How big a factor is resonance in what makes a good electric?

thegummy

ewal said:

One thing that doesn't get discussed much is position of pickup along length of string. Yeah we all recognise bridge vs neck pickup tonal variation, however could minor differences in position of a neck pickup have a marked effect on tone? Or can that be easily eliminated by adjusting pickup height?

I had a PRS Custom 24 but I was never satisfied with the neck tone so I got a Les Paul and much preferred the neck tone. But I preferred the feel of the PRS by far so I wanted to see if I really could tell the difference.

So I recorded a bunch with the same pickup in both then set up a series of blind tests to see if I could tell the difference and I could.

thegummy

poopot said:

You did… 

and I responded in a very sarcastic way…

these recordings you mention, something like an album maybe? A produced release?

That guitar tone you hear on the record has gone through a mic, you hear the room it was recorded in, its prolly gone into outboard gear etc before
being printed… then it’s mixed in with all the other instruments on the song… massive chunks of its frequencies are cut out to make way for other instruments so everything sounds nice… bit of saturation to make it sparkle…then it’s off to mastering… more eq changes etc etc… then you listen on your setup with the eq set the way you like it…

Most folk (myself included) would be hard pushed to say what guitar was used on any recording let alone what wood it was made of or how resonant it was…

I missed this reply earlier (so didn't understand why you aimed the sample recording at me).

My recording comment was in response to your post saying that at a gig no one hears or cares about any subtleties of tone and I'm saying that may well be true but gigs aren't the only part of music and on records lots of people do hear and care. The subtle saturation/EQing/using tape etc. that you mention gets done in the studio would also be likely lost at gigs.

Wasn't specifically referring to resonance of the body or any specific detail, just that it's not a waste of time to bother about subtleties just because they get lost at a gig. I definitely wasn't saying anyone could identify the specific guitar from a record, if you look at my post about the Les Paul vs 335 I was actually saying the opposite.

Luckily the mobile version of the forum didn't show me the youtube preview so I could guess your clip before having seen the video but I guessed a Strat - would have never said an acoustic in a million years.

Doesn't massively surprise me though, my own impression of the whole debate is that pickups are as far as I find it to matter. I had never thought about a full on acoustic though, so very cool to hear your clip and see how far the "pickups only" thing goes (in my own perception).

Philly_Q

poopot said:

@Philly_Q was the closest I think with his guess…

https://youtu.be/sPaYvw0DB5I

Are you sure you're not actually Kerry King?

Anacharsis

In my experience, there is no connection between resonance of a solid body electric and quality of amplified tone. Also, I'm pretty sure we're all aware that there's no such thing as a universal aesthetic, especially in this context. One player's fat is another's muddy. But what my ears tell me is that pickups are not microphones. So if there is a reliable connection, the next question would be whether or not it is a positive one, and that's purely a question of preference.

I've been playing for nearly 30 years. In my experience, for a solid body, the unplugged sound (which is always, always, always awful to my ears - I loathe the sound of an electric guitar unplugged) has little to no bearing on the amplified sound.

If your experience is different, then make your own choices accordingly.

thegummy

@poopot if you still have the pickup in place, do you fancy doing a wee clip of a cleanish sound to see how that sounds?

poopot

thegummy said:

@poopot if you still have the pickup in place, do you fancy doing a wee clip of a cleanish sound to see how that sounds?

Yeah no probs… I can do three at once…
piezo
single coil
mic

ill split them out one after the other… will be later tho’

Offset

poopot said:

@Philly_Q was the closest I think with his guess…

https://youtu.be/sPaYvw0DB5I

Hats off :-)

thegummy

poopot said:

thegummy said:

@poopot if you still have the pickup in place, do you fancy doing a wee clip of a cleanish sound to see how that sounds?

Yeah no probs… I can do three at once…
piezo
single coil
mic

ill split them out one after the other… will be later tho’

Nice one.

Did you butcher a pickguard especially for that video?

WezV

does it Djent?

Snags

thegummy said:

poopot said:

thegummy said:

@poopot if you still have the pickup in place, do you fancy doing a wee clip of a cleanish sound to see how that sounds?

Yeah no probs… I can do three at once…
piezo
single coil
mic

ill split them out one after the other… will be later tho’

Nice one.

Did you butcher a pickguard especially for that video?

IIRC he did it for a composition in the Making Music thread, or possibly for one of the Dirty Snakemouth songs.

poopot

thegummy said:

Nice one.

Did you butcher a pickguard especially for that video?

ha... no... I wanted an acoustic and electric slide part for an intro to a track:

https://soundcloud.com/user-931985443/flameintro

Anyhoo...
Quick test... the guitar has the Single coil and a piezo, I added a Mic (sm57) and recorded all three sources at the same time... 
on the link below you will hear:
1) single coil - SGear tweed amp siim
2) piezo - direct into logic no processing
3) SM57 - direct into logic no processing
4) all three at once - piezo left, sm57 right and single coil centre

Again... its One take so the playing is Exacly the same for each. You can also download the WAV from soundcloud if you want to.

https://soundcloud.com/user-931985443/acoustic-test


Video of the test:

https://youtu.be/LKLfCxf7ZDk

Laterz x x x

Offset

OK, just fitted TonePros locking tailpiece studs and a TonePros locking TOM bridge to my Firebird.  Excellent - neither bridge nor tailpiece drops off when changing strings.  Additionally, the TonePros TOM feels fair nicer quality than the original Gibson unit.  However: having now re-strung it with my usual D'Addario 9-42s, there is a noticeable difference to the guitar's resonance, acoustic volume and depth.  I'm not one for waxing about minute, barely measurable differences.  However, I really can tell the difference here and I wasn't expecting to.  I just didn't want my guitar's hardware dropping off!

thegummy

@poopot forgot to listen to these the other day, thanks a lot for doing it.

With the clean sound it now doesn't sound like a Strat to me at all, especially not near the neck pickup position but that could be purely because I now know it isn't lol.

The mix of the three in stereo spread sounds quite cool!

octatonic

I haven't read the whole thread.
Has anyone (ie the OP) defined 'resonance' at all?

thegummy

octatonic said:

I haven't read the whole thread.
Has anyone (ie the OP) defined 'resonance' at all?

Surely it has to mean how much the wooden parts of the guitar vibrate when the strings are plucked?

I not only assumed that but assumed everyone else assumed that too.

Philly_Q