Any guitar players?

[MarshallM]

The term distortion in the home audio world is different then the guitar world (different perspective). Speaker distortion happens when a speaker is operated out of its max efficiency range. If you build a low efficiency speaker this is easy to do and that is what your celestion alcino blue and your eminence red fang aim for. The speaker doesn't get louder but the color of the sound changes. Distortion is a non-linear response to a linear signal. Sine wave in something different out. The color in a speaker is in fact distortion. The way a speaker colors sound is by distorting the original signal sent to it which is the exact opposite of what a home stereo speaker aims to do. Am I missing something? Color = Distortion?

[trent]

Yea, you described coloring of the sound as being distortion, so you agree with me, just in a different way. A speaker should NEVER play out of its "max efficency range" however. How it reproduces the sound is different. Period.

[trent]

Im new so how am I supposed to play them and tell the difference and unfortunatly none of my friends play guitar they play other things. So what do I look for or need?

Go to a store and ask. Or, even goto a big store like Guitar Center where a bunch of people are playing. Just ask other patrons what they like, what they think. You will get a huge world of answers, but you will also get lots of different sounds.

[BimmerBall]

What amp would you recommend for my studio? Buddy of mine uses a fender prosonic swears by it.

http://www.marshallamps.com/product.asp?productCode=DSL401

this is about like what i started out with, but mine was 20 watts. i think they discontinued that one. it was great b/c at the time i lived in an apartment and when i came home from the bars at 3 a.m. and wanted to wail on some blues licks i didn't wake the whole complex up. you could turn it up all the way and get some great sounds without it being too loud. i like little amps that i can push the fuck out of. I'm a 'less is more' kind of guy so i just have a guitar and amp. no fucking stompboxes and pedals and other crap. No digital solid state amp that is supposed to sound like 500 different amps. Just one, small tube amp and my guitar of choice. This is just my opinion.

As suggested, you should go down to an appropriate store and talk to some folks. Some of the staff or other patrons might be inclined to plug in and demonstrate the performance of a particular guitar/amp combo for you. Only you can really decide what is best for your needs and to do that, listen to a whole lot of different combinations.

I am more of a fan of BB and Buddy Guy.

myself as well. seen them both twice. excellent performances, although BB's health doesn't allow him to play like he used to. i'm trying to get a trip together to go up to Legends.

As said earlier wood type has more to do with it. A guitar with a heavy headstock made out of say mahogany (Gibson) will sustain better then a maple (Fender) neck guitar.

I think the wood of the body makes the biggest difference. think about it. you have a string vibrating. the waves are bouncing off the wood of the body and being absorbed by the pickup. the more dense the body, the more waves travel across the pickup. yes, headstock material makes a difference in sound, but sustain?

My main ax, a mid 80s Flying V, is heavy (I don't think it was machine made..if it was, then its pretty amazing). HEAVY. This guitar has more sustain, and volume than my other guitars.

For my playing, I can cover more tones with the V than anything else. Death metal, yes. Jazz, yes. Country, yes. Blues, OH yes. For me, big thick cutting tone is my goal. Very bassy, very solid. For me, playing a Gibson is almost like playing a guitar that is doubled an octave lower -which for metal is just unreal.
.

Albert King played a V and kicked ass! Someone once said Albert King could blow EVH off stage with his amp on standby.


/

[MarshallM]

A heavier headstock will increase sustain. Companies even sells brass weights and heavy tuners that go on the headstock advertising a sustain increase.

[BimmerBall]

A heavier headstock will increase sustain. Companies even sells brass weights and heavy tuners that go on the headstock advertising a sustain increase.

sounds like snakeoil to me

[trent]

sounds like snakeoil to me

They actually work to some extent. One of my old guitar teachers used a "Fat Finger" on his custom shop strat with hot pickups...and my Gibson still had better sustain.

[BimmerBall]

They actually work to some extent. One of my old guitar teachers used a "Fat Finger" on his custom shop strat with hot pickups...and my Gibson still had better sustain.

yeah, i've just never seen anyone use them before, and never heard of them being used by anyone who makes a living out of playing.

[trent]

yeah, i've just never seen anyone use them before, and never heard of them being used by anyone who makes a living out of playing.

I agree with you there.

[MarshallM]

Probably because having sustain isn't as important if you have good vibrato technique. Good technique will allow a regular guitar to sing with long notes where bad technique needs that extra sustain to fill in the voids.

[trent]

Probably because having sustain isn't as important if you have good vibrato technique. Good technique will allow a regular guitar to sing with long notes where bad technique needs that extra sustain to fill in the voids.

thats a cop out for your cheap ass guitars. Sustain with vibrato is different than sustain. period. Once again, you must not play blues :)

[CleanAzzE30z]

Gary Moore has insane sustain along with vibrato. But Paul Kossoff took the muthafucken cake with vibrato.

Mariano

[Jscotty]

i like little amps that i can push the fuck out of. I'm a 'less is more' kind of guy so i just have a guitar and amp. no fucking stompboxes and pedals and other crap. No digital solid state amp that is supposed to sound like 500 different amps. Just one, small tube amp and my guitar of choice. This is just my opinion.

Well your opinion is right. I engineer sound equipment and I find that the better players are the guys that show up with one axe and little Fender tube amp. Most times they run on the standard foot switch and maybe have a cry baby or some other off-brand wah pedal.

But one time I set up the backline for this group where the guitar player had a head unit on top of two 18-inch cabinets, a rack full of effects (there must have been about 10 different components in it), a tray that had probably had every single stomp box that BOSS ever invented and after he got done unpacking and plugging up all of that crap, we did the sound check and I discovered that this idiot couldnt even play that well. I admit that I was somewhat impressed when he started opening up his cases but 20 minutes later I knew that he was full of it.

Granted you can fool some folks if you are constantly grabbing the bar and making it go WeeeeEEEEEEeeeeeeEEEEEE.... while you have every stomp box enabled but that's all the guy did the whole night.

[Hawk]

Could you get this tone outta a V? http://youtube.com/watch?v=5EySTvR_x_A

[trent]

yup, easy...i think his tone sounds like crap though, those fender amps are junk