A LES PAUL sounds SIMILAR to a $14000 PRS!
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- Опубликовано: 19 ноя 2024
- Proof positive that if guitar players can't listen with thier eyes, they'll whine about it.
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..and my lovely Neve console: sweetwater.sjv...
About Spectre Sound Studios:
I'm Glenn Fricker, engineer here at Spectre Sound Studios. I love making records, and after doing it for sixteen years, I want to pass on what I've learned. On my channel you can find tutorials on how to record guitar, bass, real drums and vocals. There's reviews and demos of tube amps, amp sims, drums, mics, preamps, outboard gear, Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar, and plugin effects.
We've covered Moon on the Water, played Bias FX, given you the absolute best in Stupid Musician Texts, ranted & raved about bass guitar, and this channel is where The Eagle has Landed.
Everything you've wanted to learn about recording Hard Rock & Heavy Metal can be found right here on this channel!
I also respond to your comments & questions: The best make it into the SMG Viewer's Comments series of videos. Loads of fun, lots of laughs.
Thanks for checking out my channel & please subscribe!
I've been learning guitar for 43 years. I read the comment sections on the blind sound test videos on this channel with interest. In most cases there ARE subtle differences to be heard from each example but I can truthfully say without embarrassment that I have not been able to tell which instrument is which on ANY of Glenn's content over the years and I own and have played, many different guitars from a multitude of price points. Thank you for the work you put into this Glenn, I do appreciate it. 🤘🏻👊🏻
Yeah I've been playing for as long as you. While I play snobby vintage holy grail acoustics, when it comes to electric guitars, I can't find anything better sounding and playability than the cheapest Ibanez with their stock pickups
@@PcBguitarLibrarytry an Eastman and you may change your opinion for acoustics
@@jaysonlavie603 Youre probably right, my favorite 12 string is a $600 plastic Mexican MartinX. Sounds better than new wood for clarity and projection,. The rest of the time I'm playing $10,000 flamenco's and 100 year old instruments
@@PcBguitarLibraryMartin X Series are extremely underrated!
@jaysonlavie603 it's not the brand it is if it's well built.
I've played a lot of acoustic guitars in my day, cheap and expensive from from Gibson, Ibanez, Taylor, Valencia, Yamaha, SX, Harley Benton, Takamine and APC.
Out of all those guitars the nicest sounding and playing ones were the Harley Benton and the APC. APC is a small portuguese brand and their steel strings are in the 200€ range. Unbelievable instruments.
Curiously the big brands sounded like crap, Taylor was to bass heavy, Takamine has the opposite problem and the Gibson... Ughhh
I play a couple of Squier’s that cost around 550$ CAD. They are Harley Benton price. I had a problem with one of them though where I had major signal lost and sounded muddy. This made me search. The problem ended being a bad volume potentiometer. The guy who repaired it told me that it’s a common issue on budget guitars. So if you think you have a bad tone, might want to check this first before swapping pickups.
You nailed it. Nice job 👍 They cut corners to save costs. Mistakes are made, but I think it’s a fair trade off that benefits the consumer if they’re cognizant of that reality.
It behooves us as guitar players to be more knowledgeable about how our instruments work, and if we are willing to learn and put in the effort to attend to the basic set up and repair issues of our instruments. Does it suck to get one with a bad pot? Yes. But if we’re willing to put in some learning and a little elbow grease, we’re still able to save thousands of dollars over expensive instruments that sound the same after all these set up/minor repair issues are solved.
We just need to learn how to be our own guitar tech, in addition to being a player. It’s very achievable.
Electric components being important on an electric instrument, who would've thunk it eh?
Yeah, lots of these cheap guitars have electronics with various degree of quality made in chinese factories for a dollar or two.
As a Luthier/ repairman of 4 decades +, that's not a bad problem to have for being easily fixed, but rollercoaster frets due to improperly dried woods, inattentive workers, cheap truss rods, no reinforcements, hammering in SS frets... that were made by CNC's and plecked... is where most "Alternatively priced" guitars have problems, and many players these days have no clue how low the action can go nearing the threshold of perfect, because the MFG's have been raising the min tolerance gradually for the last few decades, so they can get away with spending way less time and effort in good fret work and neck stability! "Our engineers" are not mechanical/physics... engineers, but "Marketing engineers" that only engineer new and novel ways to fool the gullible!
@@Bob-of-Zoid Never had a problem with Yamaha or Squier.
Most guitars of all ranges are made by CNC machines, including 4k+ ones using CNC machines is ok. Even cheap guitars have rosewood fretboards, alder bodies and maple necks. Electronics and frets can be a hit or miss, never had a problem with a truss did in cheap guitars.
Im not trying to dismiss your expirience, but I have a very positive expirience.
I bought a $200 Squire to practice modding on because cheap equals easy to replace if I f up horribly. I was able to completely replace all the electronics in it with genuine (tm) Fender parts for pretty cheap. Trying to solder with shaky hands was a bit tough, but I got it done. It was a fun experience I’d recommend for anyone.
The only trouble I had was that the Fender locking tuners were not compatible with the Squire headstock (which may have changed since then), so I had to drill new holes to make the nubs on the new tuners fit the headstock. That was nerve racking as hell.
That AFI album is an all time favorite of mine. It's crazy how much their sound changed from album to album. Fantastic band, and lovely reference, Glenn.
It needs to be said, no one is saying don't buy a Gibson if that's your prerogative. The main takeaway here is that you DON'T HAVE TO in order to get a good sound. This isn't the 60s anymore where your only two options were a Gibson or a crappy piece of plywood from the Sears catalog.
Even now, though, people are really enjoying the crappy plywood from Sears. Have you seen how much some of the teiscos/kingstons/etc are going for nowadays?
Unfortunetely, the average guitar buyer is too dumb to actually grasp the concept that gear has progressed over the last decades.
@@greekfreak1980people still want to pay for a brand name.
@@uncle_komrade honestly, I have a soft spot for the old Teisco stuff. They were weird, but in a good way. One of these days I'd like to pick one up and turn it into something worth having. Refret, modernize the hardware, pot the pickups. They're cool.
@@BlackHawk2029 I had a red Teisco Del Ray with the single neck pickup that I ended up refurbing and gifting to a friend after he said he needed a new guitar. He doesn't even want to look at name brands now because of how in love with it he is. Even without upgrades they still rip haha, but I would love to see a modernized version of them
To get rid of the RUclips compression argument you could upload the audio files somewhere for people to download
I agree. But I think it just proves Glenn's point even more in the sense that, if you have to listen to a loseless file to hear any difference it really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.
It wouldnt matter, we have entered the realm of the god of the gaps.
I never thought too much in terms of superior tone with expensive instruments. What always was most apparent to me, was the build quality, and how comfortable it feels to play them. But that has diminished so much in the last couple of years. I have tried expensive instruments and found them lacking based purely on build quality, and the guitar I currently own is a Harley Benton R-446, a metal guitar for 158€, and it is beautiful and plays amazing. I think I would not have tried that without watching your videos.
A great guitar to review btw, as it has an even lower price tag than your not SG
Great video!
I have a bunch of guitars in my studio for different applications, but surprisingly the main reason ISN'T the big shifts in tone. Yes, I have Strat and Tele style models for their specific spanky single-coil sounds, and I have a couple wired with "vintage" voiced pickups vs. modern voicing. But the main difference between all these different instruments is how they feel in the hands. Hear me out...
The different pickup voicings come down to what the magnet is doing and how much output it's giving. That's going to change how much signal is pushing through the front of the chain, and that's going to change how the amp responds to what I'm playing. It's a function of signal more than EQ, so a higher output pickup makes the overdrives break up sooner.
The biggest single difference is how the guitars play in the hand. The instruments I use for metal are configured very differently from the ones I use for country or blues. The "metal" guitars have things like string spacing and fretboard radius that are more conducive to the types of techniques used to do rapid-fire chugging and shredding. The smaller radius and narrower string spacing work better for the kinds of chord voicings and double-stop bends you use in country. So you CAN shred on a Telecaster, and you CAN play blues on an 8-string with a flat fretboard. But the reason Tele's have "country tone" is because they're designed for country-style technique, so you're more likely to hear country players using that instrument. A Floyd Rose mounted Ibanez will SOUND more like a metal shred guitar, because it's designed for players who do a ton of super-fast techniques and whammy acrobatics, so you're more likely to hear shred players using that instrument. The differences in tone are not from the guitars but from the way they're played and the job they're designed to do.
And, for what it's worth, most of my guitars are budget models from Donner and Eart (because they sponsor demos on my channel), or ones I've built myself. The most expensive guitar I own, as a 36-year+ veteran studio and live player, is an Ibanez Artcore Expressionist hollow body that I got used for $300. It's strung with 11-gauge flat-wound strings for jazz, and I've been using it to play a ton of classic rock lately.
Like Josh from JHS keeps saying: if it sounds good, it is good. Use what works and stop letting guitar snobs tell you what's "good enough."
Just got 2 HB's & I'm so glad I didn't buy the Epiphone or Gibson SG's. 2 guitars for under the price of 1 including shipping. I'm amazed at the quality. Thank you God! On a side note I actually like my tone better with my old pre-amp tubes better.
"listen with your ears, not with your eyes" true. But when I pick up a guitar, before I plug it in or play it it unplugged, I pick it up. I feel the string gauge, fret wire, neck shape/width, fretboard radius, how it sits on my lap, if it's balanced with any neck dive, if any sides or corners cut into my chest. Before I make any determination on its sound, I make a determination on its comfort. I doesn't matter if it sounds good when it feels bad.
and those are the reasons why you should buy the guitar you like. at this stage.. "how it sounds" has already been thrown out of the window, so the point that's been made over and over again is that if you like how it feels, get it. If you get lucky with a $200 guitar, cool! if it takes 2 grand to satisfy your tickle, enjoy!
You don't have to spend $2k to get whatever you said, is the whole point. No less no more.
Those are not listening lol.
I agree. Playability and feel are first and foremost. I own 28 guitars and have bought close to 40 in my 45 years of playing. I never buy a guitar that I have not held in my hands and played. The feel and playability comes first along with the natural resonance of the guitar. Once I find the one that speaks to me in those terms, then perhaps I plug it in. In most cases I plug it in when I get it home as pickups can be changed, amps can alter the sound with design and eq and different speakers impose a great sound variation. So, sound through an amp or plug in is not an important first glance factor for me. Sound can be altered much easier than playability and feel.
Yes, the string factory was amazing! I have never seen the process as well. Always a pleasure learning from Glenn Fricker University. Keep up the great learning videos!
I was off on the blind test for sure, really surprised that the Gibson had such high output.
When it comes to strings, for me, I go based on feel of the strings when I am playing.
I got an Epiphone not too long ago and absolutely love it, someone commented saying “imagine being excited for an Epiphone” but yeah it is amazing for sure 🤘🔥🔥🤘
epiphone makes better stuff than gibson does for a smaller pricepoint anyways!
So many people refuse to accept evidence simply because it proves them wrong. While getting your feelings hurt can suck, learning something from being wrong can be incredibly useful in both music and life. While learning guitar, I picked up a lot of bad habits and learned the wrong ways to play songs. Admitting that I wasn’t right just because I felt I was gave me a chance to go back and undo some of the damage I’d done to my playing and techniques. It pushed me to practice and to engage in critical thinking, which in turn improved my playing. I would much rather do that than be forced to work overtime or pick up another job simply because I thought a more expensive guitar would make me a better player. There’s nothing wrong with being wrong, but there’s everything wrong with being wrong and refusing to accept it. You can unfuck your feelings; not your wallet. Thanks for another great video, Glenn! 🤘
I had an old Ibanez Studio guitar languishing in the cellar, which I always enjoyed playing but never liked the sound of. (Disclaimer: the reason may have been the previous owner's eccentric electrical modifications.)
So, inspired by Glenn, I gutted the thing, bought prewired electronics from eBay (€6) and two Vanson PAF clones (€50 for the pair). And it sounds really good. In fact it sounds pretty much the same as my HH Telecaster. Which I'm now selling.
Great video. From my experience in what changes the sound the most is low output pickups and low gain. There's nothing to hide behind with that formula. That will show you what YOU sound like. Also doing this test while clean....genius. no denying the minimal sound difference
Visuals definitely influence perceived sound. So many times when mixing a project, I'll have an eq plugin unknowingly disabled while adjusting it and somehow I can still hear the changes I'm making based only on the eq curve visually changing. I wonder if you've ever had that experience Glenn
This is the best channel on here! Keep putting the EXPERTS in their place! ABSOLUTELY GOLDEN 🤘🤘
5:23 I like that you did the samples with a cleaner sound.
I see these videos and can't help but think about what BTO said about it.
"Get a second-hand guitar, chances are you'll go far
If you get in with the right bunch of fellows"
Thanks again Glen!😎
Awesome comment! Thanks for "takin care of business..."
For nearly 10 years, My favorite to play is a First Act i bot from a craigslist member, for 25 dollars.
Same. I have an old harmony that was one of my first guitars that I ever owned. 30 years latter that thing is still fun to play and sound good.@@fb8966
With all the tests you've done, there really seems to be something of a "Tone Trifecta" forming. The tone/frequency range is in the speaker/mic combination since as you've proven, they're the only real filters in the signal chain. The character of the sound seems to come from the amp in the form of gain structure + minor tone shifts with the onboard amp eq. Lastly, as one of your first-ever videos shows, the clarity of a performance comes from the hands. It's really impressive that after all these years, we can say with confidence and certainty where the different aspects of a guitar tone come from. Excellent work Glenn! Keep it up.
Woop Woop loving the blind tests. Thanks for holding the industry's feet to the coals!!!!
Always enjoy your continued education sessions for us, Glenn.
Love from FordNation
Hey you take the time you need Glenn we love what you do!
The conclusion to this video reminds me of a point Keith Williams made in a recent 5 watt world episode; “no one cares about your guitar.”
We as guitar players obsess and want to tell everyone why our gear is so special and no one else cares. Even the other guitarists just want you to shut up so they can talk about their stuff
Just enjoy what you have and don’t worry about impressing the comment section
I totally agree with you on the price thing. I just bought my first Harley Benton this week (MultiScale-8 QBB) after watching your reviews of Harley Benton gear on RUclips. To be honest, I think it's just as good, if not better in quality and playability than many of the so called BIG brands that I have tried over the years...
With this being my first 8 string and my first multiscale guitar, I was expecting to have a few struggles. Apart from hitting the B string instead of the E string every now and again, the problems I expected haven't really materialized. The neck is a wee bit thicker than my Kramer 7 string, but I haven't really noticed it that much to be honest. I am especially impressed with the sound I get from the neck pick up when played clean. A really nice deep and smooth Jazzy/Bluesy tone that makes me purrrr with delight!!!
Apart from 1 frett being slightly rougher on one end than the others (which are well finished), its a really nice piece of well built and designed kit. Well worth every penny, (unlike many BIG names) and a joy to play (also unlike many BIG names)!!!
And YES!!! I would recommend Harley benton guitars to anyone looking for a new toy. That's why I'm already looking at getting one more... well, maybe two or three or....
P.S. Any chance you could review the Harley Benton 7 string Bass??? Ta!!! 😀
Love the comment around 8 minutes! That guy nailed it. You're in league with all of our exes, Glenn. Admit it! :D
Your channel has saved me a lot of money over the years. Thanks so much for the information Glenn.
Absolutely awesome points made by the host ! And tactfully delivered.
Hey, Glenn! This is probably going to sound like an odd ‘Thank You’ (since your channel is largely dedicated to dissecting technical audio issues), but THANK YOU nonetheless, my friend! We musicians derive inspiration from every single facet of daily living, and I- a keyboard-playing/ songwriting moron who is currently beefing up his guitar chops- has now come up with the perfect guitar solos for my “ballad” tune (both mid and outtro) thanks to your goofy yet no-nonsense productions on RUclips. Sure, you don’t give online guitar lessons, but you don’t have to. Instead, you inspire us to do our own homework- with a certain degree of self-education, combined with your own. Hats off, brother! 🤘🏾
informative? - yes
dramatic delivery? - YES !!!!
No one ever shows the spectrums of the guitar outputs. It would be great to have a visual representation of the sound coming out.
Glen!
How about you show us the difference between running Amp Modelers like the ToneX through a real Amps Effects loop( Using only the power Amp to drive the cab), Using a PA Speaker, and using a pure power amp.
I personally have problems finding the right levels when I run my ToneX into the Poweramp of my combo, and it's either not loud enough, Or when I give the poweamp more juice, Breakup happens a bit earlier than expected. I also made changes to the toneX output settings and levels, but I cannot find the sweet spot.
Ofc I have the Cab Sim deactivated in that case.
Are there any best practices I could look for? Thank you!
Lets goooo!! Another Glenn upload, btw what about the mix reviews, they still up?
In the last vid I said that B is the most balanced with B being the Les Paul, so that's nice?
With that being said, it took a LOT of listening and I'm sure a good amount was luck.
I want to mention respectfully that I feel like your attitude towards this has changed a lot for a more reasonable approach and I appreciate that. You mentioned you're not trying to dunk on anyone, and while that may not have been the case in the past always it's still nice to see a more neutral/positive channel overall. Even to the haters you're a bit pulled back!
Hey Glen… been watching your vids for a few years, long time listener, first time caller…
I completely agree with you on ‘using your ears!!!’
It’s neat to go into a music store & pick up a $3k fender and strum around for a bit, but not a lot of people have that disposable income to justify that purchase.
I got myself a Squire classic Vibe 50’s Tele ($600 cnd) & got a plex job and setup to get it dialed in ($300 cnd).
I’m just a regular dude that rocks out thru headphones in the evenings when the wife & kids are in bed. The Squire sounds great… plus with the different guitar amp apps like Bias FX & AmpliTube, you can nail every tone. It would be cool to look at a Custom Shop Fender sitting in my guitar stand in the basement, but then I remember that the groceries need to be bought this month.
Keep up the good work mate.
YES! I got guitar D right in the first test! That's the only one I even tried to discern cause it sounded actually different from the others.
For the second test: I also identified the tone shift in C but I didn't know which strings to attribute this to.
Hey Glenn, great video as always, I´m waiting your review of Fender Tone Master Pro, thanks
Another excellent video Glenn!! I enjoy all your videos, very helpful and educational!! 👍🤘😎🎸✌️
Fantastic, I love seeing these comments 😂 Any chance we can see some of those bass-mid-treble curves for these tests? I'm curious to know if there are any trends visible in those graphs regarding both the guitars and strings
I bought a bass with my eyes this week (BTB1936). It was worth it. But I also got it for a very good price, and I love the feature set (active / passive switch, mid frequency selector, etc.). It's the most expensive instrument I have by far. Everything else cost me about $400-$600 new, and they are all excellent instruments that I've played for thousands of hours.
Big love, Thanks!
Honestly they all sound great. They DO sound different. They can be different AND be difficult to be able to distinguish them perfectly, isn’t either/or. All of them do sound great.
Not really. On that test, Guitar D sounded really bad. And Guitar A was ok, but noticeably duller than B and C. Guitar B was the brightest... and in terms of sound quality that's the best tone because it's easier to roll off some frequencies if you need it, than it is to add frequencies to a duller base tone.
However.... noticeably duller doesn't mean it's bad. Just means B and C were better. A BMW M3 is awesome, but a Bugatti and a Ferrari are better.
So i would say B and C were great. A good. D meh.
Something that's always important to point out in these comparison tests -- perception is a funny thing that very much depends on the sum total of factors involved. Like the fact that people feel different about how things sound when they see the visual+sound comparison vs the blind+sound comparison. And what I'm getting to, is -- on top of the fact that your guitar is going to be colored by the amp, the pedals, the speakers, the mic, the interface, etc -- it's going to be further colored by the sound coming from the rest of the band and your own double tracks. There's harmonics that play off of each other and create extra layers of sound as a result of each component interacting. Somewhat similar to those optical illusion tests where the surrounding shadows/light change how you see a specific shade of grey. You'll have the same shade of grey on one side of the checkered pattern as the other, but because of the way the shadows/light are painted, they look like two different shades entirely -- the surroundings and context greatly affect how you interpret reality from your senses.
You rock Glenn, love your channel.
❤ that console glad you got it
Hi Glen, I love what you dou. The sicence behind this is interesting to me. The one thing i dont think many players take into account with these types of tests, is the neuances of the individual playing, i play very differently from the next person for example. I have a harley Benton TE-20 that has one upgrade, and that is brass compensated sadles for intonation purposes. Total investment is roughly £90. As for pick-ups i recomend Irongear, here in the UK. the humbuckers are roughly £75 per pair and are very good for the money.
Love your channel. One of my favorite guitars of all time was an Ibanez ex-cheap from the 90's.
Years ago I was recommended to buy Ernie Ball Cobalt strings because more cobalt is more magnetic and the pickups will get a hotter signal. I put them on and as I didn't shoot them out against my go to Slinky's if there was any change in strength or tone it was negligible but one big difference that I did find kinda cool was that the cobalts were gritty so it felt like your strings were contaminated which put me in the mindset of Sleaze Rock and made me wanna play some Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction. 🤘🤪🤘 *Attitude and state of mind can have a profound effect on your playing and performance.
Glen you're videos are great and have been very helpful in picking out gear!! Many of your experiments have verified opinions I've had for years about equipment and the price point of certain pieces.
Just last year, I bought a brand new Epiphone 50's standard Les Paul and couldn't have been happier. I got a new guitar with aesthetics that are pleasing and didn't spend over $750! So I have another great playing, sounding and beautiful guitar that I'm not afraid to take with me for fear of "muh value" diminishing with a scratch or ding. Now if I could could stop babying my explorer I'd be alright😂
After watching your videos and doing some research, I’ve bought a Solar Cannibalismo as my first guitar because it looks cool. No regret. Thanks Glenn
I bought a set of crusader style pickups on reverb to throw in my JS32 because I wanted more output from the pickups. They were $60 brand new. Sound great and they’re whisper quiet. I don’t need to spend $200+ on pickups. I’ll buy gear from small makers over large corporations any day of the week
As possibly the only RUclipsr in the world with a Neve console, SHOW US MORE! Does it have toan-wood knobs or is it worth the cost. Give us some insight inside the mystique of a Neve!
I own 11 guitars and they all sound a little different, but you can certainly make them sound similar if you put them through the right signal chain. They range from $150 to more than $1500 and I love them for different reasons. I cannot say that the most expensive models are objectively better than the lower priced ones. Some of the best sounding guitars that I own can be had for between $400 and $900.
Now let's see, how quick the shown prices compensate on the youtube compression issue... 😆
Keep up that work, mate!
It would be great to see Glen review one of the Firefly guitars. Those seem to be very good value for the price, the specs are impressive and the finishes on the LP models are stunning. Cheers.
Hey glen, I think it would be great if you could do a comparison with different capacitor types. As an electrician who’s gone through some schooling on small electronics, I don’t think it makes any difference at all as long as they’re the same value. If anything, I’d say the old paper in oil caps everyone swears sounds the best are actually usually not accurate to their value so that’s the difference you’re hearing. It’s been driving me mad because it’s been a big topic in guitar groups I’m in recently. Also could be cool to see a test where you use different values that aren’t traditionally used for those types of pickups as well like a .223 cap on humbuckers.
They definitely sound "different" to varying degrees, but the they're all in the same ballpark. Pretty eye opening
Hope you’re feeling better now, Glenn! Just out of curiosity, do you happen to know which chord Christian is playing during that demo (the clean tone section)? Even with perfect pitch, I’m having a hell of a time trying to figure it out.
P.S., thank you for answering my question from the previous video.
You don't have perfect pitch if you can't figure out something basic like that. You can even see the fretboard and the hands lol.
Wasn't aware that perfect pitch had much to do with chord recognition. I can do that with ease and don't have perfect pitch.
I'm gonna look into that.
Cheers.
Nailed test 1 - but it was a TOTAL guess. I feel like the Gibson was actually a bit tinny, the PRS was 'balanced', the Schecter was loud and bright, and the HB was bassy - but those were subtle changes. Nice one Glenn - I don't think I'd even notice those differences in the real world.
Honestly Glenn your last comment is the real reason why a lot of guitarists won’t touch a Harley Benton. That’s why I never even considered them myself, I always internally looked down on them, but this blue one you keep playing genuinely sounds amazing and for that price I’m very impressed.
(Now, that being said I personally wouldn’t ever make fun of someone on stage for playing a Harley Benton just to clear the air. )
Great work Glenn! I have a beautiful fender furniture and a very cheap HH Harley Benton telecaster, in a rehersal room with an j800 both sound great. So. yeah, i don't need a "kidney value" LP o PRS. Both gives me all i want.
Lets goooo AFI reference, Your Name Here and Brownie Bottom Sunday rip off that album and then Black Sails/Art of Drowning/All Hallows EP/Sing the Sorrow is an epic run of releases and worth the listen if you haven’t tried them
Yeah... Sing the Sorrow is their masterpiece. What a gigantic record. I like Burials too. It's the Cure, with distortion.
as i like to quote :
"belief is the enemy of knowing , and EGO is the protector of belief !"
glen, i can't tell you how much i learned from you in the past 3 years.
the hardest one was the pickups... man, it was a punch to the face ,but you caught me right on time and saved me 400$ on a new set i really didn't needed.
i gotta say, it was hard to let the EGO go..
i am getting close to my 40's, and it's amazing to see how much bullshit and fairy farts we got feed all this years by manufacturers .
thank you glen!
Whilst I am a general noob to playing guitar. And somewhat of a practice guy. When I bought my guitars I bought them based mainly on what they looked like. One has a roasted maple neck that I knew nothing about it just looked cool. So the next one I bought looked similar to a les Paul. I did switch the pickups in it. To match the other so that during an emergency replacement they would be close volume wise to complete the set. While I’m done buying gear for the most part. I ironically thought learning to play what you have would be a better avenue than buying better gear hoping this would be the game changing tone from the gods. Incidentally I kept running through brands of strings till I found some that rarely break. And I stick with those.
seen someone ask in the comments about the opening chord to the lil riff that is played...
it's a kool variation of a d/d sus4 I think. low to high x-5-5-2-3-2
I considered upgrading pickups from the standard Jackson ones awhile back but after watching your videos decided not to, and haven't regretted it at all. I've got killer tones from them and didn't need to spend a bunch of money.
I’ve learned that I have a bias towards brighter sounding guitars. I think this experiment is very eye opening in so many ways.
Very cool videos. Any chance you'll do a similar experiment with bass guitars? I think it would be very helpful and insightful. But the differences may be more pronounced since most basses are recorded direct and you even noted that the direct signal for the different guitars had massive differences.
The working principle of pickups is induction. There is no material constant in the induction law. If the string material is ferromagnetic, it works.
Hey Glenn,
Love your videos.
Did you ever consider a pickup shoot out for bass?
With all the different setups like:
- Passive pickups with passive electronics
- Passive pickups with active electronics
- Active pickups with passive electronics
- Active pickups with active electronics
I'm really curious if there's that big of a difference there or is it just marketing in the demos online as well.
I think it would really help people what to look for, when I'm buying a new bass.
I just went ahead and checked my guesses from two weeks ago. I kind of got lucky as I said I preferred guitars B and C in the first test. Note that I couldn't have told you which was which for the life of me, though. Now, when I heard them again today, I thought that the Schecter sounded better than the PRS. XD Hearing is definitely subjective and tastes seem to vary from one day to the next. If I take the test in a week from now, I might even change my answers again. I guess that as long as your guitar sounds good in a mix and plays great, you're good to go. There's no need to break the bank, unless that's your thing and can afford to do so. Cheers and keep up those killer tests, man!
I managed to get the strings right and hardly even guessing
Strings are truly something I hope more people would experiment on, there's so much of them and while the differences aren't anything too huge tonally, there's quite a lot to the feel, setting the guitar and tuning stability. Only the set thickness already does a lot, like .007 set is pain and stress to set up but extremely light to play and then you have the .013 set that goes into the bass strings and if you put it into standard E, better hope you have reinforced neck because there's some real tension right there.
In studio settings you may probably want to try out semi- and whole flatwounds for that lack of string noise that comes from someone dragging their fingers along the strings and not lifting them, also bending with properly polished frets, just warm butter and same goes for using slides.
Glen ; sound ,tone is something they come to you for right , the guitar I can tell is the 335 types don't know what it is but it's something I can tell (hear) love your show
Thank you Gleeeeeeeeeen! A long time ago you changed my mind about how pickups and tone wood affects the output of the the sound. Now I have friends that get angry at me when I tell them that a $300 guitar can sound as good as a $3000 guitar. You provide evidence, the friends who argue are just butt hurt over spending big dollars. Nothing wrong with buying an expensive guitar but it fits the law of diminishing returns.
For the last 2 months I have been fantasising about a PRS Custom 24 Guitar (with lots of Opeth and Orphaned Land riffs playing in my head), I thought it was guitar A. Guitar C was the worst (I even perceived some intonation issues)....thanks for saving me €5k Glenn! ESP Japan here I come :D
One thing is absolutely true, if you want the most dramatic & objectively measurable change in your tone ? Change the Speaker!
But second and third on that list is actually bridge material and nut material, PU choice is probably 4th.
And the last 3 are likely barely measurable by waveform, but might be audible by perception, my suggestion? Everyone’s brain interprets sounds somewhat differently.
Lastly? Any guitar is the sum of its parts, and we haven’t even talked about amps, I think you can see where this is going Glenn, and it’s all a matter of degree, yet for a highly distorted metal tone, all the elements I mention above are less and less a factor, the higher the gain goes up.
Since there clearly IS a difference, but arguably insufficient to motivate the enormous difference in price. Here's an interesting test I'd like to see:
- Take two guitars that DO sound very different, cherry-pick them to be as different as possible. Preferably also at very different price points.
- Use EQ pedal with one of the guitars and try to make them sound as much alike as possible.
This could also be done with DI recordings and plugins making it even less expensive to turn your "warm vintage PAF"-sound to "unparalleled clarity and focused mid-range"-sound.
My hypothesis is that you can nullify most of the difference in tone with just this one pedal. Making it even less appealing to switch pickups or various other parts to achieve tonal supremacy.
speaking of tonewood - i actually play my guitars when in meetings, often not even connected to any sort of amp - just fiddling with my fingers. I do notice that an UNCONNECTED guitar A has a different sound to guitar B. So one of them is fun just to fiddle with fingers in calls where the sound is less likely to be picked up.
Still, as for the recording and sound of a CONNECTED guitar - thanks for providing some more info :) really appreciate it
Interesting. My first bass was an LTD that came with ESP-designed pickups and preamp. I obviously wanted to upgrade the electronics to EMG ASAP so, after a couple years, I caved in. The results? I liked the ESP a lot better 🤷🏽♂️ I was too lazy to undo the change and it's been like 18 years since. The bass is now fretless and still gets lots of love. Also, fun fact: I often tell clients I recorded with one of my multi $k basses in their tracks, but I often play my Squier because it sounds just right for the job. I've gotten no complaints about the tone, quite the opposite 😅
I enjoy these videos! Maybe for the next blind test you can include a Dropbox link to high quality wav files of the guitars so even the "RUclips compression" connoisseurs can't get away saying that anymore. You can strip any identifying metadata from the files too to keep the test fair. Cheers.
I remember when I was heavily into pool (billiards) and wanted to get my own cue stick, I had very similar conversations with the sellers. Price point X (which I want to say was around $100 back then) will get you the straightest stick you can get. Anything above that was aesthetic options that you wanted to have, but it wasn't going to make it any straighter. So yeah, go buy "nice" guitars because you love them and they make you feel giddy every time you see them and play them, but just realize what you're really spending the extra money on and that there's nothing wrong with that.
Lol. Yep. I said I liked the clarity and lower output of #2. Those were the PAFs.
Glenn's videos make my day
F U GLENN!! another mythical yet demystifying video!!
Glen, how much difference does the compression from RUclips to your mixes vs the mixes played off your monitors with compression used in the DAW?
The SG style guitar sounded a lot richer with a good amount of low end. Loved it.
Also, to the last point made in this video: if you walk on stage and you can play your instrument well..... the brand doenst matter one bit. 👍 If you ever played in band in school and did a solo/ensemble event, where you are about to be judged on your playing only..... you know that you will hear musicians of all levels playing.
Recently, i went to my son's and there was a spectacular performance by a senior in HS. Did an amazingly complicated classical piece with nylon strings.
I wanted to see this musician and his set up because I was impressed with his playing.
......i was even more impressed when he was carrying an Esteban guitar. Ive had one as well and I had to tune it after every song. It wasnt a bad sounding guitar but it was entry-level for sure..... and this kid made that same instrument sound like it was thousands of bucks more than it was.
Turns out (shocking, i know): If youre a solid player, then you just need a guitar. any guitar. Then, just do your thing. 👍
I can only claim to have mastered one instrument and that was trumpet. I cant play it anymore because i didnt practice for years, but when I was actively competing...I started a trash horn and got (just naturally, which isnt normal) a great tone out of it. After years of progression, my parents bought me a professional trumpet (silver, Bach, lower keys for faster action and about $2k at the time). The assistant band director from the Boston Conservatory saw me at a competition and bought me a jass mouthpiece, which let me play higher, easier.
When I would get on stage, i had one of the nicest quality instruments there. This would get a lot of "if I had that instrument, incould easily do what you do" coments, from bandmates to strangers.
"Let me see your horn" id say....then, I would deliver the same tone from their dad's used trumpet or their $10/mth rental. I wasnt trying to show how "good" I was. I wasnt good...i was decent. There will always be stronger players than me. more talented, faster, a better tone...
....but the position i had gotten to took practice. 🤷♂️ I was able to play with that tone before I got a pro instrument. It was a gift for reaching that skill level.
I wouldnt be a very good trumpet player if I could only make a $2k Bach sound nice.
If you learn your instrument.... 🤷♂️ you wont care about expensive guitars anymore. Id love to get more. I have one, though, and thats all I need.
Hey Glen, you should do a blind test between some audio uploaded to YT and the RAW uncompressed audio.
Yes, I know, they will both be uploaded to YT anyway (duh), but surely the 'double dipped' sample will be sooooooo much worse, right?..
Get well buddy!
i came to this late but i watched the first vid and wrote down my responses and i got all them right on the first test my logic was more to pay attention to build of the electronics than anything else. The Schechter is gonna have the highest output so that was easy. The PRS is a semi hollow body guitar so most likely they are gonna design it to have the cleanest clear sound with lower output pickups and the semi hollow sound is usually attributed to a more "acoustic" sound. then between the last 2 Gibson's have "special" capacitors that allow for a bit more high end than the cheaper ones that are in the HB.
You know what's crazy? I've been playing for close to 30 years and I discovered this not long after I started playing. Walked into a guitar center and was testing out guitars of different price ranges and I couldn't figure out why some were so much more expensive than others. They didn't sound much different, they didn't feel all that different but some were several hundred dollars more. That was before the days of RUclips. It was kind of common sense to me. The only real difference tended to be the country of manufacture. So I just assumed it was labor costs.
Ugh! I was 0/4. I swapped the Les Paul and the Harley Benton, and also swapped the Sctecter and the Paul Reed Smith. Thanks for the fun test.
I’m 100% with you on recorded guitars sounded almsot the same. However, I still hear huge differences in the room, so I can’t pretend my guitars all sound the same. Some sound much more aggressive than the other and vice versa.
He never said orherwise.
Hello Glenn, been seeing your videos for a while. Pretty insightful.
Perhaps I can ask for your help? Here is my predicament:
I bought a hollowbody gretsch 12 years ago, it has flatwound strings, they are the original strings, still sound and feel like new, no rust at all; but they dont bend for shit because of being flats (I think).
I THINK they might be 0.011s, and have thought about changing them for round 0.010s.
Do you think it will backfire regarding the guitar setup and intonation? Im scared because I even think the bridge is only held in position by the string tension, it looks like its not fixed to the body by screws, just some sort of foam between the two woods (the bridge has a wood sort of base thing). So I think I may misposition the bridge and lose the correct intonation if it moves, or if it doesnt move, it may still be incorrect due to the change in string type and size.
Been waiting for this.
Nice AFI deep cut :)
I think that if I hear one more time about how "the RUclips compression" invalidates any guitar comparisons or even sound samples, I think I'm going to scream. Funnily enough barely anyone complains about that in various video-related comparisons (or game graphics "analysis"), despite the fact that while audio is almost unaffected by YT compression, video frequently gets completely butchered.
wait, what happened to the other schecter video? the one about the demon-6 in satin black? why did it get taken down?
With regards to the RUclips compression; how about doing a null test with a mix that was posted to YT compared to the original mix? Curious what we’re actually talking about
Wow...I got them all right. And even though I did use deduction to figure it out, that doesn't mean I know what I'm talking about. I doubt I could do it again, so I'm talking my crown and resigning right now. lol
Quit while you're ahead hahah
I enjoy seeing all of these comments in which the poster's complaint validates the exact approach that you used. Oh, one question: I'm in the market for a new DAW. Are you still having issues with Reaper?
Waiting for Glenn to add Hempback speakers into a cab to see if they do well in both room and mix tone