Unpopular opinions on gear

[SSK0909]

Guitarist obsess about stupid things like these:

- What pedal
- What strings
- Which speakers
- Which pickups
- What wood

When all of the above have far less impact on sound and feel than just turning a bit on the amp knobs and possibly buying an eq pedal.

Flying V's are not guitars. They're jokes

 

[Werecow]

- there's no such thing as too loud.

I'd disagree with that simply because i went to a Pantera concert once. I was a complete obsessive at the time, knew all their songs note for note, and could play most of the rhythm guitar parts as well.... It's the most disappointing concert i've ever been to because they were so fucking loud that i couldn't tell what songs they were playing. One of the only bits i was 100% sure they were playing was the really slow palm muted sections of This Love, and that was just because of the unmistakable stop-start nature of it. The rest of the concert sounded like an hour and a half long continuous snare drum hit directly into my ears, with no discernable musical note or tone to be detected

 

[Emperoff]

I'm loving this thread. I'm reading posts that would make people stab each other in the eyes if they were in another thread

Buying guitars online is a waste of time and money. As long as you go to stores to try guitars first, and your shop is willing to bring in guitars with no obligation, you don't need to spend more than $800-900 US to get a guitar that's as good as a guitar can possibly be

Quite utopic thinking, I'd say. There's no way you can do that unless you're lucky to have such a store nearby. If I had to rely on a physical store I can guarantee you that:
A) They wouldn't bring a guitar just for you with no obligation.
B) It would be twice the price as the ones I bought online.

Not saying you're wrong, as that would be ideal. Just extremely unlikely these days and heavily influenced by where you live.

-Mid range guitars often make the best gig instruments. Everything worth upgrading from a budget model is already addressed, and most of the upgrades left to do are purely cosmetic. If I bring a $3K guitar to a gig, I'm going to worry about it the whole time. If I bring a good playing and sounding $750 to a gig, I can rock out just the same and not live in constant fear of dings, scratches, spilled drinks, and patrons who feel like they can just touch your gear without asking.

Couldn't agree more. Add to that fancy oiled necks are less protected to "liquid" accidents than painted ones, and ebony boards can crack under extreme temperature changes, etc. This is why my MIJ Jackson with painted neck and rosewood board is the workhorse I use live 90% of the time, while the USA ones usually stay in the studio.

The less shit you worry about when playing live, the better you'll play.

 

[Wrecklyss]

-Fishman Fluence don't offer anything that would make me choose them over a well-manufactured passive pickup.

-Spending time with stock pickups (even some unmarked ones that I have no idea what the hell they are) can make you decide against a swap approx. 90% 0f the time (I actually discovered some really great pickups doing this)

-You will dial in a better amp tone if you just ring out an open chord, close your eyes, and turn each knob one at a time while listening. Works on every amp. Choosing an amp setting based on parameter values is too unreliable due to component tolerance variances causing cumulative differences even in the same model. USE YOUR EARS!!!

-A Vox or similarly styled amp with a clean boost has a very musical distortion that cuts through a mix better than a Marshall style. Both sound great and offer different flavors (which complement each other quite well), but there's a reason an AC30 can still hang with a Triple Rec.

-Mid range guitars often make the best gig instruments. Everything worth upgrading from a budget model is already addressed, and most of the upgrades left to do are purely cosmetic. If I bring a $3K guitar to a gig, I'm going to worry about it the whole time. If I bring a good playing and sounding $750 to a gig, I can rock out just the same and not live in constant fear of dings, scratches, spilled drinks, and patrons who feel like they can just touch your gear without asking.

-Biasing tubes, adjusting truss rods, intonation bridge saddles, and impedance matching speakers aren't so hard you can't learn to do these things yourself. While a tech is happy to take your money, save them for more major issues and learn some basic set up and maintenance yourself.

 

[BenjaminW]

Yeah, going along with the Chorus comments earlier in this topic, after going between TONS of Chorus pedals and rack units, I have found recently the secret is to run a Detune and Chorus in series together. They probably knew this trick in 1988, but it got lost somewhere in time, lol. The Detune can bring the lushness to a Chorus without using a ton of depth which makes them sound seasick. It makes me wish more Chorus pedals had a Detune setting on them.

I get my detune/chorus sound from a Boss PS-6 that I normally used for clean stuff. But then I saw recently that EVH used a detune pedal and thought I’d experiment with it.

Turns out it kicks ass!

 

[Spaced Out Ace]

He didn't use a pedal; it was a piece of rack gear.

 

[mp3357]

I turn down the mid knob on my amps and I think they sound better that way.

I love this. The mid scooping fad has jerked entirely in the other direction because "CuTtInG thRu ThE mIx" apparently means crank mids always or you're a fool.

I'm not saying it doesn't help but you don't need your guitar to sound like overly midrangey garbage to cut through a band..

 

[Vostre Roy]

-Biasing tubes, […] aren't so hard you can't learn to do these things yourself. While a tech is happy to take your money, save them for more major issues and learn some basic set up and maintenance yourself.

Agreed, but I'd put an asterisk on this part. When there's bias probe jack accessible from the outside of the amp and the manufacturer gives the plate voltage in the manual, its surprisingly easy to bias an amp. If you need to pull the amp out of the headshell and get readings directly in the circuit, then some knowledge about capacitors (risk and how to discharge them) as well as basic understanding of an amplifier's circuitry is needed.

 

[Necky379]

I love this. The mid scooping fad has jerked entirely in the other direction because "CuTtInG thRu ThE mIx" apparently means crank mids always or you're a fool.

I'm not saying it doesn't help but you don't need your guitar to sound like overly midrangey garbage to cut through a band..

I just don’t think it’s necessary or a sound I particularly care for. People see my settings and think I’m scooped but you can’t hear a tone by looking at knobs it doesn’t work that way. It’s more open and wide sounding with the mids down. I honestly think I’d have a hard time dialing in a sound that doesn’t cut with boosted 5150’s, V30’s and greenback cabs. The only time I raise that knob is if I’m going through G12T’s.

 

[Werecow]

I just don’t think it’s necessary or a sound I particularly care for. People see my settings and think I’m scooped but you can’t hear a tone by looking at knobs it doesn’t work that way. It’s more open and wide sounding with the mids down. I honestly think I’d have a hard time dialing in a sound that doesn’t cut with boosted 5150’s, V30’s and greenback cabs. The only time I raise that knob is if I’m going through G12T’s.

That's the thing that gets me with the trend. People are doing it on top of using V30's. Meanwhile thrash and death metal bands used to sound great live with scooped mids and G12T75's.

I'm guessing that's what makes what i call the "scratchy" djent tone i don't like, that doesn't have any balls.

 

[Necky379]

I guess that would be an unpopular opinion the two of us share. I hate most djent tones. Scratchy and no balls as you described it.

 

[TedEH]

Be it in recording or just playing in general - when something sounds bad, it's usually not the gear's fault.

That being said....

The best amps are ones that don't require a bunch of pedals to sound good - if you need stacked boosts, eqs in the loop, and five noise gates to get your basic gainy tone, maybe the amp isn't that great to begin with.

Trusting your listening environment is more important than having the best monitors or headphones.

You can, and maybe should, test mixes through the worst things you can find - including cell phones, bluetooth speakers, cheap earbuds, in your car, etc. Translating a mix is about getting things to sound as good as possible anywhere not just on systems that were designed to make anything sound good.

 

[efiltsohg]

Trusting your listening environment is more important than having the best monitors or headphones.

You can, and maybe should, test mixes through the worst things you can find - including cell phones, bluetooth speakers, cheap earbuds, in your car, etc. Translating a mix is about getting things to sound as good as possible anywhere not just on systems that were designed to make anything sound good.

somebody - might have been Gabriel Roth from Daptone records - wrote that it's best to mix on the speakers you are most familiar with, even if that's your car radio or whatever

 

[sakeido]

Quite utopic thinking, I'd say. There's no way you can do that unless you're lucky to have such a store nearby. If I had to rely on a physical store I can guarantee you that:
A) They wouldn't bring a guitar just for you with no obligation.
B) It would be twice the price as the ones I bought online.

We're spoiled up here, L&M has 60 stores across Canada and they're awesome. Pricing is great and at times, has been way cheaper than the big box places in the States... the Cranborne 500ADAT was $500 cheaper in Canada than the US for a long time. That said, my local store has pushed back a few times on the "no obligation" part... until they check my account and see how much money I've spent there over the years

But literally the only bad guitars I've ever owned, I bought online. The absolute worst guitars I've owned I bought used online. I've never, ever walked home from a store with a bad guitar. I had them bring a few Charvels in and I ended up with one that's 95% as good as my Suhr Modern Custom at 25% the price

I guess that would be an unpopular opinion the two of us share. I hate most djent tones. Scratchy and no balls as you described it.

Is the "djent tone" now that garbage ultra-spanky clean sound guys use? I can't even remember the bands name cuz they're so bad, but it sounds like a VST from 1999. Outrageously horrible tone.

 

[BenjaminW]

He didn't use a pedal; it was a piece of rack gear.

Fuck that's what I meant.

 

[Emperoff]

I love this. The mid scooping fad has jerked entirely in the other direction because "CuTtInG thRu ThE mIx" apparently means crank mids always or you're a fool.

I'm not saying it doesn't help but you don't need your guitar to sound like overly midrangey garbage to cut through a band..

Spot on. I find current "modern metal" tones laughable. Guitars don't sound like guitars anymore. We need MOAR clarity and mids to cut through the mix. So we can properly hear those ear-fatiguing guitars that sound like a single coil wired into a duck.

 

[lewis]

Spot on. I find current "modern metal" tones laughable. Guitars don't sound like guitars anymore. We need MOAR clarity and mids to cut through the mix. So we can properly hear those ear-fatiguing guitars that sound like a single coil wired into a duck.

"Perfect tone doesnt exi......

 

[Spaced Out Ace]

I love this. The mid scooping fad has jerked entirely in the other direction because "CuTtInG thRu ThE mIx" apparently means crank mids always or you're a fool.

I'm not saying it doesn't help but you don't need your guitar to sound like overly midrangey garbage to cut through a band..

I think of the midrange knob as a voicing control for the guitar.

 

[Shask]

I love this. The mid scooping fad has jerked entirely in the other direction because "CuTtInG thRu ThE mIx" apparently means crank mids always or you're a fool.

I'm not saying it doesn't help but you don't need your guitar to sound like overly midrangey garbage to cut through a band..

I mid scoop everything. Lots of mids sounds like a nasal telephone to me, and I cant do it. If I play out, I will adjust my settings, but at home, it better sound like 80's Metallica, lol.

 

[lewis]

I think of the midrange knob as a voicing control for the guitar.

i do the same. 9/10 the higher I turn mids, the more some weird boxy/low mid shit gets added that muddies up the sound

I normally either keep mids at noon or lower them