gball
Ambassador of Boogie
Interesting. All my Les Pauls have different pickups (all stock) and all sound very different from one another plugged into the same rig.
Where does the tone come from.... Amplifiers
- Thread starter Headache
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Interesting. All my Les Pauls have different pickups (all stock) and all sound very different from one another plugged into the same rig.
Between my personal guitars, all loaded with humbuckers, no change.
All my guitars with humbuckers sound alike on stage.
In the studio, through headphones, you can hear subtle nuances, but that just means your are listening too hard.
The only real advantage my YelloStrat has is being ultra-light and having the tremolo, but in this band, we use both Drop D and Eb tunings, and YelloStrat hates being tuned to anything other than standard, so for tuning stability, i just use Les Pauls.
I was concerned that i might be scratching up the back of my Les Paul during Saturday's show with my jacket zipper, but i was relieved to find no damage this morning!!!
I was concerned that i might be scratching up the back of my Les Paul during Saturday's show with my jacket zipper, but i was relieved to find no damage this morning!!!
gball
Ambassador of Boogie
Y'know, I wouldn't all the differences subtle, at any volume. Yes, they all sound like "Les Paul" but they have very distinct vioices, to the point that different ones lend themselves better to different music/styles.
Clockworkmike
Ambassador of STACKS in WV SHACKS
I think every guitar I have now has a humbucker of some nature yet every single one is different sounding. Only one that isn't stock is the Tele I guess. But obviously all 5 are different models entirely, so I guess I never expected them to sound the same at all to begin with.
However, I have a 1996 Gibson SG Standard Heritage Cherry and my dad has a 1996 Gibson SG Standard Ebony Black. I know this makes absolutely zero sense, but both guitars couldnt possibly sound further apart. They are the same exact model, specs and years only differing paint jobs and yet his SG is hot. Very crisp, kinda aggressive and bright. Mine is very subdued and more classic sounding, kinda just in the middle. I have no idea why this is and both were straight from the factory, single owners.
So yeah, sometimes two exact models can't even get on the same page in terms of tone
That's a very different experience than I've had.
Remeber my Mom's 1979 Les Paul Custom???
I played it back to back through my personal amp, alongside my 2021 50's Standard Gold Top, and when i played the recording, nobody could correctly guess which guitar was which because they sounded almost identical on a recording.
I could hear a very, very subtle difference, but nobody else picked up on it.
@Mitch Pearrow SJMP - was at our show Saturday. I switched between my Fake Les Paul and my 50's Gold Top (for tuning) and there's literally no difference in how they sound, unless you are forensically listening through headphones.
Have you listened to them on recordings made during a live show? Just curious, because what i can hear in my studio, or what i hear through phones, is not anything like their live sound on a stage.
I’ve done something like this with my wife. I’ve made recordings and played them back. She is pretty good at distinguishing my guitars. She is a vocalist and has a good ear for harmonies and timbre. She can almost instantly discern a Stratocaster. But, she can usually tell my SG from my Les Paul with pretty decent accuracy. Now, understandably, as distortion is added it becomes harder to distinguish.
Also, women generally have superior hearing in the upper registers than men of the same age. But, men often are often better at localizing sounds. This actually makes some sense in light of a hunter/gatherer culture.
There has also been research to demonstrate that hearing can be hormonally affected. An interesting area of study looks at how the presence of certain hormones can affect a person’s auditory system even before birth as well as during a person’s life.
Here's something that i believe to be true.
My guitars are "forensically setup" and i think that's why they sound the same, despite having different pickups.
Pickup height and pole piece stagger are exactly the same. Nut slot width, depth, picard horn angles and nut floor contact distance are measured and replicated. Saddle depths are exactly the same. Relief is identical and measured, same with 1st and 12th fret action height.
Both guitars have aluminum ABR-1 bridges and Aluminum Tailpieces.
Interestingly, on my 2021 Gibson Les Paul 50's Standard Gold Top, the nut was already cut to the correct, published specs of + .004" above string gauge with a generous fall-away angle of roughly 22° at the tuner side, the relief was exactly .015" and the 1st fret height at the nut was dead-on the soec of .020" overall.
Each saddle was precisely cut to about 1/2 the string's diameter on the wound strings and flush with the plain strings.
The only thing i adjusted on my 2021 Gibson Les Paul 50's Standard Gold Top were the pickup height and pole piece stagger.
(When i was at Fender, i actually spoke to the setup tech who signed the card on June 22, 2021)
I think this is why my Les Pauls feel and sound the same...
(One of my Stratocaster nuts is shown below only illustrate the picard horn angles)
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Here's the people i ask to evaluate my guitar tone....
If they're happy, I'm happy...
If they're happy, I'm happy...
Believe it or not, I’ll often ask my wife. She actually has a pretty good sense of what sounds good. She has no knowledge of and has no interest in knowing anything about guitar gear. This actually proves beneficial. If I ask her opinion on some sound, there is no bias. She can just give a simple, honest assessment.
Absolutely! I also pay attention to comments like "your guitar stood out," or "the bass in front of your cabinet made my nose run."
Clockworkmike
Ambassador of STACKS in WV SHACKS
Honestly, no I had nothing, just played it into the amp in a rehearsal space
Basically when he got it, he had it paired with a Peavey Bandit 112 and I was using a JCM900 SLX. Obviously, I figured "ok, it's the amp". But if I plugged into his amp? Still sounded kinda middle of the road. If I plugged his SG into my amp though, way more attack and basically the same minus the tone of the amps of course.
Overtime, I had brought his by my house and plugged into different Marshalls and it's the same. It just sounds hotter, more aggressive and clear. Mine has always sounded underwhelming when compared to it honestly. He got his like 5 months before I got mine later that year and I bought mine BECAUSE of his, but it's never measured up to it in my ears at least.
Maybe I'll borrow it one day and record just the amp and it, no FX and contrast and compare the same tracks and maybe see if you guys hear what I hear?
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Good times!
Maybe we’re over thinking what Lukather stated. I reread the article. My take on it is that when he played thru EVH’s gear. Didn’t make him magically sound like Eddie. Played Jeff Beck’s gear. Didn’t sound like Jeff Beck. Who’d he sound like??? Himself. I don’t feel he totally discounted the gear….. more like he was giving credit where it’s due. The player. The greats have their own sound… be it David Gilmore, Santana, EVH, Brian May…. etc. And they’re gonna sound like them regardless the gear they’re playing on.
Jethro Rocker
Ambassador of Live & Loud Action
Stylistically and technique wise, yes.
Tonally, no. You can tell some players by their touch, note choice, thechnique, style. But to say the TONE stays the same is a semantic matter that I believe is wrong. Gilmour sounds like Gilmour partly because he plays a Strat thru whatever amp.
Acoustically, tonewise, if Lukather played an A chord thru EVH rig and EVH did the same, tonally they would sound the same.
If I play an A chord on Eddie’s gear it would sound like Eddie playing an A chord. Totally agree. I’ve read the article now a few times and I personally don’t get the impression that’s what Lukather (and others) is suggesting. I feel he’s suggesting that picking up an icons gear isn’t going to magically transform you into EVH…. Or Beck…. Etc.
From the article: “When asked to choose between a good guitar and a cheap amp or vice versa in the new issue of Guitarist, Lukather opted for neither: “Here’s a really good answer: there’s no magic guitar, no magic amp, there’s just magic people.”
IMHO. Your results may vary.
To approach this from a slightly more personal direction. My youngest plays a pretty mean guitar. Hands down, better than me. He can take any one of my electrics. Plug into my 20w Traynor and sound amazing. I pick it up. Change nothing and sound like crap. Doesn’t even sound like the same guitar and amp.
That’s how I read the article. The gear is nothing more than tools. The person makes the magic happen.
That’s how I read the article. The gear is nothing more than tools. The person makes the magic happen.
Jethro Rocker
Ambassador of Live & Loud Action
Absolutely. One cannot magically transorm into a certain tupe of player simply with their gear. To me it is a semantics issue dealing with tone, technique and style which all go together. Stricly tone does not equal all of those together.If I play an A chord on Eddie’s gear it would sound like Eddie playing an A chord. Totally agree. I’ve read the article now a few times and I personally don’t get the impression that’s what Lukather (and others) is suggesting. I feel he’s suggesting that picking up an icons gear isn’t going to magically transform you into EVH…. Or Beck…. Etc.
From the article: “When asked to choose between a good guitar and a cheap amp or vice versa in the new issue of Guitarist, Lukather opted for neither: “Here’s a really good answer: there’s no magic guitar, no magic amp, there’s just magic people.”
IMHO. Your results may vary.
Jethro Rocker
Ambassador of Live & Loud Action
Yep. For sure!!