Iheartbacon
Blues Junior
Let's face it guys, if we were all blindfolded and set in a room to do this type of test, the first question the majority of us would ask is, "has he started playing yet"?
Only if we all forget to put our hearing aids in!
Electric Guitars 5 strats 5 prices whats the difference?
- Thread starter mountain man
- Start date
Only if we all forget to put our hearing aids in!
Grateful_Ed
Student Of The Blues
Not surprisingly, I have an opinion about all this "tone" talk as well. Buckle up, here's my nickles worth.
It's apparent to me that these tests will never bring us all into agreement. Am I right?
So, here's the thing. Some of these tests are more scientific than others. The testers go to great lengths to make "all things being equal" the testing standard.
Same amp, same chord, same pups et al.
Is that how any of us play? Do we set our amps and cycle through our guitars until we find the one that sounds best?
I submit to you for your listening (reading) enjoyment, that the only real test is to plug in your guitar, find the settings at which your rig sounds the best and play it. When you plug in the next contestant, don't expect it to sound the same, as good or better just by plugging it in. Find the settings it sounds the best at and play it. You may find that maple, rosewood or mahogany with single coils, P90s or 'buckers all sound pretty damn good.
(And if you wanna try changing the wood or pups, just buy another guitar 'cause it really doesn't make that much difference. Just ask Jack Pearson)
Feel free to chime in if I've totally missed the point as well!
It's apparent to me that these tests will never bring us all into agreement. Am I right?
So, here's the thing. Some of these tests are more scientific than others. The testers go to great lengths to make "all things being equal" the testing standard.
Same amp, same chord, same pups et al.
Is that how any of us play? Do we set our amps and cycle through our guitars until we find the one that sounds best?
I submit to you for your listening (reading) enjoyment, that the only real test is to plug in your guitar, find the settings at which your rig sounds the best and play it. When you plug in the next contestant, don't expect it to sound the same, as good or better just by plugging it in. Find the settings it sounds the best at and play it. You may find that maple, rosewood or mahogany with single coils, P90s or 'buckers all sound pretty damn good.
(And if you wanna try changing the wood or pups, just buy another guitar 'cause it really doesn't make that much difference. Just ask Jack Pearson)
Feel free to chime in if I've totally missed the point as well!
Iheartbacon
Blues Junior
The end sound is the sum of a lot of parts. If we are talking about one part, we need to be talking about the same thing.
The simple question is:
Does the wood have an audible impact on an electric guitar?
That one is pretty easy to answer. You isolate the difference down to a minimum of variables and have people listen blind. If you have one person who can reliably tell, even if it is one guy out of a hundred, there must be a difference.
If you are also changing amp settings, or using different pickups or whatever, what are you really testing?
More difficult questions are:
How big is the difference?
What is better and best?
Is it worth it?
These are harder to test and may not have a single right answer.
Then there are factors like:
Can’t you just EQ it out? (See Billy Gibbons)
Will anyone in the audience notice?
Being a listener in blind tests can be very eye opening. Our ears are subject to a lot of illusions and error, but they are also incredible instruments. You will find there are things people are very confident that they can hear that they really can’t and others where you may be surprised what you can hear when the other senses get out of the way. Plus, doing the tests can be a lot of fun.
The simple question is:
Does the wood have an audible impact on an electric guitar?
That one is pretty easy to answer. You isolate the difference down to a minimum of variables and have people listen blind. If you have one person who can reliably tell, even if it is one guy out of a hundred, there must be a difference.
If you are also changing amp settings, or using different pickups or whatever, what are you really testing?
More difficult questions are:
How big is the difference?
What is better and best?
Is it worth it?
These are harder to test and may not have a single right answer.
Then there are factors like:
Can’t you just EQ it out? (See Billy Gibbons)
Will anyone in the audience notice?
Being a listener in blind tests can be very eye opening. Our ears are subject to a lot of illusions and error, but they are also incredible instruments. You will find there are things people are very confident that they can hear that they really can’t and others where you may be surprised what you can hear when the other senses get out of the way. Plus, doing the tests can be a lot of fun.
Well, there's the old saying, "ignorance is bliss." I'm clearly in that camp. I have the luxury of having a few guitars and during this month's BGU Labs challenge, I have practiced on no less than 4 different Stratocasters, 2 Telecasters, a couple of Danelectros and a Flying V. I would play any of them on a submission. They all sound like me (for better or worse). That is all that matters to me.
mountain man
Still got the Blues!
@Grateful_Ed and @Iheartbacon, your last comments are right on. I particularly like Andy's reviews and I've been watching his reviews for years. He is an excellent musician and knows how to get all the different sounds he is trying demonstrate regardless of the gear he is playing. He does great reviews on pedals. Andy does not use a pick in his playing and I think that is also very important for a review like this.
It's no secret, I like stock guitars. So If I don't like the pups or anything else about the guitar, I generally get rid of the guitar and get a guitar with stock pups or guitar features I like. And I have to say that for me? I dial in my amp and effects setting and then don't change them regardless of the guitar I'm playing. But all of my guitars are pretty nice so this works well for me. I might use a clean boost pedal if a single coil pup is not getting me to the volume I like to play - without changing anymore settings. Other than the feel of the guitar that's when the tone is distinctively different from one guitar to the next. I like that and that is my choice. So for me a comparison video with all the same amp and effects setting played by a man without a pick eliminating any pick attack sounds that might be a bit more of a variable is great for me. In this video I thought the earlier guitars were more high frequency twangy and the later guitars were warmer and had richer tone. So? take your pick......... it all can work depending on your artist expression.
It's no secret, I like stock guitars. So If I don't like the pups or anything else about the guitar, I generally get rid of the guitar and get a guitar with stock pups or guitar features I like. And I have to say that for me? I dial in my amp and effects setting and then don't change them regardless of the guitar I'm playing. But all of my guitars are pretty nice so this works well for me. I might use a clean boost pedal if a single coil pup is not getting me to the volume I like to play - without changing anymore settings. Other than the feel of the guitar that's when the tone is distinctively different from one guitar to the next. I like that and that is my choice. So for me a comparison video with all the same amp and effects setting played by a man without a pick eliminating any pick attack sounds that might be a bit more of a variable is great for me. In this video I thought the earlier guitars were more high frequency twangy and the later guitars were warmer and had richer tone. So? take your pick......... it all can work depending on your artist expression.
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Al Holloway
Devizes UK
My take is a guitar is a system so every part of the system has an effect. No matter how small. I beleave the density and stiffness of the materials make a large difference to sustain and tone. So 2 materials with the same will sound the same be they wood or concrete. If you decide to use wood then the wood doesn't matter if you build the guitar to produce a certain stiffness and weight. However you normally want a guitar with a certain size and weight so to achieve this certain easily available woods became standard for certain guitars. Can you use others yes. However if you stick with standard sizes the guitar may well be very heavy or have little sustain. Also the drying time of timbers varies. A particularly green type may still warp years after being cut. Less important in the days of 2 way truss rods but the cracking as they dry may not be. Is all of this important? Yes to a luthier who wants to build a guitar he can sell. Less so to a player. Just go down to the guitar shop and play them all until one sings to you. Then buy it and don't worry about the wood.
Cheers
Al
Cheers
Al
MarkDyson
Blues Hound Wannabe
It's probably (definitely) trite for me to chime in with that old saw about how "tone is subjective."
Seriously, recent events have driven that home to me. Searching out videos about that new Fender Acoustasonic, and wow. Granted YouTube mangles audio with its compression process but, even so, reading some of the comments about how people responded to the demos was frequently dumbfounding. Granted, a percentage of commenters are just trolls or posers trying to sound snooty and above-it-all, but even the constructive ones sometimes had me questioning whether we were listening to the same video. I find that experience to be rather common across all such videos.
Ears are just vibration receptors, our brains are what process the vibrations into "tone" and a lot of crap happens between A and B.
Seriously, recent events have driven that home to me. Searching out videos about that new Fender Acoustasonic, and wow. Granted YouTube mangles audio with its compression process but, even so, reading some of the comments about how people responded to the demos was frequently dumbfounding. Granted, a percentage of commenters are just trolls or posers trying to sound snooty and above-it-all, but even the constructive ones sometimes had me questioning whether we were listening to the same video. I find that experience to be rather common across all such videos.
Ears are just vibration receptors, our brains are what process the vibrations into "tone" and a lot of crap happens between A and B.
