I was thinking that I must sound different playing certain guitars because my bandmates definitely have favorites. Then I realized that it might not be the tone of the guitar as much as how it inspires me to play.
If that's the only real difference between all of my guitars then it's worth them all.
Well, perhaps so. But that doesn't justify boo-teek pickups, especially when it's me playing the same guitar. The expense, the time spent installing them, and what do you get? A sound indistinguishable from the sound it made before!
Anyway, array for the inconvenience... sorry I started this thread, actually! Move along, nothing to see here. I'd delete the whole thing if I could... Perhaps a kindly mod will put it out of its misery.
Well, pickups can and do sound different. These differences can be accentuated by style - pick attack, and other personal playing differences.
Anybody with any sense of history knows that many of the greats somehow made due with 'inferior' parts, less desirable pickups, scale lengths, "tone woods" etc. They all ended up sounding like themselves.
The real question is how much equipment do you need/want/willing to deal with to sound like yourself as much as possible? For example, Wes Montgomery would still have sounded like himself on a Telecaster or an L-5. But which instrument would accentuate what Wes wanted to achieve best?
Several guitars in different colors
Things to make them fuzzy
Things to make them louder
orange picks
I know that's true, Kap'n. I'm sure you can hear the difference when Refin plays. But when I play... Eh, not so much.
A while back, Refin posted a clip of himself playing his new Stratele winds (I think that's what David calls them), and it was amazing. And I posted in that thread that if I could make those pickups sound like that, I'd buy some!
Jim, I'm just a tinkerer who likes to play with his toys!
To tell you the truth, the biggest differences in the sound of my guitars happens when I purposely try to use the to create their signature sounds.
Usually, I just play and hopefully sound like me!
Don't ever regret starting a thread like this- your one of the guys who makes us think (that's a good thing)!
Jim it is a great topic and has me thinking!
Well, glad to be of service.... even if the whole thing makes me feel like a consarn idjit. (I'm sure you can hear the Yosemite Sam voice, there....)
Well, this thread it got me thinking too, realizing that there are different things you can do with different axes if you play right, and that there are some things that a P90 or Tele just can't do, and my bonus is coming this week, and i deserve a toy to reward me for the crazy yet excellent year last year, all of which caused me to pull the trigger on a PRS Korina SE on e-bay to get the thick, juicy, rockin humbucker sounds.
Only thing, I don't like the all black humbucker pickups so if your Zhangbuckers have covers I might be interested in taking them off of your hands for you. That just might be the worst reason to buy new pickups ever. I want pickup covers.
Got them Statesboro Blues
Sorry, dude... I ordered them black/black without covers. (I'm on the verge of a local sale, anyway.)
Can't you add covers aftermarket? Are the PRS buckers an odd size?
You should try them,Jim.....I don't think anyone would really give you less if you decide to sell them.
"My flesh and my heart fail...but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
PS. 73:26
MY JAMS--
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/defa...&content=music
They're already sold, Refin. I think the Singlecut might be right behind them.
Bur seeriously, man, all GAS and myth aside... I've heard dozens of recordings of you playing. It's the notes and the picking and phrasing that makes it. It doesn't matter what guitar or amp you use, it sure doesnt matter what pickups you use, and it matters even less for me. I'm not a guitarist like you. I'm a songwriter and low-level producer, and I learn to play one simple part I need for a recording, play it, and then forget what I did the second I start mixing. I never touch a guitar otherwise anymore.. after 45 years, I can't stand to hear my own playing!
This little on-line tantrum is part of what I think is an important personal process for me: the late-middle age letting go of some old beliefs and illusions. I am letting go of the idea that I can ever be the guitar player I set out to be. I haven't gotten one lick better in the past 20 years, despite instructional videos and lessons. I just don't have the thing, the mental trigger, the key that goes in the lock, to be what I would call "good." I can't reach my own standards. Which is okay... I've done a lot of other good things that I'm proud of. But this one got away from me. It was probably never within my capacity.
So, as you age, it's mentally healthy to let go of those things, so you don't become a crashing bore to your grandchildren. :)
Refin, I'm the lucky dog who got Jim's pickups. The intention is to replace my Jack-of-all-trades prs soapbar SE with two different guitars: my Tele clone that I'm halfway done finishing and a nice thick fat humbucker guitar (a PRS Korina SE I just pulled the trigger on). One guitar for fender sounds, one for Gibsony sounds. I figure having two (theoretical) polar opposites would cover the ground my ham-fisted hands can cover.
Got them Statesboro Blues
Well,hey,I don't think you will be disappointed!
Hey Jim,we all reach a place where we seriously look at what we do with a little honest judgement.The truth is,you are a much better player than you give yourself credit for.It's good to be our own worst critics,it helps us grow---but you gotta pat yourself on the back once in awhile too!
Your kindness about my playing is humbling.....it encourages me,but I know how many takes I do to get something right,rather than just jam like most people.The people I so admire can sit there and play 12 bars without a fluff,and I seem to have lost that ability at times.But---it's because I don't practice like I should.Whenever I hear Leslie West,Paul Kossoff,Peter Green,Joe Walsh,those are my teachers as far as feel--get "inside" the note rather than the phrase.The latter will take care of itself!
"My flesh and my heart fail...but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
PS. 73:26
MY JAMS--
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/defa...&content=music
I'm working on a pitch for a national TV spot: the competition is fierce, I won't likely get it, but I have a shot so I'm going for it anyway. I've got a thing going I really like, and was so feeling a 12-string electric, so I put out a call on my Facebook page for anybody I know locally who has one. Turns out Rob & Susie Suraci, some people I'm (still) trying to get a band put together with, have one they offered and I just picked it up... a Danelectro Hodad in purple metal flake with three lipstick pickups and some kind of Varitone thingie. It needed some strings and some cleaning, but I've got it tuned up and rocking....
Now, THIS sound different! Honestly, this is what I should be spending my guitar money on... REALLY weird crap. I need a junk Asian hollowbody with microphonic pickups and a Dano 12 and homebrew Tele baritone!
And I know you won't believe it, Refin, but on my scale you have equalled or surpassed the players you mention. Joe Walsh isn't fit to carry your gig bag in my universe. :)
12-strings are very cool and different. You probably would get more use out of it than me. I'd probably learn all the songs off of A Quick One, and then set it down for a year.
Several guitars in different colors
Things to make them fuzzy
Things to make them louder
orange picks
Kap'n, that's why I'm borrowing this one instead of owning it. :) One thing's for sure, it is stupid ugly.
Update: it's also a really bad guitar. :) What's up with this wiring? Is this a "blow" switch? Why is it so damn loud? Is this tone knob any good at all? Is it going to play out of tune all over the neck?
Last edited by Gravity Jim; 02-09-2012 at 01:19 PM.
I think the newer Dano 12s are of a better quality...I tried to like the Hodad...and yes, I think it's a blower switch...
They sound cool but the neck feels like a hunk of spaghetti to me.
"I'm gonna find myself a girl
that can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
In each other's paint-by-number dreams..."
Is that a description of the sound, or what people were using when they designed it?Originally Posted by silent j.
Can autotune fix a 12-string?
Several guitars in different colors
Things to make them fuzzy
Things to make them louder
orange picks
Well, I can't speak to the latter, but clearly the former.
Sorry, it was meant to be a slight to 12-strings in general. You know the joke.
Several guitars in different colors
Things to make them fuzzy
Things to make them louder
orange picks
Could you put the set of octave strings on a guitar and double up a track that was recorded with another normally-strung guitar to achieve a sort of 12 string sound?
s'all goof.
Curtis, there's a technique called "Nashville tuning" that's a lot like that. Some or all of the strings in a regular six or short scale (3/4) are tuned an octave higher.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashvil..._(high_strung)
I'm pretty sure I've even seen guitar scaled just for Nashville tuning. I seem to remember a little Ovation that we used in sessions I used to play at a local studio in the mid-70s.
Last edited by Gravity Jim; 02-09-2012 at 05:29 PM.
Used to do that. We replaced the E,A,G with the top 3 of a set and tuned them up one.
No need to now, as it's easier to to emulate it. Octave up on a .050 delay on one side and .030 on the other, and EQ out the real high stuff. Add in about 30 percent chorus and you're there. Plus, you can mix the octave in or out to make it more or less dense where you want it. Adds a lot of dimension an focus to the 12 sound, which can be pretty overbearing sometimes. YMMV.
"No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim
Right-o! Just seems to me that it might be easier to fake up a 12 string sound than dealing with a cranky, poorly-intonating, borrowed cheapy 12 string.
s'all goof.
Well, I'm getting what I need from it.... just a couple of Cowsills-y fills.
Interesting thing... when I use the 12-string to play single lines, any place it doubles the top line being played by the acoustic piano, it stops sounding like a guitar and starts sounding like synth horns. :)
I really do think I may be screwing together a Warmoth bari this year, though. Unless somebody makes a good one for less.
Jim, my son just got one of those Gretsch Electromatic "duo-jet-type" Baritones, and it's pretty damned nice for $489. Intonates well. Goes down easily to A (he's also got a Dano baritone that goes to B, so he wanted one that goes to A) and has a good Bigsby.
I love it. Wish I had one of my own!
"I'm gonna find myself a girl
that can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
In each other's paint-by-number dreams..."
I'll have to find one of those to try. I think I could use a baritone maybe six, seven times a year. That would more than pay for a $500 guitar.
If I ever get this Dano 12 in tune, I'm gonna solder the machines!
LOL! (about the Dano).
By far my favorite low-down instrument is the original Dano baritone...but the newer ones aren't as nice. The one my buddy has - that I played on my album - is kind of like the 56 U2 model. My son's Dano is one of those goofy-shaped ones that came out a few years ago.
The Gretsch is a solid, gig-worthy instrument.
I love the Fender Bass VI too but it's so freakin' pricy!
Edited to add: I'll bet you would like the Eastwood Sidejack Baritone, too! That's a bit cheaper.
"I'm gonna find myself a girl
that can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
In each other's paint-by-number dreams..."
Baritone update:
I bought a used Dano baritone, a black singlecut two-pickup deal that tunes to an A, just like the one Buddy Miller plays. I think it should work out fine. It'll arrive this week, but I'm probably too busy to report on it... I'll post some impressions/clips as I soon as I get a chance.
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