I've been subbed since this was SMG with the pew pew logo 😂 I've watched all your guitar and pickup shootout videos, and you always do a great job giving us a good example of what the guitar sounds like recorded, but what about your opinions on what various guitar players might experience while actually playing? Between myself and a few buddies, we have around a dozen guitars, and when we jam, I find that in the room, guitars seem to sound unique and distinct, but when recorded, that nuance disappears!! What gives!? What is your opinion on this phenomenon? Are my 38 year old ears just fooling me? Are my eyes fooling me? Thanks, Glen, from Victoria BC 🇨🇦
Got another one here 😁 Now. Since so much doesnt affect tone, how about sustain? Is that to just an idea us guitarist have? I have a theory that more dense wood improves sustain
I absolutely love how when someone comes in legitimately asking a question, Glenn breaks it down for them and explains it to them, but when someone comes in guns blazing like "You're an idiot, I'm smart. Explain the reason for your idiocy." Glenn puts them in their place. Matching the energy of the comment makes him more trustworthy in my opinion.
Actually, most of what he does is choose the most irrational people and the ones who happen to be wrong in order to buttress his own position and make HIMSELF look smart.
As a guitar player of 30 plus years, trust me when I say Glen is a treasure. I got lied to about tone most of my time playing guitar growing up. I went down the rabbit hole of, tubes, guitars, pedals, pickups, and amps. Thousands of dollars latter, you find only disappointment. Keep up the great work Glen! And to the young know it all's, listen and learn. Or lose all your money. Your choice.
I grew up in the time when DiMarzio replacement pickups were the big thing (mid 70s and upwards). Nearly no guitar was accepted as decent that hadn't undergo a DiMarzio swap. In these days that really did make a difference in some cases when the original pickups had weak output signal levels. But you could have also achieved an improvement by adding a gain stage to your pedal chain. Nowadays the playing field is much more leveled - even my "unswapped" cheap Sire or Ibanez guitars with the original pickups could rival the big brands.
"I got lied to" - those were your choices, made with your ears. Accept the responsibility if you chose unwisely. I doubt anyone was telling you that the gear matters more than your playing ability. If they did, it was mighty dumb of you to believe it. Glen is a guy on the internet that knows a good deal about what he does know. He's not a savior for guitarists. He's a TH-cam Carny. If you take what he says as gospel, you're just falling into the opposite side of the same trap. Trust yourself ahead of anyone that has an agenda - good or bad.
@@kelvinklauck "Better" tone? The one with the better ear. Who can dial in the tone YOU prefer? I'm guessing it's you. As it should be. Pro tip: There is no universal "better" tone. It's a signature. Different people prefer different sounds in different circumstances.
Hey Glenn. I used to be a guitar snob but finally saw the error of my ways when I played my first Harley Benton guitar. I've collected over 20 of them and regularly gig with them on stage. I even sold my gibson les paul custom. The only reason I've changed pickups is because of feedback issues. Just give me a Guitar that plays well, doesn't feedback, and stays in tune!
@@SpectreSoundStudiosand, with some wax you can make the feedback go away. Specially with metal covered pickups, if any metal surface is loose, it's gonna be very microphonic. Some wax (even candle wax) will make it disappear.
Absolutely agreed. I got myself the Harley Benton Fusion-T HH HT this year and I love it. It's crazy how well made it is, and that for 300 Euros. Mind, I did get the left handed version, which brings me to another great thing about Harley Benton: They don't shy away from putting out lots of left handed guitar models.
Hey Glenn, old man here who's only been playing guitar for 4 years. I have no plans to record my music, and yet I never miss your show. You've saved me a ton of money already. Thanks much.
These last few episodes have really made me feel better about my approach to buying guitars. I never plug them in at the store. If it FEELS good to play, that's all that matters to me. I can get the tones I'm looking for by taking the time to dial them in.
It’s so refreshing to hear someone talk about the importance of speakers. If I could spend all the money on amps I’ve spent and spend it on speaks now, I’d do it in a heartbeat!
Firefly started selling in Canada on Amazon again. Best thing is if it’s not what you want you get Amazon returns. Return process isn’t as easy for buying directly from them.
The fun thing with the whole HSS strat vs LP's thing is that the whole point with putting humbuckers in strats in the first place was to make them sound like Les Pauls. So of course they will sound similar.
I’m pretty happy I found your channel. Most TH-camrs try to get you to buy expensive guitars and gear. There’s only a select few like you that I’ve found who really tell it like it is and make the effort to prove it and reinforce it.
I think the problem with the PRS is that when you let it sit too close to the Harley Benton, the HB wood leeched some of the tone out of the PRS wood... 😏
@@joseislanio8910PRS toan comes from PRS' himself. His spunk stained hands by touching his "wood" and touching guitar wood thereafter, surely adds to the toan, something you can't possibly recreate with a copy gueetar😂😂
The only thing I really care on a guitar (if the build quality is ok) is the neck shape, that's the most important thing on the instrument, it makes it a dream for you to play it or a f... nightmare. Neck shape, radius, scale length, that's like 90% of my check list.
Would be fun to see the worst tubes, strings, pickups, versus the best, all in one shootout. Especially since none of them seem to make a difference on their own.
Worst mistake I ever made - playing a drinking game where I drink a shot every time Glenn says ‘that’s for sure!’. Got so plastered I thought I could tell the difference between those four guitars and that the pick-up fairies had blessed me with golden ears…
Thanks Glenn. This channel inspired me to dream big and make my own cabinets a few years back. I have since started trying to make guitars. It's been quite a ride and I have messed up more than not, but this is just a part of the journey. Thanks for the wealth of knowledge Dude. My next build is gonna be a blue sg type
Bro please make an anti-gibson: SG with 25.5 inch scale, 24 fret bolt on neck with a reverse inline headstock. Gibson collectors will die on sight, probably turn into a goop on the floor just thinking about it.
Thanks for making your videos! Even though I'm not a metal guy I still learn a ton from your videos and get a laugh as a bonus. It's been a few years watching you now and I'm still learning new things every week. Keep doing what you're doing!
The pickup comparison videos totally changed my perception of guitar value. Even IF the microphone *somehow* was the key difference and colored the sound (or something), that would merely show that the microphone is more important than the pickup - not that the pickup matters in some way.
Okay, so I would like to make one distinction. Gain is output voltage divided by input voltage. So if your guitar puts out a signal with a peak of 2 volts and your amplifier puts out a signal to the speaker at 30 volts, that is 30/2 so a gain of 15. Headroom is how much gain you can add before the signal starts clipping (in a digital amp) or rounding (like a tube amp naturally does) The preamp section in guitar amps is designed to distort, whereas the preamp section on mixing consoles is designed to get many decibels of gain without distortion. (This is all very simplified as I am trying to write a comment, not a book on audio electrical engineering)
One guitar I was surprised by when I got it was this $270 Jackson Rhoads V with this nice natural wood finish. Works great for when I’m in a Black Sabbath/ Ozzy Obourne mood, and I def think it’s worth checking out. (I’ll be the first to admit that it manages to get dinged and dented very easily, but that just might be from how much I’ve been using it)
I've been blown away with the entertaining and candidly honest information. Really wonderful format. Plus an amazing SMG logo! Keep kicking ass! SUBSCRIBED
I've just ordered the pickups in the Harley Benton. I'll be uploading my results compared to the Slash and Bare Knuckle pickups when they arrive. Video incoming.
For strings, one brand to try out is Elixir. Although they are relatively inexpensive, they use fancy terms like "Nano-web". Which is kind of unnerving, but they seem to sound fine on my guitar.
13:13 "fwequency shifts" i'm always good for a chuckle when it comes the words that bring out the Canadian accent, but this had me busting up laughing. Lol love ya Glenn!
Nickel and Steel strings sound slightly different in cleans (but you can always EQ that difference), although that choice is more about comfort and durability than tone, nickel strings are softer on the fingers, will wear down the frets slower but they tarnish, steel strings won't tarnish but are harder on the fingers and will wear down the frets faster.
thanks a lot, glen. after these videos, my takeaway is: the most important thing about the guitar is playability, tuning stability, etc. pickups of a variety(in this case humbuckers) don't really sound distinct from another at high gain settings. also, different types of strings will change how the string interacts with the same pickup, creating some tonal differences. tube amplification will round out the waveform peaks and especially flatten frequencies between 2 and 4khz, thus additionally coloring tone. pickup differences at high gain are so minimal it's almost impossible to tell which is which. pickup differences at clean settings are clearer to hear, but still almost impossible to pinpoint to a certain guitar or type of pickup. all these differences can be negated by using an eq. this is true for when going through the same testbench set of amp/cab/(mic). the most distinct tonal shift will occur when changing the loudspeaker in your cab, as the sound is ultimately created here and governed by the loudspeakers properties. whereas changing pickups amounts to maybe as much as dialing in your eq a little different.
I recently watched a video of a guy reconing his speaker, and I’ve learned that there’s a whole bunch of different speaker cones out there made of different materials that affect the speakers sound. I wonder if it’s possible to recone a Sheffield speaker from an old peavey cab (which go for ~$200 USD) and at least get them to sound different?
Why does no one talk about intermodulation distortion? Ever since I picked up an electric guitar and added some distortion/overdrive, I noticed that certain harmonic intervals or chords sound incredibly bad. I spent the last 10 years hating my gear and thinking it was my guitar, amp, audio interface and amp sims that's faulty. Turns out it's an audio phenomenon and nothing I can do about it. However, I see people playing bluesy licks or droney lines with distortion yet their tone seems to be unaffected by it. When I play anything but a perfect fifth, it sounds like I applied the deepest tremolo effect on a 8kbps MP3 compressed file. I assume the tremolo effect might be unrelated, but the shrieking, "digital" sounding distortion I get is something I cannot get rid of. I tried various guitars, amps and amp sims. All with the same result. Since no one seems to be going crazy over this, how does everyone deal with it? What's the secret? How can I stop hating and despairing over my gear and play overdriven sounds like everyone else?
HEY GLENN!!! I just wanted to say that your videos has changed my perspective on sound and tone. I was that guy who thought that pickups and amp heads was the solution to tone until I started to watch your videos. No wonder when I swapped out the sheffield speaker with a V30 in my 6505+ combo amp, I noticed a massive tone shift. The other thing is when you do these blind sound tests with expensive and cheap guitars, I seriously couldn't tell the difference on which guitar was being played. When I took a mental note of which ones I thought was it, I was totally wrong lol. Fucking love your videos and keep doing what you're doing!! Love you dude!!
I picked up on Amazon a great 1x12 cab made by Monoprice with a Celestion vintage 30. I would not be surprised if it’s the same factory as HB it looks pretty decent and sounds good , because Vintage 30…..cost was 184.00 USD .
Glenn your right it’s the speaker!!!! I got a mono price stage right 1x12 with a v30 I haven’t had this much fun playing guitar in a long time. Thank you for all the good info you share.
Can you do the same thing between the cheapest squier sss strat, and the most expensive sss fender strat, all with the same strings. Would love to hear it!
The Main tenant I have used most of my life is to spend just enough to get a well made product. Buy something cheaply made and it breaks, Spend to much and you are buying details that you really don't need.
I've suspected for years that the tonal shift people claim to hear when upgrading electronics in their guitar is due more to the fact that lower quality pots are typically replaced in a guitar when pickups are swapped. All electrical components will have a tolerance rating that could vary significantly. For example it is common for pots to have a tolerance of ±20%. That could mean a 500k pot actually being anywhere between 400k-600k. A 200k potential variance will cause a drastic difference even between individual guitars of the exact same model with the same spec pots on the tone circuit since it is just a crude low-pass filter. Here's an idea for a video; do a side by side demo of multiple units of the exact same model guitar. You could also use a single guitar and swap the tone pot out multiple times while graphing the output from the guitar to show the differences in frequency response and how it correlates to the tolerance variations.
I've heard of people walking into a guitar store to try all the TS-9s in the store and walk out with one if they found one with the tone they we after..
So I have been a big fan of yours for a very long time I'm talking years and I appreciate everything that you do for us people that don't know you're giving us the knowledge that you are giving us but I can honestly say I have been doing a lot of guitar rebuilding and cabinet rebuilding and just a whole bunch of stuff like. I am a drummer but I love guitars and I can't seem to stop buying them I think I'm up to 14 or more but I just redid a crate cabinet with crate speakers that were the cheapest ones I could find and I heard a lot of people nasty about them and wanted to know what they could replace, now when I got those three out of four we're so bent that the voice calls and the one that did not have a messed up voice call ended up being a little messed up somewhere else but that was easy to fix, me being me I was able to rebend everything back to where there was no voice call issue and I put them in this cabinet and you would not believe the way live, as far as making them up I do not really have the capability of doing that at this moment I do have Mike's and I do have a lot of stuff I just don't have the room but I digressI think there's a lot to learn out there and thank you Glenn for taking your time to help us with this, I don't know about anyone else but I am so appreciated of everything you do for this metal community and for everyone in general.
@12:30 be sure to check out some Thomastik BeeBops if you do that shoot out. I remember them being a big deal when I was studying jazz. I don't know if there will be a noticeable tonal difference but they definitely felt different from say a set of NYXLs and they had nearly 3xs the lifespan when I was using them compared to other sets.
Some cool tone come from guys who play through smaller Fender and Matchless and control their tone with onboard volume and tone controls taking it from clean and clear to dark and distorted without touching a pedal or a switch - Russel Broom was a master when he toured with Jann Arden in early 2000s
V30s have a sound and it is a useful one but you can also get most of the benefits of a V30 through other means as well. A lot of speakers provide a similar response. You can use different microphones on other speakers to get many of the benefits of the V30 while maintaining what makes those other speakers good.
I liked the dive into explaining how an amplifier colors and distorts the tone and how an ideal "straight cable amplifier" doesn't exist. One thing about amps that most people don't understand is that they don't actually amplify! Really, they don't. What they do is make a louder copy of the incoming signal. This is why power supply filtering is so important. The copy is "sculpted" from the power available in the power supply, so if it is noisy, the copy will be noisy too. If the supply temporarily runs out of power then the copy will be more imperfect than usual, resulting in clipping and sag.
Thanks to your testing, when looking for a guitar, the physical features are #1. Knob position, scale length, kneck profile, bridge type, locking tuners, etc. Couldn't care less about pickups or "tonewood". Thanks a ton.
I'm curious what the results would be doing one of these blind tests with a split humbucker vs single coil. I'd also be curious about a blind test with a guitar like the Ibanez AZ series or similar that has a switch that allows its single coils to be used in series as humbuckers. I imagine the single coils in series would be tonally distinct because while the pickups are in series they are in physically different spots on the instrument's body. But as for a split humbucker, I imagine some of those may be pretty close to "real" single coil pickups.
When I go to guitar center I noticed that sometimes cheaper guitars “sound darker” than more expensive, same amp and settings, just testing playability. I think people mistake that “darker” sound with thinking it sounds better, when in reality the more “high” sound is clear and the this what you should look for. I also think that is why people selected the Harley Benton
With the strings test, maybe comparing the amount of noise made when sliding your left hand across muted strings would be worthwhile? I'd be interest to see if different materials would effect that.
I've always used my ears and not my eyes. As s producer myself, I started my audio engineering path by studying how to use my ears. I am so thankful for your shootout videos. You're finding the truth, and that's the most important thing. Keep it up man!
Just yesterday I went to see a friend I hadn't seen in a while. He's making electric guitars, some good, some not that good, all of them experimental. But the one that surprised me the most was a guitar he cobbled together from a cheap stratocaster ripoff (so cheap that it actually is made from 2x4s or something) with a Chinese made neck that he ordered from Amazon or something like that. The whole guitar was around $80 and he treats it like shit because he can. When he told me about it my inner snob guitarist made me think it would sound like shit. Then I plugged it in. My gosh, it's amazing, not a bad sound at fucking all, great playability, smooth all the way, no noise whatsoever. Made me open my eyes again and really realize that my prejudices are just so damn wrong. I was reminded once again that the tone is really not in the wood, shape or even the fingers. Keep on the good work, Glenn!! PS: I can show you some of his guitars, really DIYs, but kind of amazing to tell you the truth
Hey Glen! I've been using a Crate 4 12 cab loaded with celestion G12 50s since the early 90s and It makes any amp sound great. Just goes to show that you don't need to use vintage 30s to get great sound, but it definately is the speaker that makes the sound. Keep up the useful content!
Chasing tone can become a endless and expensive pastime, I slowly learned that its all subjective...and there was no easy way or determine what that "tone" was...I have to say my favorite MIM Strat is a pawn shop wreck that I rebuilt, still one of my favorite strats...
HSS 1st came out to get a "Gibson Bridge Humbucker sound" out of a Strat anyway, and benefit of the Fender whammy bar ... so, that's what these pickup actually do, and they do it pretty accurately now, after like over 40 years or so.
what people don’t understand is gain clips off any subtle sympathetic harmonics, which is where the “tone” is once you get to a square wave a square wave is the square wave is a square wave. It’s just that simple.
I think the only pickups that matter are the mosrite ones, they’re kind of made a certain way that affects tone a little more than the normal ones. A great pair when combined with a vox ac30 silver Alnico
It's pretty well agreed that different constructions make a noticeable difference. The question would be whether spending the money to "upgrade" from one Mosrite to another is a good value.
As much as I love vintage 30's for metal. I've grown quite a liking to creambacks. Can't wait for a shoot-out style video based around speakers!! Keep up the awesome work, Glenn!
11:57 I will say that, in live action, a huge amount of tone does come from your hands. How you pluck, palm mute and hold the strings goes a long way towards the uniqueness of your playing style. I am frequently amazed by how few people can properly bend a note
Something I've noticed is that with my strat the tone knob does absolutely NOTHING with a lot of gain, when its night and day with clean tones. This pretty much proves what you say that with a lot of gain the last things on the chain, mics and speakers, are most important, high gain negates any "eq" effect the pickups may have on cleaner tones.
I’m actually really looking forward to that video about different guitar Speakers, my birthday recently passed and If I’m really ballsy I might get a 212 cabinet, much to the chagrin of my family. I’ve been considering 440 Live Cabinets as they have more speaker varieties than what Harley Benton has.
Bedroom guitarist love the education you provide, love how people tell you that you are wrong when you video it. 100% as an IT guy, you learn more from problems then a perfect functioning system.
Fair point here, as bedroom guitarists would likely never have a use case where they would realize the benefits of more expensive instruments. I used to have a whole rack of Epiphones and thought they were just as good as the $2k+ Gibsons and PRSi of the world until I started gigging out a lot and spending a lot of time in recording studios. Ultimately, "My cheapo guitar is better than X expensive guitar" is a cope and that's why people feel the need to shout about it so loudly. Kind of like how Vegans have a reputation for telling everyone they possibly can about how awesome being a vegan is.
Finally tried out some IRs, and the tone shift blew my mind. Saw an artist I like to a shootout with multiple amps with one cab and the difference was extremely minimal as well. Wish more artists would emphasize the importance of the speaker, but that obviously doesn’t sell signature pickups and guitars.
Hey Glenn! Thanks for the videos! I must correct on one point : Amps are not sounding different from one to another. The preamp is! The tonestack is to be exact. You can do an experiment: Grad your facorite amp and plug another preamp in it using the effect loop. Like a jcm800 send to a 5150 return fx loop. How will it sounds like? A jcm or a 5150? Again thanks for your work!
I wish you could interview Tom Scholz on tone and engineering, or Eric Johnson, a known tone snob. I find myself being able to tell the difference between guitars more on solos (vibrato/bending) than on rhythm parts. Back in the 70's there were 3 amp brands, 2 speakers, and maybe 4 guitars and everyone had their own distinctive sound. Now that we have endless possibilities, everyone sounds the same.
Would be curious to see a bass pickup comparison (yes, bass…lol). I would assume that they are going to be different or will they….and how much edge of breakup does bass have in metal?
I think you're on to something with the inquiry into guitar strings. I bought an old Fernandes Monterey from a pawn shop. The strings on it were rushed. When I put a fresh set on it, the improvement in sound and feel made it seem like a completely different guitar. I can't wait to see how much of that was perception was real or imagined.
I remember doing a video recording with my jrv when it had EMG 81/85 and another with Duncan AHB3 Blackouts. The blackouts had more mid scoop when i warched them back but also a lot hotter and more articulate when i didnt record...but in a blind listen i honestly dont know if id notice that....i think it just comes down to what feels right to said player
As a comment on the pickup shootout, I think there is more difference from where you pick the strings than the pickups. Some guitars, due to the bridge design make it easier for you to pick closer to the bridge comfortably, and some make it easier to pick closer to the neck. This would be interesting to do a show (or maybe even a shoot-out) about.
Strings. I have had a big change in sound on acoustics. However, I am curious how much of a change there would be in a distorted chain. I assume you would hear a big difference in clean tones, but distortion, I don't know.
Pleased to hear you are thinking about comparing Rotosound strings, as they (yellows) are. My favourite. Not based on sound but a combination of feel, price and … red white and blue ball ends!
Loving the work you are doing Sir. I've been saying similar things about guitars for a while. When you're playing live, everything is so noisy, absolutely no one in the audience would remotely notice the difference between one guitar to the next. I always say to people "Buy a guitar that looks so awesome, you'll want to pick it up". If it looks good and it's set up well, then it's perfect.
regarding strings: I spent a couple years experimenting to find the right strings for my baritone guitars. The brands didn't really matter as much as the gauges, and the tone never changed but the volume and playability did. So for me it mostly came down to whether or not any strings were too loud/quiet relative to the others, and also how loose or stiff I wanted the strings to "feel" (i know, i know, there's that stupid F word - it can mean anything!). This is all personal experience and I can totally be wrong, so very curious what Glenn comes up with if he ever does some strings episodes. Just fyi, I went with the string brand that gave me the most versatility in gauges, D'Addario.
I really want to see a comparison of pickups with different resistance values ranging from 4K ohms to 26K ohms. This doesn't just affect power output, but according to engineering texts, the higher resistance pickups should suppress highs while accentuating lows. I very much doubt that it makes a difference whether they are $20 or $200 pickups.
Love the videos you've been putting out. Even as a bassist lol. Its been helpful to watch your videos as I get into producing stuff and just to learn things in general. Have a great one!
Honestly the only time I've ever noticed a huge difference between pickups at least for distorted tones was when I switched over from stock to an EVO7. Of course I probably could have replicated that sound easily just by altering a few amp settings or throwing an EQ in front of the preamp
Awesome 😎 Yeah I have seen Jim's Videos on cabinets he demonstrates how the geometric design of cabinets is more important than materials. The Tone Wood One was Awesome he Totally Killed that theory. Tone Wood is important to acoustical instruments like acoustic guitars violins 🎸 🎻 since what resonates is the wood especially a violin 🎻. But electric guitars are a radio signal.. Love the honesty... Cheers 🍻 🥃🥃 🎸 🎶🎶 🎻 🎵🎶🎵
Gotta love the bloopers at the end haha, Great video Glenn, cheers!! the message is simple.... you don't need to waste money guys! come on! that was supposed to be a good thing!
Just for fun: have we gone from Guitar and Pickup snobs... to cab and speaker snobs? Can people tell the differences blind when EQ and MIC and Room have been adjusted? Hmmmm - I do love my Greenbacks and SM57.
I have a range of guitars in my studio - From a $6K Parker Fly to a $60 Epiphone Junior. Honestly, in a mix on a heavy track, they sound exactly the same if I use the same signal chain. The difference is the playability. That's about it. For the most part, if a guitar is comfortable, stays in tune and is set up well, and you like playing it and the way it looks - then it's a good guitar. I used to worry about it and wonder why they sounded the same. The Frickster has made me not worry about brands any more. Thanks man.
That harley benton sounds great, and I think the cleans could be easily fixed with eq. You're right about the cab+speaker stuff, but I just want to say that the pickup differences are way easier to pick out in real life when playing the guitar. There's so many times I've heard guitars like the S2's and new mex strats sound great on youtube, but I didn't like the pickups irl. Also, there's some randomness that happens, where you can play dozens of mex strats and one sounds way better than the rest. I feel like it's like driving a car vs being a passenger. You notice stuff way more as the driver. It's why I won't buy a guitar without playing it anymore. I think the main thing is that if you're goal is to make music, the inexpensive stuff is crazy good now. But even before when it was bad, people couldn't tell the difference. Satriani said in a video on youtube that he recorded surfing with the alien with a cheap kramer guitar he got as a special sale at guitar center. It basically fell apart after.
Glen! i wanna say thank you for the IR's you made last year for xmas! i got back to playing guitar and using amp sims (amplitube 5) and the cabs sounded like shit. downloaded your IR's and WTF!!!!??? so good! thanks man!
that lower right pic on the intro, that stern point, always creeps me out lol. well done! Embrace the neodymium speakers, Glenn. The bass players have for a long time >_> it's the one thing we did right XD
Only 42% of viewers are Subscribed. It costs nothing to hit the button, and would be a gigantic help. Please subscribe!
I'm in the other group, been subbed for a while now. 👍
🤔...well you think bass players are idiots and pickups really don't matter significantly.....so....'sorry boss'. No can do.
I've been subbed since this was SMG with the pew pew logo 😂 I've watched all your guitar and pickup shootout videos, and you always do a great job giving us a good example of what the guitar sounds like recorded, but what about your opinions on what various guitar players might experience while actually playing? Between myself and a few buddies, we have around a dozen guitars, and when we jam, I find that in the room, guitars seem to sound unique and distinct, but when recorded, that nuance disappears!! What gives!? What is your opinion on this phenomenon? Are my 38 year old ears just fooling me? Are my eyes fooling me? Thanks, Glen, from Victoria BC 🇨🇦
Got another one here 😁
Now. Since so much doesnt affect tone, how about sustain? Is that to just an idea us guitarist have? I have a theory that more dense wood improves sustain
I'll sub IF YOU STOP SCREAMING!
Im a 67 year old non-metal guitar player. And I love your show. I learn a lot from you. Thank you deeply appreciated
I only use the best solder for my pots. Makes all the difference.
Silver solder only. Because….tone.
@@TheAxe4Everagreed. I do tend to like gemstones like sapphires in it for peak tonal increase.
I use silver solder to stop werewolves from jacking with my gear!
@@PooNinjaindeed. A happy bonus.
What soldering Iron did you use?
I absolutely love how when someone comes in legitimately asking a question, Glenn breaks it down for them and explains it to them, but when someone comes in guns blazing like "You're an idiot, I'm smart. Explain the reason for your idiocy." Glenn puts them in their place. Matching the energy of the comment makes him more trustworthy in my opinion.
Actually, most of what he does is choose the most irrational people and the ones who happen to be wrong in order to buttress his own position and make HIMSELF look smart.
@@ReinhartSchneider Think we found someone who couldn't guess the guitars correctly.
As a guitar player of 30 plus years, trust me when I say Glen is a treasure. I got lied to about tone most of my time playing guitar growing up. I went down the rabbit hole of, tubes, guitars, pedals, pickups, and amps. Thousands of dollars latter, you find only disappointment. Keep up the great work Glen!
And to the young know it all's, listen and learn. Or lose all your money. Your choice.
I grew up in the time when DiMarzio replacement pickups were the big thing (mid 70s and upwards). Nearly no guitar was accepted as decent that hadn't undergo a DiMarzio swap. In these days that really did make a difference in some cases when the original pickups had weak output signal levels. But you could have also achieved an improvement by adding a gain stage to your pedal chain. Nowadays the playing field is much more leveled - even my "unswapped" cheap Sire or Ibanez guitars with the original pickups could rival the big brands.
My guitar teacher was like you, he has thousand upon thousands in gear, and i have less than 500 bucks in total, guess who can dial a better tone?
"I got lied to" - those were your choices, made with your ears. Accept the responsibility if you chose unwisely. I doubt anyone was telling you that the gear matters more than your playing ability. If they did, it was mighty dumb of you to believe it.
Glen is a guy on the internet that knows a good deal about what he does know. He's not a savior for guitarists. He's a TH-cam Carny. If you take what he says as gospel, you're just falling into the opposite side of the same trap. Trust yourself ahead of anyone that has an agenda - good or bad.
@@kelvinklauck "Better" tone? The one with the better ear. Who can dial in the tone YOU prefer? I'm guessing it's you. As it should be.
Pro tip: There is no universal "better" tone. It's a signature. Different people prefer different sounds in different circumstances.
Try the Marshall code 50 it has every effect you want AND...AND...you get every Marshall head and cab ever made.
Hey Glenn. I used to be a guitar snob but finally saw the error of my ways when I played my first Harley Benton guitar. I've collected over 20 of them and regularly gig with them on stage. I even sold my gibson les paul custom. The only reason I've changed pickups is because of feedback issues. Just give me a Guitar that plays well, doesn't feedback, and stays in tune!
Exactly! Bad pickups will feed back. That's about all there is to it.
@@SpectreSoundStudiosand, with some wax you can make the feedback go away. Specially with metal covered pickups, if any metal surface is loose, it's gonna be very microphonic. Some wax (even candle wax) will make it disappear.
Absolutely agreed. I got myself the Harley Benton Fusion-T HH HT this year and I love it. It's crazy how well made it is, and that for 300 Euros. Mind, I did get the left handed version, which brings me to another great thing about Harley Benton: They don't shy away from putting out lots of left handed guitar models.
Thanks for shouting out Jim Lill!! The two of you are doing really good work helping people put money where it counts!
You know what's also an absolute fucking monster? Glen, who doesn't disappoint over the years \m/
Thanks, Waldoo!
Glen is not perfect, but he is by far the best.
@@SpectreSoundStudios Why you delete my comment,Glenn?
@@SpectreSoundStudiosyou'll be the goat , if you do comparison with bass stuff ;)
Hey Glenn, old man here who's only been playing guitar for 4 years. I have no plans to record my music, and yet I never miss your show. You've saved me a ton of money already. Thanks much.
You should give recording a shot! It's a lot more fun than you'd think, never say never! :)
These last few episodes have really made me feel better about my approach to buying guitars. I never plug them in at the store. If it FEELS good to play, that's all that matters to me. I can get the tones I'm looking for by taking the time to dial them in.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who does that.
It’s so refreshing to hear someone talk about the importance of speakers. If I could spend all the money on amps I’ve spent and spend it on speaks now, I’d do it in a heartbeat!
Firefly started selling in Canada on Amazon again. Best thing is if it’s not what you want you get Amazon returns. Return process isn’t as easy for buying directly from them.
The fun thing with the whole HSS strat vs LP's thing is that the whole point with putting humbuckers in strats in the first place was to make them sound like Les Pauls. So of course they will sound similar.
I’m pretty happy I found your channel. Most TH-camrs try to get you to buy expensive guitars and gear. There’s only a select few like you that I’ve found who really tell it like it is and make the effort to prove it and reinforce it.
I think the problem with the PRS is that when you let it sit too close to the Harley Benton, the HB wood leeched some of the tone out of the PRS wood... 😏
The secret is to have Paul Reed himself clapping some pieces of wood in front of the mic
@@joseislanio8910PRS toan comes from PRS' himself. His spunk stained hands by touching his "wood" and touching guitar wood thereafter, surely adds to the toan, something you can't possibly recreate with a copy gueetar😂😂
The only thing I really care on a guitar (if the build quality is ok) is the neck shape, that's the most important thing on the instrument, it makes it a dream for you to play it or a f... nightmare. Neck shape, radius, scale length, that's like 90% of my check list.
Would be fun to see the worst tubes, strings, pickups, versus the best, all in one shootout. Especially since none of them seem to make a difference on their own.
Worst mistake I ever made - playing a drinking game where I drink a shot every time Glenn says ‘that’s for sure!’. Got so plastered I thought I could tell the difference between those four guitars and that the pick-up fairies had blessed me with golden ears…
Don’t trust the pick fairy’s their sponsored by EMG.
It's only dangerous when you get so drunk you can smell the pick ups
Thanks Glenn. This channel inspired me to dream big and make my own cabinets a few years back. I have since started trying to make guitars. It's been quite a ride and I have messed up more than not, but this is just a part of the journey. Thanks for the wealth of knowledge Dude. My next build is gonna be a blue sg type
Bro please make an anti-gibson: SG with 25.5 inch scale, 24 fret bolt on neck with a reverse inline headstock. Gibson collectors will die on sight, probably turn into a goop on the floor just thinking about it.
Challenge Accepted @@rahulmenon4357
Thanks for making your videos! Even though I'm not a metal guy I still learn a ton from your videos and get a laugh as a bonus. It's been a few years watching you now and I'm still learning new things every week. Keep doing what you're doing!
The pickup comparison videos totally changed my perception of guitar value. Even IF the microphone *somehow* was the key difference and colored the sound (or something), that would merely show that the microphone is more important than the pickup - not that the pickup matters in some way.
🎯🎯 Bullseye!
The order that I’ve ascertained from these videos is speaker>mic placement>mic>the hodgepodge of everything else.
Okay, so I would like to make one distinction.
Gain is output voltage divided by input voltage. So if your guitar puts out a signal with a peak of 2 volts and your amplifier puts out a signal to the speaker at 30 volts, that is 30/2 so a gain of 15.
Headroom is how much gain you can add before the signal starts clipping (in a digital amp) or rounding (like a tube amp naturally does)
The preamp section in guitar amps is designed to distort, whereas the preamp section on mixing consoles is designed to get many decibels of gain without distortion.
(This is all very simplified as I am trying to write a comment, not a book on audio electrical engineering)
One guitar I was surprised by when I got it was this $270 Jackson Rhoads V with this nice natural wood finish. Works great for when I’m in a Black Sabbath/ Ozzy Obourne mood, and I def think it’s worth checking out.
(I’ll be the first to admit that it manages to get dinged and dented very easily, but that just might be from how much I’ve been using it)
Gold hardware? My brother has one and its decent. It just needs some good tuners.
No,it’s from not paying attention and banging it on shit,improper use lmao
@@tommilitello198 it's a natural oiled finish with very little to protect it.
I'd like to see a pickup shootout with a super high output "metal" humbucker VS. A low output humbucker that's boosted with a pedal.
Musicians have to be creative and inventive to create new music.
They translate this talent to facts too.
I've been blown away with the entertaining and candidly honest information. Really wonderful format. Plus an amazing SMG logo! Keep kicking ass! SUBSCRIBED
Oooh PLEASE do cheap vs expensive pickups tests. That'd be awesome.
Agreed!
I've just ordered the pickups in the Harley Benton. I'll be uploading my results compared to the Slash and Bare Knuckle pickups when they arrive. Video incoming.
If you aren’t making excuses are you even a musician?
Best question ever! May I use that?
Of course. I am glad to contribute something useful
I’m reminded of the Jake Blue’s monologue of excuses to Carrie Fisher 😂 true musician
For strings, one brand to try out is Elixir. Although they are relatively inexpensive, they use fancy terms like "Nano-web". Which is kind of unnerving, but they seem to sound fine on my guitar.
13:13 "fwequency shifts" i'm always good for a chuckle when it comes the words that bring out the Canadian accent, but this had me busting up laughing. Lol love ya Glenn!
Nickel and Steel strings sound slightly different in cleans (but you can always EQ that difference), although that choice is more about comfort and durability than tone, nickel strings are softer on the fingers, will wear down the frets slower but they tarnish, steel strings won't tarnish but are harder on the fingers and will wear down the frets faster.
thanks a lot, glen. after these videos, my takeaway is: the most important thing about the guitar is playability, tuning stability, etc.
pickups of a variety(in this case humbuckers) don't really sound distinct from another at high gain settings. also, different types of strings will change how the string interacts with the same pickup, creating some tonal differences. tube amplification will round out the waveform peaks and especially flatten frequencies between 2 and 4khz, thus additionally coloring tone. pickup differences at high gain are so minimal it's almost impossible to tell which is which. pickup differences at clean settings are clearer to hear, but still almost impossible to pinpoint to a certain guitar or type of pickup. all these differences can be negated by using an eq. this is true for when going through the same testbench set of amp/cab/(mic). the most distinct tonal shift will occur when changing the loudspeaker in your cab, as the sound is ultimately created here and governed by the loudspeakers properties. whereas changing pickups amounts to maybe as much as dialing in your eq a little different.
I recently watched a video of a guy reconing his speaker, and I’ve learned that there’s a whole bunch of different speaker cones out there made of different materials that affect the speakers sound. I wonder if it’s possible to recone a Sheffield speaker from an old peavey cab (which go for ~$200 USD) and at least get them to sound different?
I don’t see why not!
Why does no one talk about intermodulation distortion? Ever since I picked up an electric guitar and added some distortion/overdrive, I noticed that certain harmonic intervals or chords sound incredibly bad. I spent the last 10 years hating my gear and thinking it was my guitar, amp, audio interface and amp sims that's faulty. Turns out it's an audio phenomenon and nothing I can do about it.
However, I see people playing bluesy licks or droney lines with distortion yet their tone seems to be unaffected by it. When I play anything but a perfect fifth, it sounds like I applied the deepest tremolo effect on a 8kbps MP3 compressed file. I assume the tremolo effect might be unrelated, but the shrieking, "digital" sounding distortion I get is something I cannot get rid of. I tried various guitars, amps and amp sims. All with the same result.
Since no one seems to be going crazy over this, how does everyone deal with it? What's the secret? How can I stop hating and despairing over my gear and play overdriven sounds like everyone else?
HEY GLENN!!! I just wanted to say that your videos has changed my perspective on sound and tone. I was that guy who thought that pickups and amp heads was the solution to tone until I started to watch your videos. No wonder when I swapped out the sheffield speaker with a V30 in my 6505+ combo amp, I noticed a massive tone shift. The other thing is when you do these blind sound tests with expensive and cheap guitars, I seriously couldn't tell the difference on which guitar was being played. When I took a mental note of which ones I thought was it, I was totally wrong lol. Fucking love your videos and keep doing what you're doing!! Love you dude!!
I picked up on Amazon a great 1x12 cab made by Monoprice with a Celestion vintage 30. I would not be surprised if it’s the same factory as HB it looks pretty decent and sounds good , because Vintage 30…..cost was 184.00 USD .
Can't wait for next week's Glenn-umentatry on speakers ! You're essay form videos are some of my favourites !
Glenn your right it’s the speaker!!!! I got a mono price stage right 1x12 with a v30 I haven’t had this much fun playing guitar in a long time. Thank you for all the good info you share.
I should have watched longer hive mind lol
Can you do the same thing between the cheapest squier sss strat, and the most expensive sss fender strat, all with the same strings. Would love to hear it!
The Main tenant I have used most of my life is to spend just enough to get a well made product. Buy something cheaply made and it breaks, Spend to much and you are buying details that you really don't need.
Spend money wisely is always good advice.
I've suspected for years that the tonal shift people claim to hear when upgrading electronics in their guitar is due more to the fact that lower quality pots are typically replaced in a guitar when pickups are swapped. All electrical components will have a tolerance rating that could vary significantly. For example it is common for pots to have a tolerance of ±20%. That could mean a 500k pot actually being anywhere between 400k-600k. A 200k potential variance will cause a drastic difference even between individual guitars of the exact same model with the same spec pots on the tone circuit since it is just a crude low-pass filter. Here's an idea for a video; do a side by side demo of multiple units of the exact same model guitar. You could also use a single guitar and swap the tone pot out multiple times while graphing the output from the guitar to show the differences in frequency response and how it correlates to the tolerance variations.
I've heard of people walking into a guitar store to try all the TS-9s in the store and walk out with one if they found one with the tone they we after..
So I have been a big fan of yours for a very long time I'm talking years and I appreciate everything that you do for us people that don't know you're giving us the knowledge that you are giving us but I can honestly say I have been doing a lot of guitar rebuilding and cabinet rebuilding and just a whole bunch of stuff like. I am a drummer but I love guitars and I can't seem to stop buying them I think I'm up to 14 or more but I just redid a crate cabinet with crate speakers that were the cheapest ones I could find and I heard a lot of people nasty about them and wanted to know what they could replace, now when I got those three out of four we're so bent that the voice calls and the one that did not have a messed up voice call ended up being a little messed up somewhere else but that was easy to fix, me being me I was able to rebend everything back to where there was no voice call issue and I put them in this cabinet and you would not believe the way live, as far as making them up I do not really have the capability of doing that at this moment I do have Mike's and I do have a lot of stuff I just don't have the room but I digressI think there's a lot to learn out there and thank you Glenn for taking your time to help us with this, I don't know about anyone else but I am so appreciated of everything you do for this metal community and for everyone in general.
been a subscriber for like 7 years but i just hit the notification bell can't wait for the upcoming vids dude your doing gods work out here.
@12:30 be sure to check out some Thomastik BeeBops if you do that shoot out. I remember them being a big deal when I was studying jazz. I don't know if there will be a noticeable tonal difference but they definitely felt different from say a set of NYXLs and they had nearly 3xs the lifespan when I was using them compared to other sets.
Some cool tone come from guys who play through smaller Fender and Matchless and control their tone with onboard volume and tone controls taking it from clean and clear to dark and distorted without touching a pedal or a switch - Russel Broom was a master when he toured with Jann Arden in early 2000s
V30s have a sound and it is a useful one but you can also get most of the benefits of a V30 through other means as well. A lot of speakers provide a similar response. You can use different microphones on other speakers to get many of the benefits of the V30 while maintaining what makes those other speakers good.
I liked the dive into explaining how an amplifier colors and distorts the tone and how an ideal "straight cable amplifier" doesn't exist. One thing about amps that most people don't understand is that they don't actually amplify! Really, they don't. What they do is make a louder copy of the incoming signal. This is why power supply filtering is so important. The copy is "sculpted" from the power available in the power supply, so if it is noisy, the copy will be noisy too. If the supply temporarily runs out of power then the copy will be more imperfect than usual, resulting in clipping and sag.
Thanks to your testing, when looking for a guitar, the physical features are #1. Knob position, scale length, kneck profile, bridge type, locking tuners, etc. Couldn't care less about pickups or "tonewood". Thanks a ton.
I'm curious what the results would be doing one of these blind tests with a split humbucker vs single coil. I'd also be curious about a blind test with a guitar like the Ibanez AZ series or similar that has a switch that allows its single coils to be used in series as humbuckers. I imagine the single coils in series would be tonally distinct because while the pickups are in series they are in physically different spots on the instrument's body. But as for a split humbucker, I imagine some of those may be pretty close to "real" single coil pickups.
5:00 BEST! OH! and IMO its ok it you like a Status Guitar &/or if you want something basic. Its fine. People get too personal about their stuff.
When I go to guitar center I noticed that sometimes cheaper guitars “sound darker” than more expensive, same amp and settings, just testing playability. I think people mistake that “darker” sound with thinking it sounds better, when in reality the more “high” sound is clear and the this what you should look for. I also think that is why people selected the Harley Benton
I’ve been waiting for SO LONG for that speaker video . I’m definitely excited for that one
With the strings test, maybe comparing the amount of noise made when sliding your left hand across muted strings would be worthwhile? I'd be interest to see if different materials would effect that.
I've always used my ears and not my eyes. As s producer myself, I started my audio engineering path by studying how to use my ears. I am so thankful for your shootout videos. You're finding the truth, and that's the most important thing. Keep it up man!
Just yesterday I went to see a friend I hadn't seen in a while. He's making electric guitars, some good, some not that good, all of them experimental. But the one that surprised me the most was a guitar he cobbled together from a cheap stratocaster ripoff (so cheap that it actually is made from 2x4s or something) with a Chinese made neck that he ordered from Amazon or something like that. The whole guitar was around $80 and he treats it like shit because he can. When he told me about it my inner snob guitarist made me think it would sound like shit. Then I plugged it in.
My gosh, it's amazing, not a bad sound at fucking all, great playability, smooth all the way, no noise whatsoever. Made me open my eyes again and really realize that my prejudices are just so damn wrong.
I was reminded once again that the tone is really not in the wood, shape or even the fingers.
Keep on the good work, Glenn!!
PS: I can show you some of his guitars, really DIYs, but kind of amazing to tell you the truth
Hey Glen! I've been using a Crate 4 12 cab loaded with celestion G12 50s since the early 90s and It makes any amp sound great. Just goes to show that you don't need to use vintage 30s to get great sound, but it definately is the speaker that makes the sound. Keep up the useful content!
Chasing tone can become a endless and expensive pastime, I slowly learned that its all subjective...and there was no easy way or determine what that "tone" was...I have to say my favorite MIM Strat is a pawn shop wreck that I rebuilt, still one of my favorite strats...
HSS 1st came out to get a "Gibson Bridge Humbucker sound" out of a Strat anyway, and benefit of the Fender whammy bar ... so, that's what these pickup actually do, and they do it pretty accurately now, after like over 40 years or so.
I find that if you wire bass pickups directly to the jack it sounds great! Not convenient for live use though.
I use the Mojo Tone Greenbacks in my cab and I love them, cool to hear HB is doing a GreenBack cab
what people don’t understand is gain clips off any subtle sympathetic harmonics, which is where the “tone” is once you get to a square wave a square wave is the square wave is a square wave. It’s just that simple.
I think the only pickups that matter are the mosrite ones, they’re kind of made a certain way that affects tone a little more than the normal ones. A great pair when combined with a vox ac30 silver Alnico
It's pretty well agreed that different constructions make a noticeable difference. The question would be whether spending the money to "upgrade" from one Mosrite to another is a good value.
As much as I love vintage 30's for metal. I've grown quite a liking to creambacks. Can't wait for a shoot-out style video based around speakers!! Keep up the awesome work, Glenn!
11:57 I will say that, in live action, a huge amount of tone does come from your hands. How you pluck, palm mute and hold the strings goes a long way towards the uniqueness of your playing style. I am frequently amazed by how few people can properly bend a note
Glenn is the best! Thank you so much for everything you are doing, mythbuster sensei :D
Something I've noticed is that with my strat the tone knob does absolutely NOTHING with a lot of gain, when its night and day with clean tones. This pretty much proves what you say that with a lot of gain the last things on the chain, mics and speakers, are most important, high gain negates any "eq" effect the pickups may have on cleaner tones.
I’m actually really looking forward to that video about different guitar Speakers, my birthday recently passed and If I’m really ballsy I might get a 212 cabinet, much to the chagrin of my family. I’ve been considering 440 Live Cabinets as they have more speaker varieties than what Harley Benton has.
Bedroom guitarist love the education you provide, love how people tell you that you are wrong when you video it. 100% as an IT guy, you learn more from problems then a perfect functioning system.
Fair point here, as bedroom guitarists would likely never have a use case where they would realize the benefits of more expensive instruments. I used to have a whole rack of Epiphones and thought they were just as good as the $2k+ Gibsons and PRSi of the world until I started gigging out a lot and spending a lot of time in recording studios.
Ultimately, "My cheapo guitar is better than X expensive guitar" is a cope and that's why people feel the need to shout about it so loudly. Kind of like how Vegans have a reputation for telling everyone they possibly can about how awesome being a vegan is.
Finally tried out some IRs, and the tone shift blew my mind. Saw an artist I like to a shootout with multiple amps with one cab and the difference was extremely minimal as well. Wish more artists would emphasize the importance of the speaker, but that obviously doesn’t sell signature pickups and guitars.
I saw a recent video where a guy put 4 amps into one cab (as you said) then put 1 amp into 4 cabs. The difference into 4 cabs was CRAZY
@@martyshwaartz971 was it the David Maxim Micic vid cuz I bought his IRs lol.
Hey Glenn! Thanks for the videos!
I must correct on one point :
Amps are not sounding different from one to another.
The preamp is! The tonestack is to be exact.
You can do an experiment:
Grad your facorite amp and plug another preamp in it using the effect loop.
Like a jcm800 send to a 5150 return fx loop.
How will it sounds like? A jcm or a 5150?
Again thanks for your work!
I wish you could interview Tom Scholz on tone and engineering, or Eric Johnson, a known tone snob.
I find myself being able to tell the difference between guitars more on solos (vibrato/bending) than on rhythm parts.
Back in the 70's there were 3 amp brands, 2 speakers, and maybe 4 guitars and everyone had their own distinctive sound. Now that we have endless possibilities, everyone sounds the same.
Would be curious to see a bass pickup comparison (yes, bass…lol). I would assume that they are going to be different or will they….and how much edge of breakup does bass have in metal?
I think you're on to something with the inquiry into guitar strings. I bought an old Fernandes Monterey from a pawn shop. The strings on it were rushed. When I put a fresh set on it, the improvement in sound and feel made it seem like a completely different guitar. I can't wait to see how much of that was perception was real or imagined.
I remember doing a video recording with my jrv when it had EMG 81/85 and another with Duncan AHB3 Blackouts. The blackouts had more mid scoop when i warched them back but also a lot hotter and more articulate when i didnt record...but in a blind listen i honestly dont know if id notice that....i think it just comes down to what feels right to said player
As a comment on the pickup shootout, I think there is more difference from where you pick the strings than the pickups.
Some guitars, due to the bridge design make it easier for you to pick closer to the bridge comfortably, and some make it easier to pick closer to the neck.
This would be interesting to do a show (or maybe even a shoot-out) about.
Strings. I have had a big change in sound on acoustics. However, I am curious how much of a change there would be in a distorted chain. I assume you would hear a big difference in clean tones, but distortion, I don't know.
Pleased to hear you are thinking about comparing Rotosound strings, as they (yellows) are. My favourite. Not based on sound but a combination of feel, price and … red white and blue ball ends!
Sadly, the current Harley Benton lineup of SG-style axes comes in very lackluster color gamut. The 'pelhalm blue' is no longer available ☹
I have one to sell....mint with gator case, brown with pink interior!
Loving the work you are doing Sir. I've been saying similar things about guitars for a while. When you're playing live, everything is so noisy, absolutely no one in the audience would remotely notice the difference between one guitar to the next. I always say to people "Buy a guitar that looks so awesome, you'll want to pick it up". If it looks good and it's set up well, then it's perfect.
Flatwound and roundwound strings are hugely different! Especially on bass. Be sure to try the string test on bass!
regarding strings: I spent a couple years experimenting to find the right strings for my baritone guitars. The brands didn't really matter as much as the gauges, and the tone never changed but the volume and playability did. So for me it mostly came down to whether or not any strings were too loud/quiet relative to the others, and also how loose or stiff I wanted the strings to "feel" (i know, i know, there's that stupid F word - it can mean anything!). This is all personal experience and I can totally be wrong, so very curious what Glenn comes up with if he ever does some strings episodes. Just fyi, I went with the string brand that gave me the most versatility in gauges, D'Addario.
Can’t wait to hear the greenback HB cab results and your opinion.
I really want to see a comparison of pickups with different resistance values ranging from 4K ohms to 26K ohms. This doesn't just affect power output, but according to engineering texts, the higher resistance pickups should suppress highs while accentuating lows. I very much doubt that it makes a difference whether they are $20 or $200 pickups.
Love the videos you've been putting out. Even as a bassist lol. Its been helpful to watch your videos as I get into producing stuff and just to learn things in general. Have a great one!
Can we get 2 different speakers in a dual cab shootout? I bet there's some great tonal capabilities!
Honestly the only time I've ever noticed a huge difference between pickups at least for distorted tones was when I switched over from stock to an EVO7. Of course I probably could have replicated that sound easily just by altering a few amp settings or throwing an EQ in front of the preamp
Whoever edited your video and snipped the New Kids on the Block at that moment is a genius.
As a beginning guitar player, thank you for your videos!
Back in the 90s I used a radio shak condenser mike on a Laney double preamp tube combo and it sounded AWESOME both on TAPE(?ha ha ) and PA
Awesome 😎 Yeah I have seen Jim's Videos on cabinets he demonstrates how the geometric design of cabinets is more important than materials. The Tone Wood One was Awesome he Totally Killed that theory. Tone Wood is important to acoustical instruments like acoustic guitars violins 🎸 🎻 since what resonates is the wood especially a violin 🎻. But electric guitars are a radio signal.. Love the honesty... Cheers 🍻 🥃🥃 🎸 🎶🎶 🎻 🎵🎶🎵
I hadnt a clue. but then again I dont buy much new gear unless my stuff breaks beyond repair. I'm actually pretty happy with my live sound
Thank you Glenn for never steering us wrong!
Gotta love the bloopers at the end haha, Great video Glenn, cheers!! the message is simple.... you don't need to waste money guys! come on! that was supposed to be a good thing!
Just for fun: have we gone from Guitar and Pickup snobs... to cab and speaker snobs? Can people tell the differences blind when EQ and MIC and Room have been adjusted? Hmmmm - I do love my Greenbacks and SM57.
I have a range of guitars in my studio - From a $6K Parker Fly to a $60 Epiphone Junior. Honestly, in a mix on a heavy track, they sound exactly the same if I use the same signal chain. The difference is the playability. That's about it. For the most part, if a guitar is comfortable, stays in tune and is set up well, and you like playing it and the way it looks - then it's a good guitar. I used to worry about it and wonder why they sounded the same. The Frickster has made me not worry about brands any more. Thanks man.
That harley benton sounds great, and I think the cleans could be easily fixed with eq. You're right about the cab+speaker stuff, but I just want to say that the pickup differences are way easier to pick out in real life when playing the guitar. There's so many times I've heard guitars like the S2's and new mex strats sound great on youtube, but I didn't like the pickups irl. Also, there's some randomness that happens, where you can play dozens of mex strats and one sounds way better than the rest. I feel like it's like driving a car vs being a passenger. You notice stuff way more as the driver. It's why I won't buy a guitar without playing it anymore.
I think the main thing is that if you're goal is to make music, the inexpensive stuff is crazy good now. But even before when it was bad, people couldn't tell the difference. Satriani said in a video on youtube that he recorded surfing with the alien with a cheap kramer guitar he got as a special sale at guitar center. It basically fell apart after.
Glen! i wanna say thank you for the IR's you made last year for xmas! i got back to playing guitar and using amp sims (amplitube 5) and the cabs sounded like shit. downloaded your IR's and WTF!!!!??? so good! thanks man!
that lower right pic on the intro, that stern point, always creeps me out lol. well done!
Embrace the neodymium speakers, Glenn. The bass players have for a long time >_> it's the one thing we did right XD
subscribed.love your honesty.i picked up the westcreeks and harley bentons after watching you.Solid guitars and i have a few.
I really love Stringjoy strings on my PJ bass. I also put them on my guitar. Great stuff! Small company out of Nashville.