Aristides Tone

[ogon]

I would love to hear the perceptions of Aristides owners (of any model, not just ERGs) of the general tone characteristics of Aristides instruments. Talking about the amplified tone, not the acoustic tone which I know is supposed to be remarkable, but for the purposes of this thread I'm just interested in what's coming through the guitar cable. I've seen them described both as boomy / extended in the bass and tight and perfect for modern metal - I've seen them described both as scooped in the low and/or high mids and hyped in the low and/or high mids - I've seen them described both as dark and extremely bright.

I'm seriously considering an H/08r because of the awesome combination of features, but I'm worried about the inherent tone of the instrument and Aristides instruments in general. It's not likely that I'll find one to play in person. From watching every online demo I could find has worried me a bit - I've heard many demos especially of clean tones in which they sound very bright, scooped in the low mids, with a pokey, almost piezo-like quacky upper mid peak. Of course it's so hard to sort out whether it's the guitar, the pickups, the amp, or anything else in the signal chain, but complicating things even more, Aristides instruments being heavily favored by certain kinds of players with certain tonal preferences (prog metal players) may mean the demos tend to feature a certain type of clean tone that I happen not to like, but that those players are actually all going for intentionally because it's the sound they like.

Anyway,TLDR: love so many things about Aristides feature-wise but worried from demos (especially clean tones) that they might be overly bright, scooped, pokey sounding guitars with no low mids or "thickness", "warmth", no "sweetness" in the highs, etc. (tried to avoid the nebulous voodoo words until this point but it's unavoidable I guess) or have I been completely led astray by shitty demos? Have you heard the same kinds of demos I'm talking about and thought "wow that sounds nothing like mine"?

Caveat: no offense to you or anyone if you like these sounds. These are just my opinions obviously.

A couple examples since I'm referring to online demos so much:

 

[narad]

"not the acoustic tone which I know is supposed to be remarkable"

Citation needed.

In my own experience, I think their inherent tone is roughly the opposite, and most similar to my caparison TAT, maple through alder. A lot of low-mid, focused, punchy, with less top-end and without much warmth. The 060/070s I played were not bright guitars. The T0/R demo fits my memory of the sound. It has a roundness/smoothness to the sound that is not so typical of your average tele.

 

[ogon]

"not the acoustic tone which I know is supposed to be remarkable"

Citation needed.

In my own experience, I think their inherent tone is roughly the opposite, and most similar to my caparison TAT, maple through alder. A lot of low-mid, focused, punchy, with less top-end and without much warmth. The 060/070s I played were not bright guitars. The T0/R demo fits my memory of the sound. It has a roundness/smoothness to the sound that is not so typical of your average tele.

Thanks for your experience narad.

With the acoustic tone comment I'm just referring to how in nearly every Aristides thread and every review video I've found someone always remarks on "dude it's so loud!".

I think I understand what you're saying about that T0 sounding smooth/round in that video, but the concerning sonic characteristic I'm trying to describe is also present - if you listen to the section from 15-24 seconds, the high strings almost sound piezo-like to me, aka quacky, thin, etc. Of course high strings will always sound high, but there's a way those strings would sound on a good tele or strat through a good amp that has a kind of 3 dimensional depth, "juiceyness", "sweetness", etc., that I'm not hearing at all on that T0.

 

[narad]

Thanks for your experience narad.

With the acoustic tone comment I'm just referring to how in nearly every Aristides thread and every review video I've found someone always remarks on "dude it's so loud!".

I think I understand what you're saying about that T0 sounding smooth/round in that video, but the concerning sonic characteristic I'm trying to describe is also present - if you listen to the section from 15-24 seconds, the high strings almost sound piezo-like to me, aka quacky, thin, etc. Of course high strings will always sound high, but there's a way those strings would sound on a good tele or strat through a good amp that has a kind of 3 dimensional depth, "juiceyness", "sweetness", etc., that I'm not hearing at all on that T0.

Yea, in pretty sure we're going to talk around each other trying to use these timbral adjectives but are probably on the same page. If you do want a guitar that sounds like a traditional tele or LP in the top end, the aristides doesn't have it IMO. That said id like to hear one with like Wolfetone PAFs or something just to reduce the effect of pickup choice.

 

[ogon]

That said id like to hear one with like Wolfetone PAFs or something just to reduce the effect of pickup choice.

100%

 

[getowned7474]

I agree with most of what narad said. But I will also describe it in my own words if it helps. I have an 060r with BKP silos ( which used to have fishman classics) and an H/07r with BKP polymaths.

Acoustically they are absolutely louder than any wooden solid body guitar I've played. You feel the notes in the neck as you play them more than most guitars so much it feels odd to play for a bit. I'd say that most of what you hear acoustically translates to the plugged in sound too. They are very bass and low mid forward. The highs are pretty normal and then the upper mids are slightly scooped. The biggest difference is you trade off some upper mid range "sweetness" that I get in wooden guitars for the intense lows an overall resonance. I find on a lot of wooden guitars you can hear the harmonics of notes in the upper mid range while playing unplugged and that sort of sound just isn't there on the Aristides. Instead it's more of a clean clear sound. For this reason I've found them to work the best with pickups that have a midrange push to them to make up for that lack of "organic?" feel in the midrange.

In my 060r the BKP silos are thick and midrange heavy and work nicely. They are pretty heavy on the lows though so the overall sound is big and fat which is fine in drop d. Any lower and I'd want to maybe get a leaner sounding pickup or just use some really tight overdrives or amps. With my H/07r the polymaths are almost a perfect fit for my preferences. They are very upper mid range heavy and have a slightly leaner bass which helps to balance things.

 

[Crungy]

You feel the notes in the neck as you play them more than most guitars so much it feels odd to play for a bit.

With your description would you say if you played a G major chord for example, you feel it like it's jumping out of the fretboard?

 

[getowned7474]

With your description would you say if you played a G major chord for example, you feel it like it's jumping out of the fretboard?

Yeah you could put it that way. In general it feels like you get more physical feedback in your fretting hand and fingers. It's was a little distracting at first to be honest but now It feels weird to play wood guitars.

 

[jephjacques]

I love my Aristides, I think they're building the best guitars in the world today, but I don't think they have any magical (or even noteworthy) tonal properties. They sound and feel just like nice traditonal guitars to me. Pickups, amp, and speaker are going to matter 10000x more than Arium in terms of sound.

I suspect some of the "acoustic loudness" people are hearing is a side effect of the back cover and hollowed-out back creating a resonating space.

 

[jephjacques]

Also you can't judge a guitar's tone from youtube videos.

 

[Crungy]

Yeah you could put it that way. In general it feels like you get more physical feedback in your fretting hand and fingers. It's was a little distracting at first to be honest but now It feels weird to play wood guitars.

Oh man... Any guitars I've played like that felt amazing but I didn't have an opportunity to buy them. If Aristides are consistently like that I really need to get my hands on one.

 

[ogon]

Also you can't judge a guitar's tone from youtube videos.

That's why I'm asking for the opinions of actual owners who can tell me if they feel like those videos are representative of their actual experience.

 

[jephjacques]

And I'm saying that youtube demos aren't a useful point of comparison, in my opinion. You're not getting an accurate representation of "the sound of the guitar" when it's going through whatever amp, whatever speaker cab, whatever mic/audio interface/smartphone was being used for the video, etc.

I've got an 070 with BKP Ragnaroks in it, and a Mayones 7 with Ragnaroks in it. There's no meaningful difference between how the two guitars sound.

 

[narad]

I suspect some of the "acoustic loudness" people are hearing is a side effect of the back cover and hollowed-out back creating a resonating space.

For sure. The loudness and whole body resonating thing is something you'll feel in a semi-hollow (center block style) guitar. Which I get a bit tired of people commenting on because it doesn't have any bearing on anything. It's like people trying to find ways to be wowed.

 

[Fred the Shred]

Tonally I tend to agree with what was send here - they have this deep yet defined low end to them and a certain scoop to the upper mid bit with thinks picking back up on the treble side and keeping a fair amount of snap. I love using midrange heavy pickups on them as it provides a solid starting point for the whole chain which is well in line with my preferences. To be fair, with the sheer amount of great pickups out there covering so much ground frequency wise, if you can't get a tone you like out of one you either loaded it with the completely wrong set for you or the problem is likely in the way something else is set up on the signal chain.

When I did the demo for one of the first 070 prototypes, I didn't need to touch anything regarding my signal chain. I actually found that the take for the song was so neat that I used it on the album instead of the original one.

 

[Jonathan20022]

I think each of those demos sound drastically different, that being said I'm not the most picky tone eater in the world so I'm probably not the best judge for this.

In theory nothing should be different in recorded tone between 2 guitars with the same pickups and features (Scale length, string guage, tuning, etc). If one is an Aristides and the other is an Ibanez Prestige, I don't think the Aristides would have any perceptible recorded characteristic that you'd be able to pinpoint.

My 3 Aristides have these pickups
060 - Dimarzio Empiriums - E Standard
060 - Fishman Abasi (Alternate Devin/Keith) - Drop D
070 - Nailbombs - B Standard

And I find them all to be distinctly different in clean tones, the Nailbombs being the fullest bodied of the 3. But I prefer bright tones in general, I'm going to be swapping the Nailbombs for Lundgren M7's because I want tighter tone for that Low B/A.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

I've had 3 070 guitars with vastly different pickup sets:
SD Nazgul/Sentient
Lundgren M7 set
Avedissian Scythe bridge+ single coil neck

I'll echo the sentiment that they tend to have a bigger low/low mid bump regardless of pickup choice, but beyond that they all do their own thing sonically. It honestly depends on how people dial in the other aspects of their rig and what pickups are in the guitar moreso than the material the Aristides are made of. I tend to play more of death metal type stuff anymore so I dial in my tones very differently from the "modern/prog" crowd.
Here's some vids I've done with my aristides for reference. For the scythe vid I used completely different amp/IRs/riffs so it's not going to sound anything like the other vid.