Do Guitars Really sound That Different?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ส.ค. 2024
- In today's video, I'm comparing 7 different guitars to see if they really do sound that different.
The guitars I'm going to be using are
Fender Esquire CS
Fender MB P90 Stratocaster
Fender MB Thinline Telecaster (TV Jones Powertron and Lollar Goldfoil)
Fender Stratocaster CS 57
Gibson CS 57 CS Les Paul (Custom Buckers)
Gibson CS 56 CS Les Paul (P 90's)
Gretsch Brian Setzer (TV Jones Filtertrons)
The Studio Rats are core band members Paul Drew on guitar/production/mixing, drummer James Ivey and Dan Hawkins on bass. They collaborate with singers and musicians to produce radio-ready songs.
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Never let that p90 strat go, everything you'd want in a bright Tele and everything you'd want in a dark les Paul, yet holding its own voice. Magic
My favorite as well. That Beautiful Thinline Strat with P90’s - oh man.
Well said man
Agree. I was really surprised by just how good it sounded!
One of the reasons I love your videos is you don’t inundate your audience with noise and useless information. So many you-tubers feel they must post every day with ridiculous topics. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Ron I’m trying not to
“This Helix patch blew my mind” etc. queue average Helix patch
Good point, and I agree.
I’ll second that sir
The intonation on that Esquire/Tele was absolutely perfect. Sounded incredible on every test.
I have felt this way for a long time. I once saw Eddie Van Halen play Panama on a Les Paul, and it sounded exactly like his famous Frankenstrat to me. And then I saw Jimmy Page play Whole Lotta Love on a Tele, and it sounded like his Les Paul.
That made me realize the sound is mostly in the amp, speaker, pedals, and fingers, and not as much in the guitar itself.
For me the guitar difference comes down to the pickups, not the wood, as some amps and pedals react slightly differently to different pickup outputs.
The guitar obviously does make a difference, but it’s a much smaller difference than the amp, pedals, and speaker in my opinion.
I don't think so... the attacck tone and the relation between attack and sustain is very different between les paul and strat or prs... is a totally different tone
I am opening myself up for ridicule here, but I could hardly hear much difference between any of them! Must get my ears tested! Or is it pretentious?
@@bobainsworth9571 🤣🤣🤣 no... you aren't ridicolous and I think your ears are working fine... probably you are giving more attention to other aspects in tone like general frequency range, etc etc... regarding frequency range resposnse I partially agree with you... all guitars are tweekable... but the "shape" of tone is different between them and i think is something that is more audible from the player side that from the listener side...
@@bobainsworth9571 Correct, there is almost no difference.
I feel like not so much the guitar. But mostly the pickups are a big difference. Just cause l feel like single coils have the hum, and there's a certain quality to them humbucker just lack. And actives are sort of like, single coils with no hum? But outside of that I feel like it's all the same, except maybe the difference between hollow bodies and solids. It's very subtle. But if you were to ask me the difference between two humbuckers it would be super hard for me to tell.
I’m reminded how awesome P90s can be. Awesome as always! Keep it up.
The Les Paul with the P90’s is AWESOME! Almost Fender clarity and quack but still retains some grind.
I'm with you there. Really lovely guitar.
Strat lover here and I couldn't agree more 👍
That Tele esquire is one beautiful sounding guitar! The rest were nice also but that Tele really did it for me.
That Brian Setzer Gretsch is one of the most gorgeous guitars I’ve ever seen. Amazing finish.
I absolutely fell in love with it as well, both visually and sonically.
If I had the possibility I would own both a telecaster and a les paul , their tones are the ones that fascinated me the most.
This!
They are the only 2 guitars you need ( I could take a LP or an SG).
Personally I loved the 57 CS Strat followed by the Ron Thorn Tele.
All subtley different yet equally wonderful, great video as always Paul 👌👏👏👏
Fantastic video. Great to hear them all back to back like this. I found myself being drawn to the ‘57 Strat in almost every instances.
This is not excessively nerdy, and I love it. You showcase in a video the voice that every guitar player has inside their heads
That green tele is the one. The others have all been totally heated and played out. That green tele is amazing. I would just use it and what it gives you. And it looks the best.
That is the best tone comparison demo I have seen / heard. I would keep all the guitars because you can never have too many guitars… keep up the great work. Superb Channel…
Great video - really enjoyed it. People I’m sure will lean towards the guitar that they own or hits their style best. But the single coils to me were fantastic in every setting where the heavier pickups (LP with HB especially) sounded like a blanket over the amp with clean tones and neck pickups. That’s why I say the Strat is the most versatile guitar ever, especially with a HB in the bridge - it can literally play anything well. Nice collection of guitars and to me this demo shows why you really need one of everything. Cheers!
Thanks for the comparison! I love it! I kinda like the 1st tele the best overall but that strat neck pickup is something special. I think they all have a purpose for a different sound. Definitely keep them all 😃
That was one of the best comparisons I've ever seen. My favorite of all was the Tele, it just seems to hit the sweet spot of all those tests overall. Thanks and happy new year!
Totally agree 👍 fantastic comparison video
One of the best produced comparisons on youtube. Thank you so much !!!
Never seen any of your previous videos but really loved this. So to the point and each section short enough to remember each of the previous sounds..
All your guitars sound awesome - and your playing is absolutely outstanding. Although I'm a Les Paul guy, my favorite is your green Tele
I'd rather have the high-end end clarity of the single coil pickups since it's a lot easier to just turn the guitar tone down a little to warm things up than it is to try to scrape that clarity out of humbuckers. But I was surprised that I liked the P90s a lot. They're right in the middle so to speak. I coil tap the Tom Holmes humbuckers in my Les Paul and that makes it a more flexible instrument. I do like the way the Les Paul feels too.
So true regards trying to get that sparkle from humbuckers...it's not hard to get some savage tones from bridge single coil with the tone backed off some and added overdrive...
I love these comparison videos and yours is great for so many reasons- lots of guitars, great narration and terrific playing and sound. Hope you decide to keep them all. Every guitar has a distinctive soul.
Great video! Man, I regularly get shivers of joy when I hear slightly overdriven or high gain distorted P90s. I really started to like them over the last year!
This confirmed something I've felt for a while, and it's that I want to swap out the humbuckers in my LP for P90s.
Been a Les Paul player for 18 years. I love the tele sound the most on every clips!
Top notch vid! I was surprised how much I liked the tele bridge. I haven’t owned a Tele since I was 18. My favorite passive pickups are the P coil of a PRail in the neck and a Warman GRail in the bridge. My absolute favorites are Fluence P90s. They smoke everything!
After listening without looking, I really don't hear major differences. some are thinner, but nothing is a day and night difference to me. Thanks!
That green tele is something special. Awesome tone and playing. Love your channel!
Best comparison vid ive ever seen..shared it immediately..great job!
Tele/Esquire for the win! Such a great video!
I think overall the Gretsch beats them all, but the P90s strat sounded awesome clean on the neck pickup, definitely one of the best sounds you got. The filtertron tele with gain also sounded really badass.
For those about to rock, with Paul, we salute you! Thanks for bringing the goods with this one.
The P90 LP sounded quite like the humbucker LP when it needed to. Also sounded quite clear at the same time.
Those Filtertrons/Powertrons are awesome. It's crazy how different they all sound clean, and how similar they all sound with the gain cranked up. `Tron pickups just sound so good in the bridge. They're really highly underrated in high gain applications.
Nice comparison. Funny how our preferences can differ so much. For me, that LP with the humbuckers was tops. It just had a thick hot sound, and a LOT of presence. I like the resonance of the Gretsch when you would let it ring out a bit. All were good, though.
Agreed - the Esquire did it for me in most settings there, but as Paul pointed out right at the end the Les Paul was his least favourite until the last clip - it sounded great playing the rock progression at the end. The Strat CS had to be my least favourite of all of them for tone. Have always played Gibsons myself, but may have to pick up a Tele some time.
Ye the humbucker LP tops
I think a overdriven bridge humbucker in a les Paul is something to behold. So much raw power and aggression. Incredibly fun to play one through a cranked amp. However I personally really dislike the humbucker in the neck position on a les Paul. Always sounds muddy to me.
The Gold Foil Tele is my fave. Looks and sounds great !! Cheers Paul.
We all kid ourselves we need lots of guitars….over the years I have owned and played all the classics…..I’m 64 and I’m down to two teles, a Strat, a Taylor acoustic and a Gretsch bass……I’m happy!
Thanks! This again confirms my preference towards single-coils (incl. P90s), even for higher gain sounds.
Great collection, me like the P90 sound.. in all of the test's :) Thank you sir. Greatings from Belgium.
This is one of the best and most informative comparisons that I've ever seen. I thought I knew how they would sound, and for the most part, I was right, but the Gretsch was a surprise. I've been a big P90 fan since playing with a bandmate in church who played them a lot.
One of the most useful videos I have seen. Thank you.
Great comparison, Paul! The differences were quite clear. I really like the P90s, especially in the strat, but I agree with you on the Esquire - it just sounds magnificent. The others were not far behind, though, and I think this video proves once again that the single most important thing in the sound of a guitar is the player. Someone with your skills can probably make anything sound good!
Thanks for the demo!
Can’t help steal your low gain neck pickup riff, sounds really great!!
I really love that paisley strat, and that green Tele. But I really like the sound of the 57 strat the most.
It’s interesting how everyone has different favs.
Excellent video, well shown and explained, and finally someone who does not talk & blabber between the examples, but consistently plays them back to back.
Well done!
👍👍
Never ever get rid of that semi-hollow strat with the P90s. That thing is wild!
Now, this, is how you do pickup/guitar comparisons. Basically everything we know gets reinforced except the few surprises. Even on a cell phone I'd imagine the average guitar goon could hear some fairly drastic differences. The funny part is that MAYBE, with the exception one of the goldtop LPs, all of them must be retained. The Gretch sounded crushing on the last run through. For me, the little Frusciante shuffle part was where the biggest differences could really be heard. Great stuff man, bravo!
Excellent demo. The different tones of the different pickups is easy to hear - and as expected. The Gretch sounds the best to me, with the Tele a close second.
Thanks for confirming my purchases of 7 guitars ;). With the idea that each has different sounding pickups as well as body shapes .
I confess. I really LOVED the sound of that Gretch. I thing that one is my favourite. 🙂
Amazing demonstration Paul! Great work was made to catch "The Thing" of each guitar. And yep, "Until I Heard This Clip" and the end is really true :)
they all sound great to me. I just play at home as a hobby and I love my PRS S2 singlecut with humbuckers. Not sure why, but I like the warm sound of the humbuckers and the easy playability of the PRS. It would be hard for me to let go of the LP with the humbuckers.
Love the P90 paisley strat and the green tele with trons, but you cannot go wrong with your esquire tele. It does it all!
This video just sold me on Filtertron pickups. Damnit!!!! More stuff I need to buy.
Wonderful playing and touch and tone. Miss your DGT I have the gold top with the moons. It’s an incredible guitar
Absolutely love your videos. Hard decision when you have to let go of some of your instruments. I’ve recently had to limit myself. Four electrics- G&L asat Fullerton Bluesboy, 2015 ASAT Deluxe P90, Gibson Les Paul and Prs se custom with Seymour Duncan Hot Rodded. Your choices were extremely nice and the voices came over very nice. As usually very much enjoyed your video and really like your contribution to the Boss Katana fans. Thank you!
I would like us all to recognize the fact that all those guitars, even though they're different, don't sound drastically different. Different amps and speakers would make a much bigger difference. I'm now talking about overdriven or distorted sound. Clean and cleanish, there's much more difference. Though humbuckers sound bigger, fatter than single coils. As long as one's not playing metal, single coils would also do, especially on the Tele.
I agree with you. It’s also worth considering who you are playing guitar for… if you’re trying to convince a significant other that you need 23 different guitars because they all sound so different, you may lose that argument! Don’t misunderstand me, they don’t all sound the same, but as the guitar player you probably notice and care far more than the majority of your audience! I suppose the other thing to acknowledge is that when we listen via TH-cam, we’re very much dependent on whatever device we are watching on to convey the sound and so it’s probably one of the worst ways to assess which sound you like the most 😂
Except for the LP neck humbucker with gain. That was much, much darker than all the others.
@@MattSwain1 I agree!
@@NotThatKraken True!
That gold foil Tele and the mids on that p90 les Paul was really, really nice
Thanks for the review Drew. I heard a shootout on the same amp settings between a Gibson Les Paul with P90s, Humbuckers and Mini Humbuckers. The Mini Humbuckers won out on top with all pickup tests. It was surprising and I wasn't alone in this conclusion. I now have a guitar with a Mini Humbucker. Great review. Cheers
BEST VIDEO EVER!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH, I LOVE YOUR JOB MAN!!
The LP's were amazing sounding.
To answer your question… for a guitarist or someone very into their music they sound very different. To your casual listener they probably don’t notice, especially not in a band mix not played back to back, but I’d argue that a guitarist’s first aim should be to make him or herself happy with their tone, not the audience. If you’re happy you’ll be more comfortable and more inspired and the audience’s experience should largely take care of itself.
Downsizing a stellar collection of guitars like this would be the most difficult thing a human could ever face! 😃
The Tele Esquire sounds absolutely great on all passes, full yet with clarity. For the cleaner sounds you'd have to brighten the amp up for the humbuckers/P90's to get close? Even the Gretsch sounded a little dark on cleaner sounds which was surprising on those settings but it really sounded great when overdriven. Pete Townsend used a Gretsch for driven stuff in the 70's and he sounded epic.
Les Paul with a humbucker in the bridge position and a p90 in the neck is a versatile solution.
Killer comparison🔥
That was a neat little edit at the beginning. Been a Les Paul guy for decades, I think it is the best for over driven tones, and splitting the neck get me by for cleans.
Love these back to back videos! There’s nothing I nerd out about more than the subtle differences between tones. My favorite clean neck pup tones were the tele with goldfoils and the Strat. The Gretsch is the most unique sounding out of all your guitars.
My most used guitar is my PRS Core Starla with its stock pups, which is a great unique tone. Perfect for rock/metal or the church worship environment where it does “the sound”. However my favorite overall lead tone is my US tele with Duncan Vintage Stacks. Something about the nasally yet powerful bridge pup tone is impossible to get out of any other instrument.
Every wife needs to see this video 😂
Wow! I love the sound of those Filtetrons on the Telecaster
Loved the P90s on the Strat! I didn't know that was a thing.
Fave: Regular Tele, followed by P90 LP. Least Fave: Filtertron Tele. Great vid!
Perhaps it’s lost in translation from what you’re hearing to what I’m hearing, but the differences all seem within the scope of what an EQ pedal could compensate for. That and a boost to cover the output levels. That said, don’t tell my wife because I have 15 electric guitars that I basically bought because I liked how they looked. 😊
She'd probably understand getting 15 guitars based on looks. That's one of the unique and very cool things about guitars: the variety of aesthetic options
You have the greatest guitar tone on TH-cam. What a great taste!
Hi Paul. Great video as always. It’s a real no nonsense channel this, I really enjoy your videos. The most shocking thing overall about this video is (IMHO) the only time I heard a real noticeable meaningful difference was clean tones on the neck pickup. They were pretty wildly different. The rest of the time I could hear the differences but they were WAY more subtle than I thought they would be. P90s are very interesting pickups they sounded the most surprising to me. Even the difference between the P90 strat and P90 les Paul was very surprising.
Lastly the tele was the only guitar that literally sounded great in every section. Did you set the amp up with the tele maybe? It just worked every time. They are an unbeatable guitar.
Fantastic video. Fun to watch the tonal differences. Especially because you are such a consistent player. For me, my favorites were the 57 Strat and your LP with humbuckers. Both guitars sounded glorious. My least favorite was the Tele with gold foils. Everyone has different tastes. 😊
What an outstanding video - absolutely loved this! Green ‘tron Tele and 57 Strat both joint winners for me, but agreed on the Goldtop at the end - that was mega.
The Telecaster and Les Paul with p90s had the most appealing clean/ light overdrive tones to me
What I got from this video was that I absolutely love that Telecaster. What I got from the search thereafter was that I'll never afford one!
For all the clean (cleanish/low drive) loved the p90 (especially the strat neck p90) and for high gain the les paul bride (p90 and humbucker)
Great video!!
The Esquire is my favorite. Thank you for the comparison !
wicked comparison & playing. will definitely reference this when it comes time to add a guitar to the arsenal!
Always leaned towards the Les Pauls, but that Telecaster sounds amazing!
your gold top with P90's sounds immense, beautiful tone.
What I find has the most effect on tone is the AMP then Cab then Pickup types lastly Guitar.
Great job .. loved the gold foil Tele 💛
I love your gold top with Humbucking pick-ups.
The older they get the better they look! 😊
Yes they do
I loved the sound of your CS 57 Strat!
I still haven't met anyone who tried P90s that prefer HB since. Amazing pickups, clearly the best of both worlds
That was the most clearly unbiased comparison I’ve ever seen…
I have a fair number of those guitars (or guitars that approximate them)..
You confirmed my bias towards my ‘56 P-90 Les Paul and my Tele partscaster with the Seymour Duncan vintage Broadcaster pickups..
I think they call this confirmation bias..ha!!!
Great video. The Tele my favourite too. Shines even more in mixes. Thanks for sharing.
Your intro really threw me. Hearing you switching guitars on the chord changes really messes up trying to compare them sonically and for a short time i was thinking this video is not going to show the differences in these guitars at all but then for the actual comparisons you did an absolutely fantastic job playing the same riffs and just long enough but not too long for the human brain's very short memory for sound. Really spectacularly done!!! No surprises here but your excellent work perfectly shows the differences between these different guitars and pickups. The Tele with the standard pickups is bright clear and articulate, the humbuckers big warm and thick, the P90 guitars sort of in the direction of the humbuckers but with more detail, and the standard Strat weaker and scooped in that very characteristic Stratty way.
The older I get, the more I find myself being drawn to single-coil tones.
Ahuevo.
First of , you are a great player. I loved your CS '57 Strat. I especially liked the p90's in all of your guitars. Great video.
I loved that CS 57 Strat!
I do like the sound of P90s. The esquire/tele, Strat and LPs each have distinct sounds, which is I guess why people keep coming back to them. The PRS Studio would have been an intersection add to the mix.
Cool, Shaun. Thanks for a great video! Now everybody go out and watch "Chicken in the Corn". Dude's not just got one guitar, but one String on. May all the gear snobs be cured.
This was so useful - many thanks. Short pieces played on your lovely guitars. Keep them all! One problem it doesn't solve though is the ' amazingly cheap for a lovely tone' purchases. Heard the SubZero semi hollow Tele. shape with two P90s for £200 from Gear4Music? I bought one on Dave Simpson's recommendation - it's brilliant. So, the collection still proliferates at those prices.
You can’t sell the P90 paisley strat. That guitar is just stunning.
Wow your Strat with P90 sounds so good to me. My own no.1 axe is an HSS AM standard, which I will not part until I die. Thank you so much for the comparison video.
Back in the day, and we're talking ten years ago, I had an LTD Tele, but I never got along with it. The problem was probably that my knowledge wasn't good enough, and was leaking tonal references. Using mainly my Line 6 Pod HD Pro, which I sold last week, I just tweaked tone, but never knew what the sound in my head was. I did some recording, but I was still very much an amateur, who struggled to finish a song. In 2020 I started building my first pedalboard, and I've learned a lot from The Studio Rats, among others. I bought a Squier Deluxe Telecaster 70's Classic Vibe, and it's great. But when I bought a simple Squier Affinity Telecaster, which is also thinner, that I started thinking that I'm slowly becoming a Tele guy. We'll see if I sell a couple of guitars and buy one more Tele.