Blindfold test : 5 Les Pauls - The Doug and Pat Show

joel · 2013-04-03T19:05:55+00:00

Blindfold test : 5 LP's - The Doug and Pat Show ? Five guitars run directly into a Vox, no EQ, no effects, no compressor and all unseen. Heritage Les Pau...

Blindfold test : 5 Les Pauls - The Doug and Pat Show

Sean

Ja, I struggled to even tell them apart...never mind guess which was which :-[

Manfred-Klose

they all sound good, but number 3 and 4 sounded the best too me , but i have no idea what they are

here is the results, very interesting

Keira-WitherKay

Mmmm blinfold tests are fine if you don't mind /care what the guitar looks like or what history is attatched to the name on the headstock

since in todays market most so called "better" makes are normally great sounding guitars ...
All the guitars tested are higher end and heritage is the factory started by ex gibson people, and tokai is seen as excellent gibson replica's so blindfold between gibson/heritage/tokai is prob much of a muchness ..... I don't know the other brand .... But i wanna see the finish and the grain of the wood , and then the name on the headstock does mean a lot to most players and affects collectability and resale value ..... And history of an iconic brand is not to be dismissed and many of us are happy to pay more for it too

maybe not for all but for most
owning or loving guitars goes way beyond the blindtest..... Its also a piece of art , history and even investment in some cases

wirt

So I'm either half deaf or my earphones are screwed, but I don't hear that much difference at all. I think at the high-end level of these instruments it's no longer about Good/Bad but merely personal taste.

There is just something about a genuine Gibson, though *drool*

singemonkey

wirt wrote: So I'm either half deaf or my earphones are screwed, but I don't hear that much difference at all. I think at the high-end level of these instruments it's no longer about Good/Bad but merely personal taste.

At the level of these guitar which are all basically built to the same spec - i.e., they either are '50's LPs or are built the same way - the differences between individual instances of guitars, and pickups, make far more difference than the difference in brands. In other words, two different '50s LPs would sound as different to each other as a '50s LP would sound from one one these other brands, if the pickups are the same.

There's that famous video of Larry Dimarzio's '59 which totally smokes the reviewers R9. But the key point in that is that Larry says that he chose that guitar from 5 different '50s Les Pauls. In other words, it's an exceptional guitar. It's not that Gibson's historic reissues aren't as good (laminated fingerboards aside ? )

There is just something about a genuine Gibson, though *drool*

Sometime I want to revisit the brands vs. other ways of choosing guitars (there was a recent thread in which people defended the fact that the name on the headstock was a pivotal factor in their buying a guitar). I tend to buy on specs, rather than brands. That's why I think a Gibson R9 is awesome, but I have less than no interest in a Gibson LP Standard. I chose a Tokai because it has the same specs as an historic reissue Gibson, but was much more affordable. I chose my Pacifica because it offered far more than even a USA Fender, for (at the time and heavily marked down) less than an MIM Fender. And yes. Looks are part of the specs too.

Ultimately though, buying on specs is also flawed (although naturally I consider it far superior to buying based on brands ? ). Real musicians - like classical performers - buy on sound. In other words, you'd chose an incredible sounding Cort over a mediocre sounding Gibson (and yes there are plenty of those. Guitars are made of wood and they vary, and even the most consistent brands have sonic duds).

The best of both worlds is to get to try a number of well-appointed instruments - say 8 Gibson R7s or the same number of high end Tokais - and choose the one that sounds the best. This is something we rarely get an opportunity to do in SA.

Bob-Dubery

singemonkey wrote:
Ultimately though, buying on specs is also flawed (although naturally I consider it far superior to buying based on brands ? ). Real musicians - like classical performers - buy on sound. In other words, you'd chose an incredible sounding Cort over a mediocre sounding Gibson (and yes there are plenty of those. Guitars are made of wood and they vary, and even the most consistent brands have sonic duds).

The best of both worlds is to get to try a number of well-appointed instruments - say 8 Gibson R7s or the same number of high end Tokais - and choose the one that sounds the best. This is something we rarely get an opportunity to do in SA.

Yes. But you'd have to sample a lot more Corts to find a really good one than you would with Gibsons. So that's where the brand and/or spec becomes important.

singemonkey

Yeah. It's a question of how much materials and build quality creates the potential for really great guitars. But yeah. Brand is not so useful there. Because the brand angle is mostly based on mystique, and lesser brands may be using far more care and better materials. Like the Peavey guitar just bought for R900. Ok. They're known to be heavy as sh**, but also good guitars among those who know.

The brand is, for me, a big sparkly thing that inhibits closer investigation. A great example is Squier. This is, speaking generally, a consistently inferior option as a beginner's guitar that remains popular due to its brand associations.

chris77

wirt wrote: So I'm either half deaf or my earphones are screwed, but I don't hear that much difference at all. I think at the high-end level of these instruments it's no longer about Good/Bad but merely personal taste.

There is just something about a genuine Gibson, though *drool*

Plus one. On both statements :goodtimes:

chris77

singemonkey wrote: Yeah. It's a question of how much materials and build quality creates the potential for really great guitars. But yeah. Brand is not so useful there. Because the brand angle is mostly based on mystique, and lesser brands may be using far more care and better materials. Like the Peavey guitar just bought for R900. Ok. They're known to be heavy as sh**, but also good guitars among those who know.

The brand is, for me, a big sparkly thing that inhibits closer investigation. A great example is Squier. This is, speaking generally, a consistently inferior option as a beginner's guitar that remains popular due to its brand associations.

The problem with Squier is that for the most part they are the best of what the local stores can offer at a certain price point. Their competition in that price range seems to consist of budget ranges by Vintage, Aria, Cort, Ibanez and Crafter - who really aren't that much better. Now, all of those makers make decent guitars as well, especially if your willing to spend some time and money upgrading them. But then with the extra money you spend upgrading it, you would have been better off simply buying a better made guitar for a few rands more in the first place. (Or buying second hand and getting A LOT more guitar for the same price.)
It's a difficult sell however to tell a potential customer to not buy a guitar within their budget range, but to rather save up some more and then come and buy a more expensive guitar when they have more money. No, you want to sell them one right now, and maybe then a more expensive one again later. So you tell them that this here Squier is the dog's dangles. It's made by Fender ? It's just like the REAL Fenders that all the rock stars play ?,......... only it's made in China instead of America, that's why it's cheaper. And they have to call it something else as well because otherwise everybody would be buying one and their American guitars won't sell as much. So the noob (in this case me), stands there with wonderment in his eyes and buys it - only realizing some ten years later when he joins a certain guitar forum that not only was he shafted by being fed a bunch of bologny, but the bastard charged him sticker price as well when in fact he could have gotten it for 30% cheaper if he haggled.
>☹

Crafty

I quite like the sound of nr 5
Hope he publishes the answers

Sean

Crafty wrote: I quite like the sound of nr 5
Hope he publishes the answers

1. Heritage

2. 1960 LP

3. Tokai

4. 1958

5. Replica