Solid vs semi-hollow recorded sound

Yorkie

As in Les Paul vs ES-339. They *feel* very different, they play different, etc. But today I have recorded some rhythms with both guitars (bridge pickup) and I simply cannot tell the difference in the recorded sound. In contrast, I have recorded the same parts with a PRS SE (hotter pickups, and using 10s instead of 9s) and the difference is like night and day. Worst of all, the pickups on the LP are uncovered, and the pickups on the ES are covered — surely that ought to impact the sound? 

Very confused. 

Devil#20

Well remember all those Andertons videos with good friend of the Fretboard forum, cheeky Chappers and the Cap'n when he tried to tell the difference between low and high end guitars of the same type of guitar in a blind test and quite often got it hopelessly wrong. Well there you go. It's a law of diminishing returns as you go up in price. Were the specs close on the pickups in terms of coil resistance, wire type, magnet type etc. 

NelsonP

Devil#20 said:

Well remember all those Andertons videos with good friend of the Fretboard forum, cheeky Chappers and the Cap'n when he tried to tell the difference between low and high end guitars of the same type of guitar in a blind test and quite often got it hopelessly wrong. Well there you go. It's a law of diminishing returns as you go up in price. Were the specs close on the pickups in terms of coil resistance, wire type, magnet type etc. 

I thought he generally got it right tbh.

Yorkie

Not comparing cheap vs expensive, but solid vs semi-hollow sound. All my guitars are cheap. 

Funkfingers

Yorkie said:

All my guitars are cheap. 

What about your amp, your microphone and/or D.I. box?

Basher

I used to have hours of recordings of me noodling about with ideas (until the hard disc went kaput and I lost the lot).

What always surprised me was that, unless I noted it down, I could rarely tell what guitar I'd used on any recording.

I might have a general idea if it was a Fender-ish or Gibson-esqe instrument, but once it went through some kind of amp, speaker & mic simulation they were often far closer than I'd have expected.

As your say, they often feel far more different than they sound. Maybe those with great ears can tell but my knackered, old lugs just can not. Oddly enough, it's not stopped me owning far too many guitars.

Kurtis

Electric guitars do all tend to sound very similar. 

Yorkie

Funkfingers said:

Yorkie said:

All my guitars are cheap. 

What about your amp, your microphone and/or D.I. box?

DSL40C with a Creamback, SM57. Sound fantastic to me. And I can hear very obvious differences between the PRS and the others. But in theory the biggest difference should be between solid body/open coil humbuckers and semi/covered humbuckers? 

Yorkie

Basher said:

What always surprised me was that, unless I noted it down, I could rarely tell what guitar I'd used on any recording.

I had always pinned the blame on the grit, but the recording that originated this question was made with gain at 3 o’clock on the crunch channel. 

Just checked, the pickups on the PRS show a DC resistance 10% higher than the other two. 

ICBM

Yorkie said:

But in theory the biggest difference should be between solid body/open coil humbuckers and semi/covered humbuckers? 

You may find that the differences coincidentally cancel each other out. All things being more or less equal I would expect the open-coil pickups to sound more ‘airy’ than the covered ones, but the semi-hollow body to do the same relative to the solid.

At the end of the day the differences are always far more noticeable to the player than the listener though.

koss59

I always thought a 339 sounded much closer to a Les Paul than a 335.

crunchman

koss59 said:

I always thought a 339 sounded much closer to a Les Paul than a 335.

I have owned all 3.  That's definitely my experience.  The 339 was closer to the Les Paul.

Yorkie

Well, I bought the 339 because I couldn't spot any difference in sound between that and a 335. So I went with the smaller one, which suited me better.

AlbertC

Kurtis said:

Electric guitars do all tend to sound very similar. 

don't let the cork sniffers hear you say that 

Jazzy_Jake

The Jazz guitar Youtuber Jens Larsen did a good video on this. He recorded himself playing on a strat, a 335 style and a vintage es175 with P90s (AKA the 'holy grail' jazz guitar). He then mixed up the audio and video - so in some videos he appeared to be playing a strat but actually the recording was of the es175.

The bottom line - when recorded they all sounded the same and no-one would be able to tell the difference.

Of course, to the player it does make a difference.

Jazzy_Jake

Pat Metheny also talks about fans claiming his 'tone was ruined' when he switched from his Gibson 175 to an Ibanez signature model. But, he had been using the Ibanez on recordings before he ever switched to it for live shows and no-one had noticed.

Guitarists and guitar music lovers are a funny bunch when it comes to what we believe about instruments!

allen

You mean all those discussions on TGP about hearing the difference between what the nut is made of are a waste of time!!??

OilCityPickups

allen said:

You mean all those discussions on TGP about hearing the difference between what the nut is made of are a waste of time!!??

Those discussions are usually instigated by 'habitually solo instrumentalists' ... that is, ones who spend far too much time playing with themselves  ;-)

Yorkie

About hearing differences in the mix: have a listen to AC/DC - High Voltage (MY played a Les Paul) from the very first album, and then listen to anything else from them and from that era (Gretsch). The differences are obvious. 

I’ve mixed my tracks today and the differences between the PRS and the rest are still pretty obvious, albeit less pronounced. 

I’ll keep tweaking things until I get something more distinctive from the 339. 

Funkfingers

Yorkie said:

About hearing differences in the mix: have a listen to AC/DC - High Voltage (MY played a Les Paul) from the very first album, and then listen to anything else from them and from that era (Gretsch). The differences are obvious.  

Were those recordings made using the same amp(s), through the same microphones, in the same studio? Any of those could explain the difference.

Yorkie

Funkfingers said:

Yorkie said:

About hearing differences in the mix: have a listen to AC/DC - High Voltage (MY played a Les Paul) from the very first album, and then listen to anything else from them and from that era (Gretsch). The differences are obvious.  

Were those recordings made using the same amp(s), through the same microphones, in the same studio? Any of those could explain the difference.

In theory everything else was the same. All tracks were cut on different days. And all of them except High Voltage sound very similar. 

It is not 100% clear what actual guitar he used. Some interviews mention a Les Paul, some others mention a L-5. But it wasn’t a Gretsch.