D. Gauss Posted July 3, 2001 Share Posted July 3, 2001 ok, mesa triple rectifiers, scooped mids, crunch crunch more gain.... on the bilk, i mean bulk, of today's records can you tell what kind of guitar is being played? on old songs it was easy: "september girls" by big star or lots of hendrix, you can almost see the strat.... "i can't explain" by the who and you know it's a rick 12...led zep records you can tell when page is playing a tele or a les paul..george thorogood or bb king records you know it's a hollow body...etc. what happened to individual guitar characteristics? excuse me while i plug into my 3 boss metal zones hooked up in series.... -d. gauss Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skip_dup1 Posted July 3, 2001 Share Posted July 3, 2001 I would identify two prime suspects-one, lots and lots of signal processing, specifically digital. In more than a few live shows I`ve heard, the processing on the guitars and keyboards are so similar you can barely tell them apart. The second is probably related to the proliferation of custom made or boutique guitars, that someone wouldn`t want to subject to a road tour but are great for the studio, the point being that unless you know the sound of a particular axe, you won`t know what you`re hearing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strat0124 Posted July 3, 2001 Share Posted July 3, 2001 Yeah if it's the super high gain genre, I doubt you can tell Tele from Les Paul on recordings.....some can maybe, but not my 43 year old ass. Down like a dollar comin up against a yen, doin pretty good for the shape I'm in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gsmith Posted July 3, 2001 Share Posted July 3, 2001 I think another factor in this is that guitars today are designed to ape the sound of one of the big 3 (tele, strat, les) without having a sound of their own. I have a few Teles, and while I can hear variations in their tone, I have to admit to the fact they definitely sound "tele-ish". Then I have my Yamaha RGX-TT, which is designed to cover a variety of tones. It does a lot of goods sounds (mainly in the strat to the les sounds) but it really doesn't have an RGX-TT sound (what would one be?). These guitars are designed to get close to tones of other guitars and thus are never really meant to have a voice of their own. If this ramble makes any sense, that's my take on it. Take care, Glenn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clockwirk Posted July 3, 2001 Share Posted July 3, 2001 another reason might be that with all of the modelling technology out there you don't really need to have a specific guitar. When the Roland V-G8 came out a while back they were saying you could basically put the pickup on a two by four with some strings on it and make it sound like a strat. scary. ~clockwirk~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KHAN Posted July 5, 2001 Share Posted July 5, 2001 Posted by strat0124: >>>I doubt you can tell Tele from Les Paul on recordings.....some can maybe, but not my 43 year old ass. --------------------------------- Try listening with your 43 year old ears... http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/redface.gifhttp://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/redface.gifhttp://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/eek.gifhttp://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/eek.gif ------------------ ----------- KHAN (Always hopeful, yet discontent) www.floydtribute.hpwebhost.com So Many Drummers. So Little Time... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stanner Posted July 5, 2001 Share Posted July 5, 2001 well i notice in your question you use the word "yer"guitar so i guess you mean 'mine' and the answer is so yes.my sound is totally dependent on my strat, mainly for its cleanliness of tone and those single coils&whammee... ~leo da man~ AMPSSOUNDBETTERLOUDER Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D. Gauss Posted July 5, 2001 Author Share Posted July 5, 2001 <> no, actually my inability to type and a fair ingestion of alcohol causes me to type shorter sentences wherever possible... tell me what (if any) brand of guitar was used on the current top 10... -d. gauss Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strat0124 Posted July 5, 2001 Share Posted July 5, 2001 But Khan.....my ears are only 23.....: ) Actually I can tell the difference most of the time when they are clean, but it gets really difficult to distinguish when it's the high gain POD-like sounds. On recordings specifically, many folks never knew ole Jimmy Page was using a Tele and a little Supro. There's so many ways to manipulate a guitar track sonically, moreso these days, that you can easily swap from quack to scream in short order. My fave guitar tone is vintage P90's, but realistically not many folk know that sound. Used to be you could tell because not many (save Black Sabbath) got that heavy, and it was all overdriven tube amps. And now you've got all the modeling tech/midi stuff that sorta emulates all kinds of amps, and all kinds of guitar setups. And as someone else mentioned, there's lots of guitar companies these days as well...putting out loads of sonic choices. I'm not against all this, just lamenting on the used to be. Down like a dollar comin up against a yen, doin pretty good for the shape I'm in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tedster Posted July 5, 2001 Share Posted July 5, 2001 Originally posted by strat0124: Actually I can tell the difference most of the time when they are clean, but it gets really difficult to distinguish when it's the high gain POD-like sounds. On recordings specifically, many folks never knew ole Jimmy Page was using a Tele and a little Supro. Exactly. For the most part the diff clean, and with even a natural overdrive, between most guitars is obvious, or one could make a good guess. And yes, when I was a teenager, I saw pictures of Page with a Paul...so I assumed that's what he used all the time...a Paul and that doubleneck SG. Wasn't 'til relatively recently I found out that he used a Tele quite a bit. "Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Flier Posted July 5, 2001 Share Posted July 5, 2001 You mean there are guitars in the top 10? http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif Well I could definitely tell that stuff like Communication Breakdown was NOT a Les Paul - too much bite. Definitely a Tele. Same with a lot of Page's stuff really. I think that nowadays the differences between guitars are probably noticed more by the player than the listener. For me, different guitars "make" me play differently. They just feel different. So, while my audience may not know that had I played the same part on the Tele instead of the Les Paul, I'd have played something different, *I* know that. I suspect that is true of a lot of players. However, a knowledgeable listener would probably be able to tell MY guitars apart anyhow, because I don't make much attempt to disguise their tone. As has been pointed out, that is not true of many players these days who use tons of effects and such. Not really saying that's a good thing or a bad thing though. I'm not sure that it's any great achievement for the listener to be able to tell what kind of guitar you used - I use different guitars, amps and effects for different sounds that I feel will fit the song. I think if you've used the right tool to serve the song and the other players, you've done your job, and that's the important thing, not whether your favorite guitar can be heard and recognized. That doesn't mean the guitar didn't make a difference, because it enabled YOU to do the job you did and that is why you chose it for that song. How's THAT for a comment from a purist vintage snob? http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif --Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael saulnier Posted July 6, 2001 Share Posted July 6, 2001 d gauss... The guy's a superior jokester and "part time" troll! http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif Great Question. In answer to your initial question... to your average non-musician listner, what guitar you play has "never" mattered. In fact most listeners are like the "american bandstand" variety... "uh, I kinda liked it... it had a good beat you can dance to... I give it a 7"... On the other hand for us guitplayers... what guitar is used will "always" matter. At least for this one... I'm always interested in what gear other players have, how they make it sound, and what "tricks" I can learn from their playing, setup, and toys... I can't imagine not thinking this way after so many years. Sure, you have goodies that make a tele sound like a Les Paul... but toys are FUN... aren't they? guitplayer ------------------ http://www.mp3.com/acousticvoodoo Guitar Forum CD Info http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/Forum19/HTML/000537.html I'm still "guitplayer"! Check out my music if you like... http://www.michaelsaulnier.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KJ Posted July 6, 2001 Share Posted July 6, 2001 I remember reading a hilarious interview in Bass Player with Gene Simmons where he ridiculed people who said they could tell what kind of bass was used on a particular song. Very funny. Actually, the funniest part was that people reading it actually took everything Gene said seriously. Hello, has anybody been watching? This guy dresses up like some steroided up kabucki, wears platform shoes and spits fire and fake blood in his stage act. Doesn't everybody nowadays play Ibanez's and Paul Reed Smiths on the Top 10? KJ ------------------- "50 million Elvis Presley fans can't be all wrong" - John Prine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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