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New video today! Interested to hear what y'all have to say.
New video: Guitar Tone is All in Your Head!
- Thread starter aarontunes
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supertruper1988
Senior Member
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This is 100% true. I like lightweight but not chambered bodies. If I pickup a "heavy" guitar it automatically doesnt sound as "good" to me.
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My favorite comment on YouTube so far is this one:
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Uranus Oyster
Aaron, it is extremely disappointing coming from you and Warmoth, that wood "maybe" matters, and "maybe" it's a feeling, when wood clearly matters a lot. Because of all the crap guitar influencers on youtube, who can barely play and can't write a song, and all the guitarist wannabees that watch them who think they are guitarists or musicians just because they own a guitar, and because of youtube "scientists" that make videos to show that wood does not matter, but you can clearly hear the differences in their videos in which they swear they sound the same. Guess what folks, not everyone can hear everything, so if you can't hear it does not mean it's not there... So Aaron, very disappointed that you and Warmoth went with the mob sheep mentality when you know better. Screenshoted this just to measure how fast you're gonna take this down to keep your channel nice and cozy...
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I thought I concluded that one's perception actually makes these types of things matter more, but oh well. It seems I at least got the first minute or so right....
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Uranus Oyster
Aaron, it is extremely disappointing coming from you and Warmoth, that wood "maybe" matters, and "maybe" it's a feeling, when wood clearly matters a lot. Because of all the crap guitar influencers on youtube, who can barely play and can't write a song, and all the guitarist wannabees that watch them who think they are guitarists or musicians just because they own a guitar, and because of youtube "scientists" that make videos to show that wood does not matter, but you can clearly hear the differences in their videos in which they swear they sound the same. Guess what folks, not everyone can hear everything, so if you can't hear it does not mean it's not there... So Aaron, very disappointed that you and Warmoth went with the mob sheep mentality when you know better. Screenshoted this just to measure how fast you're gonna take this down to keep your channel nice and cozy...
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I thought I concluded that one's perception actually makes these types of things matter more, but oh well. It seems I at least got the first minute or so right....
Rick
Epic Member
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I will tolerate a beautiful, but crappy sounding guitar longer, than a crappy looking, crappy sounding guitar. the beautiful guitar I'll try to make sound better. I'm always attracted first by looks. Eventually, reality creeps in and I change.
I'll just say, as with most things in life, perception is more important than reality.
I'll just say, as with most things in life, perception is more important than reality.
NedRyerson
Senior Member
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I'm going to watch the video later on break, but I was curious myself so one night, I tested with three of my guitars. 2011 Les Paul Studio, 1996 Jackson Kelly KE-3, and a kit-based JEM 7-string clone (w/ DiMarzio pickups that replaced the stock no-names). Fed through the same effects chain, and coincidentally, all three with same string types (Ernie Ball Regular Slinky, even the 7-string).
I suppose it's because I had the distortion almost pegged (a la Swedish death metal
) but I really couldn't detect any significant differences in tone. Maybe it's the mic in my phone, or the practice amp I was playing through. I suppose if I focused really, really closely and to the level of wine tastings, there might be but for grand purposes of jamming out in the car on the highway....yeah, I can't tell.
While playing, I feel like the Jackson is more of a metal chugger than the LP with greater bass, and the 7 is more meedly-meedly -- a little crunchier but not as meaty as the Jackson and not as "rounded" as the LP. But as my own recordings demonstrated to me, I play each the same way, same attack, same picking patterns, same palm-muting. And if I were to randomly choose one of those files to play back without knowing which was which, I'd fail at identifying which guitar it was!
I suppose it's because I had the distortion almost pegged (a la Swedish death metal
) but I really couldn't detect any significant differences in tone. Maybe it's the mic in my phone, or the practice amp I was playing through. I suppose if I focused really, really closely and to the level of wine tastings, there might be but for grand purposes of jamming out in the car on the highway....yeah, I can't tell.While playing, I feel like the Jackson is more of a metal chugger than the LP with greater bass, and the 7 is more meedly-meedly -- a little crunchier but not as meaty as the Jackson and not as "rounded" as the LP. But as my own recordings demonstrated to me, I play each the same way, same attack, same picking patterns, same palm-muting. And if I were to randomly choose one of those files to play back without knowing which was which, I'd fail at identifying which guitar it was!
stratamania
Mythical Status
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It seems he was probably looking for confirmation of his opinion as being validated, rather than that it may or may not be something else. Perhaps he may not have watched to the end.
Further, I would say that it is also an individuals' interpretation of what is being perceived through whatever preconceived ideas someone may have.
And body wood definitely matters, what else are you going to screw a bridge or neck to.
cromulent
Senior Member
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Nice video as always. I'm always surprised at how I sound when I listen to a recording of myself playing. It is indeed like when you hear your own voice on tape.
This is why I wish the shootout videos had some amount of quantitation - like simply strumming a chord and looking at frequency response curves to see if there really is an objective difference. Might also be interesting to have more than one person do the same shootout and see if the results differ. Hands really are the most important part of tone.
This is why I wish the shootout videos had some amount of quantitation - like simply strumming a chord and looking at frequency response curves to see if there really is an objective difference. Might also be interesting to have more than one person do the same shootout and see if the results differ. Hands really are the most important part of tone.
cromulent
Senior Member
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Apart from nitro, obviously.
TBurst Std
Hero Member
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Here’s the ticket. The fact of what we find ‘appetizing’ changes all the time. Why is it some nights you want Mexican and other nights, no way! I want Italian.
What we hear changes as consistently. Here’s a recent case in point. Played a gig Thurs PM. Loved the tone. Come Sunday AM 1st gig, tone was off. Nothing had changed with my gear, others gear or FOH. Come second gig Sun, wow the tone was back. Again nothing changed.
I listened back to recordings of all 3 gigs. The tone was the same. The fact is, how we interpret tone changes consistently, and can be as fickle as a 14 yo girl.
What we hear changes as consistently. Here’s a recent case in point. Played a gig Thurs PM. Loved the tone. Come Sunday AM 1st gig, tone was off. Nothing had changed with my gear, others gear or FOH. Come second gig Sun, wow the tone was back. Again nothing changed.
I listened back to recordings of all 3 gigs. The tone was the same. The fact is, how we interpret tone changes consistently, and can be as fickle as a 14 yo girl.
TBurst Std
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And the density of the room was somewhat different each time. But honestly that wouldn’t been an impact to me as I was on IEMs. So I getting sound from the board, not hearing FOH.
DuckBaloo
Senior Member
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I had two semesters on sensory perception and there is always the person who wants to argue their ears/eyes/etc. are more "accurate" and objective. It's humbling to know that everything we experience is partly faked by our minds, but if the human brain didn't rely on short-hand, then we would have never made it past the era of the sabretooth tiger.
One of the great examples is The Pepsi Challenge, everyone believes they can pass it, but marketers have proven time and time again that, if you used enough samples, then it all "tastes" the same.
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JohnnyHardtail
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Looks like it took around 7 minutes to say "The customers are all absolutely right about this".
ruscio
Junior Member
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Yes, in a way, but I think his deeper point is spot on. There can be a substantial difference between sensation (the physiological detection of incoming stimuli) and perception (the psychological experience after processing in various parts of the brain). The same sound waves can enter my ears and yours, yet our experience of that sound can be quite different (even if we each have "normal" hearing, no hearing loss) for a variety of reasons (e.g., our differing beliefs, memories, or expectations). Those who want to plot audiograms to test for tone differences aren't being unreasonable, they're just focused on purely on sensation, not perception. They ignore not only that perception can differ from sensation within the realm of hearing, but also that there are tactile elements that feed into perceptions of "tone", too--what the player is feeling while handling the guitar helps to shape the experience. I think Aaron explained all of this well.
ruscio
Junior Member
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PS. Nigel's guitar would sustain all day, you could go have lunch and come back to still hear it ringing out. Didn't you hear it, too? Well you would have, if he'd been playing it.
If you *believe* your guitar sustains really well, that's what you'll perceive when you grab hold of it, play something, and listen.
JohnnyHardtail
Senior Member
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Warmoth provided good demos of their products. It is much more useful than what a lot of other companies do.
I agree with Aaron because it is up to the individual to decide what is important and what is not.
I agree with Aaron because it is up to the individual to decide what is important and what is not.
Strat Avenger
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Yeah, I just love all the "experts" in the YouTube comment section who think they have some sort of supernatural hearing and can hear frequencies "produced" by various wood species that no one else can hear, when really they're just repeating the same
mythology they read in guitar magazines (and later the Internet) that they were indoctrinated with.
mythology they read in guitar magazines (and later the Internet) that they were indoctrinated with.
NedRyerson
Senior Member
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But the paper-in-oil capacitors, tho....
