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I just had a bit of an experience. A while ago (A year?) I helped pay for a friend's new guitar, an Epiphone Les Paul Standard in Goldtop. Well, he never really played or practiced and over that time knows power chords and that's it. He's admitted that right now he doesn't care to play or practice. Fair enough, since it's now "on loan" to me, until he feels inspired to play again. Which may never happen. Whatever, though. The experience is tonight I quickly recorded the same thing on the three guitars I have access to. A Schecter SGR 006, a G&L Tribute Ascari GTS and the Les Paul.I figured given the specs the LP and Ascari would sound fairly close and the 006 different. Well, I played the same thing in the same pickup settings, through the same interface and AmpliTube model and settings, using even the same cord and pick. The result was that they sounded slightly different, enough to go "okay, yeah, it's a different guitar." But when I tested friends and asked them to describe the differences in sound I got different answers. One thought the LP sounded like it had better highs. Another thought it sounded thicker and darker. I'm no longer sure what I think. On top of this, I tested it with distortion. Once that came into the equation I couldn't tell a difference at all and neither could anyone else. So my question is thus: Am I still that much of a beginner that I can't pick up on these details everyone else seems to obsess about? Would way hotter pickups sound obviously different? All the pickups were stock and given the whole image of woods, hardware, pickups et al making huge differences I didn't really see such a huge change that I'd say "Well obviously I need better pickups, these are terrible compared to this other one!" I do hear a difference between single coils and humbuckers, but that's about as far as I can take it.
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Nov 11, 2014 11:56
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When I think of Distorion that really has it's own sound i think of EMGs, but there's definitely a lot of subtlety in some pickups and a lot of them are made to sound similar if not basically the same. Pickups are still definitely an important part of sound though.
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Nov 11, 2014 12:28
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syntaxfunction posted:I just had a bit of an experience. A while ago (A year?) I helped pay for a friend's new guitar, an Epiphone Les Paul Standard in Goldtop. Well, he never really played or practiced and over that time knows power chords and that's it. He's admitted that right now he doesn't care to play or practice. Fair enough, since it's now "on loan" to me, until he feels inspired to play again. Which may never happen. Whatever, though. You try dialing back the volume knob on the guitars?
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Nov 11, 2014 13:14
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If you ask people to describe the sound differences between two tracks, you're basically implying there's a difference and asking them to look for it. So they're pretty likely to come out with some opinions on why A sounds like this compared to B, even if you're just playing the same version twice. It's why people spend thousands on magic audio beans It might take a bit of time to get used to the nuances in different gear and spot those subtle characteristics, and your pickups just might not be all that different. I've heard pickup comparisons where someone's playing the same thing through a bunch of them, you can have stark differences (usually in the pricier ones) or barely anything jumps out. Different amps and distortion can bring out individuality or destroy it. There are a lot of factors!
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Nov 11, 2014 16:50
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A lot of times it has more to do with the amplifier. I have an older Traynor at my practice space that makes everything sound more or less identical. Through a mediocre distortion pedal it's even worse.
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Nov 11, 2014 17:16
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jwh posted:A lot of times it has more to do with the amplifier. I have an older Traynor at my practice space that makes everything sound more or less identical. Through a mediocre distortion pedal it's even worse. Quoted for truth. I've always said that it doesn't matter what your playing if you have a bad tube screamer clone in your pedal chain.
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Nov 11, 2014 19:16
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Would you mind posting your clips?
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Nov 11, 2014 19:33
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syntaxfunction posted:So my question is thus: Am I still that much of a beginner that I can't pick up on these details everyone else seems to obsess about? jwh posted:A lot of times it has more to do with the amplifier. I have an older Traynor at my practice space that makes everything sound more or less identical. Through a mediocre distortion pedal it's even worse. HollisBrown posted:Quoted for truth. I've always said that it doesn't matter what your playing if you have a bad tube screamer clone in your pedal chain. Of course the amplifier is way more important for how it sounds than the guitar. It's in the FAQ in the first post of this thread. Even more so if you have some dope metal distortion pedal. We don't want it to be that way, because the guitar is the big phallic thing with the custom paint that we are partial to. That said, if you want to tell the difference between pickups, take a clean fender amp and plug in a: tele bridge pickup, strat position 4, and a humbucker. You will be able to easily tell. edit- Nobody really believes in their heart that the wood material affects the tone in any way that matters. People will say alot of goofy poo poo to you, but find a single person who has replaced their guitar's body, or bought one guitar over the other solely because the (electric) guitar Tone-Wood was superior. They will buy a guitar for lighter wood, for cool designs in the wood, etc. 40 OZ fucked around with this message at 21:18 on Nov 11, 2014 |
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Nov 11, 2014 21:06
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An old luthier friend of mine had a great story about a guy who spent a considerable sum of money building a Stratocaster out of Les Paul materials- right down to a set neck, ABR1, 500k tone pots, mahogany body, and, crucially, three Fender single coil Stratocaster pickups. It sounded like a Stratocaster.
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Nov 11, 2014 22:02
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40 OZ posted:edit- Nobody really believes in their heart that the wood material affects the tone in any way that matters. People will say alot of goofy poo poo to you, but find a single person who has replaced their guitar's body, or bought one guitar over the other solely because the (electric) guitar Tone-Wood was superior. They will buy a guitar for lighter wood, for cool designs in the wood, etc. You're opening a dark door here e- someone posted this recently and it was kinda fun, and I like the guy who did the article http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/20058-humbucker-sized-p-90-review-roundup Definitely some differences in there between some of them, so if you compare some back to back you'll hear some different character. Whether that means you end up going THAT'S A LOLLAR FOR SURE every time you hear one is another story. But it ain't just the tonez, the way they sound and react will probably influence your playing, because it's the instrument's response, so people might enjoy a certain pickup experience even if other people can't hear any major differences. Not that I know anything about pickups, these are just my reckons baka kaba fucked around with this message at 22:09 on Nov 11, 2014 |
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Nov 11, 2014 22:03
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baka kaba posted:You're opening a dark door here Seriously, I have seen people on borderline fisticuffs over this debate.
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Nov 11, 2014 22:11
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I always just link people to the cinder block guitar with a piezo pickup whenever they get too crazy on "tonewood." Actually, speaking of piezos, has anybody here played a piezo-only guitar? It's something I'm interested in, but not sure how versatile it will be. I imagine cleans should be good through a good amp, but what about distorted tone? TopherCStone fucked around with this message at 23:06 on Nov 11, 2014 |
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Nov 11, 2014 23:04
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The wood, construction style, and hardware affects the acoustic sound of an instrument massively and I've never liked a guitar I haven't enjoyed unplugged so that's my take on it. Wood matters if you want it to. Also I'll loving take on every one of you who disagrees with me. FISTICUFFS MY MAN.
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Nov 11, 2014 23:19
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Kilometers Davis posted:The wood, construction style, and hardware affects the acoustic sound of an instrument massively and I've never liked a guitar I haven't enjoyed unplugged so that's my take on it. Wood matters if you want it to. Also I'll loving take on every one of you who disagrees with me. FISTICUFFS MY MAN. I would think it makes more of a difference with acoustics by their very nature, but didn't Taylor build a guitar out of shipping crates that sounded excellent? I think largely the skill of the people building your instrument is going to make a hell of a lot more difference than the wood itself. With electrics I cannot really tell a difference outside of the weight. I think it is largely marketing/dick waving. That's all I have to say on that.
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Nov 11, 2014 23:30
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if tone woods don't matter then how come I just spent five grand on this perfectly aged hybrid mahagony blend? chessmate, suckas
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Nov 11, 2014 23:44
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if ther tonewoods how come still tree
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Nov 11, 2014 23:47
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Tone aluminum e: you know how when you kinda get into playing guitar and you start looking up the gear your favourite bands used so you can get it and play just like them? Looking up the price of travis bean guitars was a disheartening experience. awesmoe fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Nov 12, 2014 |
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Nov 12, 2014 00:00
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muike posted:if ther tonewoods how come still tree Tonewoods channel the songs of the forest you fool
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Nov 12, 2014 00:11
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Haha, looks like I opened a bit of a can of worms, although everyone here seems to be way more civil about this discussion than anyone at Ultimate Guitar or one of those forums.iostream.h posted:Would you mind posting your clips? Sure! Excuse the tuning (Especially on one of them), I was tired when I recorded and didn't notice until too late. Neck Pickups Schecter, Les Paul, Ascari Bridge Pickups Ascari, Les Paul, Schecter I do hear a difference with these, a bit, and after listening back to back. Bridge Distortion Les Paul, Schecter, Ascari Mild distortion (I don't own an overdrive or I'd use that) and they all sound the same to me.
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Nov 12, 2014 00:29
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Kilometers Davis posted:I've never liked a guitar I haven't enjoyed unplugged
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Nov 12, 2014 01:51
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syntaxfunction posted:Haha, looks like I opened a bit of a can of worms, although everyone here seems to be way more civil about this discussion than anyone at Ultimate Guitar or one of those forums. don't have a way to hear them atm outside lovely iPhone speakers but, I have to disagree. My sg and jm both have similar PAF pickups and though they are similar, they feel/sound completely different out of my v4. SG is much more compressed and articulate, my JM brighter and more spring/alive.
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Nov 12, 2014 02:19
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iostream.h posted:I've literally never even considered how any of my electrics sounded unplugged. It's something I take stock of when noodling but it's nothing I get hung up on. I do like to test guitars without plugging them in to check for fret buzz and whatnot because I get distracted by tonezz Also overdubbing rhythm tracks with unplugged guitars is a neat trick to give them more definition
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Nov 12, 2014 02:22
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iostream.h posted:I've literally never even considered how any of my electrics sounded unplugged. I think we had this discussion before but it's probably because a big chunk of my playing is unplugged. If I don't like how the guitar feels on my belly, the way it vibrates through my fingers, and the natural sound I just can't get a feel for it. Of course I've only found one or two guitars that are clunkers like that but it's still a good rule. Ever since you whipped my butt into shape with soldering and all that I've become so much more anal about everything in my instruments haha. Not in a negative way though, I get a ton of satisfaction out of it. Guitar playing has so much voodoo nonsense that at this point I roll with it all. If I like the sound of x wood combined with x scale length with x hardware blah blah blah then I'm going to be at my full potential on that setup.
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Nov 12, 2014 02:34
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Kilometers Davis posted:Guitar playing has so much voodoo nonsense that at this point I roll with it all. If I like the sound of x wood combined with x scale length with x hardware blah blah blah then I'm going to be at my full potential on that setup. Personally, I generally grab a guitar, run a few scales up and down the neck to feel it out, check the frets and see if there's any weird spots and if I'm happy with it at that point I'm done. I've never really been so dissatisfied with the sound of an electric that I haven't been able to fix it with a pickup, saddle or nut swap.
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Nov 12, 2014 03:25
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Kilometers Davis posted:I think we had this discussion before but it's probably because a big chunk of my playing is unplugged. If I don't like how the guitar feels on my belly, the way it vibrates through my fingers, and the natural sound I just can't get a feel for it.
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Nov 12, 2014 03:52
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yeah i get what you mean. my favorite guitar though, doesn't sound great unplugged. I think I'm just super used to it and have put the most time and effort into understanding and modifying it so it does what I want.
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Nov 12, 2014 04:19
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40 OZ posted:Of course the amplifier is way more important for how it sounds than the guitar. It's in the FAQ in the first post of this thread. Even more so if you have some dope metal distortion pedal. There were also actual tests done where people couldn't pick it out, so between all that and the fact it's quite broadly accepted now that it's at least just the individual block of wood that matters, not the type of wood, I really doubt it has a significant effect. Then again, if I get a guitar custom made, it'll be alder - I'd like to say only for the sake of my subconscious enjoyment but eh, I guess I'm a sucker too. baka kaba posted:You're opening a dark door here iostream.h posted:I've literally never even considered how any of my electrics sounded unplugged. Doesn't mean much about how I like it plugged in though. My greco LP is fairly quiet unplugged, maybe because it has a weird single-screw neck joint that also isn't tight enough that I need to do something about, but it plays great. That said, sustain unplugged likely affects sustain plugged in at volumes where the amp isn't feeding back to the strings to extend it like that. Dead strings have more of an effect there though, speaking from a fair bit of experience. Professor Science posted:I'm pretty much the same way at this point, and the distressing thing is the only guitar where this has ever seemed to happen is the Ibanez TAM100 eight-string I bought. It's not a clunker at all, it just hasn't clicked with me. Maybe I need to spend more time with it (or just sell it).
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Nov 12, 2014 04:34
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Sleepflower posted:I play unplugged a lot because I'm lazy and keep guitars within reach of where I sit when I'm at home, so it does matter to me. There's no right or wrong, to me anyway, I just personally don't care if they thud like a block or sing like Ethel Merman acoustically. 
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Nov 12, 2014 05:20
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I've been thinking about new modding projects and have an idea. I haven't cared for the Piledriver neck in my Tele and figured it would come alive once I switch the pots from 250k to 500k but now I've got an idea to just take it out along with the switch and go bridge piledriver + 500k pots straight to the input. Is this a dumb idea or should I get busy? I like the fat warmth from tele necks and the middle position sound great for cleans but I have guitars that do that sound better for what I like (jazzmaster) and 99% of the time I'm going to stick to the bridge.
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Nov 12, 2014 21:51
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Kilometers Davis posted:I've been thinking about new modding projects and have an idea. I haven't cared for the Piledriver neck in my Tele and figured it would come alive once I switch the pots from 250k to 500k but now I've got an idea to just take it out along with the switch and go bridge piledriver + 500k pots straight to the input. Is this a dumb idea or should I get busy? I like the fat warmth from tele necks and the middle position sound great for cleans but I have guitars that do that sound better for what I like (jazzmaster) and 99% of the time I'm going to stick to the bridge. Esquires are where it's at hombre I'd look up some sweet wiring options, though, you can do some neat things with that three way
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Nov 12, 2014 22:50
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Gold foil pickups are now live on guitarfetish. Trying to figure out a guitar to put one in. I might do a Tele with a standard tele pickup in the bridge and a goldfoil in the neck. http://www.guitarfetish.com/GFS-Gold-Foil-Pickups_c_525.html
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Nov 12, 2014 23:08
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HollisBrown posted:Gold foil pickups are now live on guitarfetish. Trying to figure out a guitar to put one in. I might do a Tele with a standard tele pickup in the bridge and a goldfoil in the neck. damnit I just forgot about these. anyone buying em so we can get a trip report?
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Nov 13, 2014 02:28
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HollisBrown posted:Gold foil pickups are now live on guitarfetish. Trying to figure out a guitar to put one in. I might do a Tele with a standard tele pickup in the bridge and a goldfoil in the neck. Urghghghg I wish I hadn't damaged my speaker cones ;_;
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Nov 13, 2014 04:28
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Somebody let me know if this goes against some unwritten rules (didn't see it in the written rules), but I know there are a couple of other classical guitarists who check this thread, and I wanted to share this crazy arrangement my group did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgD2vS7YpEo It's the 2nd mvmt of Ravel's String Quartet, arranged for 3 classical guitars (one of which is a crazy 7 string with extended range, classical bass style). The arrangement is hard as hell, but really fun to play, and audiences really like it. Even though it's an arrangement, I think it works really well on guitars, and it's been really rewarding to work on.
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Nov 13, 2014 19:08
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firebad57 posted:Somebody let me know if this goes against some unwritten rules (didn't see it in the written rules), but I know there are a couple of other classical guitarists who check this thread, and I wanted to share this crazy arrangement my group did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgD2vS7YpEo That was rad. Do you do any modern stuff too? Could see you rocking some LAGQ/Andrew York type stuff.
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Nov 13, 2014 20:08
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E-Money posted:That was rad. Do you do any modern stuff too? Could see you rocking some LAGQ/Andrew York type stuff. Oh very much so. In fact, I'd say our rep is mostly way farther out there than LAGQ's usual stuff (besides the Ravel). Check out Mobius Trio's channel on YouTube and you'll see what I mean. I highly recommend "a place that inhabits us", "witch wagon", and "making good choices". (Sorry for no links. On phone on the go)
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Nov 13, 2014 20:41
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I'm a bad person, I saw the guitar of the guy on the left in that video and I think "Huh, is that seven strings? Are we getting some classical djent?" It sounds amazing, though.
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Nov 13, 2014 21:51
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firebad57 posted:Somebody let me know if this goes against some unwritten rules (didn't see it in the written rules), but I know there are a couple of other classical guitarists who check this thread, and I wanted to share this crazy arrangement my group did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgD2vS7YpEo Man, music is cool as hell and I wish I was a lot better at it than I am, nice work on this man.
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Nov 13, 2014 21:54
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