Wow, this is worth watching if you're a guitar player. There are so many variables in the sound of an electric, and he certainly provides a strong argument as to which ones matter the most (his "air" guitar at the end is great).
I have played classical, acoustic and electric guitars for most of my life. Over time my collection grew and finally settled to just a handful of guitars. The most expensive was the acoustic. Next was the classical. The electric I have now was easily the cheapest of the lot (I paid 18x it's cost for the acoustic, fwiw).
It always seemed like with electric there were just too many things that could change the sound--like information overload. Yes, you have the guitar and the string choices, but also amps and effects. With acoustic I hardly ever use an amp and I never do with classical. To me, the difference in sound from those guitars is much more inherent in the guitar itself.
Seems like even cheap electrics, if you set the intonation and action correctly (and pickup height, etc) are a better deal than similarly cheap acoustics. Just test out the pickups first, as they vary greatly in quality.
I think intuitively I would've guessed the body of an electric has much less to do with the sound than the body of an acoustic, but it was super cool to see this tested with the air guitar. I never would've attempted to build that so I'm glad he did.
I came here to post this, you beat me. I remember an interview where 2 great players swapped gear (one was EVH, I think the other was Jeff Beck) and even on the other's gear they sounded like themselves.
I had the privilege of jamming with Tommy Emmanuel a few times in my younger days. He told me how his brother Phil and himself would find ways to match the sounds off records by using their fingers, as they didn't know about effects back when they were children.
The body/neck makes more of a difference when you have a big enough amp & speakers and it's cranked enough for the body to vibrate in response to the ambient SPL.
Sometimes it can be a nearby bass amp from your bass player more than the notes you are playing yourself.
It also depends on how far you stand in front of the amp and if that is located in somewhat of a reinforcing node or cancelling node within the sound field.
When you're loud enough for a single string to have about infinite sustain, one or more unmuted strings often respond to the sound field and "play themselves" which is something to pay attention to. This is much more prominent when facing the amp which may or may not be done in a reinforcing or cancelling node, all of this are forms of acoustic feedback where "cancelling" does not mean stopping the feedback just making it sound different.
Your own body can block the sound a lot, and it can make a difference how much of the guitar body is exposed to the sound field rather than obscured.
Then there is magnetic feedback, with a high-power tube amp the large audio output transformer, which operates at high voltage and steps down the output to the speakers, can throw magnetic flux for a foot or more depending on orientation also. More so when you have exceeded it's linear performance specification. This flux will be modulated at the audio frequencies you are playing at the time and can go right into magnetic pickups non-acoustically. This is the other big transformer besides the power transformer, which is not found on solid-state amps which operate with only a single power transformer, no output transformer needed for them.
Strings, pickups, pickup height, position along the string, and speakers plus cabinet seem to make the most difference anyway. For instance on a standard Les Paul the adjustable polepieces are located directly where the 24th fret would be, this was also the traditional location on an SG up until about 20 years ago. Before that the occasional 24-fret SG's had only a bridge pickup. With the rise in popularity of 24-fret guitars, "all" SG's bodies have since been routed to accept a 24-fret neck even if it's only a regular 22-fret model, that's why there's a little plastic cover over the gap. Regardless, this way the neck pickup has not been in the same position as originally designed for quite some time.
It's only logical for the input transducers (strings/pickups/pots/caps) and output transducers (speakers/cab) to be the most influential, coincidentally this is where the most variation is commonly found, and perfection is furthest from being achieved.
Adjustable pole pieces are a worthwhile variable, remember these are Hall-effect sensors and along with overall pickup height are one of the only transducer variables to work with unless you change strings, pickups or speakers.
On single-coil pickups sometimes different length polepieces are wound in to begin with, and not considered to be adjustable. These are magnets themselves rather than screw taps into a hidden bar magnet. Technicians sometimes will push them up or down a little bit anyway to noticeable effect, depends on the pickup and overall good fortune because some of the hair-thin inner coil wires can be damaged if there is too much cementing depending on construction.
Strings are so important, the heavier the string, the beefier the signal. Stevie Ray Vaughan was known for his strong tone and one of the elements was heavier strings than average electric players use. Van Halen used light strings and his legendary tone was more dependent on particular electronics and the way they brought the weaker incoming signal up by comparison. Different technique made the playing characteristically different, different gear then made the tones characteristically different.
One of the good things to do is set up one electric and one acoustic guitar having duplica...
The light/heavy thing definitely is noticeable on an acoustic, especially if you're fighting five other instruments, and body shape and construction has a huge influence on the overall sound; in a bluegrass parking lot scenario, there are definitely less and more appropriate guitars to be using, and the heavier the strings the better, but overall it's a question of volume, with a bit of frequency consideration in terms of where you've got the best chance of cutting through the overall din.
Your fingers are still the biggest factor.
Electric, the whole point of it was to relieve the player and the luthier of all that headache and allow them to focus on the music, negating any tonal need for large strings. It's only a factor in the sense that if you're an acoustic player most of the time you will prefer the heavier feel, but if you mostly play electric it's silly to play heavy strings, they don't bring anything extra to the mix.
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 25.6 ms ] threadI have played classical, acoustic and electric guitars for most of my life. Over time my collection grew and finally settled to just a handful of guitars. The most expensive was the acoustic. Next was the classical. The electric I have now was easily the cheapest of the lot (I paid 18x it's cost for the acoustic, fwiw).
It always seemed like with electric there were just too many things that could change the sound--like information overload. Yes, you have the guitar and the string choices, but also amps and effects. With acoustic I hardly ever use an amp and I never do with classical. To me, the difference in sound from those guitars is much more inherent in the guitar itself.
Seems like even cheap electrics, if you set the intonation and action correctly (and pickup height, etc) are a better deal than similarly cheap acoustics. Just test out the pickups first, as they vary greatly in quality.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8GiF-GVLgg
I had the privilege of jamming with Tommy Emmanuel a few times in my younger days. He told me how his brother Phil and himself would find ways to match the sounds off records by using their fingers, as they didn't know about effects back when they were children.
The body/neck makes more of a difference when you have a big enough amp & speakers and it's cranked enough for the body to vibrate in response to the ambient SPL.
Sometimes it can be a nearby bass amp from your bass player more than the notes you are playing yourself.
It also depends on how far you stand in front of the amp and if that is located in somewhat of a reinforcing node or cancelling node within the sound field.
When you're loud enough for a single string to have about infinite sustain, one or more unmuted strings often respond to the sound field and "play themselves" which is something to pay attention to. This is much more prominent when facing the amp which may or may not be done in a reinforcing or cancelling node, all of this are forms of acoustic feedback where "cancelling" does not mean stopping the feedback just making it sound different.
Your own body can block the sound a lot, and it can make a difference how much of the guitar body is exposed to the sound field rather than obscured.
Then there is magnetic feedback, with a high-power tube amp the large audio output transformer, which operates at high voltage and steps down the output to the speakers, can throw magnetic flux for a foot or more depending on orientation also. More so when you have exceeded it's linear performance specification. This flux will be modulated at the audio frequencies you are playing at the time and can go right into magnetic pickups non-acoustically. This is the other big transformer besides the power transformer, which is not found on solid-state amps which operate with only a single power transformer, no output transformer needed for them.
Strings, pickups, pickup height, position along the string, and speakers plus cabinet seem to make the most difference anyway. For instance on a standard Les Paul the adjustable polepieces are located directly where the 24th fret would be, this was also the traditional location on an SG up until about 20 years ago. Before that the occasional 24-fret SG's had only a bridge pickup. With the rise in popularity of 24-fret guitars, "all" SG's bodies have since been routed to accept a 24-fret neck even if it's only a regular 22-fret model, that's why there's a little plastic cover over the gap. Regardless, this way the neck pickup has not been in the same position as originally designed for quite some time.
It's only logical for the input transducers (strings/pickups/pots/caps) and output transducers (speakers/cab) to be the most influential, coincidentally this is where the most variation is commonly found, and perfection is furthest from being achieved.
Adjustable pole pieces are a worthwhile variable, remember these are Hall-effect sensors and along with overall pickup height are one of the only transducer variables to work with unless you change strings, pickups or speakers.
On single-coil pickups sometimes different length polepieces are wound in to begin with, and not considered to be adjustable. These are magnets themselves rather than screw taps into a hidden bar magnet. Technicians sometimes will push them up or down a little bit anyway to noticeable effect, depends on the pickup and overall good fortune because some of the hair-thin inner coil wires can be damaged if there is too much cementing depending on construction.
Strings are so important, the heavier the string, the beefier the signal. Stevie Ray Vaughan was known for his strong tone and one of the elements was heavier strings than average electric players use. Van Halen used light strings and his legendary tone was more dependent on particular electronics and the way they brought the weaker incoming signal up by comparison. Different technique made the playing characteristically different, different gear then made the tones characteristically different.
One of the good things to do is set up one electric and one acoustic guitar having duplica...
Your fingers are still the biggest factor.
Electric, the whole point of it was to relieve the player and the luthier of all that headache and allow them to focus on the music, negating any tonal need for large strings. It's only a factor in the sense that if you're an acoustic player most of the time you will prefer the heavier feel, but if you mostly play electric it's silly to play heavy strings, they don't bring anything extra to the mix.
Your fingers etc
How many guitarists have broken their back with a heavy Les Paul LOL?