Julian Emdon (LooneyAtTheGate) wrote
Still sounds very modern though, particulary the distortion.
That would be why I pointed out the rails ? In fact the interesting thing about Andy Timmons guitar is that in order to get the single coil sized pickups to balance with the Bridge humbucker he actually uses the bridge version of that pickup in the neck - I believe it's a cruiser ?
Julian Emdon (LooneyAtTheGate) wrote
Pull out another video, I'm enjoying this ?
Well take for instance Mattias Eklundh, again modern pickups, modern guitar but as bad as the audio quality is in the following video you can hear that loose sounding kinda gibson vibe in the low end, which I attribute to the fact that his guitar is 24,75" scale instead of the more common 25,5" you'd get on modern superstrats.
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Or Shawn Lane where his Charvel again was 24,75" scale and you can kinda hear the rubberyness in the attack on single notes because of this, he also favoured lower output pickups and solid state amps so that of course helps bring a little more clarity into the note so it's a very subtle effect but to me still noticeable.
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There are so many factors that go into guitar design and build that attribute to overall tone, which in part I find fascinating and in part goes a long way to illustrate the subjective nature we all have towards tone ?
Or take for instance Lamb of God, Mark Morton's guitar is 24,75" scale mahogany with a set neck and a more vintage output kinda choice in pickups (Seymour Duncan '59s) again though you can hear those factors in the tone his rig which is fairly modern helps give it bucket loads of gain and some extra clarity ?
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I'm personally of the opinion that lower output pickups sound a lot better for heavy metal sounds these days - They provide more clarity, definition and headroom owing to the less compressed nature of their sound. High output was only useful back in the days when amps weren't made to have the huge amounts of gain they have on tap these days, so you had a hotter signal hitting your preamp but now I think that they're fairly redundant ?
Again take for instance this Seymour Duncan comparison video in which identical mic placement and amplifier settings were used with only the pickup being swapped:
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In this example in my opinion pickups like the Full Shred and Invader sound kinda miff and small compared to the relatively lower output pickups like the Distortion ?
Or this video demoing the Bareknuckle Aftermaths in an 8 string against the Rebel Yell and VHII which are far lower output, you'll notice there's more richness in the mids compaired to the Aftermath but at the same time less tightness (which can be compensated for with gates etc) and on the cleans the lower output pickups sound more sparkly and harmonic as opposed to the far more compressed sound of the Aftermaths ?
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It's all personal taste and at the end of the day how we achieve our personal tone is an ammulgamation (sp?) of so many different factors, that's why I personally believe that there is no such thing as the perfect guitar, and in recording it helps to have tons of options even sometimes for the same part ? That's why I don't personally believe a guitar can be inherently metal except from an aesthetic stand point. In short I love guitars and I love the fact that nothing is ever straightforward, there's tons of compromise and understanding involved on our journey to the perfect tone ?
