Learned more about acoustic tone and eq in that 20 or so minutes than I’d learned in previous 30 yrs. Thanks Ben, Rhett and to Noah for use of his great songs and voice for the class
Man this was seriously so interesting to watch. People can tell you the difference between different wood for back & sides but actually hearing it in context puts a whole new perspective to it.
I would personally say that the top has more to do with the sound. Tonewood is kinda over hyped when you take things like how light or stiff a top is or how it is braced. The bracing is really the most important part in an acoustic guitar. Also, tonewood is kinda stereotyping. Not all maple guitars are bright. Wood color should not correlate to how bright the sound is honestly.
If you want to learn more about the art of acoustic guitar building I would check out driftwood guitars. He has some great information on building techniques and what changes sound, stuff like that.
@@mytandasouder4485 the Gallagher. I really like the low end. Just sounds really good to me. 2nd place would be the maple in my opinion, especially when they where doing the sound comparisons in the first half. Once the maple was compared with the Gallagher it was obvious the Gallagher was the winner. Funny enough, I really didn't like the sound with some of the parts of the rosewood back and sides, even though it is supposedly one of the best "tonewoods". It had a crappy sound with some open string parts. It's ridiculous how expensive the Santa Cruz ones are compared to the Gallagher. They just sound crap in comparison.
Those two guitars together sounded like a 12-string... crazy. Noah sounds so freaking good! He should show this video to Gallagher and seek an endorsement!
Tha's becaus ethey are playing different inversions of the same chord .. Noah capoed at the second fret plays a bar chord F (which sounds as G) while the other guitar plays a standard open G chord, Noah plays a C shape (which sounds as D) other guitar plays a standard D shape etc
Having never heard you playing that song together acoustically, YOU NEED TO DO IT THIS WAY IN YOUR SHOWS! Seriously, great rendition. The Gallagher guitar sounded best with Noah's voice so I hope he eventually ends up with that one. Great video Rhett.
This just makes me afraid to ever find a good shop with a good tech man. Always being able to sniper scope in on a guitar that would be perfect for me, I'd be broke in minutes.
That first guitar when he handed it back to Noah after trying all the others sounded the best to me. It seemed to instantly click - jest fell into place perfectly for his playing and singing style.
Maple back, spruce top..... very warm with his voice..... and Rhett... I SWEAR there is an ease to you and Noah... much like the same ease Petty and Mike Campbell had... It's very obvious there is something special when you guys play together.
Really nice job by Ben to explain characteristics of woods, bodies, and manufacturers in layman’s terms. I had never heard the wood color/EQ discussion, but it is spot on.
I like the parlor type acoustic you are playing at the end, that is one I would choose. I play a Guild M-20 and I prefer the 00 size or smaller. Great presentation, thanks for sharing.
Obviously everyone’s ear is different. I thought the mahogany bodied Santa Cruz was the best. It was straightforward enough to let Noah’s vocal character to come through stronger. The other guitars had more harmonics that felt like competition. That parlor guitar was a beast for the size. As someone else mentioned, you two definitely need to do a 2 man gig between band tours. What a sound!!
I’m a young singer songwriter who’s been playing small venues and I can truly say we aspire to be like Noah, he is special and his voice is insanely good
Came for the guitars, stayed for the voice. Never heard of him but now have gone down the rabbit hole listening to Noah’s stuff. Love it when a video like this turns me on to a new artist. Sounded amazing when they played together too.
I’ve watched this multiple times. Really love the breakdown from Ben and also the duet bits. Excellent job capturing good audio! I’ll have to stop in at Righteous next time I’m down that way.
I like the maple for accompanying him. Theres a roundness in the b and e strings that doesnt stand out. It blends perfectly and doesn't announce itself as prominently
I preface all of my comments with "I don't know anything about music or guitars". That being said, I knew exactly what you all were thinking just before it was unfolding. I could pick out the exact things you were saying and knew as soon as he went back to the first guitar, that that was the one that worked best. I'm sure this is all by design in your videos, but it's refreshing to see (hear) how intuitive these concepts can be. And on that note (no pun intended) I've been messing around with D standard tuning from one of your videos to better match the lower register in my voice. I'm not sold on it because I can't play or sing, but it's still fun to mess around with. Thanks for sharing all of these things with us :-)
Love the fact that he put three Santa Cruz models through their paces. Very surprised, in a world of Martins. Gibsons and especially Taylors. Twenty years ago, it was my time to find my "dream acoustic" and I landed on a slope-shouldered Santa Cruz Vintage Jumbo (similar to a classic J-45), Sitka Spruce top with mahogany back and sides. A keeper!
Santa Cruz guitars have pretty much flown under the radar for years and been the choice of pros like the late Tony Rice for good reason, tone. Each one is custom made to spec and will cost you what you'd expect for a "grail" guitar. They offer amazing woods like Brazilian back and sides ($14.5K upcharge !) and Adirondack or German spruce. Necks carved just for you. I want one. Badly.
@@callefty3670 Agreed. Although my VJ is definitely one of the more pedestrian builds in the company catalog, the Santa Cruz offerings are fantastic. Hope you get one! The OM models are my faves.
@@anthonyc1883 Being a lefty you can imagine that running into one is pretty much zilch...although I did actually play one offered by a private dealer. Used to drive past their shop all the time. would look at my wife, a simple "no" would pretty much put an end to that. Perfectly happy with my Westerly (built) Guild D55 though.
When a guitar stops you in your tracks, it’s a pretty cool thing. I have used small body and resonator guitars as backup instruments to singer songwriters for the last 10 years or so and it’s really a great way to get that kind of lead tone, with a resonator being the kind of over driven telecaster thing at an acoustic stage
I'm just in the process of buying my next guitar and its completely transformed my way of looking at acoustics and how to choose. A big Thank you thank you thank you
Thought for many months on what I wanted for my last guitar. I could not afford a Mandolin Brothers Custom Martin D-41 Turbo Brazilian or a D-28 GE. (Too much bling and I don't play well enough to buy a guitar like that.) I liked the D-28 1937 Authentic, but at that time, no adjustable truss rod... and very expensive. So... I bought a 2008 Martin D-28 Marquis. I made some adjustments to it... Waverly Tuners, Ivory unslotted pins with slots cut in the bridge, had the saddle sit freely rather than glued in, hide glue for the bridge and added a K&K Pure Mini (with Sound wheel). I run it through a Zoom A3 preamp. The Pre Amp was a must in order to get the true acoustic sound. Had it put on a PLEK machine. Totally love it. Play it every day. If I ever get near Brian Kimsey's shop I may have the 2 back rear braces shaved. Scared to do it myself.
It's different for everyone, but I learned a long time ago that when buying a guitar, I need to try a bunch and then come back to the ones I really like a day or two later. Yes it's a gamble that it will still be there, but especially with acoustic guitars, it's really hard to pick the one after one afternoon at one guitar store.
So nuts you have such a great shop like that. I live in SF and we have one really good but small shop called Real Guitars and then we have Guitar center. Don't let your local shops go under oh and more importantly, don't let Tech Bro's over run your cities--music and art suffers miserably under the Technocracy.
The Maple Back/Spruce Top sounded the best to me. I tend to like mellower sounding acoustics for the most part and when you’re playing emotional, singer-songwriter-y stuff like this I think it’s the best fit in terms of tone. Great video.👍
I've been following you for a while now and I must say that everything you post is extremely engaging and informative. Noah is an amazingly gifted man and how blessed are you both that God has yoked you together in your life journey. As an older player and writer, your channel has blessed me greatly Rhett. Thank you, and I pray that God keeps pouring into you and poring out of you always!
The first time you re-string the guitar and play it in a different acoustic environment from the guitar store is when you really know what you’ve purchased.
That sounded awesome, both playing and singing. Noah has a great voice, he should do something with it. Great explanation about the guitars as well, never knew the difference in woods on the sound.
The no-logo on the headstock Santa Cruz totally jumped out to me with Noah singing. Hell, I'll kick in a hundred bucks for the thing if he promises to come to Chicago.
Luthier here. Noah's voice has a lot of high mids and high overtones, and he has a softer touch on the guitar. I'd love to hear his voice paired with a spruce/cocobolo dreadnought.
Great video to really demonstrate the importance of "Auditioning" an instrument in the context you are planning to use it. My wife was looking for a violin to use for outdoor playing. The luthier we used had her play 5-6 violins outside his shop. We picked one that from her perspective was not the best sounding, but it had a pronounced upper mid push that really worked outside. I think this is similar to the parlor guitar you played did. It really brought out the lines you were playing but didn't get in the way of Noah's guitar or voice. Underscores the inherent value of local music shops have in giving you an opportunity to find the best tools for your trade.
8:55 If he just recorded it in a studio like that, with just voice and guitar, maybe a second guitar, it would be perfect as is. He has a great country voice. But they would probably make it into a country/pop with all the bells and whistles.
Listening here in high quality headphones but of course not in the room, the one with rosewood back and sides sounded best with Noah's voice and on its own to me.
pre-save Noah's new single "Only Light I Need" on Spotify here:
onerpm.link/OnlyLightINeed
I'm not buying anything from Spotify, but if I can find it somewhere else I'll buy it.
I love that song
Everyone better listen 1,000,000 times so we can get Noah his dream acoustic!
@@thomasdequincey5811 try youtube music
That guy has an old man's singing voice. Very cool. Does he smoke?
Jeez, Noah's voice makes my spine tingle every time I hear him sing. What a set of pipes he has! Wish I could sing like that!
Amazing talent. I personally would prefer if he sang without the twang as I think the songs would be accessible to more than country music fans.
@@saltpeter500 I think he's channeling Tyler Childers.
Learned more about acoustic tone and eq in that 20 or so minutes than I’d learned in previous 30 yrs. Thanks Ben, Rhett and to Noah for use of his great songs and voice for the class
Could not have said that better myself and I've been playing for almost 50 years!
Imagine sounding that good just in a room without any special equipment. Unbelievable!
Truly shows how difficult the music industry can be. Amazing talent.
The Parlor paired sounded fantastic! Your tech sure knows what he’s talking about. 😟
Funny enough, he is not a tech, and he would probably help anybody out. Just stop at righteous guitars!
What parlour you are playing during the duo? Thanks
Any excuse to hear Noah sing…thank you . Really enjoyed this.
Thanks Keith!
Man this was seriously so interesting to watch. People can tell you the difference between different wood for back & sides but actually hearing it in context puts a whole new perspective to it.
I would personally say that the top has more to do with the sound. Tonewood is kinda over hyped when you take things like how light or stiff a top is or how it is braced. The bracing is really the most important part in an acoustic guitar. Also, tonewood is kinda stereotyping. Not all maple guitars are bright. Wood color should not correlate to how bright the sound is honestly.
If you want to learn more about the art of acoustic guitar building I would check out driftwood guitars. He has some great information on building techniques and what changes sound, stuff like that.
@@gavinw5469 what acoustic would you've picked out of all in the video?
@@mytandasouder4485 the Gallagher. I really like the low end. Just sounds really good to me. 2nd place would be the maple in my opinion, especially when they where doing the sound comparisons in the first half. Once the maple was compared with the Gallagher it was obvious the Gallagher was the winner. Funny enough, I really didn't like the sound with some of the parts of the rosewood back and sides, even though it is supposedly one of the best "tonewoods". It had a crappy sound with some open string parts. It's ridiculous how expensive the Santa Cruz ones are compared to the Gallagher. They just sound crap in comparison.
Those two guitars together sounded like a 12-string... crazy. Noah sounds so freaking good! He should show this video to Gallagher and seek an endorsement!
That's a great idea :)
I immediately thought I heard a 12 string, too.
Tha's becaus ethey are playing different inversions of the same chord .. Noah capoed at the second fret plays a bar chord F (which sounds as G) while the other guitar plays a standard open G chord, Noah plays a C shape (which sounds as D) other guitar plays a standard D shape etc
Ben gets hurt golfing, Rhett hurt while riding a bike... best of luck to you Noah!
*_Suspect Noah will be attacked by a Double-Quarter-Pounder._*
@@guitawrizt 💀
My guess is a rouge drumstick that "accidentally" slips out of his brother Ian's hand...
The maple sounds really even and blends well with the vocals.
Having never heard you playing that song together acoustically, YOU NEED TO DO IT THIS WAY IN YOUR SHOWS! Seriously, great rendition. The Gallagher guitar sounded best with Noah's voice so I hope he eventually ends up with that one. Great video Rhett.
What’s the song called?!
Came for the guitars, stayed for Noah's songs and vocals.
This just makes me afraid to ever find a good shop with a good tech man. Always being able to sniper scope in on a guitar that would be perfect for me, I'd be broke in minutes.
TALK ABOUT IT! 😅
😂😂😂😂😂😂
Noah’s music isn’t typically my cup of tea, but his voice always manages to draw me in
Parlor guitars are really underated, they are amazing guitars and a lot of fun
That first guitar when he handed it back to Noah after trying all the others sounded the best to me. It seemed to instantly click - jest fell into place perfectly for his playing and singing style.
Not only is this content some of the best on TH-cam, but the talent between Noah and Rhett is incredible. Keep it up fellas!!
Maple back, spruce top..... very warm with his voice..... and Rhett... I SWEAR there is an ease to you and Noah... much like the same ease Petty and Mike Campbell had... It's very obvious there is something special when you guys play together.
I agree completely. It's like his voice jumped out at you when he was playing that guitar.
Every time I see a video with Noah in it I immediately get so excited.
Santa Cruz with the Rosewood back and sides, Noah's voice sounded great with that one.
Yup I think the same
Damn, Noah really does have an amazing voice and lots of soul....
Really nice job by Ben to explain characteristics of woods, bodies, and manufacturers in layman’s terms. I had never heard the wood color/EQ discussion, but it is spot on.
'lookin for the sunshine - buried in the headline'....great line!
I like the parlor type acoustic you are playing at the end, that is one I would choose. I play a Guild M-20 and I prefer the 00 size or smaller. Great presentation, thanks for sharing.
Obviously everyone’s ear is different. I thought the mahogany bodied Santa Cruz was the best. It was straightforward enough to let Noah’s vocal character to come through stronger. The other guitars had more harmonics that felt like competition.
That parlor guitar was a beast for the size. As someone else mentioned, you two definitely need to do a 2 man gig between band tours. What a sound!!
I agree with you on the Mahogany!
Man, it’s just incredible seeing an artist just in a room sound that good.
Rosewood back, Spruce top is amazing
Noah’s voice = goosebumps. Big big talent
My dear lord what a voice!!!!! I could sit and listen to that all night.
I’m a young singer songwriter who’s been playing small venues and I can truly say we aspire to be like Noah, he is special and his voice is insanely good
LOVED the two guitars! That little Boucher that Rhett played was AMAZING!
You should definitely make more acoustic videos
Did not expect to find a new artist i like in this. Love the vid. I always forget how great acoustics are.
All of those geetars sound great. As does his voice. He could probably play with a $200 acoustic and it’d sound great.
I’ve heard $200-$300 acoustics that sound better. Sometimes you have to look at older instruments like early 80’s Yamaha.
Came for the guitars, stayed for the voice. Never heard of him but now have gone down the rabbit hole listening to Noah’s stuff. Love it when a video like this turns me on to a new artist. Sounded amazing when they played together too.
THIS IS THE BEST ACOUSTIC COMPARISON VIDEO ON TH-cam! THANK YOU, THE WHOLE VIDEO WAS SUPER COOL!!!
Imagine showing up to a guitar store and being able to play and sing like Noah…. Goosebumps, every time I hear this guy…. Unreal
I’ve watched this multiple times. Really love the breakdown from Ben and also the duet bits. Excellent job capturing good audio! I’ll have to stop in at Righteous next time I’m down that way.
I like the maple for accompanying him. Theres a roundness in the b and e strings that doesnt stand out. It blends perfectly and doesn't announce itself as prominently
I preface all of my comments with "I don't know anything about music or guitars". That being said, I knew exactly what you all were thinking just before it was unfolding. I could pick out the exact things you were saying and knew as soon as he went back to the first guitar, that that was the one that worked best. I'm sure this is all by design in your videos, but it's refreshing to see (hear) how intuitive these concepts can be.
And on that note (no pun intended) I've been messing around with D standard tuning from one of your videos to better match the lower register in my voice. I'm not sold on it because I can't play or sing, but it's still fun to mess around with. Thanks for sharing all of these things with us :-)
Love the fact that he put three Santa Cruz models through their paces. Very surprised, in a world of Martins. Gibsons and especially Taylors. Twenty years ago, it was my time to find my "dream acoustic" and I landed on a slope-shouldered Santa Cruz Vintage Jumbo (similar to a classic J-45), Sitka Spruce top with mahogany back and sides. A keeper!
That sounds beautiful dude!
Santa Cruz guitars have pretty much flown under the radar for years and been the choice of pros like the late Tony Rice for good reason, tone. Each one is custom made to spec and will cost you what you'd expect for a "grail" guitar. They offer amazing woods like Brazilian back and sides ($14.5K upcharge !) and Adirondack or German spruce. Necks carved just for you. I want one. Badly.
@@callefty3670 Agreed. Although my VJ is definitely one of the more pedestrian builds in the company catalog, the Santa Cruz offerings are fantastic. Hope you get one! The OM models are my faves.
@@anthonyc1883 Being a lefty you can imagine that running into one is pretty much zilch...although I did actually play one offered by a private dealer. Used to drive past their shop all the time. would look at my wife, a simple "no" would pretty much put an end to that. Perfectly happy with my Westerly (built) Guild D55 though.
When a guitar stops you in your tracks, it’s a pretty cool thing. I have used small body and resonator guitars as backup instruments to singer songwriters for the last 10 years or so and it’s really a great way to get that kind of lead tone, with a resonator being the kind of over driven telecaster thing at an acoustic stage
Rhett has such a great style of nailing the details that make things really special.
Noah has a great voice. Thanks for the video Rhett!
Noah's album just got put on my favorite albums of 2022!
Wow! What a great voice, I really like this singer. Thanks for sharing this.
I'm just in the process of buying my next guitar and its completely transformed my way of looking at acoustics and how to choose. A big Thank you thank you thank you
What a fabulous voice. Great guitars, loved the om scmaple. :)
I love when you make videos with Noah, he's great
Noah's voice is incredible!!!!
Thank you for introducing me to Noah Guthrie! Love the channel, hope you'll be back in the Netherlands in the future and play in Amsterdam.
11:01 this was such a great observation by Ben
I love a spruce rosewood pair, but that maple back really compliments his voice. But the parlor hits it out of the park
Those two guitars really complimented each other !!!
Thought for many months on what I wanted for my last guitar. I could not afford a Mandolin Brothers Custom Martin D-41 Turbo Brazilian or a D-28 GE. (Too much bling and I don't play well enough to buy a guitar like that.) I liked the D-28 1937 Authentic, but at that time, no adjustable truss rod... and very expensive. So... I bought a 2008 Martin D-28 Marquis. I made some adjustments to it... Waverly Tuners, Ivory unslotted pins with slots cut in the bridge, had the saddle sit freely rather than glued in, hide glue for the bridge and added a K&K Pure Mini (with Sound wheel). I run it through a Zoom A3 preamp. The Pre Amp was a must in order to get the true acoustic sound. Had it put on a PLEK machine. Totally love it. Play it every day. If I ever get near Brian Kimsey's shop I may have the 2 back rear braces shaved. Scared to do it myself.
It's different for everyone, but I learned a long time ago that when buying a guitar, I need to try a bunch and then come back to the ones I really like a day or two later. Yes it's a gamble that it will still be there, but especially with acoustic guitars, it's really hard to pick the one after one afternoon at one guitar store.
Ben is incredibly good at what he does
So nuts you have such a great shop like that. I live in SF and we have one really good but small shop called Real Guitars and then we have Guitar center. Don't let your local shops go under oh and more importantly, don't let Tech Bro's over run your cities--music and art suffers miserably under the Technocracy.
Make the drive up to Novato for Bananas At Large :)
The Maple Back/Spruce Top sounded the best to me. I tend to like mellower sounding acoustics for the most part and when you’re playing emotional, singer-songwriter-y stuff like this I think it’s the best fit in terms of tone. Great video.👍
That first guitar juste rings with so much depth. The three other guitars couldn’t compete, though they sounded fine.
That was a great time getting to hear those differences!
I've been following you for a while now and I must say that everything you post is extremely engaging and informative. Noah is an amazingly gifted man and how blessed are you both that God has yoked you together in your life journey. As an older player and writer, your channel has blessed me greatly Rhett. Thank you, and I pray that God keeps pouring into you and poring out of you always!
what a beautiful beautiful song the last one you played together
Thanks for exposing Noah to me. Fantastic talent.
Truly amazing!! Thank you all for this!
Right when the parlor guitar played with the other, it sounded so perfect.
Parlor guitars are delightful to play and lay nicely over top
I love that Gallagher sound. It's crisp and cuts through the speakers. Good choice.
I think from now on this is the only way i will accept to hear guitar comparison. Amazing job guys seriously.
every time noah started singing i would forget to listen to the guitar because he has such a great sounding voice.
His voice never seizes to amaze me.
enjoyment of sound of voice and guitars while learning about which type of guitars work best with each musician! Wonderful!
Beauty Boucher...got me two of them. Both are OM Hybrids, one Rosewood the other Walnut...I love them!
Great vid! Those guitars all sound pretty broken in, which is unusual for a guitar store
I love your gear hunting videos. There is something so thrilling about searching new gear. You can never get bored with it.
Lucky shop staff who got a little concert. Hope to see you guys play someday (coming to SF ever?)
Noah is amazing - going to have to investigate his catalogue - thanks for turning us on to his music!
The first time you re-string the guitar and play it in a different acoustic environment from the guitar store is when you really know what you’ve purchased.
Love Righteous! Ben and Jeff are great guys. Great that you’re featuring a great shop.
The Spruce Rosewood spoke to me. Beautiful top
I really like the sound of the yellow one
This was my favorite video in a while. Love whenever you do Noah and Righteous content and you married the two.
Holy sh** I was not expecting Noah to sound like that amazing! Rhett that parlor guitar sounded amazing with the OOO!
That sounded awesome, both playing and singing. Noah has a great voice, he should do something with it. Great explanation about the guitars as well, never knew the difference in woods on the sound.
The no-logo on the headstock Santa Cruz totally jumped out to me with Noah singing. Hell, I'll kick in a hundred bucks for the thing if he promises to come to Chicago.
Came here for the guitars, stayed for his voice.
Damn, it gets me every time!
Your guidance is appreciated. Thank you.
Luthier here. Noah's voice has a lot of high mids and high overtones, and he has a softer touch on the guitar. I'd love to hear his voice paired with a spruce/cocobolo dreadnought.
I've got a 12 fret Larrivee parlor....it's a blast to play.
The second he played that first guitar, I knew it was special. Like they said, it's a perfect balance
Great video to really demonstrate the importance of "Auditioning" an instrument in the context you are planning to use it. My wife was looking for a violin to use for outdoor playing. The luthier we used had her play 5-6 violins outside his shop. We picked one that from her perspective was not the best sounding, but it had a pronounced upper mid push that really worked outside. I think this is similar to the parlor guitar you played did. It really brought out the lines you were playing but didn't get in the way of Noah's guitar or voice. Underscores the inherent value of local music shops have in giving you an opportunity to find the best tools for your trade.
Taylor 614ce. Miss mine. Need another one.
8:55 If he just recorded it in a studio like that, with just voice and guitar, maybe a second guitar, it would be perfect as is. He has a great country voice. But they would probably make it into a country/pop with all the bells and whistles.
Having what the back and sides do referenced against the wood colour is something I’d not heard before, but it’s spot on with the acoustics I have.
Get well soon, Ben!
Listening here in high quality headphones but of course not in the room, the one with rosewood back and sides sounded best with Noah's voice and on its own to me.
Awesome. Just awesome…and the guitars weren’t too shabby either. Thank you.
The ohoo part 15:24 gives me nice chills
Love it when worlds collide - one of my regular TH-cam guys and a Rock Boat artist! Excellent...
I enjoyed this video very much. Thank you for posting.