The funniest part of amp sims to me is some have swappable and blendable tube sounds, but they change the EQ curve because they're programmed to what people expect and no what actually happens.
You’re going to be blown away with those new mojo tone speakers. Andrew is my younger brother. He has worked super hard on the R&D for this new line they’re putting out. I’m so super proud of what he has Accomplished at Mojo .
Having worked on many many many guitars over the years and owned hundreds of guitars I can verify the pickups make a difference. A difference to the cost. A difference to the look. A difference to the resale value (sometimes) and a difference to the smugness of a player. What they don’t do is make a noticeable difference to the tones when high gain is applied especially Love the show and I’m not a metal player but find all of what you talk about useful and valuable. Cheers from the UK
Second that. I have 30+ guitars in my studio now, have a storage unit full of guitars and amps. And to be honest, there is no difference between the pickups when comparing humbuckers to humbuckers, single coil to single coil and so on. And on a side note; I have a krank Krankenstein in my studio, and I have to admit, most modern high gain amps sound veeery simular. Going to start building studio cabinets (2x12) after Christmas. Want to have a wide selection of speakers to choose from rather than walls full of guitars and amp heads.
This might be a dumb question but is it the same for bass? I’ve been considering changing out the pickups on my bass. I normally di my bass so I would assume new pickups would make a noticeable difference in tone.
@@lukechavez8773 hello. I would say there’s a bigger difference when played clean but I’ve done a let Les’s comparisons on bass so I will report back if I find anything out 🙂
I've watched you on and off for a minute now and your the only one that is just straight up and as a beginner that's what I need man. Keep it slamming man 🤘🤘
I have now gone the longest period of my life without playing guitar. I took my guitar apart a while back to repair it and supe it up. But I never ended up finishing. Now I’m not the type of person that likes to talk about my ability, but I will just say playing for almost 30 years made me able to play almost anything I wanted to learn. I rarely found a song I couldn’t learn almost immediately, unless it was highly technical and then maybe a few days. But now that I haven’t played for I think 2 years now, I have completely lost my ability. I still know how to play and what to do. I just cannot do it by muscle memory anymore. It’s the craziest thing. My dad bought a new Taylor and showed me at thanksgiving and I literally froze up while trying to play it, realizing I’ve gone from what people considered extremely talented to basically nothing. I’ve always played and wanted to play so I never really understood till now how much practice actually matters. I’ve ruined my ability! I’ll get it back though.
Are you warming up every day? After an injury I couldn't play for about two years, so I had to get in the habit of doing about 1/2 hour of warmups every day, even if that was all I did that day.
Glen, I hated your show at first glance. The yelling, the attitude…. The *wait a fuggin second* amazing stream of information. Real quality information. Wrapped in an entertaining format. *faaaaark* I put my cork sniffing level Gibson down and got subscribe.
Same though its really Scott Stapp that's the meme! Mark Tremonti and the rest of the band on the other hand have proven to be national to worldwide treasures thanks to the existence of Alter Bridge and their other related projects!
@@rockmovieswithtyler1989 Yeah meth did a number on him lol. I actually saw a virtual jam session Scott did last year and he looked pretty healthy so hopefully he’s kicked the drugs lmao they made him extra goofy.😂
I just wanted to say i appreciate your videos. I was also a user on sneap forums from about 2007 - 2011. You're doing gods work showing people what really matters in a recording chain.
It's like a lot of people just refuse to understand that how fun it is for the guitar player to play a big amp through a big cab in a room, what feel and inspiration it gives the player, has absolutely ZERO to do with the recorded tone. What you capture with microphones is hardly even in the same realm as the sound in the room. It's like comparing actors in a theatre to movies. In movies you have effects, you can zoom in on people's faces, focus on details. On the stage they need makeup for us to see their facial expressions at all. Different tools are needed to convey what we wish in different situations. And the microphone capturing a tiny fraction of the cabinet's sound really don't care how much the chugs from your mega tube amp tickles your balls at the other end of the room. And strangely enough it doesn't care about what you paid for the amp either.
yeah, well, unless you invite people in your rehearsal room, you'll always end up with a microphone in front of your speaker anyways. Also, all the guitar tones from your favorite artists have one thing in common: it probably has a microphone in front of the speaker.
Yep, amp sims don't scare you into learning to control volume as a tool and friend. And moving air like that has a provable effect to the sound. Nobody is really doing that video on this channel,.. have to sell all the sims they make.
Subscribed. You and I together are stronger than alone, even considering the TH-cam channel deficit. I will be opening up my channel in 2024, to ruthlessly push my ridiculous online music business, something that so far nobody wants.
The TH-cam algorithm threw up a video called something like "the best guitars for shredding" this morning. I Immediately commented "66Samus proved that you can shred on an Avril Lavigne telecaster if you are a good enough musician". The ad was still playing when I finished writing the so I navigated away without listening, let alone watching the video. Haven't got any reactions or replies yet but I'm looking forward to the notifications for that comment. P.S. Thanks Ziz!
I'm not an electrical engineer, either, but have done a bit of reading on the subject. My opinion, for what it's worth: The best way to lay out an amp has the shortest electrical distance between components. Long wires, or long circuit traces, are opportunities for noise and hum to get into your signal path. In a guitar amp, a PCB is probably the way to go to keep signal paths short.
Seriously, I suck at guitar, I can't get anything out of one, even if I kick it down the stairs. Still, I love people who are passionate about whatever, so I subscribed and hit the notification bell. Good luck.
As someone who has worked in electronics since the 80´s id say that point to point vs PCB is just about how its built and maybe point to point is a bit sturdier, certainly wire connected chassis mounted tube sockets is going to be a lot sturdier than PCB mounted tube sockets where both the heat and mechanical stress from holding the tube as well as changing the tubes can put stress on the solderings. Given the same components and circuit they will of course sound the same
I definitely plan to pick up a copy of element bass, sounds great! And to touch on the PCB vs point to point wiring in an amp; A very experienced amp tech said, "Are hand wired amps better? Depends on the hands." When amps are designed, they will usually be hand weird to be able to easily move wires and components to eliminate unwanted noise.The design is then translated in to a PCB for consistency. Then the board will be troubleshooted for hot spots. (Mosfets burning holes in your PCB makes for a bad day) At the end of the day, point to point is still usually easier to service, but PCB will turn out fewer "end of Friday" amps. Also, with lead free solder being a requirement for newly manufactured amps, you are really going to have to watch for the solder cracking on any load bearing components. (Cracked solder leaving loose tube sockets, etc)
Turret board p2p is not that bad for service. The nightmare is the traditional p2p. Try getting a video or picture of an older Vox AC15 or AC30 , and imagine to find or replace one capacitor or resistors.
Yeah Glenn, I the Element Bass Plugin sounds really good. I swear you have been working on it for at least 3 years or something like that. I really gotta get my hands on it now that its out!
Ziz, you really do amazing work. It must be a lot of fun getting to work with Glenn. The shows look and flow really well. And Glenn, once again, thank you for the attention to the bass guitar lately. I'm thinking more of them are actually listening now because Singularity was a bit of a wakeup call.
Goldback user here. I also use Vox Bluebacks. The Goldbacks are great for loud crystal cleans and 80's thrash/classic metal tones. I have a 2x12 with one Goldback and one Blueback and it's really warm and throaty. In fact, every time I've taken it into a studio the engineer has really enjoyed working with it.
Thanks Glenn, I focused muy gear purchase on Speakers and cabinet (2 EVH greenbacks made it!), now I have a killer tone from my H&K Tubemeister. Before watching your videos I was thinking that this generalized idea of [ EXPENSIVE GEAR = GREAT TONE ] was just a local thing here where I live, but I see that this is global thing. You are doing great Job!
Built a couple guitar in college. For the class they give you a generic list of materials, including inexpensive basic hum-buckers. My original plan was to eventually “upgrade” to “better” pick-ups. But after playing the guitars, the only difference I could hear or feel between my generic pickups vs. my EMG guitars I already owned was the output levels. Later on as I learned about guitar signal chains by channels like yours or Ola’s, once you throw in a boost pedal in the signal, you get the increased output and saturation to obtain crushing and chuggy sounds. I specially like Ola’s approach to pick ups, which he has stuck with even after starting his guitar brand. The approach is to get as neutral as possible pickups with a moderate output. Let the rest of the signal chain take care of the sounds and tones. Thanks for all the work you put in this debunking videos, my wallet truly appreciates it.
Regarding the possibility of a blind test for real amps versus amp sims like the Quad Cortex and AxeFX - can I request adding the free open source NAM modeller in the test too, if you can? As it's free, it's worth getting the word out there about what it can do, and the extra butthurt from people spending hundreds or thousands will just add to the entertainment value as well. Thanks again for the good work, Glenn!
Hooray for editors leaving in multiple self-affirming promotion moments! Thanks Ziz. Love you, man. (...and thanks to Glenn for recognizing the value of the editor... you angry bastard.)
Long time freeloader on this channel. Because it is so good. Back 45+ years ago the better pickup makers DID include FREQ graph in box. I play what feels good and worry very little about sound. Sound can be changed at so many points after the guitar.
If you're still not using ELE, get it now! I dabble in metal for fun, but I write darkwave/goth stuff. The drums, especially the roomy preset, are phenomenal. They've replaced almost every drum groove I've written with exception to those that are meant to be electronic or sound like direct samples from a machine. Hell, just use them under your current grooves and samples at the very least and you will hear a very satisfying difference. If you want the kit tracked under separate channels, Glenn has a tutorial for Reaper. I've done it in FL Studio and made a preset for it. It's excellent! Checkout the VST and believe me when I say it has been such an enhancement to the overall flow of my mixes. Oh, Singularity is cool too. And so is Element. Try Element on your drums. It's gnarly!
Thank you so much for the kind words! That is awesome to hear it's getting used on darkwave stuff! All the plugins we make aren't meant just for Metal or Rock. It's meant to work with most modern music as long as it involves drums, bass and guitar in some form.
The other day I recorded the rhythm guitar tracks to a new song I'm recording using a 3/4 size Strat copy. It's got fairly light gauge strings on it, usually, you'd use heavier strings on a small guitar, but the neck isn't too much shorter, so these work. It gave me a great sound, because the strings are at a low tension, it has that downtuned type sound, but in standard tuning. I only used it because I hadn't played the song for years, or practised it, and I just couldn't get it down cleanly enough on my new full sized guitar, which I wanted to use as it has a humbucker in the bridge. Now though, I'm definitely going to record the other two 'metal' songs with it. Going to do an album type thing and work on all three songs together, whatever I settle on for one, I'll use on the other two.
Where are we at with the video of “Is Tone In The Strings?” Video? I’ve been super curious on how you will eliminate variables to get an accurate measurement! I’m sure they take forever but super excited!
GLLLEEEEENNNNNN !! Your delivery is great. Subjects are great and inspire me to try new things. Becoming one of my favorite! Solving the problems of the world, one at a time !! THANK YOU !
@zizgorlin I've sang (sung? IDK, English is not my mother tongue...) your praises in several videos now. Last weeks SMGVC was the last time. Great to see Glenn sing your praises too (probably the only type of songs of praise Glenn will sing... LOL!)! Stellar job, again. As always!
Since you asked, I believe the forms would be "I sang/I've sung" but people will get it either way and if anyone gives you shit about it, fuck em. If they understood, you succeeded.
@@Kidzelda0 Much appreciated mate! Never too old to learn things! It has been decades since that came up in my English lessons and I have been "playing it by the ear" from the beginning, and I was always bad with the things that had just to be memorised... Thanks so much and I hope you'll have a great weekend! \m/
Thank you Ziz! And thank you Glen. I haven't started recording yet but over the time I've been watching you, you've reaffirmed a bit of what I've always said such as your speaker has the biggest impact on your tone. This became obvious when we hooked a cheap generic amp head up to my brother's Marshall 2x8 and guess what it sounded like? A Marshal lol. So that definitely was the start of the pursuit of tone to me. Other things that I noted was the the tone of Mudvayne's guitars and how that fit in a mix which helped because I had an issue with going too wide on response band and notoriously trying to use so much gain the signal noise would scream and clip for a while in my beginner stages. Then the tone of Jinjer opened the door to trying to find that right gain balance. It's funny that it felt like I held off on recording because my comprehension of what I'm going for kept expanding and I feel like it's getting pretty damned close to time to try to go for it. Should had been going for it more often but the only 3 piece recording I made was in 2014 and while the mix sucks and I had an aversion to compression because of ignorant beliefs for sound purity. I did note what I did to record a bass guitar sound without having a bass and kept the tricks in mind for recording and actually a tone filter for an amp head should I build one.
This video had more publicity than usual, but it's nice to see your energy about the products you and your team are creating. That Element pluggin, though... I gotta convince my inner, cheap ass bass player to open the pocket.
Love the chill wave aestetic great work ziz love to see production values stepping up thats definetly how you GROW A CHANNEL! On the note of guitar tone; I've always preferred to think of playing an overdriven guitar like your playing the amp/fx chain and the guitar is more of a 'controller' at that point where its natural qualities are less important and its about how well it conforms for your ergo dynamic proportions and aesthetic sensibilities.
“Turn the metronome off” you say. That’s interesting considering a few years ago you said you can’t record metal without a tempo map. Btw, I agree with you about turning off the metronome. The ability to play to one is great but at the same time knowing when to play ahead of or behind the beat is what makes music exciting.
@bloomtikbloom9593 not exactly - some musicians just rush and drag instinctively but probably don’t realize they’re doing it. I do remember many years ago seeing either billy cobham or Omar hakim (I can’t recall which) on tv saying that when he started playing to a click in the 80s he realized just how much rushing and dragging he had been doing, and refined his ability to do that.
There is!, I'm suscribed, even when your screaming scares my wife every time I watch your channel before sleep time. If that's not support I don't know what it is
I don't think I can really tell what a great mix sounds like when listening through headphones from my phone. That ssid....the demo clip from your bass plugin sounds MONSTROUS!!!!
hey glenn! awesome show today! i was wondering if you could do a video on bass amp speakers, as it is a hardly talked about subject online. if there are discussions its just people telling people they cant replace their speakers because their “precious cab” cant handle them. thanks a lot!
I saw a Rodney McG video, where he did a bass pickup comparison. 4 different active EMG PJ pickup sets (original PJ, PJ-X, PJ-CSX, PJ-AX) all in the same instrument. And he even provided some frequency graphs. They sounded noticeably different.
About the Hand wired v PCB question. As long as the layout is electrically sound, there is no audible difference. There’s many different levels of quality in PCB’s. Suhr and Friedman use some of the best in the tube amp business. They also make good design choices too, like keeping high heat components off of and away from the pcb.
Glen you are the best ❤ You are trying something new for sure brother. Amazing how you use your voice to express yourself :) Much respect to your knowledge too. All the best to a fellow Canadian!
New to the channel…highly informative and entertaining. You’re like the Greg Doucette of music production. Telling the people what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.
Glen just wanted to say thanks for all you do. A few years ago I was one of those guys that believed all the BS manufacturers had been feeding us. And Ive been playing for 30 years! You have saved my so much money I would have wasted on gear. I am happy with what I have now and have stopped lusting over expensive gear that would have not have been worth it!
Could we get a series on how to use analog gear? How to mic a drum kit, how to dial in an amp, that kind of thing? Digital gear is fine, but there’s something satisfying about physical knobs and buttons
As for the Gibson rant, my ‘91 Les Paul Studio (it was a gift) sounded like hot garbage with the factor hot ceramics. Swapped in some Gibson Alnico 2 pickups and regret not doing it 12 years ago!
I really love what TwoNotes are doing. Great amps pedal with the Revolt, great speaker sim with the Cab m, this sounds juts massive. Plugged a simple Epiphone or a Mexican Strat in it and it sounds like 5000$ amps to me ! And you can record, jam, go to stage with these ! What a beauty
Glenn, I put your DI recordings where you said "that's a substantial difference in tone" through a clean amp sim and guess what? There is still a big difference in tone. That was without the original source, I had to download your entire vid and extract the audio separately but still obvious differences.
AYY THE YBA-1 IS THE HEAD I HAVE TOO(though it’s a mark ii)!! I know you did a vid on a modded one, but I would love if you could show us traynor lovers how to push a gnarly and tight tone out of it without going and dumping $200+ on an attenuator. Love the work man!
I have a Gibson FlyingV (2000-2001) and a Gibson Explorer2 (1978). I also have a very nice Schecter Diamond Series with active pickups and amazing neck. It doesn't even come close to the Gibsons. Just saying. Must say that I do love this channel.
Hey, no idea if you care about my opinion, but: I'd rather hear your (amazing!) intro song than see some clips claiming the episode is gonna be great (no need to convince me of the greatness of the episode, i am stoked for it anyhow :-) ).
I watched you for two years without subscribing . But then again im a bass player 😮 go figure ?? Sorry buddy , just subscribed 😊 .ps love your channel brother 👍
Glenn, it would be great to see a video on very basics of what it takes to record and how to use all these plugins and sims. I see the videos on the other sims you show off and your own etc. It seems daunting for a newbie as I am afraid to buy the software and not be able to actually record with it. In the meantime, I will need to search your back catalog as maybe you already made videos like that! Keep up the great work.
Glenn!!! I know it's not tone related, but for me one of the most important things I've found is fitting the instrument to yourself ergonomically. I.E. I love the look of Les Paul guitars but the neck profiles are horrendous for my hands and fit, but going over to an Ibanez RG with a Super Wizard neck was pure joy and felt like it "fit" just right. I've definitely thinned the herd of guitars that I didn't play because they didn't "feel" as good in the hands and thus, wouldn't get played or practiced with as much. While it won't make your tone better, it can definitely help with your playing in terms of practice and willingness to put in the work to be a better musician. Appreciate your hard work, love the content.
Glenn! Do a Celestion shootout between Greenbacks, Creambacks, Goldbacks, and the high-powered Redbacks. You could do the demo of these in the context of low-powered vs high-powered speakers for metal mixes. Greenbacks are pretty much the classic low-powered speaker and Redbacks are an under-appreciated high-powered speaker. My guess is most of your metal maniac audience has been told by blooze forums to use low-powered Greenbacks but might prefer characteristics of the other speakers so it’s ripe territory for a blind test.
I absolutely adore your videos and what you do, even when I feel roasted since I recently bought a Gibson Custom Shop CS-356 on a sale, which I love to bits, but I don't claim it is better than other guitars; I just love it. 🙂Good job, and keep doing awesome videos!
13:50 The only advantage of point-to-point wiring is durability. Ever look at a PCB board after 20 years? It can oxidize, flake and do other strange shit, leading to major malfunctions. I have had to personally solder PCB to re-establish proper conduction. Point-to-point will work and last forever.
Holy fuck. You dropped the bass plug in in the middle of a mix I was having problems with. And the “fix my bass” setting… it FIXED the bass haha. The original track was all floppy, old strings ( 🙄 bass players ), different dynamics in finger picking, bla bla bla (insert typical bass player nightmare) but now it actually sounds CORRECT! Thanks! 🤘🏼
RE: PCB vs Point to Point. I have some experience in this area. The hypothesis is, printed circuit boards use very thin strips of copper printed onto the board to carry the signal. Some theorize that these offer greater resistance than stranded wire, and, running in close proximity, might induce things like eddy currents, and affect capacitance. Possibly? I'm not an expert on circuit design by any means, but it would appear that printed circuit boards offer a much greater level of consistency from amp to the other. However, it's very difficult to modify or repair circuit boards. If a component goes bad in a hand-wired amp, it's pretty easy to replace, and I think that's why a lot of the old school guys who were working on their own amps preferred them. I have had extensive experience with both types of amps. I don't think anybody could tell the difference from listening. As has been pointed out so many times on this channel, most of what people experience is purely psychological. I have recorded many times, using many different amps and amp simulators, and nobody has ever been able to pick out which one is which. I don't do metal, so we're talking about clean and crunch tones here, not hi gain... At least not that often.
The funniest part of amp sims to me is some have swappable and blendable tube sounds, but they change the EQ curve because they're programmed to what people expect and no what actually happens.
This.
What actually happens? Sorry I'm new to the Tubes stuff
@@BluessNRockeffectively nothing.
@@BluessNRock slight change in volume/gain.
@@BluessNRock Depends on what amp is used and for what it is biased to. But generally it's nouances.
You’re going to be blown away with those new mojo tone speakers.
Andrew is my younger brother.
He has worked super hard on the R&D for this new line they’re putting out.
I’m so super proud of what he has
Accomplished at Mojo .
Having worked on many many many guitars over the years and owned hundreds of guitars I can verify the pickups make a difference. A difference to the cost. A difference to the look. A difference to the resale value (sometimes) and a difference to the smugness of a player.
What they don’t do is make a noticeable difference to the tones when high gain is applied especially
Love the show and I’m not a metal player but find all of what you talk about useful and valuable.
Cheers from the UK
Second that. I have 30+ guitars in my studio now, have a storage unit full of guitars and amps. And to be honest, there is no difference between the pickups when comparing humbuckers to humbuckers, single coil to single coil and so on.
And on a side note; I have a krank Krankenstein in my studio, and I have to admit, most modern high gain amps sound veeery simular. Going to start building studio cabinets (2x12) after Christmas. Want to have a wide selection of speakers to choose from rather than walls full of guitars and amp heads.
This might be a dumb question but is it the same for bass? I’ve been considering changing out the pickups on my bass. I normally di my bass so I would assume new pickups would make a noticeable difference in tone.
@@lukechavez8773 hello. I would say there’s a bigger difference when played clean but I’ve done a let Les’s comparisons on bass so I will report back if I find anything out 🙂
I've watched you on and off for a minute now and your the only one that is just straight up and as a beginner that's what I need man. Keep it slamming man 🤘🤘
I have now gone the longest period of my life without playing guitar. I took my guitar apart a while back to repair it and supe it up. But I never ended up finishing. Now I’m not the type of person that likes to talk about my ability, but I will just say playing for almost 30 years made me able to play almost anything I wanted to learn. I rarely found a song I couldn’t learn almost immediately, unless it was highly technical and then maybe a few days. But now that I haven’t played for I think 2 years now, I have completely lost my ability. I still know how to play and what to do. I just cannot do it by muscle memory anymore. It’s the craziest thing. My dad bought a new Taylor and showed me at thanksgiving and I literally froze up while trying to play it, realizing I’ve gone from what people considered extremely talented to basically nothing. I’ve always played and wanted to play so I never really understood till now how much practice actually matters. I’ve ruined my ability! I’ll get it back though.
Are you warming up every day? After an injury I couldn't play for about two years, so I had to get in the habit of doing about 1/2 hour of warmups every day, even if that was all I did that day.
Honesty is a Rare Commodity. Those that lack it, Hate it.
Thank you for all that you do Sir.
@@benburnett8109😂
This is so funny bro. Glen is a paid for advertisement platform 😭😭😭
i never wanted to sub to your channel because i didnt think it was important, then i realised how much money you saved me on pickups!
This has got to be one of the best demo channels I have seen. You're really helping out a lot.
Thank you very much!
Thanx Ziz! Thanx Glenn too. I’m headed to pick up Element bass today.
❤
Glen, I hated your show at first glance. The yelling, the attitude…. The *wait a fuggin second* amazing stream of information. Real quality information. Wrapped in an entertaining format. *faaaaark* I put my cork sniffing level Gibson down and got subscribe.
My bro has been waiting for ELE2.0 for 9 months. I hope this breaks his hiatus on drums. =)
The Design of Experiments vs informal home experiments. Continue on, it's VERY entertaining.
I will NOT tolerate Creed bashing. Creed is the greatest source of memes in the year 2023.
Mark Tremonti truly is a wonderful player, though.
Same though its really Scott Stapp that's the meme! Mark Tremonti and the rest of the band on the other hand have proven to be national to worldwide treasures thanks to the existence of Alter Bridge and their other related projects!
Rick beato had to learn the hard way
@@rockmovieswithtyler1989 Yeah meth did a number on him lol. I actually saw a virtual jam session Scott did last year and he looked pretty healthy so hopefully he’s kicked the drugs lmao they made him extra goofy.😂
What about Nickleback?
I just wanted to say i appreciate your videos. I was also a user on sneap forums from about 2007 - 2011. You're doing gods work showing people what really matters in a recording chain.
Hopefully we get a breakdown of the ELE update soon!
It's like a lot of people just refuse to understand that how fun it is for the guitar player to play a big amp through a big cab in a room, what feel and inspiration it gives the player, has absolutely ZERO to do with the recorded tone. What you capture with microphones is hardly even in the same realm as the sound in the room.
It's like comparing actors in a theatre to movies. In movies you have effects, you can zoom in on people's faces, focus on details. On the stage they need makeup for us to see their facial expressions at all. Different tools are needed to convey what we wish in different situations.
And the microphone capturing a tiny fraction of the cabinet's sound really don't care how much the chugs from your mega tube amp tickles your balls at the other end of the room. And strangely enough it doesn't care about what you paid for the amp either.
If that means a lot to you then you’re paying way too much attention to the wrong things still.
yeah, well, unless you invite people in your rehearsal room, you'll always end up with a microphone in front of your speaker anyways.
Also, all the guitar tones from your favorite artists have one thing in common: it probably has a microphone in front of the speaker.
Yeah dude loudness and size matters, these little kids today that play guitar listen to gaay asss shhiiitt like polyphia if that tells you anything
So what is your point exactly?
Yep, amp sims don't scare you into learning to control volume as a tool and friend. And moving air like that has a provable effect to the sound. Nobody is really doing that video on this channel,.. have to sell all the sims they make.
Digging the Rembrandt lighting in this video. Looks extra metal. Keep this up!
If you want that "clank" in your bass tone, add treble and change your strings
Great work Ziz, you really have things popping!
You know it! ❤
TY, Ziz you do amazing work!
❤
Subscribed. You and I together are stronger than alone, even considering the TH-cam channel deficit. I will be opening up my channel in 2024, to ruthlessly push my ridiculous online music business, something that so far nobody wants.
I just picked up the Element Bass. It sounds pretty amazing. Thanks.
The TH-cam algorithm threw up a video called something like "the best guitars for shredding" this morning. I Immediately commented "66Samus proved that you can shred on an Avril Lavigne telecaster if you are a good enough musician". The ad was still playing when I finished writing the so I navigated away without listening, let alone watching the video. Haven't got any reactions or replies yet but I'm looking forward to the notifications for that comment.
P.S. Thanks Ziz!
Yes, the issues some are experiencing on Element bass are being looked at - I can attest to that! Good support and communication for sure.
The Element "Fix My Bass" actually just fixed my bass. Holy shit this is awesome.
I'm not an electrical engineer, either, but have done a bit of reading on the subject. My opinion, for what it's worth: The best way to lay out an amp has the shortest electrical distance between components. Long wires, or long circuit traces, are opportunities for noise and hum to get into your signal path. In a guitar amp, a PCB is probably the way to go to keep signal paths short.
realy good editing and camera zooms, it improves the feel of quality in the friday episode!
❤
Seriously, I suck at guitar, I can't get anything out of one, even if I kick it down the stairs. Still, I love people who are passionate about whatever, so I subscribed and hit the notification bell. Good luck.
As someone who has worked in electronics since the 80´s id say that point to point vs PCB is just about how its built and maybe point to point is a bit sturdier, certainly wire connected chassis mounted tube sockets is going to be a lot sturdier than PCB mounted tube sockets where both the heat and mechanical stress from holding the tube as well as changing the tubes can put stress on the solderings. Given the same components and circuit they will of course sound the same
Yup. Just a difference in mounting and points of failure
I definitely plan to pick up a copy of element bass, sounds great!
And to touch on the PCB vs point to point wiring in an amp;
A very experienced amp tech said, "Are hand wired amps better? Depends on the hands."
When amps are designed, they will usually be hand weird to be able to easily move wires and components to eliminate unwanted noise.The design is then translated in to a PCB for consistency.
Then the board will be troubleshooted for hot spots. (Mosfets burning holes in your PCB makes for a bad day)
At the end of the day, point to point is still usually easier to service, but PCB will turn out fewer "end of Friday" amps.
Also, with lead free solder being a requirement for newly manufactured amps, you are really going to have to watch for the solder cracking on any load bearing components. (Cracked solder leaving loose tube sockets, etc)
Turret board p2p is not that bad for service. The nightmare is the traditional p2p. Try getting a video or picture of an older Vox AC15 or AC30 , and imagine to find or replace one capacitor or resistors.
Glenn you and your output goes from strength to strength! Just want to say thanks from the UK🤘
Good morning, Baron! Thanks from Canada!
I have been a subscriber for years. Your channel is by far the best, no BS channel in my opinion. Keep doing your thing Glen!
Yeah Glenn, I the Element Bass Plugin sounds really good. I swear you have been working on it for at least 3 years or something like that. I really gotta get my hands on it now that its out!
Ziz, you really do amazing work. It must be a lot of fun getting to work with Glenn. The shows look and flow really well. And Glenn, once again, thank you for the attention to the bass guitar lately. I'm thinking more of them are actually listening now because Singularity was a bit of a wakeup call.
Thank you, Ziz!!!!!!!!!!!
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Love these videos! Thanks Glenn! And thanks Ziz!
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Goldback user here. I also use Vox Bluebacks. The Goldbacks are great for loud crystal cleans and 80's thrash/classic metal tones. I have a 2x12 with one Goldback and one Blueback and it's really warm and throaty. In fact, every time I've taken it into a studio the engineer has really enjoyed working with it.
This is a great opportunity to get into music and actually push boundaries of what's musically possible. What a time we live in.
Thanks Glenn, I focused muy gear purchase on Speakers and cabinet (2 EVH greenbacks made it!), now I have a killer tone from my H&K Tubemeister. Before watching your videos I was thinking that this generalized idea of [ EXPENSIVE GEAR = GREAT TONE ] was just a local thing here where I live, but I see that this is global thing. You are doing great Job!
Thanks, Ziz. And thanks, Glenn! You finally bring science back to people.
Love your work, Ziz. I especially dig the cassette tape drive. No wonder why it takes all night to NO CARRIER
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Always enjoy watching, and learning from, your posts. Thanks to Ziz for the awesome editing!🤘🏻
axe fx and quad cortex are expensive pieces of gear as well. I would suggest to use Hotone Ampero 2 - 500 bucks or smth similar for A/B testing
Built a couple guitar in college. For the class they give you a generic list of materials, including inexpensive basic hum-buckers.
My original plan was to eventually “upgrade” to “better” pick-ups. But after playing the guitars, the only difference I could hear or feel between my generic pickups vs. my EMG guitars I already owned was the output levels.
Later on as I learned about guitar signal chains by channels like yours or Ola’s, once you throw in a boost pedal in the signal, you get the increased output and saturation to obtain crushing and chuggy sounds.
I specially like Ola’s approach to pick ups, which he has stuck with even after starting his guitar brand. The approach is to get as neutral as possible pickups with a moderate output. Let the rest of the signal chain take care of the sounds and tones.
Thanks for all the work you put in this debunking videos, my wallet truly appreciates it.
Regarding the possibility of a blind test for real amps versus amp sims like the Quad Cortex and AxeFX - can I request adding the free open source NAM modeller in the test too, if you can? As it's free, it's worth getting the word out there about what it can do, and the extra butthurt from people spending hundreds or thousands will just add to the entertainment value as well. Thanks again for the good work, Glenn!
Hooray for editors leaving in multiple self-affirming promotion moments! Thanks Ziz. Love you, man. (...and thanks to Glenn for recognizing the value of the editor... you angry bastard.)
Dig the sneak peak intro!
Thanks Zizz! You rock the Casbah!
awww yeah (Macho Man Randy Savage Voice)
Long time freeloader on this channel. Because it is so good. Back 45+ years ago the better pickup makers DID include FREQ graph in box. I play what feels good and worry very little about sound. Sound can be changed at so many points after the guitar.
Those Mojotone Pups in my PRS DW CE24 are amaaaazing! It's my first "modern" pickup and I love em! I do play at varying guitar volume and tone though!
If you're still not using ELE, get it now! I dabble in metal for fun, but I write darkwave/goth stuff. The drums, especially the roomy preset, are phenomenal. They've replaced almost every drum groove I've written with exception to those that are meant to be electronic or sound like direct samples from a machine. Hell, just use them under your current grooves and samples at the very least and you will hear a very satisfying difference. If you want the kit tracked under separate channels, Glenn has a tutorial for Reaper. I've done it in FL Studio and made a preset for it. It's excellent! Checkout the VST and believe me when I say it has been such an enhancement to the overall flow of my mixes. Oh, Singularity is cool too. And so is Element. Try Element on your drums. It's gnarly!
Thank you so much for the kind words! That is awesome to hear it's getting used on darkwave stuff! All the plugins we make aren't meant just for Metal or Rock. It's meant to work with most modern music as long as it involves drums, bass and guitar in some form.
13:24 "That's because they'd have to come to your shows for that to happen" - what a burn!!
The other day I recorded the rhythm guitar tracks to a new song I'm recording using a 3/4 size Strat copy. It's got fairly light gauge strings on it, usually, you'd use heavier strings on a small guitar, but the neck isn't too much shorter, so these work. It gave me a great sound, because the strings are at a low tension, it has that downtuned type sound, but in standard tuning.
I only used it because I hadn't played the song for years, or practised it, and I just couldn't get it down cleanly enough on my new full sized guitar, which I wanted to use as it has a humbucker in the bridge. Now though, I'm definitely going to record the other two 'metal' songs with it. Going to do an album type thing and work on all three songs together, whatever I settle on for one, I'll use on the other two.
Where are we at with the video of “Is Tone In The Strings?” Video? I’ve been super curious on how you will eliminate variables to get an accurate measurement! I’m sure they take forever but super excited!
GLLLEEEEENNNNNN !! Your delivery is great. Subjects are great and inspire me to try new things.
Becoming one of my favorite! Solving the problems of the world, one at a time !! THANK YOU !
@zizgorlin I've sang (sung? IDK, English is not my mother tongue...) your praises in several videos now. Last weeks SMGVC was the last time. Great to see Glenn sing your praises too (probably the only type of songs of praise Glenn will sing... LOL!)! Stellar job, again. As always!
Since you asked, I believe the forms would be "I sang/I've sung" but people will get it either way and if anyone gives you shit about it, fuck em. If they understood, you succeeded.
@@Kidzelda0 Much appreciated mate! Never too old to learn things! It has been decades since that came up in my English lessons and I have been "playing it by the ear" from the beginning, and I was always bad with the things that had just to be memorised... Thanks so much and I hope you'll have a great weekend! \m/
I appreciate it brother!
@@zizgorlin Anytime brother! Keep up the great work!
Thank you Ziz! And thank you Glen. I haven't started recording yet but over the time I've been watching you, you've reaffirmed a bit of what I've always said such as your speaker has the biggest impact on your tone. This became obvious when we hooked a cheap generic amp head up to my brother's Marshall 2x8 and guess what it sounded like? A Marshal lol. So that definitely was the start of the pursuit of tone to me. Other things that I noted was the the tone of Mudvayne's guitars and how that fit in a mix which helped because I had an issue with going too wide on response band and notoriously trying to use so much gain the signal noise would scream and clip for a while in my beginner stages. Then the tone of Jinjer opened the door to trying to find that right gain balance. It's funny that it felt like I held off on recording because my comprehension of what I'm going for kept expanding and I feel like it's getting pretty damned close to time to try to go for it. Should had been going for it more often but the only 3 piece recording I made was in 2014 and while the mix sucks and I had an aversion to compression because of ignorant beliefs for sound purity. I did note what I did to record a bass guitar sound without having a bass and kept the tricks in mind for recording and actually a tone filter for an amp head should I build one.
Way for me to take like 5 comments and cram them into one XD
This video had more publicity than usual, but it's nice to see your energy about the products you and your team are creating.
That Element pluggin, though... I gotta convince my inner, cheap ass bass player to open the pocket.
Love the chill wave aestetic great work ziz love to see production values stepping up thats definetly how you GROW A CHANNEL! On the note of guitar tone; I've always preferred to think of playing an overdriven guitar like your playing the amp/fx chain and the guitar is more of a 'controller' at that point where its natural qualities are less important and its about how well it conforms for your ergo dynamic proportions and aesthetic sensibilities.
“Turn the metronome off” you say. That’s interesting considering a few years ago you said you can’t record metal without a tempo map. Btw, I agree with you about turning off the metronome. The ability to play to one is great but at the same time knowing when to play ahead of or behind the beat is what makes music exciting.
@bloomtikbloom9593 not exactly - some musicians just rush and drag instinctively but probably don’t realize they’re doing it. I do remember many years ago seeing either billy cobham or Omar hakim (I can’t recall which) on tv saying that when he started playing to a click in the 80s he realized just how much rushing and dragging he had been doing, and refined his ability to do that.
That bass plug in is tight! Love it
There is!, I'm suscribed, even when your screaming scares my wife every time I watch your channel before sleep time. If that's not support I don't know what it is
Thanks Ziz!
Did you edit in a Kung Fury clip? haha love it!
Laser Raptors!
I don't think I can really tell what a great mix sounds like when listening through headphones from my phone. That ssid....the demo clip from your bass plugin sounds MONSTROUS!!!!
hey glenn! awesome show today! i was wondering if you could do a video on bass amp speakers, as it is a hardly talked about subject online. if there are discussions its just people telling people they cant replace their speakers because their “precious cab” cant handle them. thanks a lot!
I saw a Rodney McG video, where he did a bass pickup comparison. 4 different active EMG PJ pickup sets (original PJ, PJ-X, PJ-CSX, PJ-AX) all in the same instrument. And he even provided some frequency graphs. They sounded noticeably different.
About the Hand wired v PCB question. As long as the layout is electrically sound, there is no audible difference.
There’s many different levels of quality in PCB’s. Suhr and Friedman use some of the best in the tube amp business. They also make good design choices too, like keeping high heat components off of and away from the pcb.
Glen you are the best ❤ You are trying something new for sure brother. Amazing how you use your voice to express yourself :)
Much respect to your knowledge too. All the best to a fellow Canadian!
New to the channel…highly informative and entertaining. You’re like the Greg Doucette of music production. Telling the people what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.
Who is the more plates more dates of guitar 😂
Glen just wanted to say thanks for all you do. A few years ago I was one of those guys that believed all the BS manufacturers had been feeding us. And Ive been playing for 30 years! You have saved my so much money I would have wasted on gear. I am happy with what I have now and have stopped lusting over expensive gear that would have not have been worth it!
I'm a drummer who wants to support Glenn, so I hit subscribe TWICE. 🤣🤣😂😂
Would love to hear Charles Berthoud's review of The Element Bass.
Ask on his channel!
Could we get a series on how to use analog gear? How to mic a drum kit, how to dial in an amp, that kind of thing? Digital gear is fine, but there’s something satisfying about physical knobs and buttons
GLLLEEEEEENNNN!!!!! I just wanted to hear you read that in your sped up voice. Keep up the great work. Love the show!
Thanks, Ziz!!! Oh yeah, and thanks Glenn, too.
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Heck with the speakers. The last element in the signal chain is Ziz. Great tone, Ziz.
❤ I'm buffered!
As for the Gibson rant, my ‘91 Les Paul Studio (it was a gift) sounded like hot garbage with the factor hot ceramics. Swapped in some Gibson Alnico 2 pickups and regret not doing it 12 years ago!
Thanks Ziz for all your hard work.
I really love what TwoNotes are doing. Great amps pedal with the Revolt, great speaker sim with the Cab m, this sounds juts massive. Plugged a simple Epiphone or a Mexican Strat in it and it sounds like 5000$ amps to me ! And you can record, jam, go to stage with these ! What a beauty
I don't know why but when I read the title I just heard lennon singing "here comes the hate, here comes the hate, it's alright"
Glenn, I put your DI recordings where you said "that's a substantial difference in tone" through a clean amp sim and guess what? There is still a big difference in tone.
That was without the original source, I had to download your entire vid and extract the audio separately but still obvious differences.
Ok, now put on even a tiny amount of gain. The differences vanish.
@SpectreSoundStudios I did that too. More importantly I think the dynamics of some of the pickups were different despite the amp.
Grateful for you Glenn as well!
AYY THE YBA-1 IS THE HEAD I HAVE TOO(though it’s a mark ii)!! I know you did a vid on a modded one, but I would love if you could show us traynor lovers how to push a gnarly and tight tone out of it without going and dumping $200+ on an attenuator. Love the work man!
I have a Gibson FlyingV (2000-2001) and a Gibson Explorer2 (1978). I also have a very nice Schecter Diamond Series with active pickups and amazing neck.
It doesn't even come close to the Gibsons. Just saying.
Must say that I do love this channel.
Thank you Ziz. Thank you Glenn.
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Awesome vids Thanks Glen & Ziz
Hey, no idea if you care about my opinion, but: I'd rather hear your (amazing!) intro song than see some clips claiming the episode is gonna be great (no need to convince me of the greatness of the episode, i am stoked for it anyhow :-) ).
I watched you for two years without subscribing . But then again im a bass player 😮 go figure ?? Sorry buddy , just subscribed 😊 .ps love your channel brother 👍
Glenn, it would be great to see a video on very basics of what it takes to record and how to use all these plugins and sims. I see the videos on the other sims you show off and your own etc. It seems daunting for a newbie as I am afraid to buy the software and not be able to actually record with it.
In the meantime, I will need to search your back catalog as maybe you already made videos like that!
Keep up the great work.
His back catalog is extremely helpful. I couldnt set up mics the wat i do or recorrd my drums if it wasnt for Glenn
Brilliant to show what is coming to the show to push the subscriptions 👏
Glenn!!! I know it's not tone related, but for me one of the most important things I've found is fitting the instrument to yourself ergonomically. I.E. I love the look of Les Paul guitars but the neck profiles are horrendous for my hands and fit, but going over to an Ibanez RG with a Super Wizard neck was pure joy and felt like it "fit" just right. I've definitely thinned the herd of guitars that I didn't play because they didn't "feel" as good in the hands and thus, wouldn't get played or practiced with as much. While it won't make your tone better, it can definitely help with your playing in terms of practice and willingness to put in the work to be a better musician. Appreciate your hard work, love the content.
Glenn! Do a Celestion shootout between Greenbacks, Creambacks, Goldbacks, and the high-powered Redbacks. You could do the demo of these in the context of low-powered vs high-powered speakers for metal mixes. Greenbacks are pretty much the classic low-powered speaker and Redbacks are an under-appreciated high-powered speaker. My guess is most of your metal maniac audience has been told by blooze forums to use low-powered Greenbacks but might prefer characteristics of the other speakers so it’s ripe territory for a blind test.
I absolutely adore your videos and what you do, even when I feel roasted since I recently bought a Gibson Custom Shop CS-356 on a sale, which I love to bits, but I don't claim it is better than other guitars; I just love it. 🙂Good job, and keep doing awesome videos!
Thanks Ziz!!! Love your work and Glen is pretty cool too. Thanks Ziz for making him look good.😂 Rock on 🤘🤘
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13:50 The only advantage of point-to-point wiring is durability. Ever look at a PCB board after 20 years? It can oxidize, flake and do other strange shit, leading to major malfunctions. I have had to personally solder PCB to re-establish proper conduction. Point-to-point will work and last forever.
Holy fuck. You dropped the bass plug in in the middle of a mix I was having problems with. And the “fix my bass” setting… it FIXED the bass haha. The original track was all floppy, old strings ( 🙄 bass players ), different dynamics in finger picking, bla bla bla (insert typical bass player nightmare) but now it actually sounds CORRECT! Thanks! 🤘🏼
Hell yeah! Really happy to see this! Happy to hear it fixed your bass :)
Thanks, Ziz!! 🤘
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“Element Bass”? I misheard it as “Elephant Bass” and now I can’t stop calling it that....kinda catchy.....
RE: PCB vs Point to Point. I have some experience in this area. The hypothesis is, printed circuit boards use very thin strips of copper printed onto the board to carry the signal. Some theorize that these offer greater resistance than stranded wire, and, running in close proximity, might induce things like eddy currents, and affect capacitance. Possibly?
I'm not an expert on circuit design by any means, but it would appear that printed circuit boards offer a much greater level of consistency from amp to the other.
However, it's very difficult to modify or repair circuit boards. If a component goes bad in a hand-wired amp, it's pretty easy to replace, and I think that's why a lot of the old school guys who were working on their own amps preferred them.
I have had extensive experience with both types of amps. I don't think anybody could tell the difference from listening.
As has been pointed out so many times on this channel, most of what people experience is purely psychological. I have recorded many times, using many different amps and amp simulators, and nobody has ever been able to pick out which one is which.
I don't do metal, so we're talking about clean and crunch tones here, not hi gain... At least not that often.
Hey Glenn, do you plan to release Element pedal for bass? That would be great for gigging too. Cheers!