I'm using a Vox with no onboard effects at all) but I have no idea how to use one and make it sound good. I guess I'm looking for a "slapback" sound
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Oct 9, 2013 22:19
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To be honest the best thing for metal is just to use different guitars with different pickups, strings and whatever. Choosing whatever you're comfortable with personally. Went to see Finntroll last week at Sound Control in Manchester and the opening band was an Icelandic group called Skalmold who had three guitarists playing a Strat, SG and Explorer. Each one had a very different tone when they diverged into a solo but the main riffs with all three playing the same piece were just amazing. Their bass player was heavily bearded too which is another important factor you can see in this footage from an earlier show in the tour with dodgy sound quality. Second band on were Tyr with both guitarists using 7 string versions of an Ibanez RG and Xiphos that sounded far too similar. The best way to describe the difference was like a power chord with the octave vs just playing the root and fifth.
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Oct 9, 2013 22:47
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Zuhzuhzombie!! posted:Gonna sell the Eric Johnson if I can find a Pink Paisley Tokai Les Paul. I hate you right now because I had to GIS this and in addition to seeing that Les Paul, this came up and now I want it: 
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Oct 9, 2013 23:18
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Revvik posted:I hate you right now because I had to GIS this and in addition to seeing that Les Paul, this came up and now I want it: It'd be way cheaper to buy a guitar kit and just do the paisley design yourself.
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Oct 10, 2013 01:12
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Dirt posted:Guitarists believe the silliest things about "tone". It's a hilarious aspect of being a guitar nerd. Pretty much this. Tone chasing is what some people do instead of actually playing or practicing. Many great guitarists either have played on total crap or totally factory guitars. Good players sound good and bad players sound bad. I think your amp is the single biggest component in the chain anyway. I notice so often that people have great guitars and effects but play them into crap amps. I say work the other way around. Drop the cash on a really nice amp then work your way into a nicer guitar as you see fit. In this day and age it is exceedingly rare to come across a new guitar that doesn't play pretty drat decently.
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Oct 10, 2013 01:18
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Verizian posted:To be honest the best thing for metal is just to use different guitars with different pickups, strings and whatever. Choosing whatever you're comfortable with personally. I'd say that's a universal rule for all styles. Different guitars, different pickups, different amps, different effects, whatever you gotta do just make sure your guitarists sound different from eachother.
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Oct 10, 2013 01:48
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HollisBrown posted:In this day and age it is exceedingly rare to come across a new guitar that doesn't play pretty drat decently. Or at the very least can't be made to play decently with a little work.
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Oct 10, 2013 01:53
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I think a lot of you guys are a little off on tone chasing vs playing. You should do whatever is most enjoyable. Sometimes I would rather turn knobs and swap pedals and adjust pickups while repeating the same few riffs because it's extremely gratifying to me. Considering this is a hobby primarily based around sound in don't think it's that big of a crime to obsess over even the tiniest little aspects of how you sound even if you're not that great of a player. Certain forums are definitely full of poo poo but if they're enjoying guitar via their ridiculous methods, good!
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Oct 10, 2013 01:55
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And to be fair if it wasn't for midlife crisis bluesdads with more money than sense or talent constantly buying then dumping mint gear on the used market, the rest of us would probably never get our hands on half the nice poo poo we do. I'm all for someone out there eating the initial depreciation costs.
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Oct 10, 2013 02:07
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comes along bort posted:And to be fair if it wasn't for midlife crisis bluesdads with more money than sense or talent constantly buying then dumping mint gear on the used market, the rest of us would probably never get our hands on half the nice poo poo we do. I'm all for someone out there eating the initial depreciation costs. Truth
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Oct 10, 2013 02:14
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Zonekeeper posted:As a relative newcomer, it seems there's a lot of overlap between the audiophile crowd and guitarists in that respect. It's just magnets and copper wire, yet there are people who will pay ludicrous sums of money for some undefinable tonal property. There's definitely differences in how pickups sound based on where they're mounted and what type they are and how they're wound, but aside from changing pickup types and replacing shoddy cheap pickups with something that's better made, I don't see the point of it all. Oh man, wait 'till you meet your first SRV wannabe, who's gonna call you a loving pussy for not using 12's and Texas Specials and proceed to show you how great their tone is by playing the absolute worst loving rendition of Texas Flood you'll ever hear. 
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Oct 10, 2013 06:10
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The funny thing about SRV tonechasing is apparently whenever anyone else played through his rig, even Rene Martinez his tech who's a decent musician in his own right, it sounded like absolute crap.
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Oct 10, 2013 07:19
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SRV was all ts mid bump + hands. His punchy snappy attack and presence was definitely due to those. It's funny how everyone gets huge strings and neglects to pay attention how he played guitar physically. It was pretty rough and relentless, way more than the average player could even handle without crippling your hands in a few years. His range of dynamics was insane. The strings were big because they had to physically defend themselves from his playing. So if you're looking to sound like SRV go get some alcohol, 13s and jump in the ocean because you're going to fail.
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Oct 10, 2013 08:05
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Great tone, though.
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Oct 10, 2013 09:53
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I've found an Ibanez GRG7221 7-string for $429AUD, which isn't too bad (Google says that's around $400USD). Also an RG7221, for much the same price. It looks like it's going to cost an arm and a leg to get an Agile imported, so it looks like Ibanez is the way to go. Any opinions on these guitars?
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Oct 10, 2013 10:10
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Hydrolith posted:I've found an Ibanez GRG7221 7-string for $429AUD, which isn't too bad (Google says that's around $400USD). Also an RG7221, for much the same price. It looks like it's going to cost an arm and a leg to get an Agile imported, so it looks like Ibanez is the way to go. Any opinions on these guitars? Those are both the GRG7221, just one site doesn't care about proofreading.
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Oct 10, 2013 10:32
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Kilometers Davis posted:It's funny how everyone gets huge strings and neglects to pay attention how he played guitar physically. It was pretty rough and relentless, way more than the average player could even handle without crippling your hands in a few years. His range of dynamics was insane. According to Rene Martinez, Stevie's fretting hand was so messed up that he'd often super glue chunks of his forearm skin to his fingers and eventually switched to a lighter gauge, because gently caress that poo poo.
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Oct 10, 2013 10:40
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RillAkBea posted:Those are both the GRG7221, just one site doesn't care about proofreading. Haha yeah, that's the successor to Ibanez's budget Gio line, which are pretty much the bottom of the barrel. Hydrolith, if you can find one an RG 7321 or 7421 shouldn't cost much more new, and definitely less used. They're noticeably a step up in quality. Not sure how common they are in Australia though. Castor Poe posted:According to Rene Martinez, Stevie's fretting hand was so messed up that he'd often super glue chunks of his forearm skin to his fingers and eventually switched to a lighter gauge, because gently caress that poo poo. Martinez also said that he had to refret Stevie's guitars every year because he'd wear them down that quickly, then eventually replace the necks because he was wearing down the fretboards too. Cocaine is a hell of a drug. Alec Bald Snatch fucked around with this message at 10:52 on Oct 10, 2013 |
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Oct 10, 2013 10:46
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Thanks for the feedback. It doesn't look like there's a whole lot of range on offer (at that price end), unless I order it from overseas and pay $100 or so in shipping anyway. I'll keep digging, though. edit: scratch that. I found it cheaper than the 7221 here, but $100 more expensive at Kosmic. Hmmmmm, this is looking pretty viable  edit again: wait, no, I'm an idiot, that's the same guitar... For some reason, the google result labelled "RG 7321" went to that page. Hydrolith fucked around with this message at 11:33 on Oct 10, 2013 |
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Oct 10, 2013 11:13
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I heard that when Stevie Ray Vaughn did pushups, he wasn't pushing himself up, he was pushing the earth down.
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Oct 10, 2013 12:36
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Q: How many guitar players does it take to play a Stevie Ray Vaughn song? A: All of them, apparently.
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Oct 10, 2013 12:55
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I use .008's now, because I am trying to be the opposite of a bluesdad. I used heavy strings(11's and 12's) for the longest time, but after switching to the lightest ones possible(does anyone make .007's??), I honestly don't notice any magical "tone different". And my fingers don't hurt. Basically, comfort > mystical tone superstition.
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Oct 10, 2013 13:51
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I've been thinking a lot about practice schedules recently. Sometimes I feel like I'm not progressing and can't help but wonder if I'm hilariously wasting my practice time. What do you guys do, how long, and how often? I try to get an hour in every day, starting with some basic practice patterns then practice whatever I'm learning that week. Then every weekend I like to get at least one multi-hour session in where I try to learn some new things.
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Oct 10, 2013 13:58
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Dirt posted:I use .008's now, because I am trying to be the opposite of a bluesdad.
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Oct 10, 2013 14:30
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Billy Gibbons uses .008s and he has always had a massive sound. It's all about your fingers and, while I'm sure the strings add a little, it's not enough to make up for not knowing how to touch the strings.
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Oct 10, 2013 14:39
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Revvik posted:I hate you right now because I had to GIS this and in addition to seeing that Les Paul, this came up and now I want it: Absolutely love my Tokai LPC. I contacted them about building me another custom job. Heritage Cherry SG Custom, ebony, gold hardware, maestro, etc. Will top out around 2k. Dunno if I'm gonna take the plunge or not and just chase one of the Paisleys. quote:It'd be way cheaper to buy a guitar kit and just do the paisley design yourself. These pop up on flea bay from time to time for around a grand.
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Oct 10, 2013 15:08
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