CrackledNitro

I put this up on another forum, but got no love, so I thought I'd try it out here...

Imagine David Gilmour belting the outro of Comfortably Numb on a Les Paul. And imagine Slash rockin' the solos of Sweet Child O' Mine on a Stratocaster. The difference is subtle, but definitive of those two bands' sounds. Does a band's choice of an LP or Strat make you more or less inclined to listen to them?

mr dave

i'm not more or less inclined to listen to someone based on their gear but you're right that it would be odd to see gilmour with a gibson. although i've seen him playing one on a dvd about dark side of the moon. i believe he uses a LP jr. for the solo on money.

either way it seems pretty ridiculous to consider the brand of gear musicians use as a determining factor as to whether or not they're worth listening to.

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CrackledNitro

Not so much the brand, but the sound.

GuitarBizarre

Tone is in the fingers. By that I mean those two playerrs would sound like those two players regardless of what they played. Same with many others.



Although if you realyl want your question answered: No. For a number of reasons.

1 - Most guitarists have no idea what they're playing, be it LP or Strat style.
2 - Even fewer can make what they're playing sound to its full potential.
3 - Most bands would sound just as crap whether they played millions of pounds worth of gear or not. A case in point is the user 'Imperium' on the megadeth forums. He owns a half stack and 6 guitars, all but 2 of which kick ass. Yet when I recorded my Viper 400 through a computer michrophone that cost me £5, it kicked the absolute **** out of his tone using proper studio mics, because I was using it better.


4 - The few bands that really do kick ass will always find a way to sound good even with terrible gear.


A good example of #4 is Mattias Eklundh. For live tours and so on he uses a Caparison Horus through a 100 Watt Laney Stack. For small clinics I've seen him use an 8 Watt 'Badger' amp, with a distortion pedal made in the USSR he bought for 15 dollars.

In both situations he sounds absolutely fantastic, if a little different.

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mr dave

it's still a ridiculous point of contention. if you took away the visual aspect of the music would you honestly be able to tell the difference?

musicians will use whatever gear that gives them the sound they're looking for in the studio. whether it's their own personal instrument, a rental, the producer's, or some piece of junk in the corner of the studio lobby. it doesn't matter, if it sounds right for the part it's used. when it comes to playing live the most significant aspect to their sound is their hands.

if you want to have a stratocaster vs. les paul thread make a poll.

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CrackledNitro

Dude, chill. I can see this is making you upset.

And for what it's worth, yes, I can. Some listeners look for a sound the same way musicians/bands look for a sound and certain types of guitars make certain types of sounds. Some you prefer, and some you don't.

Perhaps I could have stated this question a little differently, i.e. single coil vs. humbucker sound. My bad.

mr dave

so you can tell the difference?

led zeppelin - dazed and confused - what kind of guitar?

cream - crossroads - guitar?

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CrackledNitro

Dude, you're missing the f*cking point...

But to answer you're questions, I don't know. I'm guessing this is a trick, so Strat and LP, respectively. Good job.

mr dave

actually it was a tele and ES-335 and i still can't tell what the point i'm missing is.

that first led zep album was pretty much all done on a tele but it doesn't exactly scream 'country twang' like the traditional tele sound right? sounds mean and meaty like the les paul page is normally photographed with no?

as for the difference in sounds between single coil and humbuckers. it's still absurd and there's actually a technical reason for that.... a single coil running on its own creates significant buzz. in 1957 a gibson employee discovered a way to get rid of the hum, bucking it if you will, by wiring two single coil pickups together.

by the time the 60s rolled around guitar players were sticking matchsticks in their fenders to jam the toggle switch between two pickup settings to emulate the reduced buzz that humbuckers offered. to the point that fender redesigned their electronics to offer 5 way switches on strats.

like GB said, tone comes from the fingers.

while i don't doubt that you can pinpoint your favourite guitar players from their tone i really don't think anyone can pick out the gear they're using without seeing it.

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GuitarBizarre

The VAST, the INSANELY VAST differences between the rigs of two guitar players playing the SAME GUITAR, make your point completely fruitless. Steve Vai plays a humbucker equipped guitar. So did hendrix at some points, so does satriani, eklundh, michael angelo, michael romeo, even some of the legendary single coil heroes like SRV and Buddy guy used humbuckers on some studio recordings!

The differences between amp, strings, pickups in specific rather than just types, strings, body wood, playing style and touch make VASTLY more difference than you would implicate.

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