I’ve drawn a conclusion

jeztone2

I hate Greg Koch.

I hate his overly flashy guitar demo’s. The one he does of the PRS custom 24 Floyd is woeful. 

Wouldn’t internet retailers would be better served by less technical demos? Instead of flash, let’s concentrate on hearing the guitar clean, followed by warm overdrive, a high gain power chord or two. Then some gentle arpeggios. Dynamics etc etc?

Because that’s more likely how it will be played than some chicken picken.

Rant over.

grayn

There are a ton of demo videos and reviews that are just the player showing off.
I don't mind if they actually show what the guitar sounds and plays like.
Many don't though.

richardhomer

Couldn’t agree more - the bloke massively gets on my tits. Invariably gets an awful, over trebly-tone out of any guitar he plays and throws every playing trick in the book into every demo he does. Also, his ‘humour’ is deeply irritating. And don’t get me started on his stupid f**king hats....

So no Greg Cock - I don’t want a set of your signature Fluence pick-ups, I don’t want your signature guitar (which is just a Telecaster copy btw) or your signature bloody amp made my Cock Amps. In fact, just do one Greg Cock - you are a waste of internet....

DrCornelius

Love the bloke and actively seek out his demos for any guitar that I’m interested in . I like him , Phil X, Andy from Reverb and John Bollinger.

I guess they are all fairly big personalities except for Andy who just get s on with the job

Wazmeister

I think he is great; love his humour, love his manner and his playing aint bad.

Henrytwang

I feel the same about Lemmo at Normans Rare Guitars.  I know that he’s a very good guitarist but when it comes to demonstrating a guitar I want to hear the range of sounds, both clean and overdriven, that can be produced by the instrument, not how clever the player is. If he wants to show everyone what a great player he is perhaps he ought to keep his virtuoso playing for his own YouTube channel.

usedtobe

I don’t know the guy, although the name rings a bell (end?)..
In a guitar review, I quite like to hear a short, fairly simple, piece, repeated, in each pickup position, clean, slightly overdriven, and higher gain. 

I’m mostly interested in the cleaner sounds, which a lot of guitar reviewers seem to rush through in order to get to the screaming widdlefest, that they are most interested in.

wesker123

Do you mean Gregory Kochery here!   
Hmm mildly irritating. What's happened to Chappers? 

skullfunkerry

It would be a boring world if we were all the same...

skullfunkerry

This is the best guitar demo I've seen recently

TINMAN82

He’s a great internet guitar personality and fantastic player but I agree he overplays on many demos which isn’t necessarily what you want.

That said, there are plenty of other more “neutral” demo players to choose from (Andy etc) so I think there’s space for Greg’s quirks too.

axisus

A tad harsh I feel. I don't generally watch those sort of videos, but I have caught him a few times here and there and they seem OK to me, he has good banter and can certainly play. 

dindude

On the flip side, I hate demos where someone only strums a chord, plays a few arpeggios - I don’t think you learn a great deal about a guitar unless someone is REALLY playing it to their style with all they attack, dynamics and passion they normally would. Greg, like him or not really PLAYS the guitar in his own way.

Danielsguitars

I don't watch cock much these days and bored to tears of Jared James nicholls same old shite, I'd love to hear a burst played which sounds musical 

I do like lemmo 

Moe_Zambeek

I like Greg K. He plays almost the same thing in most of his wildwood demos so you can compare and contrast.,.though these days I’m of the opinion online demos of guitars are a total waste of time anyway. Could sound great in a demo and I’d still hate it in real life, and vice versa.

I can see how his humour would be polarising though. 

barnstorm

Also find him irritating, but it’s not like there’s a shortage of alternatives. Does anybody else watch Tom Harlan from Manchester Music Mill? He’s a sort of anti-personality, and I mean that as a compliment - a quiet middle-aged bloke who always seems slightly uncomfortable in front of the camera. I find him refreshing.

p90fool

I always watch his demos when I'm looking to buy something so I know how it'll respond when you pop the strings hard. 

Most rock players have a smooth picking style which tells me nothing about dynamics, especially when they often use so much compression and gain. A totally clean sound is of no use to me either, it doesn't bring out much of the harmonic content in a guitar.

I don't attempt to sound like either, but Greg Koch is one of the extremes I use to get an average. 

Just as an example of my recent shopping interests, the Gibson USA SG Special has its P90 quite a lot nearer the bridge than the Custom Shop version.

When Rob Chapman plays them they sound the same, when Greg Koch plays them the difference is obvious. That's not a criticism, it's an observation on how different people hit the strings.

You can listen, grab whatever info you need and move on, he's not asking you to marry him. 

dazzajl

I like Greg. I like his playing and I like his presenting style. I went to see him play a deserted morgue in Swindon a while back to see that whole package and actually left in the middle because he was being just another quiet and well mannered guitarist. I put that down to the boredom and disappointment of playing to an empty club mostly 

TheBigDipper

Personally, I don't understand how watching someone else play a guitar and hearing it through low-quality audio that may well have been spiced up in a DAW can ever provide meaningful input to help you choose your next guitar. But that's just me.

I do understand why a guitar maker might use a flashy guitarist (Greg) with a bit of personality to demo their guitars, though. Or why they'd use a non-flashy guitarist (Andy) but make sure the demo referenced well known and well loved guitar tones to put it into context for the potential customer.

Advertisers understand the underlying emotional response of "If I bought that thing I'd be more like the person in the ad" very well indeed and have done for decades. It must work, or they wouldn't keep on doing it.

Dominic

You can take a bit from everybody but what bugs me is when they do a demo and it's drenched in delay or boost /drive and you want to say ' just let me hear the guitar FFS '
  There is a bald guy who does demos for an American retailer with the strange name of N Stuff Music who drives me nuts
- he always plays this very slow,quiet elevator tuneless Jazz type music in a constipated way with no dynamic - just awful

jdgm

The book "The Stratocaster Chronicles" comes with a CD of different Strat players styles and tones, all demo'd by Greg Koch.  Mostly it sounds very accurate to my ears.

He's a bit in-yer-face which can be irritating but he's harmless and makes a living from guitar.