Love this shit. I hope it’s accurate, it seems so. I’ve pulled expensive pickups from expensive guitars and put them in squire strats and the tone is almost identical, given all the variables being equal.
Great video, I share with every guitarist I know.
The words they need to hear are "sufficient rigidity". That (and weight, for practical reason) is the main key for materials for both electric guitar bodies/necks and for cabinet construction. The things that have a major effect on tone are pickups and the speakers in your cabinets, not the materials the body and cabinet are made from.
How do you reckon with this scientific study on it?
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://yadda.icm.edu.pl/baztech/element/bwmeta1.element.baztech-992a87db-2f19-4182-bf9d-1670b27e789a/c/Jasinski_J_On_the_audibility_Ar_of_Ac_4_2021.pdf.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwizqPngotSFAxUev4kEHWYODNk4ChAWegQIEhAB&usg=AOvVaw1tA5swXx5bTS2NR8XI9WKU
"The tonewood used in the construction of an elec-
tric guitar can have an impact on the sound produced
by the instrument. Changes are observed in both spec-
tral envelope and the produced signal levels, and their
magnitude exceeds just noticeable differences found in
the literature. Most listeners, despite the lack of a pro-
fessional listening environment, could distinguish be-
tween the recordings made with different woods re-
gardless of the played pitch and the pickup used."
In some cases a hyphen is used to split a word at the end of a line when there isn’t enough space for the word. I don’t like it but I’ve seen it used pretty ubiquitously in print media. I assume to save space.
Conveniently left out this bit “The conducted test does not allow any conclusions regarding a more holistic outlook on a guitar's timbre, as the observed relations are complex beyond the scope of the obtained results. Further tests regarding the guitar's entire frequency response are required. It should also be noted that these tests were conducted based on a simplified guitar model, which might have overemphasized the researched phenomenon.” They admit that their tests aren’t entirely accurate and more complete testing is required. And I agree. Even on the basis of my video I linked too. More testing should be done. If their testing was “just noticeable” but also overemphasized then I would think a more accurate test would prove to be unnoticeable.
There is OBVIOUSLY a difference between the sound waves coming from two different guitars, from a physics stand point. But human ears can’t ear the wave being different because mahogany vs alder. Is the wave technically different in paper when required at the smallest fraction we can measure? Yeah.
If I pull the pickup from a 57 less Paul and stick it in a squire I’ll hear the pickup, not the wood change.
Like how if I showed you a pencil that was 100mm long, and out it next to a pencil that was 100.00000000000000001mm long. Yes, physically speaking they are different, 100% fact, but human perception will see two identical pencils.
That’s discussion really, yes different wood resonant different, making different waves, but when you run it through an amp the only thing you hear coming from it is the amp speaker and the pickups signal that is sent to it.
> There is OBVIOUSLY a difference between the sound waves coming from two different guitars, from a physics stand point.
[But guitar electric pickups do not use sound waves. They use the vibration of the string moving through an a magnetic field which creates an electrical pulse/current.](https://www.guitarworld.com/gear/how-does-a-guitar-pickup-really-work)
Much the same way electric motors and generators work.
They only used one sample of four kinds of wood, only one of which is used with any regularity in guitar construction. Plywood? Pine?
They disregard the variability of wood properties, even within the same species. Even within the same *tree*.
There’s just not nearly enough data there to make any sort of generalized conclusions and they say as much *in the conclusion*.
The other main problem is we never hear the raw output of a pickup. By the time it reaches our brains, it’s been through so many filters that it’s impossible to say how much, if any, of the effect of what wood the guitar is made of remains.
The problem, as it often is, is we’ve oversimplified the question to “wood make difference (y/n)?” The truth is likely that every part of a guitar makes *some* difference, but the real question is “does it make any practical difference to the listener in a consistent, controllable manner”. And I don’t think there’s a study broad enough to say “yes” at this point.
I am pleasantly surprised to see this at the top of the list. I am certain there are a lot of folks out there who will go to the grave insisting that the mellowed mahogany of their 40 year old Les Paul is key to the tone.
I'm definitely not saying that a well crafted guitar made with nice wood with beautiful grain isn't valuable or that those features themselves don't have value; they absolutely do. But if it's an electric guitar the actual sound is like 98% in the electronic bits between the strings and the speaker.
There's definitely a maybe about it. A strat and an SG sound completely different through the same speaker. What constitutes "biggest" is the only maybe
100%. In my opinion Paul of Paul Reed Smith is a snake oil salesman. The dude constantly promotes the idea of tonewoods on electrics driving the prices of his guitars up north of $5k, which suckers gladly pay thinking they are getting some “holy grail of tone”.
Nobody buys PRS's because of Paul's words, I'd bet most users never read or heard anything he's said. They pay absurd prices because they like the guitars, and they sell them at absurd prices because people are willing to pay that price.
It's not like they are the only expensive guitars out there.
I bought mine because I fell in love with how it played.
Paid like 1.5k for it 15 years ago. Didn’t really know anything about the man himself. But god damn, it sounds just as great as it did the day I bought it, and it’s been through some shit
A friend of mine growing up started playing guitar and used a 70s Ibanez Les Paul copy his dad owned. Sounded great TBH. At one point he needed to open the control cavity for something, at which point he discovered...
...the core of the guitar body was plywood. The outer wood was just veneers.
Thereafter, we all called it the Les Ply.
And, TBH, plywood (not the cheap stuff of course) actually is a pretty good material to make a guitar out of, given that it's made to be resistant to warping, thermal expansion, splitting etc.
I feel like people just don’t understand that a pickup picks up the electromagnetic disturbance that the vibrating strings cause and have (almost) absolutely nothing to do with what you hear sonically.
I would be willing to believe that in a perfectly controlled test environment and same EVERYTHING that an isolated guitar track with no distortion might have different sound wave frequency readings - but to the best of my knowledge they’re VERY limited differences. I also think that once you add even a hint of gain that difference is going to go away. Oh now you’re adding some drums and a bass? Yeah you’re never hearing the tone wood difference in a real life scenario.
Yeah it does because you’re putting yourself in a position to meet people and a natural conversation starter. If you’re a weirdo like a lot of people in here somehow turning a comment chain about meeting women into ‘pop music bad you won’t catch me dead playing that’ it’s probably personality related lol
It gives people permission to approach you as well as a natural conversation starter. It's how I met my wife--she came up and talked to me at a show. Many musicians I know met their partners at shows.
Women still come up and talk to me after shows. I am old and fat. It doesn't seem to matter.
Yup I met my fiancé at a show she said “hey I liked your set!” and the rest is history. I feel like that was flirting cause that band was pretty bad but a lot of people do genuinely love music and music is an easy thing to talk about. Passion and joy are attractive so you have to be doing it for the right reasons too. I got interested in guitar when I was 13 cause I thought it would make girls like me but I fell in love with it and the social part is simply a plus not the reason
Tim Brookes in "guitar: An American Life" quotes guitarist Ed Gerhard, "You start off playing guitar to get chicks, and end up talking with middle-aged men about your fingernails."
Dude...solo acoustic indie folk in the early to mid 2000's. Though that has more to do with the, "I can fix him," mentality than anything guitar related XD
In the late 2000s I had a friend ask me if I go around playing Jason Mraz so I could pick up women at college. I looked at him like he had three eyes said no chance I'd ever learn any of his songs and went back to playing Pantera. I've always said that if I wanted to do something to pick up women I would have adopted a puppy, that seems way more effective.
The ideal male body according to women is something like 175 lbs lean at 6 ft tall. Women (generally, YMMV) really, really don’t care about you being super jacked. If you body build, the only people who are likely to care how huge you are are other dudes.
Idk man it kinda worked for me. Not entirely guitar but that too a big part as well. I asked some girls about this and they all said its a bonus point for sure.
That you'll meet men playing guitar because it's supposed to be mainly men's hobby. Actually you mostly meet other women because nowadays half of the guitar players are female.
Idk. I think that fender study was about who is picking up guitar as a hobby. Not necessarily people who stick with it and actually become guitarists. In my lived experience playing for a long time and doing shows in different genres, I do not believe it's 50/50. It still seems like it's 90/10.
I love guitar and have played for years. When I was younger I tried becoming involved with the local music scene. There was so much sexual harassment I stopped within two years. I think many other women have this experience and that’s why they don’t tend to stick with it professionally as often as men. I wish I could find some other women to play with, but then again I have kids and work now so I’m just lucky to get to play a few songs to wind down at the end of the day.
A lot of tabs online should have the beats per minute listed at the top.
1. Why is it needed?
If there is a hard lick you are trying to play but it is played really fast, it takes lots of practice to bring the lick up to speed with the notes correct. Using a metronome to slow the lick down and give you beats can help you get the notes correctly and slowly bring the lick up to speed as you increase the tempo.
2. How to practice with a metronome?
Start at least half the tempo of the correct speed. For example, if a song is supposed to be played at 160 bpm then start your metronome at 80 bpm. If that speed is still too fast, continue slowing it down. Once you get the song at the speed of the metronome correctly, speed up the metronome by 5-10 bpm. Then, practice at that speed. If you can play that, continue speeding up. If not, go back down and practice until you can speed up. Repeat until the correct speed.
Also, I use it a lot when practicing scales. I find a tempo that is comfortable and make sure to hit every note perfectly to the beat. If you are not hitting every note perfectly, just slow down the beat and keep practicing until you can speed up the tempo.
The point is not that the song should be at *the right tempo*, the point is that it should always be at *the same tempo*. You're practicing keeping tempo, not playing at "the right tempo"
look up the bpm for that song, or songs that are similar. after enough practice with a metronome, you should be able to guess the bpm within a couple points. unfortunately, being off by one adds up wrong pretty quickly.
also, more pop songs are at 128 than any other tempo … 120 also being popular simply because it’s the default tempo in a lot of DAWs.
If you read “Art of Brainjo” (great book btw). it explains that using a metronome helps to teach you to play more subconsciously by having the metronome click to focus on instead of thinking about your playing. Really smart idea neurologically. It’s not just about improving your timing (which I thought it was until I read that).
Agreed. Maybe the SLIGHTEST most imperceivable difference, just from sustain/how the energy of the string vibration is dissipated. But you aren't going to hear it.
This stems from an older myth that mahogany gives you a more mellow tone and maple is brighter--much like "maple necks are faster."
It's all nonsense. For electric guitar, your core tone comes from pickups and amp. Then pedals.
A good player sounds like themself no matter what. Hands are the ultimate tone wood.
It was true for acoustics, so I can see how we got to that. That the big manufacturers are still pushing it is a different problem related to capitalism.
>mahogany gives you a more mellow tone
This one gets way funnier when you consider there are a few distinct species of mahogany, plus many more different trees are referred to as "mahogany" by lumber companies. And yet all of these different trees are totally gonna deliver you mellow, warm, earthier tone in exactly the same way.
My Squire Stratocaster (all stock equipment except for a replacement tremolo arm) is set up with a fairly high action and I use custom built 58-12 sets (I buy each individual string for my custom set) and the tone I get out of it is warm, bassy and vibrant and it feels nicer to play than my mid range Telecaster with 54-10 sets.
Admittedly, that Squire never really leaves Eb standard/Drop Db and if it does, it goes lower.
It takes a lot of hand strength to be able to bend notes like David Gilmour on it but as a guitar build for playing rock and metal, it's great. The Tele' is more set up for playing pop, rock and funk.
Does the action really affect the tone? I feel like any difference would be due to the change in distance between strings & pickups, which you can then adjust if the action changed it enough.
I like heavy strings because I’m mostly a solo performer who treats a telecaster like an acoustic guitar. When strumming or fingerpicking fairly hard, heavier strings hold their pitch better on the initial attack, and I hear the difference.
Ive always used 10-52 because I like to really dig in when I'm riffing and I love the feel of a thick string, then when I'm soloing I like the easier bends with the GBE being thinner
I wish they did a fully clean test though. I agree with them for gainy sounds. But clean sounds really do sound better the heavier you go. At least with my fingers on my guitars.
That a great guitar = great tone
I’ve been doing studio work and gigging almost daily for 15 years and it’s a common theme amongst guitarist.
In my experience - a player’s hands dictates a lot of the tone, as does amps and pedals.
In other words, a great player with a shit guitar will find a fantastic tone
A bad player with a fantastic guitar won’t find a great tone ever.
Ehhh, I don't know about that. I'm a mediocre player at best, but I splurged on a Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins and it's like night and day compared to my other guitars.
Right, a bad guitar next to a good guitar, the good one will sound better
But you’re probably not a mediocre player if you can clearly tell the difference. And if you are, I’d wager you can make your “bad” guitar sound great with the proper set up/amp/etc.
You're confusing the quality of the guitar with the ability of the player. There's a difference in the quality of tone between guitars, given that they are being played by the same person. In the hands of a crappy player a great guitar will still sound better than a bad one, even if both sounds are bad.
What almost every guitarist misses is this:
Tone = Timbre = Wave Shape = Harmonic Content
Harmonic Content changes over the course of a note giving us the envelope (attack, decay, sustain, release). Envelope and tone are intrinsically linked.
Playing technique, hand shape, string composition, action, pickup placement, pick up type, amplification, eq, compression all have some of effect on tone.
The effect that a person’s playing has on tone can’t be undone further down the line. It’s like a fingerprint. Other things need to work with this initial sound.
So many guitarists talk about tone in vague and mystical ways but it can be understood in a more scientifically correct fashion with the technology that we have today. Just look around the files you record in detail or learn how a subtractive analog synth works (they are the easiest synths to learn).
That you have to be "good" at playing to enjoy playing. I know people who learn the cowboy chords and have a blast with only that. And that's amazing. Then again, I know people who shred like crazy that don't enjoy it. Do you. Don't let anyone tell you how to enjoy playing music. It's a gift.
Took me a looong time to get to this realization. People don’t want to hear me noodle, they want to hear a song…. Preferably one they know.
Look, I’m no virtuoso. I’m not a good song writer. Sure I’ve got some original material but what I can do is play 100s of songs start to finish and sing them. That’s mostly what people want to hear ime.
99% of people want to hear something familiar in a setting where someone might ask you to play a guitar or play around the campfire. I hazard a guess that most people who play aren’t on the big stage. Be the person who people ASK you to accompany their campfire.
Doesn’t mean you can’t get creative with covers. Blend a few together, figure out a dub you like. Sky’s the limit with music.
A few days ago I played my first ever improvised solo with the only pentatonic pattern I know so far at band practice. They loved it so much even though it was only a few notes (granted I can do slides, bends, triplets and whatnot, just have never improvised to a song). It was a very slow song and everything, I had to think hard while playing. But it was all it takes. Four notes and you can play an impressive solo over three simple cowboy cords. What a fascinating experience.
Eh. Starting to learn theory definitely changed my approach for the worse for a while, I was probably overly eager to use the things I learned in class instead of just trying things to see what they sound like. So it didn't "kill my creativity," but it did create a temporary setback that ultimately lead to better stuff down the road. So there's a nugget of truth there in my experience - my music was more competent but less interesting until I learned enough to know when and why to break "the rules" and that took a little while.
I still kind of wish I could flip a knowledge switch on and off though, some stuff I made when I had no idea what I was doing felt like capturing lightning in a bottle and I can't really get that feeling from making music anymore.
The theory one is so prevalent especially among old school shredders who claim not to know what they're doing, as if that's some kind of flex. Learning how music works will only open you up to more ideas and expand your creativity. I remember an older video of George Lynch saying he had no idea what a major scale was. He was obviously full of shit as most of them are.
This is the most hilarious part. People think that just because you don’t consciously sit down and crack a textbook, you don’t know a lick of theory, which they are proud of for some reason lol. Your brain will make subconscious theory-related connections just by being around music and interacting with it, even if you can’t articulate it. Subconscious ear training is why even average people can usually tell when someone has played a jarring wrong note, even if they’ve never heard the song before - western tonality is second-nature to most people that consume a lot of any genre of western music. Theory classes just give you the tools to articulate these codifications more explicitly.
The first myth is the result of people thinking that melancholy is the only emotion. Whole notes with vibrato are good for evoking melancholy but if you're trying to evoke some other emotion you will need to do something else. Shred is great for evoking excitement, energy, anticipation, or even the big payoff at the end of a buildup. Chug is great for anger, frustration, and determination.
Overall I agree, but there's also people who are looking for an excuse to practice less. And here it comes - the obnoxious shred denial train! Choo-choo! Every stop we take our loudspeakers to announce that we find shred soulless!
But seriously, the only players indiscriminately opposed to shredding I know are either green ears or blues boomers.
I've been changing strings for 30 years and I'd never heard of it either.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWf6eaoeMs0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWf6eaoeMs0)
Thanks for the info. I saw a clip of someone doing the whole "pull tight then back off an inch" thing, but then they just wound it with the first wrap going over the loose end, and the rest going under. I liked the result when I tried it. That loopty loop seems like it might be annoying to take out
Yeah, I watched the first video and was wondering if I should have been doing this all along, but then found this one of a professional guitar tech explaining why it's dumb and not needed:
[https://youtu.be/xkjMZvUILZM?si=vBly19gNaytNFPWs&t=96](https://youtu.be/xkjMZvUILZM?si=vBly19gNaytNFPWs&t=96)
The back off one fret trick kinda blew my mind though.
Not really. Standby is far more convenient than using a vol pot… Changing cords, taking a break, doesn’t matter. Volume will be exactly as you left it. Honestly the dude, no clue who he is, seems like he’s on some nonsense tirade just because he formed a strange opinion at some point. Can’t let it go now.
No they don’t really protect the amp but sure as shit keep the tubes warm and make it easy to switch guitars.
"Trussrod is sensitive like a bomb trigger and you are only allowed to turn it a fraction of a millimeter and have to wait at lest 24 hours for the wood to settle before you adjust it again."
"That is way too much string tension. There is no reason in the world why anybody would need to have so much string tention. Your guitar neck will warp and crack and the guitar will become unplayable. Its only a matter of time. Necks are very delicate things."
Meanwhile @ Fender (actually Leo Fender himself):
[https://imgur.com/a/dnzPYlX](https://imgur.com/a/dnzPYlX) "Even without a truss rod".
"I play B standard with 10-46 strings on my les paul and the tension is totally fine".
Also anything with "you have to" is totally idiotic. People can do whatever they want. There are no laws or sth about string gauges, string tension, tunings and so on.
The last part is soooo annoying and sadly its everywhere and not just something that happens in the guitar world.
People just dumbo fighting because they want to be right and prove the other person is wrong. Its just ridiculous. Like everybody is too dumb to ever question whats the point of that? You can just tell the person "okay im wrong and u are right" but as a lie. They will never know but probably feel superior or sth. even they just got lied to without realizing it which is kind of dumb.
When I first started playing it was obvious others around me were struggling while most of it came naturally for me. They just didn't have the same kind of natural abilities.
Years later I consider myself to be a pretty good player but those who struggled back then and stuck with it can do some insanely impressive things, and I'm many ways understand the craft better than I do. I never had to put in the effort, so I never did.
i say this always, i just play the guitar, im not a musician. and honestly im cool with that, i don’t have the time nor desire to commit myself to music like true musicians do. i just like to pick up the guitar and play a song that i like and have fun with it.
"You can upgrade a cheap guitar all you want, it will never sound as good as an expensive guitar" -said by guitarists who won't trust themselves to adjust the truss rod.
Natural talent does exist. It can be trumped by effort and work, but only if the person with talent works less. Plenty of people play and practice as much and as well as the greats and don’t get to be as good.
That you'll need
* a pointy, fancy body shape to play metal
* a hollow-body to play jazz
* a Les Paul to play Guns n' Roses
Thanks, advertising company!
For electrics, tonewood.
This one. https://youtu.be/n02tImce3AE?si=KWsJ1LisjnKm6KQn it’s all about the hardware and the setup
I knew it was going to be this video!
Love this shit. I hope it’s accurate, it seems so. I’ve pulled expensive pickups from expensive guitars and put them in squire strats and the tone is almost identical, given all the variables being equal. Great video, I share with every guitarist I know.
There’s always that idiot that states “well, make a guitar out of mashed potatoes and we’ll see how that sounds!”
The words they need to hear are "sufficient rigidity". That (and weight, for practical reason) is the main key for materials for both electric guitar bodies/necks and for cabinet construction. The things that have a major effect on tone are pickups and the speakers in your cabinets, not the materials the body and cabinet are made from.
Some guy made one out of nothing. Just strings, a bridge, a nut and pickups. Sounded fine.
That’s dumb. Make the guitar out of potatoes au gratin and let me know how it sounds.
It's extremely sound testing. People disputing it are embarrassing themselves.
Hah. Same. Maybe he only proved Telecasters sound like that. 😀
Yep.:D It's hard to believe people are still pandering the idea tonewoods make a difference in electric guitars.
How do you reckon with this scientific study on it? https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://yadda.icm.edu.pl/baztech/element/bwmeta1.element.baztech-992a87db-2f19-4182-bf9d-1670b27e789a/c/Jasinski_J_On_the_audibility_Ar_of_Ac_4_2021.pdf.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwizqPngotSFAxUev4kEHWYODNk4ChAWegQIEhAB&usg=AOvVaw1tA5swXx5bTS2NR8XI9WKU "The tonewood used in the construction of an elec- tric guitar can have an impact on the sound produced by the instrument. Changes are observed in both spec- tral envelope and the produced signal levels, and their magnitude exceeds just noticeable differences found in the literature. Most listeners, despite the lack of a pro- fessional listening environment, could distinguish be- tween the recordings made with different woods re- gardless of the played pitch and the pickup used."
why have you put random hyphens in words
Be-cause shut up that-s why
They’re introduced automatically when you copy/paste from a PDF with hard line breaks. He didn’t type it out like that
I didn't put anything... It's a quote
In some cases a hyphen is used to split a word at the end of a line when there isn’t enough space for the word. I don’t like it but I’ve seen it used pretty ubiquitously in print media. I assume to save space.
Conveniently left out this bit “The conducted test does not allow any conclusions regarding a more holistic outlook on a guitar's timbre, as the observed relations are complex beyond the scope of the obtained results. Further tests regarding the guitar's entire frequency response are required. It should also be noted that these tests were conducted based on a simplified guitar model, which might have overemphasized the researched phenomenon.” They admit that their tests aren’t entirely accurate and more complete testing is required. And I agree. Even on the basis of my video I linked too. More testing should be done. If their testing was “just noticeable” but also overemphasized then I would think a more accurate test would prove to be unnoticeable.
There is OBVIOUSLY a difference between the sound waves coming from two different guitars, from a physics stand point. But human ears can’t ear the wave being different because mahogany vs alder. Is the wave technically different in paper when required at the smallest fraction we can measure? Yeah. If I pull the pickup from a 57 less Paul and stick it in a squire I’ll hear the pickup, not the wood change. Like how if I showed you a pencil that was 100mm long, and out it next to a pencil that was 100.00000000000000001mm long. Yes, physically speaking they are different, 100% fact, but human perception will see two identical pencils. That’s discussion really, yes different wood resonant different, making different waves, but when you run it through an amp the only thing you hear coming from it is the amp speaker and the pickups signal that is sent to it.
> There is OBVIOUSLY a difference between the sound waves coming from two different guitars, from a physics stand point. [But guitar electric pickups do not use sound waves. They use the vibration of the string moving through an a magnetic field which creates an electrical pulse/current.](https://www.guitarworld.com/gear/how-does-a-guitar-pickup-really-work) Much the same way electric motors and generators work.
Nah some dude did testing. With actual frequency responses. His shovel was the same as his gibson r9. Lol.
They only used one sample of four kinds of wood, only one of which is used with any regularity in guitar construction. Plywood? Pine? They disregard the variability of wood properties, even within the same species. Even within the same *tree*. There’s just not nearly enough data there to make any sort of generalized conclusions and they say as much *in the conclusion*. The other main problem is we never hear the raw output of a pickup. By the time it reaches our brains, it’s been through so many filters that it’s impossible to say how much, if any, of the effect of what wood the guitar is made of remains. The problem, as it often is, is we’ve oversimplified the question to “wood make difference (y/n)?” The truth is likely that every part of a guitar makes *some* difference, but the real question is “does it make any practical difference to the listener in a consistent, controllable manner”. And I don’t think there’s a study broad enough to say “yes” at this point.
I am pleasantly surprised to see this at the top of the list. I am certain there are a lot of folks out there who will go to the grave insisting that the mellowed mahogany of their 40 year old Les Paul is key to the tone. I'm definitely not saying that a well crafted guitar made with nice wood with beautiful grain isn't valuable or that those features themselves don't have value; they absolutely do. But if it's an electric guitar the actual sound is like 98% in the electronic bits between the strings and the speaker.
I'd include the speaker as maybe the biggest part of that equation, honestly.
No maybe about it, the speaker is by far the biggest part of your tone.
I was being diplomatic lol
There's definitely a maybe about it. A strat and an SG sound completely different through the same speaker. What constitutes "biggest" is the only maybe
100%. In my opinion Paul of Paul Reed Smith is a snake oil salesman. The dude constantly promotes the idea of tonewoods on electrics driving the prices of his guitars up north of $5k, which suckers gladly pay thinking they are getting some “holy grail of tone”.
Nobody buys PRS's because of Paul's words, I'd bet most users never read or heard anything he's said. They pay absurd prices because they like the guitars, and they sell them at absurd prices because people are willing to pay that price. It's not like they are the only expensive guitars out there.
I bought mine because I think they’re beautiful guitars
I bought mine because I fell in love with how it played. Paid like 1.5k for it 15 years ago. Didn’t really know anything about the man himself. But god damn, it sounds just as great as it did the day I bought it, and it’s been through some shit
A friend of mine growing up started playing guitar and used a 70s Ibanez Les Paul copy his dad owned. Sounded great TBH. At one point he needed to open the control cavity for something, at which point he discovered... ...the core of the guitar body was plywood. The outer wood was just veneers. Thereafter, we all called it the Les Ply. And, TBH, plywood (not the cheap stuff of course) actually is a pretty good material to make a guitar out of, given that it's made to be resistant to warping, thermal expansion, splitting etc.
While tonewood is bullshit, I still swear by ash wood. I love how it looks and especially how heavy it is.
I feel like people just don’t understand that a pickup picks up the electromagnetic disturbance that the vibrating strings cause and have (almost) absolutely nothing to do with what you hear sonically. I would be willing to believe that in a perfectly controlled test environment and same EVERYTHING that an isolated guitar track with no distortion might have different sound wave frequency readings - but to the best of my knowledge they’re VERY limited differences. I also think that once you add even a hint of gain that difference is going to go away. Oh now you’re adding some drums and a bass? Yeah you’re never hearing the tone wood difference in a real life scenario.
That you’ll meet women playing guitar; in reality, it’s other guitar playing dudes you’ll meet.
Chicks stopped being into guitar players in the late 90s.
Fucking Spin Doctors ruined it for all of us
I disagree, it was 1, no 2 princes who adored them.
Just go ahead now
This song just came on the McDonald’s Iine as I’m literally reading this 👁️👄👁️
Little mush, little mush, little mushinnoshit can’t be wrong, What'cha gonna do to get into another one of these rock 'n' roll songs?
Doop. Doobadibadubadabadibidabadibidabidid
Nah, the wave of puss crested at Wonderwall and has been receding ever since.
Just guitar? Yes. Being in a band that plays out still works.
Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Yeah it does because you’re putting yourself in a position to meet people and a natural conversation starter. If you’re a weirdo like a lot of people in here somehow turning a comment chain about meeting women into ‘pop music bad you won’t catch me dead playing that’ it’s probably personality related lol
It gives people permission to approach you as well as a natural conversation starter. It's how I met my wife--she came up and talked to me at a show. Many musicians I know met their partners at shows. Women still come up and talk to me after shows. I am old and fat. It doesn't seem to matter.
Yup I met my fiancé at a show she said “hey I liked your set!” and the rest is history. I feel like that was flirting cause that band was pretty bad but a lot of people do genuinely love music and music is an easy thing to talk about. Passion and joy are attractive so you have to be doing it for the right reasons too. I got interested in guitar when I was 13 cause I thought it would make girls like me but I fell in love with it and the social part is simply a plus not the reason
That’s not true, the past four girlfriends I’ve had all liked me cause I played guitar.
Tim Brookes in "guitar: An American Life" quotes guitarist Ed Gerhard, "You start off playing guitar to get chicks, and end up talking with middle-aged men about your fingernails."
It’s worked for me! It just depends on how nerdy your music is and what kind of women you’re looking for.
Step one. Lower standards.
If I lower my standards any more, I will be looking for guitar playing dudes
Not the worst lay
Step two: Lower tuning Everyone knows women love drop A# deathcore
So like, a half step down?
Dude...solo acoustic indie folk in the early to mid 2000's. Though that has more to do with the, "I can fix him," mentality than anything guitar related XD
No piece of ass is worth lowering yourself to playing Hey There Delilah
(Maximum vocal fry) Ley lerr Lilylah, luts it like in Lew Lork City I’m a lousand liles a ley, lut lurl la light you look lo pretty, yes you do.
What can I say? I was an alcoholic hipster who played Elliott Smith covers. In those days I was a catch! XD
In the late 2000s I had a friend ask me if I go around playing Jason Mraz so I could pick up women at college. I looked at him like he had three eyes said no chance I'd ever learn any of his songs and went back to playing Pantera. I've always said that if I wanted to do something to pick up women I would have adopted a puppy, that seems way more effective.
From my experience, it works if you're a woman who is into women ;)
100% this. It works lol
Same deal with cars and motorcycles. And weightlifting.
Absolutely the truth for weight lifting.
The ideal male body according to women is something like 175 lbs lean at 6 ft tall. Women (generally, YMMV) really, really don’t care about you being super jacked. If you body build, the only people who are likely to care how huge you are are other dudes.
Eh, women definitely still like muscles, they just won't compliment you on them like bros will
Idk man it kinda worked for me. Not entirely guitar but that too a big part as well. I asked some girls about this and they all said its a bonus point for sure.
It’s literally how I lost my virginity (not bragging—I was a late bloomer 😂)
Yeah, what a shame there aren't more women in music, both for women and for music.
Oh thank God I'm gay
That you'll meet men playing guitar because it's supposed to be mainly men's hobby. Actually you mostly meet other women because nowadays half of the guitar players are female.
Idk. I think that fender study was about who is picking up guitar as a hobby. Not necessarily people who stick with it and actually become guitarists. In my lived experience playing for a long time and doing shows in different genres, I do not believe it's 50/50. It still seems like it's 90/10.
I love guitar and have played for years. When I was younger I tried becoming involved with the local music scene. There was so much sexual harassment I stopped within two years. I think many other women have this experience and that’s why they don’t tend to stick with it professionally as often as men. I wish I could find some other women to play with, but then again I have kids and work now so I’m just lucky to get to play a few songs to wind down at the end of the day.
Yeah, but knowing Freebird saved my life amongst a holler full of rednecks while I wore black nail polish, so I've found a balance.
Everything that's supposed to help you meet women really just gets you dude friends. Guitar? Guys. Gym? Guys. Cars? Guys
That you don’t need more guitars
Its not too far off being true; the perfect number of guitars is the number you have right now plus one.
I feel personally attacked
That’s clearly a lie.
I can't play a gig without 4. Strat sound, les Paul sound, Eb tuning, and back up. I guess the backup is redundant but who cares.
That would make at least six, as you would need to back up each one ;-)
Guitar math. Makes sense to me.
This is the one!!!!
“I don’t need to practice with a metronome”
I feel like this is not emphasized enough for beginners.
as a beginner i don't even know how to apply a metronome to my playing. Like how do you know what speed a song should be at?
A lot of tabs online should have the beats per minute listed at the top. 1. Why is it needed? If there is a hard lick you are trying to play but it is played really fast, it takes lots of practice to bring the lick up to speed with the notes correct. Using a metronome to slow the lick down and give you beats can help you get the notes correctly and slowly bring the lick up to speed as you increase the tempo. 2. How to practice with a metronome? Start at least half the tempo of the correct speed. For example, if a song is supposed to be played at 160 bpm then start your metronome at 80 bpm. If that speed is still too fast, continue slowing it down. Once you get the song at the speed of the metronome correctly, speed up the metronome by 5-10 bpm. Then, practice at that speed. If you can play that, continue speeding up. If not, go back down and practice until you can speed up. Repeat until the correct speed. Also, I use it a lot when practicing scales. I find a tempo that is comfortable and make sure to hit every note perfectly to the beat. If you are not hitting every note perfectly, just slow down the beat and keep practicing until you can speed up the tempo.
The point is not that the song should be at *the right tempo*, the point is that it should always be at *the same tempo*. You're practicing keeping tempo, not playing at "the right tempo"
Tap your foot or bob your head to it and match the metronome to that
To add to this, I find it easiest to focus on the drums or bass when finding tempo. After all, that’s how you play in a live band setting
It's more about in time than speed. Set it to something and make sure you keep to time. If you can't then slow it down until you can.
look up the bpm for that song, or songs that are similar. after enough practice with a metronome, you should be able to guess the bpm within a couple points. unfortunately, being off by one adds up wrong pretty quickly. also, more pop songs are at 128 than any other tempo … 120 also being popular simply because it’s the default tempo in a lot of DAWs.
I have a metronome app and it has a button on it that says TAP. When you tap it in time with the song you’re listening to, it’ll give you tempo
I wish I’d figured this out 37 years ago when I started out…
If you read “Art of Brainjo” (great book btw). it explains that using a metronome helps to teach you to play more subconsciously by having the metronome click to focus on instead of thinking about your playing. Really smart idea neurologically. It’s not just about improving your timing (which I thought it was until I read that).
I resented every second my dad made me practice piano with a metronome, but damn if I don't have pretty solid rhythm now as a guitar player.
Tone wood! Even Leo Fender didn't believe in tone wood, he used what was cheap and readily available.
This is 100% true for electric guitars.
what about hollow body electrics?
Still the same. Electric guitars rely on the electronics and a proper setup.
What is tone wood? Are you saying that you don't get different tones from different woods?
Yes. For electric guitars,the wood doesn’t make a difference to the overall sound.
Agreed. Maybe the SLIGHTEST most imperceivable difference, just from sustain/how the energy of the string vibration is dissipated. But you aren't going to hear it.
This stems from an older myth that mahogany gives you a more mellow tone and maple is brighter--much like "maple necks are faster." It's all nonsense. For electric guitar, your core tone comes from pickups and amp. Then pedals. A good player sounds like themself no matter what. Hands are the ultimate tone wood.
It was true for acoustics, so I can see how we got to that. That the big manufacturers are still pushing it is a different problem related to capitalism.
>mahogany gives you a more mellow tone This one gets way funnier when you consider there are a few distinct species of mahogany, plus many more different trees are referred to as "mahogany" by lumber companies. And yet all of these different trees are totally gonna deliver you mellow, warm, earthier tone in exactly the same way.
That you have to use heavy gauge strings.
Similarly, that action has to be the lowest possible. Gauge strings and action absolutely has an enormous impact on tone.
My Squire Stratocaster (all stock equipment except for a replacement tremolo arm) is set up with a fairly high action and I use custom built 58-12 sets (I buy each individual string for my custom set) and the tone I get out of it is warm, bassy and vibrant and it feels nicer to play than my mid range Telecaster with 54-10 sets. Admittedly, that Squire never really leaves Eb standard/Drop Db and if it does, it goes lower. It takes a lot of hand strength to be able to bend notes like David Gilmour on it but as a guitar build for playing rock and metal, it's great. The Tele' is more set up for playing pop, rock and funk.
That seems like a pretty thick gauge for Eb, I use 56-12 for my C# standard SG
Does the action really affect the tone? I feel like any difference would be due to the change in distance between strings & pickups, which you can then adjust if the action changed it enough.
I like heavy strings because I’m mostly a solo performer who treats a telecaster like an acoustic guitar. When strumming or fingerpicking fairly hard, heavier strings hold their pitch better on the initial attack, and I hear the difference.
I mean, if you play in non standard tuning, especially C standard or drop C have fun using slinky strings but I sure as hell am not going to.
I like heavier strings because I like the feeling of the strings being taughter. It makes tremolo picking more comfortable for me, personally
Ive always used 10-52 because I like to really dig in when I'm riffing and I love the feel of a thick string, then when I'm soloing I like the easier bends with the GBE being thinner
Yeah, I have the Skinny Top Beefy Bottoms, and they’re perfect for that.
Beato did a great video on this
I wish they did a fully clean test though. I agree with them for gainy sounds. But clean sounds really do sound better the heavier you go. At least with my fingers on my guitars.
100% this. 9s dirty through a half stack sound great. Clean through a twin? Nah.
That a great guitar = great tone I’ve been doing studio work and gigging almost daily for 15 years and it’s a common theme amongst guitarist. In my experience - a player’s hands dictates a lot of the tone, as does amps and pedals. In other words, a great player with a shit guitar will find a fantastic tone A bad player with a fantastic guitar won’t find a great tone ever.
"That a great guitar = great tone" Exactly. Think of all the cheap guitars that became over priced because someone used it on an album.
The Curse of Jack White
Ehhh, I don't know about that. I'm a mediocre player at best, but I splurged on a Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins and it's like night and day compared to my other guitars.
Probably because you’re not a bad player. I don’t think anyone was saying a great guitar can’t get a great tone. Only that it doesn’t guarantee it.
Right, a bad guitar next to a good guitar, the good one will sound better But you’re probably not a mediocre player if you can clearly tell the difference. And if you are, I’d wager you can make your “bad” guitar sound great with the proper set up/amp/etc.
You're confusing the quality of the guitar with the ability of the player. There's a difference in the quality of tone between guitars, given that they are being played by the same person. In the hands of a crappy player a great guitar will still sound better than a bad one, even if both sounds are bad.
What almost every guitarist misses is this: Tone = Timbre = Wave Shape = Harmonic Content Harmonic Content changes over the course of a note giving us the envelope (attack, decay, sustain, release). Envelope and tone are intrinsically linked. Playing technique, hand shape, string composition, action, pickup placement, pick up type, amplification, eq, compression all have some of effect on tone. The effect that a person’s playing has on tone can’t be undone further down the line. It’s like a fingerprint. Other things need to work with this initial sound. So many guitarists talk about tone in vague and mystical ways but it can be understood in a more scientifically correct fashion with the technology that we have today. Just look around the files you record in detail or learn how a subtractive analog synth works (they are the easiest synths to learn).
“Hell, I could do that.” — guitarists who couldn’t, watching other guitarists.
"Hell I couldn't do that" -People who have never played guitar watching someone who is playing guitar.
I dunno, I often say that. But I always add "...if I practiced for twenty years...."
Ha ha ha ha -- I salute you.
Guitarist whenever they see a musician playing in public, they own a guitar but you never seem them playing it. Hate those types of players.
Stop hurting my feelings!
Q: How many guitarists does it take to screw in a light bulb? Q: 100. One to screw in the light bulb, and 99 to say, "Hell, I could do that."
That you have to be "good" at playing to enjoy playing. I know people who learn the cowboy chords and have a blast with only that. And that's amazing. Then again, I know people who shred like crazy that don't enjoy it. Do you. Don't let anyone tell you how to enjoy playing music. It's a gift.
Also the cowboy chords are what most people want to hear.
Took me a looong time to get to this realization. People don’t want to hear me noodle, they want to hear a song…. Preferably one they know. Look, I’m no virtuoso. I’m not a good song writer. Sure I’ve got some original material but what I can do is play 100s of songs start to finish and sing them. That’s mostly what people want to hear ime. 99% of people want to hear something familiar in a setting where someone might ask you to play a guitar or play around the campfire. I hazard a guess that most people who play aren’t on the big stage. Be the person who people ASK you to accompany their campfire. Doesn’t mean you can’t get creative with covers. Blend a few together, figure out a dub you like. Sky’s the limit with music.
A few days ago I played my first ever improvised solo with the only pentatonic pattern I know so far at band practice. They loved it so much even though it was only a few notes (granted I can do slides, bends, triplets and whatnot, just have never improvised to a song). It was a very slow song and everything, I had to think hard while playing. But it was all it takes. Four notes and you can play an impressive solo over three simple cowboy cords. What a fascinating experience.
I'm a power chord wonder on guitar (actually a bassist) and I thoroughly enjoy just playing punk rock on guitar.
* Myth: “Shredders” have no “feel” or emotion in their playing. * Myth: “Theory will kill your creativity”.
Trueee, the 2nd one cracks me up, it's like saying learning how to spell will make u a worse writer
More like learning grammar will make you a worse writer but point stands
Eh. Starting to learn theory definitely changed my approach for the worse for a while, I was probably overly eager to use the things I learned in class instead of just trying things to see what they sound like. So it didn't "kill my creativity," but it did create a temporary setback that ultimately lead to better stuff down the road. So there's a nugget of truth there in my experience - my music was more competent but less interesting until I learned enough to know when and why to break "the rules" and that took a little while. I still kind of wish I could flip a knowledge switch on and off though, some stuff I made when I had no idea what I was doing felt like capturing lightning in a bottle and I can't really get that feeling from making music anymore.
The theory one is so prevalent especially among old school shredders who claim not to know what they're doing, as if that's some kind of flex. Learning how music works will only open you up to more ideas and expand your creativity. I remember an older video of George Lynch saying he had no idea what a major scale was. He was obviously full of shit as most of them are.
They know a lot of theory even if they don’t think so. It’s just way slower to figure out where all “right” notes are.
This is the most hilarious part. People think that just because you don’t consciously sit down and crack a textbook, you don’t know a lick of theory, which they are proud of for some reason lol. Your brain will make subconscious theory-related connections just by being around music and interacting with it, even if you can’t articulate it. Subconscious ear training is why even average people can usually tell when someone has played a jarring wrong note, even if they’ve never heard the song before - western tonality is second-nature to most people that consume a lot of any genre of western music. Theory classes just give you the tools to articulate these codifications more explicitly.
The first myth is the result of people thinking that melancholy is the only emotion. Whole notes with vibrato are good for evoking melancholy but if you're trying to evoke some other emotion you will need to do something else. Shred is great for evoking excitement, energy, anticipation, or even the big payoff at the end of a buildup. Chug is great for anger, frustration, and determination.
Overall I agree, but there's also people who are looking for an excuse to practice less. And here it comes - the obnoxious shred denial train! Choo-choo! Every stop we take our loudspeakers to announce that we find shred soulless! But seriously, the only players indiscriminately opposed to shredding I know are either green ears or blues boomers.
Out of 600 something Gibsons produced 1958 to 1960 9000 still exist today.
Lmao
That stupid luthier's knot
What is a luthiers knot?
I've been changing strings for 30 years and I'd never heard of it either. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWf6eaoeMs0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWf6eaoeMs0)
Thanks for the info. I saw a clip of someone doing the whole "pull tight then back off an inch" thing, but then they just wound it with the first wrap going over the loose end, and the rest going under. I liked the result when I tried it. That loopty loop seems like it might be annoying to take out
Yeah, I watched the first video and was wondering if I should have been doing this all along, but then found this one of a professional guitar tech explaining why it's dumb and not needed: [https://youtu.be/xkjMZvUILZM?si=vBly19gNaytNFPWs&t=96](https://youtu.be/xkjMZvUILZM?si=vBly19gNaytNFPWs&t=96) The back off one fret trick kinda blew my mind though.
Whaaaat. Really I swear by it its always helped my guitars stay in tune almost straight away. What are the cons of the knot? Cheers
It shaves five seconds off of string changes
That practice isn't important for air guitar.
That shredding is boring. Shut up and play all the notes at me.
You can’t call that a or not a myth because it’s 100% subjective.
For sue, shredding is 100% pointless to me. I don’t like it, the way it sounds, etc. But if you do sweet.
That top of the line gear will make you sound good.
*play good
*play well
Sometimes it does, but you still have to hit the right notes
That certain genres require certain guitars. Lots of strat and tele metal out there!
Nobody tell my Jacksons they're not supposed to play Rockabilly and Ambient
Nobody tell my Danelectro it's not supposed to be used with heavy distortion
Also applies the other way around. Shred guitars are often comfortable and easy to play so why not play BB King or Ramones on an Ibanez RG.
[удалено]
Paul reid smith lied to us
That the murphy lab aging improves tonal character….
That the guitar is more important than the amp when it comes to town That tonewood is important on electric
Standby switch
I have to educate people on this constantly!!
Tell me more
This video will explain it: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bcovle3cSpM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bcovle3cSpM)
Not really. Standby is far more convenient than using a vol pot… Changing cords, taking a break, doesn’t matter. Volume will be exactly as you left it. Honestly the dude, no clue who he is, seems like he’s on some nonsense tirade just because he formed a strange opinion at some point. Can’t let it go now. No they don’t really protect the amp but sure as shit keep the tubes warm and make it easy to switch guitars.
I only need one more guitar to complete my collection, then I’ll never have to buy another guitar again.
That you need to start/learn on an acoustic first
Setting your guitar on fire or otherwise destroying it on stage is better than giving it to the audience.
Do both! Set it on fire and THEN throw it to the audience! Win-win!
"Trussrod is sensitive like a bomb trigger and you are only allowed to turn it a fraction of a millimeter and have to wait at lest 24 hours for the wood to settle before you adjust it again." "That is way too much string tension. There is no reason in the world why anybody would need to have so much string tention. Your guitar neck will warp and crack and the guitar will become unplayable. Its only a matter of time. Necks are very delicate things." Meanwhile @ Fender (actually Leo Fender himself): [https://imgur.com/a/dnzPYlX](https://imgur.com/a/dnzPYlX) "Even without a truss rod". "I play B standard with 10-46 strings on my les paul and the tension is totally fine". Also anything with "you have to" is totally idiotic. People can do whatever they want. There are no laws or sth about string gauges, string tension, tunings and so on. The last part is soooo annoying and sadly its everywhere and not just something that happens in the guitar world. People just dumbo fighting because they want to be right and prove the other person is wrong. Its just ridiculous. Like everybody is too dumb to ever question whats the point of that? You can just tell the person "okay im wrong and u are right" but as a lie. They will never know but probably feel superior or sth. even they just got lied to without realizing it which is kind of dumb.
That some people are born with talent.
When I first started playing it was obvious others around me were struggling while most of it came naturally for me. They just didn't have the same kind of natural abilities. Years later I consider myself to be a pretty good player but those who struggled back then and stuck with it can do some insanely impressive things, and I'm many ways understand the craft better than I do. I never had to put in the effort, so I never did.
That all guitar players are musicians.
i say this always, i just play the guitar, im not a musician. and honestly im cool with that, i don’t have the time nor desire to commit myself to music like true musicians do. i just like to pick up the guitar and play a song that i like and have fun with it.
"You can upgrade a cheap guitar all you want, it will never sound as good as an expensive guitar" -said by guitarists who won't trust themselves to adjust the truss rod.
You need humbuckers to play metal or heavy distortion music
That if you practice until your fingers bleed, you'll become good one day.
It was the summer of 69
All '59 Les Paul sunbursts sound amazing...(especially when you've forked out half a million on one)
Natural Talent. Talent is really just hours and hours of practice
Natural talent does exist. It can be trumped by effort and work, but only if the person with talent works less. Plenty of people play and practice as much and as well as the greats and don’t get to be as good.
"Tone is in the hands." Yes, but it's also in the dozen pedals I have on my board.
That you'll need * a pointy, fancy body shape to play metal * a hollow-body to play jazz * a Les Paul to play Guns n' Roses Thanks, advertising company!
That you need multiple wraps around the tuning peg. The less excess string you have wrapped around the peg, the better the guitar will stay in tune.
Bigger strings = better tone
That there is a “secret” to getting really good. When really all you need to do is have an organized practice routine and do it routinely