The TRUTH about Glenn Fricker Exposed!
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- čas přidán 15. 11. 2023
- After a disturbing phone conversation with a guitarist, I decided to make a video exposing the truth about some claims Glenn Fricker has made on his channel. His claims about pick-ups, tubes, & more have spawned much controversy among guitarists around the world. As a professional musician with decades of real-world experience, I feel it is important to reveal the realities of Glenn's claims.
To hear what Glenn says, go to / @spectresoundstudios
To see Jim Lill's excellent experiments, go to / jimlill45
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Thank you to all who commented & especially to all who subscribed! You're all awesome! Now, to address a few things about this video:
#1: I never said Glenn is a "boomer." You weren't paying attention if you think I did. ;-)
#2: At the Schenker concert Michael did play phrases without the band, so it was not simply the "band effect" that made his guitar sound different when he played versus when the tech played it. (Pete Way joined him for a bunch of tunes, so think "Rock Bottom" from their UFO days.) I address the unknowns in the latter part of the video.
#3: No one ever said I look like Chuck Norris until about 3 weeks before I made this video. A cashier told me that & when I asked if it was a compliment or an insult, she blushed & said "Oh honey, that was a compliment." Now some of you guys are saying I look like Chuck. The universe is weird, lol.
Okay, I have work to do, lol. Live well and rock hard!
As a tech, I'd argue the main reason the tech's sound didn't come out big is because he didn't want it to. He wasn't there to play riffs on Schenker's rig. He was there to make sure it worked.
i use a well my YT rule...if they start a video yelling anything at me or over use a tag line, i block them ASAP and if you just played guitar long enough not long but enough you'll know tone is a irrelevant at high gain and if you play a lil longer you'll never have to watch 1 of his or your vids.
Does CZcams allow videos that say constructive comments about other content creators? Should this be corrected? Can I report this video, say to Elon Musk, for being too constructive?
Finally: What the guitar players should do if they do not spend their waking hours on social media bashing each other??
Difference between Schenker and the tech is probably in the picking hand. Some guitar sounds work best if you pick quite hard (or really, really hard).
@@anomymouse5043 lol!
HI Clark, thanks so much for taking the time to make this video! I've always said Technique and clarity is in the hands... Tone is in the gear, however. My real question is: How long have you had those ADAT units for?
Hey man, glad to put my 2 cents in on your behalf! Good catch on the ADATs! I think I got them around 21 years ago. I used them to record my first album & parts of my second one, then I went to Sonar, because ProTools was only available on the Apple platform & I was broke, lol. I need to hook them back up & transfer a bunch of stuff to my computer. Then I'll see if maybe I can trade them for a couple cups of coffee or something, lol!
@@ClarkColborn Oddly enough, that too is the exact same reason I worked with Sonar early on! :)
@@SpectreSoundStudios I was about to drop the $$ on an Apple/ProTools rig a few years ago when Cakewalk went belly up, but then BandLab bought them & rereleased Sonar as "Cakewalk by BandLab," so I'm still using that. I track guitars, keys, bass in that & we go to a real studio to track drums, then I send it all out to a guy with PT for mixing. Last album turned out pretty good, I think.
Glenn convinced me not to buy new pick ups and save up for a new cab and speakers. Frick that frickin' Fricker!
Hey this is TOAN: "🎶"
If you find TOAN somewhere tell him we've all been chasing TOAN for so long..
Glenn’s personality is purely for video. He’s a really kind person in person. Met him at Namm he was really chill and kind. It’s a character on CZcams to get attention imo
@@nexuspolaris2419 Honestly, I think he uses his real frustrations in an effort to turn his true persona from a mellow 5 up to a roaring 20. Dude's definitely a showman, but that 0-100 flare up is coming from a source 😅
@@nexuspolaris2419 As are people who constantly whinge when nobody is forcing them to watch. Don't like it? Go somewhere else. \m/
I can imagine he is a very chill dude, but I do love watching him tear in his comments, especially his rants!!!
I wish I could see Glenn's real personality on youtube though. The whiny b**** persona finally made me unsub to him. I saw a glimpse of him "out of character" once when he appeared randomly on Andertons, but then after following Glenn, I quickly had enough of him. It's a shame he chose not to work on success for being himself instead of shilling to drama.
This is true. It still amazes me that between all that the man is capable of dropping tips that blow my previous home recordings/mixes out of the water. Yes, the man is a damn wizard if you care to listen.
Tone is in the fingers, which is why when I started learning guitar, I got high-end Seymour Duncan fingers from Sweetwater.
Oh dude! You should have gone with the EMG active fingers! I saw on Reddit that they are almost radioactive! lol Seriously, thanks for watching & commenting!
@@ClarkColborn Great vid!
😂😂
I love their vintage spec Digitones, but they are hard to find these days.
LMAO
people just have to realize instrument companies will just say anything to sell their stuff
Yup. When I worked in a mom & pop guitar store I always struggled to get people to try brands they weren't familiar with, just to either save them money or get them a better guitar for the same price as a "legendary" brand.
@@ClarkColborn😂 I was refused a job at my favorite guitar shop for doing the same 😂
But, Paul R. Smith says...
My take has always been from what I call the Glenn context .. and its this, ..."High power metal distortion in a recording situation" ... I'm a professional studio owner myself - and he's spot on with the words "It isnt worth the money" . ... Until the day somone can listen to a recording and spot what guitar with what pickups, and what amp with what tubes...I'm with Glenn on this one ... People are getting unnecesarily overheated over this topic.
Agree completely! Thanks for watching & for leaving a comment.
Glen promotes negative stereotypes that are detrimental to musicians. People who follow him will find themselves adhering to a negative philosophy that makes them difficult to be around and work with.
@@DS-nw4eq That's only true if you are weak minded enough, and lacking the will, to be able to hear people say things and not immediately adapt them into your life philosophy. Stop infantilizing everything. If you watch ANY youtuber or personality, and "find yourself adhering" to anything automatically, the problem is you.
@@Compton3clipsed right on.
I agree. The funny thing is that, if you sit and spend a moment on it - even if you aren't a studio tech - it all makes perfect sense. Some things will be hard to grow out of, I'll give you that.
Glen's personality rubs a lot of people the wrong way but he's done great work and the dude knows what he talking about even if he's wrong from time to time, like ALL OF US.
Glen promotes negative stereotypes are detrimental to musicians. People who follow him will find themselves adhering to a negative philosophy that makes them difficult to be around and work with.
@DS-nw4eq Negative philosophy about what? Tonewood? That's already been thrown out the water, and actually marketing. Toobz? Swapping out JJ's for Svetlana isn't going to change anything, massively.
@@DS-nw4eq he has hole videos dedicated to helping people work better, and be easier to work with
@@DS-nw4eqI think you’re missing the irony and the sarcasm. He actually promotes the opposite of negative stereotypes.
@@rickyturner2742 I think he means that Glenn has a generally negative outlook on things and that it rubs off on his followers, making them unpleasant to work with.
I don't know, I don't really follow Glenn Fricker. I probably would if I was really interested in recording and mixing but I don't really play the type of music he works on or delve too deep into recording so his content isn't really for someone like me.
Thanks, Clark. This was good. I am also a long term, albeit mostly amateur, guitarist/sound engineer, and I do sometimes listen to Glenn Fricker. I think the important thing to remember with Glenn is that he's putting on an act to generate views. And he's good at it! He is very "over the top" in his delivery on purpose. Plus, as you mentioned, Glenn is referring exclusively to high-gain metal recordings, not to Blues, Country, etc. Finally, one story: I was at Chicago Music Exchange several years ago, strumming gently on one of their new mid-level Les Pauls. (I'd bought guitars there before, and knew the staff pretty well). Anyway, who walks in but Joe Bonomassa! Joe sees me and says, "How do you like that guitar?" I bumble in awe for a second, before saying something like, "I don't know, I guess I'm just not a Les Paul guy." He asks if he can see it and I hand it to him. Nothing was changed in the settings on the guitar or the amplifier it was plugged into. But the sounds that came out of it were on an entirely different level than what I had been playing! Near unbelievable to my amateur ears. That convinced me that at least most of "the sound is in the hands."
Thanks for watching & your great comment. And how cool to meet Joe like that! Yeah, much of a guitarists "sound" is in their technique, no question. That's why I always advise new guitarists to spend time practicing & developing their own "voice" before dumping piles of money into gear that might not help them progress.
Glen promotes negative stereotypes are detrimental to musicians. People who follow him will find themselves adhering to a negative philosophy that makes them difficult to be around and work with.
@@DS-nw4eq Could you be more specific?
@@DS-nw4eqcopy and paste
That’s so cool! Just to add my 2 cents…what I’ve noticed is let’s say bending a note or even fretting a note using 2 fingers will sound different as opposed to using 1 finger when bending or having that support finger on the next fret. Like if there’s a bit more warmth and more profound. Sometimes is just those little things that adds that little something. Anyhow, y’all have a good one!
i've learned alot from Glenn and i'm not even a metal head.
Leland Sklar has a toggle switch on his bass that is not connected to anything. when the producer would ask for a brighter tone, or a warmer tone, Leland would make sure the producer would see him toggle the switch and then move his right hand either closer to the bridge or the neck whatever the producer was after.
like Andrew Scheps says 'all that matters is what comes out of the speakers'
That's one of my favorite Leland stories! Steve Lukather has a similar story about some producer wanting him to re-record some solo with "more feeling," and the engineer told Luke the first take was perfect, just play along to that first take & make "scrunchy" faces. This was outside of the "producer's" earshot. So Luke did that, & the producer liked the "second" take way more & called it good. It was literally the same take, but because he saw Luke looking all "emotional" he thought it was a far better take. lol Thanks for watching & for your great comment!
@@ClarkColborn that's hilarious 🤣🎸🎶
Glenn's fondness for hyperbole is both his making and his undoing.
It gets him attention, but also leads to people missing the most important parts of what he's saying. This is a shame as most of what he says is right on the button.
Yeah, he kind of paints himself into a corner because in a lot of videos, to get what he is actually saying, you need to have seen his other videos. I'm always hesitant to say "tone is in the...(fill in the blank)" because there is an entire signal chain going on from the brain all the way to the speaker, and just about all of it has some sort of role regardless of how major or minor. I just like to say that every problem has a solution. If you're overall unhappy with your tone, then you need to figure out why. If you're a metal guy and you think your tone is crap and you have a Fender Twin with a V30 speaker, then you're either going to need a distortion pedal or a new amp. No speaker in the world will help you. However, if your playing a 5150 and have a crappy no name speaker, then the speaker is the culprit.
Glen is one of the few "angry" loud people I actually enjoy watching. Because it's clear it's a character and he will own up when he's wrong. I think he backs up many of his beliefs soundly with evidence and goes into the "why" behind his opinions as much as he can.
Also was that venue in DeKalb the House Cafe by chance?? I lived in DeKalb for a a while and that was the main venue when I lived there!
No, it was Otto's, which I just found out was torn down some years ago. Thanks for watching & your comment!
THIS! On drum samples he always remembers to mention that he got owned (Megadeth: Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?). And what I take his anti-sample thing as is "People, get your hands dirty". He's well aware that us home recorders aren't able to just go and record real drums.
His persona makes it even more amazing that the droplets of info that he gives are fucking mindblowing techniques and procedures! I've often been like, WTF, why didn't anybody ever tell me this?
Plus I find that he responds to comments IN KIND! You disagree, you critique, downright slam what he's saying, but it's all in the delivery. You're not an ass then he's not an ass. Simple as that.
( He's featured my comments four times, so I miiiiiiiiiight be a bit biased, but... :D )
@@Jayteaseepiirturi couldnt agree more!
Jim Lill and Glen are both trying to do the same thing. Break the thought process that spending money on product X,Y,Z, will make you sound like Van Halen or what ever. Because tons of musicians(myself included) spent thousands of dollars chasing after marketing gimmicks. And your break down of technic vs tone is spot on. Liked and subscribed.👍👍👍
Thanks so much for the comment, the sub, & for watching! Yeah, I've spent money on things that were so far from the hype that I was actually embarrassed that I fell for it. Hopefully, I'm beyond that now, lol.
Getting Van Halen Tone is fairly easy, tbh. Find some mid 70s blackbacks & use a single 57. That’s all you really need.
Glen promotes negative stereotypes that are detrimental to musicians. People who follow him will find themselves adhering to a negative philosophy that makes them difficult to be around and work with.
@@SpectreSoundStudiosWhy you delete my comment,Glenn?!
You have deleted too many of my comments!
I buy gear because I want more gear...I don't chase other's tone...I am chasing my own...I love music equipment and always will!
I admit, I was about to blast you on the tone thing. But I waited till you finished.
People tend to confuse tone with sound as notes played correctly.
I have played guitar over several years (never a career musician) but a couple of two things I learned:
1- You're better off playing a 500 euro guitar and a 2000 euro amp than a 2000 euro guitar and a 500 euro amp.
2- Gear is something you buy for yourself, to work/play better, for your ego (bragging rights), etc... nobody but other musicians in the crowd is going to care if you are using a Kemper or a tube amp.
3- No matter what you have, the guy working the sound board can screw your sound in a nanosecond.
Thanks for watching all the way through! And, yeah, be really nice to the sound guy!
About point number three: Yes, it can absolutely happen. That's why it's important to have your own sound guy if you're in a band. Also, if you can't get your regular sound guy or you don't have a regular and have to rely on whomever happens to be working the sound, try to be nice, friendly and respectful to them so that you can accurately explain to them what you need. If they still end up screwing your sound or end up being unpleasant just keep quiet and rock on stage as you would normally. It's just ONE show, not the end of the world.
@@deibid7886 great comment! I agree!
Great vid. I saw Schenker back in the 80s in a concert hall in L.A. I was very close to the stage, about third row, and I got a good look at his rig. Yes, when his soundman tested his guitar it was a very dry sound. But soon as Michael took the stage and started playing it sounded fantastic. Every note had so much tone and feel, which is exactly what made him so famous, along with this technique and overall style. As far as I can tell he was using a Gibson V, Marshalls, what looked like some Boss pedals and a wah, and as for the pickups, I think at the time he said in an interview that he was using a Duncan Custom bridge and 59 neck. But I knew the gear was only part of the picture. I owned an Explorer at the time, had a Marshall stack, some Boss Pedals, a Duncan Custom bridge and 59 neck, and I could not for the life of me sound ANYTHING like Schenker. I realize at this point that the magic was in the hands. And that is the wonderful thing about guitar. I can't think of a more expressive instrument. You get back what you put into it. If you play with feel, with intention, even with crappy gear you can sound wonderful. With good gear you can sound godlike. What Glenn says on his channel, that pickups don't matter that much in a high gain setting is true. If you have functional pickups are not not producing a bunch of unctronallbe noise or have dead magnets, it won't matter. When I got a Boogie I realized it made every guitar I owned sound the same with high gain. You could not tell the Kramer with the JB from the Charvel with the Super Distortion. It was one giant mass of crunch and compression.
When you push gain past a certain point,the character of your guitar loses nuance. I play with way less gain than most and all my guitars sound super different
I always advise guitarists to try dialing their gain back a little. Most don't realize that there favorite guitarist is probably not using as much gain as they think. It definitely allows the nuances to come through more. Thanks for watching & commenting!
@@ClarkColborn hetfield being my guitar idol, he doesn't use much distortion at all. It took a while for me to understand it but once I started playing louder I got the concept of not diming the gain knob lol
@@ClarkColborn
Exactly. The most famous example of this (I think) is ACDC. That’s the classic “you are using too much gain to match their tone” meme.
@@ClarkColborn the tones everyone chases as the holy grail like Van Halen 1 & 2, are downright clean. They're just incredibly loud.
@@countzero5150Correct. EVH uses his picking hand to play with the dynamics.
Another one is Yngwie, who has repeatedly stated that he doesn't like to dial the gain all he way up, because it messes up the tone.
Glenn is both funny and insightful. He is approaching tone as a studio engineer rather than a player and he is saying, over and over, and vulgarly, and loudly, that guitar players are worrying about the wrong stuff. And it costs them money.
I took his thinking the other way: if pickups and tonewood don't matter at high gain, I wondered if I could dial in a clean jazz tone on a range of electric guitars spanning single coils, humbuckers, EMGs, and P-90s. Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, Schechter, Epiphone, G&L, Duesenberg, all into a Mesa Lone Star Special. Only the Epiphone was a 'jazz box' (a Joe Pass Emperor). Answer: yes. It was way more important that the neck pickup volume and tone were a bit rolled off, the amp had mild gain and a bumped midrange, and there were no overdrives or boost pedals in the chain. Ah ha, Julian Lage and Tim Lerch use teles for jazz, now I get it. I even learned that a Schechter Hellraiser with EMGs (a real shredder axe if there ever was one), sounds twangy when it's at a low-gain setting. Twangy, who would have guessed.
I think something people forget to talk about is haptic feedback of the instrument affecting how you play the guitar. Different guitars feel different to play, and so people end up playing them differently, which can affect the sound of the performance.
it's almost as if none of this shit matters and we're a dumb community for nitpicking instead of just playing what we like
@@jetcheneau5811 Literally when I realized all this "tone chasing" was a waste of time and started focusing on playing I finally kinda refined my playing and taste
Someone finally addressed the elephant in the room. Well done. I have been thinking that for years.
Well done, as someone who has been watching Glenn for some time it's great to see someone listen to what he's actually saying before jumping to debunk.
I think it was during one of Glenn's mix review live streams where the "tone is in the fingers thing" came up, and his response was, "no, technique is in the fingers" so it seems to me you've both come to the same conclusion by now, in possibly slightly different terminology.
The other thing about Glenn, is because of his studio engineer background, he is also usually talking about guitar tone in the context of a mix. Even small differences in lower gain guitar tones can be hard to discern in the context of a mix, and high gain ones even more so. The same principle applies for any differences you may hear "in the room" as the guitarist vs what is captured via the mic or mics on the cabinet.
Thanks so much for watching & for your great comments. So many guitarists that I talk to don't understand all the variables present when they listen to a recording of guitars. And a live setting has a ton a variables as well. Oh well, it gives us something to talk about, right? lol
Glen promotes negative stereotypes are detrimental to musicians. People who follow him will find themselves adhering to a negative philosophy that makes them difficult to be around and work with.
@@DS-nw4eq So did Top Gear, but for driver stereotypes... that was entertainment also
@@DS-nw4eqwhen you keep copying and pasting the same comment multiple times you come across as a zealot. Not a strong point to any arguments.
I find Glenn to be entertaining and helpful. Rock on.
High gain, low gain, modern metal bands sound the same 90% of the time anyway. Can't stand this trend of overproducing metal until it sounds like slimy, clean, and sterile pop music sound that is used by everyone. Back in the 80s and 90s, you could distinguish bands and producers by the tones and sounds. You'll know a Jim Morris, Colin Richardson, Terry Date, and especially a Scott Burns record when tou hear it. Nowadays? Everyone uses the same Gojira pre-amp presets and copies the mix feom CZcams or forums. Glad I'm mostly into underproduced black metal, thrash, and old school death metal
This was very clear to understand I hope this video can help others after my own trial and error and watching a bunch of videos from Jim and Glenn I've came to my own conclusion and find that I agree with you thanks for your input and here's to saving money in the future by learning from others past expensive mistakes.😊
Those Jim Lill videos are how I ended up stumbling upon both Glenn and now your channels. Loving the guitar CZcams space. Thanks for all the content!
Is it possible that the tech didn't have the vol knob all the way up? Just was testing to make sure that the signal was intact and maybe the setting of the actual distortion level and tone was already done? Let's be real.. if a tech hits a power A chord with full volume then Michael hits that same power chord full volume, there is no reason for the sounds to sound different. But playing style will vary, how hard or lightly the player plays will vary the sound some, whether the player uses a tiny bit of pinch harmonic style will affect the tone and how far up from the bridge the string is picked will affect the tone but I think that this "tone is in the hands" is kind of a misnomer. The actual sound is a COMBO of the player's style AND the equipment. I'll bet both my nuts that if Ed Van Halen played Stevie Ray Vaughn's Strat into ANY amp setup, it wouldn't sound like Stevie in style but the tone would sound like it AND Ed wouldn't be able to make the guitar sound like it's dying because he wouldn't be used to those huge strings and thus.... the equipment would actually affect the outcome. The whole "tone in hands" debate is just misplaced due to the fact that people love drama, they are often undereducated ref the topics and myths get repeated and don't die off easily. Wy does Brian May sound like Brian May? MOSTLY it's the combo of his guitar and amp. If Brian played on Tom Scholz' rig, it would sound like Tom Scholz trying to play Queen songs and doing a really good job of it. Would have a Boston tone but a Brian May style. Anyway, I don't think Glenn is wrong saying that tone is in the hands is BS. It's just not 100% in the hands. That is a myth and false. But I will stop here. Gotta sleep.....
As long as 14 year old boys exist, Glenn Fricker will have an audience.
Everything you've stated, as well as what Glenn has stated is (in my experience) spot-on accurate.
I've been a Practicing Guitarist since 1974, even after all these years I find playing guitar just as exciting as it was the first time I picked up an instrument.
Great video and content, Thank You
Count me as a new subscriber
Thank you so much for watching & for your comment & kind words. Keep on jamming!
Glen promotes negative stereotypes are detrimental to musicians. People who follow him will find themselves adhering to a negative philosophy that makes them difficult to be around and work with.
@@DS-nw4eq Agreed, he isn't for everyone.
Yes, sadly the whole "follow" thing does tend to spread the negative part of his character to those "fans". For the record, I can most certainly learn from Glenn's content, I just can't bring myself to watch very much of it.
I've heard rigs where the guitar sounds weak when it's the only instrument being played but mix in bass drums and everything else and that weak guitar suddenly fits the blend perfectly and sounds great.
Great Video Clark.
I agree. Like Glen, Recording and Live was my thing. I'm a drummer, but in all the bands I played in, I was also the "tech guy". I went to college and learned about recording arts and live work (sound reinforcement) as well. After 25 years of playing and messing with gear, I think a lot of the issues people have is they always want the simple and quick answer. And "Tone" is the accumulation of too many variables all stacked up then spit out into the air which our ears pick up for there to really be a "silver bullet" easy answer.
I agree with Glen that "tone" (while impacted by pickups, tubes, gear etc...), each part plays only a fraction of the final product. So if you only change one thing (like pickups) the impact on your overall tone will be mostly marginal. And there is always that variable of what the guitarist is hearing while playing (acoustically and what they perceive from the sound system) vs. the signal that is recorded and played back later (which can sound quite different tone wise).
In my experience, playing with your reverb/EQ, amp settings, and mic placement will play a much larger impact on your "tone" than just about any other single change you could make to your gear in other regards (like your pickups, tone wood etc.). And all that comes before you even mention the talent and skill of the individual player.
Great video. Very informed and balanced. Good job focusing on Glenn's caveats, which are easy to miss among all the bluster.
I like that you make the distinction between tone and sound. The equipment is one half the user is the other. Painters can all use the same brush colors and canvas but the results will all be wildly different. This is just less obvious in music I think.
Thanks for the kind words & for watching! Good simile with painting, I might use that.
to expand on this, what OP means is you could play the same song, through the same amps with the same guitars and there would still be minor differences. Like maybe the other guy has mastered the perfect attack for a certain note, or his widdly-widdly's are smoother, or his Pinch Harmonics are crisper.
But for most of the Tone/Sound you're looking for, you're gonna wanna start at the Speaker, and work your way up to the guitar.
Glen promotes negative stereotypes that are detrimental to musicians. People who follow him will find themselves adhering to a negative philosophy that makes them difficult to be around and work with.
I've lost a few musician friends because of Glenn. I have a small recording setup in my home and put his theory to my own tests and yeah, he's right. Some pickups are hotter than
others and I've never found a difference in tubes but speakers....... Speakers are the big difference. Great video. I disagree with Glenn on many things but I keep watching and
supporting his channel because he is right on a lot of important things that have saved me thousands of dollars in gear.
Thanks for watching & commenting. I probably haven't watched enough of his videos to know what things on which I might disagree with him, but I'm sure there's something, lol! I'm working on another video about tone that kind of ties in to the subjects in this one. Hopefully it will be up in a week or two.
😂 That's interesting because I've done the same testing and I've heard a huge difference between JJ tubes and EHX tubes, the ehx tubes are way brighter and more crunchy and I just like the sound more on ehx.
I have compared Gibson 490 humbuckers to 57's and there's a pretty huge difference there.
The biggest difference between speakers is pretty obvious when you test those. Tone wood is pretty obvious as well. I swapped a p90 out of an SG jr. Into a Hamer Double cut with ebony fretboard and it's way way brighter than the SG with rosewood board.
@@auntjenifer7774 but did you a/b test the rig with exactly with the same signal chain? cause with pickups it makes a difference in the room but when recorded it's jack shit difference. maybe a google drive with the sound files could be great!
@auntjenifer7774 Quick note on Gibson pickups. Many of their pickups are unpotted, so tonewood will definitely make a difference in that case.
@@auntjenifer7774I guarantee you the fretboard does not affect the tone.
Regarding "tone is in the hands" I completely agree, it mainly comes down to picking techniques. Where you chose to pick in relation to the bridge will obviously matter a lot, but also HOW you're picking (smooth and light or rough and heavy) and definitely how you're holding that pick will effect how the pick impacts with the strings (more straight or at an angle).
Also, what kind of pick are you using? Over the past 2 years I have myself taken a deep dive into using different picks made from different materials and of different thicknesses and this definitely has an impact on the tone, especially since it plays a role in how you're using that pick.
The effects of all of these techniques will also change depending on which of the pickups you've engaged on your guitar. These are all the small fine tunings of your techniques that you do over the years and I think that's what people mainly mean when they say "tone is in the hands". It's just a clumsy way to say it.
Another thing that matters a lot, especially when playing heavy distortion (metal) is palm muting. There are lots of different levels of palm muting that you can use and they come down to placement of the hand as well as how hard you're muting. If you want that really choppy, heavily muted sound then you mute slightly further away from the bridge, closer to the bridge-pickup. This obviously kills as much of the strings ability to ring after being struck which results in that choppy, thumpy effect. The more you move the palm (or rather the side of the palm) towards the bridge the more you allow the strings to ring. They still won't precisely "ring" but it won't be as chopped up in between each strike of the pick. It will have a more heavy, warm, even, smooth effect. With the right technique you can gradually go from that chopped-up effect to completely open. That's another part of your tone and that definitely comes down to your hand technique.
Glenn Fricker's videos are a good source of information because he takes a no nonsense hands on approach to how they test stuff. You mentioned hand technique along with style and that too has an effect in the over-all sound and there are many variables to the over-all sound or tone in you get in general. As along as you have a decent guitar that works for you and your style along with a decent amp and cab along with a decent ear and the basic understanding of the mechanics of what it should sound like, you will develop decent tone over time if you stay at it. Glenn Fricker is a pretty smart cookie and I don't really find him abrasive because it's just his personality he projects and I find him quite humorous and definitely entertaining.
I'm also a very seasoned guitar player. Yes, Glenn is right on mostly everything.
Something I would like to add is that on a certain level the minute tone differences are just not important in the real gigging world. I focus my attention on getting the gear to give me comfort and peace of mind so I can focus on the performance. I call it invisible gear, that is gear that supports the performance and goes unnoticed while doing that.
Examples:
A guitar that stays in tune and is comfortable to play
An amp that is very easy to dial in and is reliable
A switching system that minimizes tap dance
Etc...
In short, I value much more the peace of mind and the ease of use than some minute tone differences that the crowd will not notice or care while just singing or head bang to their favorite songs
When i was a teen i told my 2 best mates that the only thing that really mattered was amp settings, speakers and FX settings, not the wood or pickups etc... they looked at me like id just told them i was transitioning and wanted to know if they needed a female singer!!
But then they thought about it and both started nodding their heads saying yeah man, and as a result of that they stopped constantly changing their gear and instead started tweaking more important things - like cutting through better on stage.
It seemed pretty obvious - so I've never seen Glenn as being anything other than mostly right most of the time.
Totally not controversial to me.
Glenn is cool and a good guy. I'm a 70 year old country music pedal steel player and I enjoy his videos and learn a lot from him. I've also made half my living as a recording engineer so I'm hip to other genre's as well. Enjoyed your video too! Yeah Glenn is a nut. Lol! You're right. Technique and tone are two different areas. I've heard some world class players getting a horrible tone because they recorded it with a cellphone with a mic the size of a pencil eraser head.
It's amazing that this conversation is still happening in the 21st century. I was told a long time ago by one of my first teachers that tone (the rig) + technique (the hands) = the signature sound. A lot of pros have found a set up that works for them but what you're hearing is this combination, it can be difficult to tell the two apart on a recording. The point my teacher was trying to make is that as a student I should be paying way more attention to the technique, because by the time you are good, you'll sound good playing through just about anything. I'm glad he taught me that lesson, but it sort of started me on a path of minimalist pedals. But don't get me wrong, I still love listening to, talking about, and trying new gear. It's always struck me as odd that people continue to argue that it's one over the other. Glenn's "on air" personality can be a bit over the top but its hard to fault his mission to save people some money. This is my first time checking out one of your videos, happy to stay and check out more!
Thanks for the comment & for watching! I'll keep trying to post something entertaining or informative!
Excellent video !! As someone whom has been on youtube & around the CZcams guitar community since 2009, you learn/experence ALOT. You also learn if your smart & open minded enough as to what is honest opinion/truth & whom is just bs.
I dont need to go into the 5+ years of the whole " Tone Wood Wars " debates ... especially the folks saying " Basswood sucks it has no tone " ... and meanwhile they owned High end Ibanez guitars that had basswood bodies !! HA HA HA
Thanks for the kind words. So many myths, so little time... lol
I'm so glad you've brought this to our attention. Thank you for finally shedding some much needed light on this divisive topic
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching.
Glen promotes negative stereotypes that are detrimental to musicians. People who follow him will find themselves adhering to a negative philosophy that makes them difficult to be around and work with.
Regarding the “tone/sound” in the hands part of the conversation, I read an article where George Lynch said he got to play through EVH’s rig one time and he was stoked to get the “Brown sound” and jumped at the opportunity. The result was him candidly telling the interviewer that he said “I sounded like me, playing through Eddie’s rig”. I’m paraphrasing of course because this was years ago and GL was actually an idol of mine before EVH was, but George saying this really hit home to me at a good time in my musical development because as we all know, having an individual and immediately recognizable sound/tone (like you always know when you hear Santana or Yngwie, etc) is increasingly more and more difficult. And yet, what he said take some of the pressure away from trying to sound like someone else.
In closing, I think you make some good points Clark. Can most of the video be boiled down to semantics? Maybe. Should Glenn be more careful with his word choice? Probably. At the end of the day, all could be. Rock hard, everyone.
Glad to find another person with the understanding of how electricity works, speakers work etc. Glenn opened my eyes years ago. Hat off to you both.
Great video. Many musicians are kind of like "audiophiles" are with home stereo snake oil.
does bone density of the player affect tone!!!
lol I bet it does!
The "tone" we all love from all those records in the past were all a snapshot of the microphone and speaker they used to record it with.
Guitar players are suckers who believe a bunch of stuff we've been fed since we were teenagers.
We'll buy anything if you pander to our beliefs.
What is "tone?" It's whatever you think it is.
I'm a drummer, composer and I'm currently getting my 2nd master's degree in. music. the player makes a huge difference, attack, articulation, timing, note length, intonation, speed of legatos and note transitions, dynamics within the notes, dynamic relationships between strings, speed of strumming and so on. It doesn't end. BUT! in a mix a sound has to work. in a small trio, or as a soloist sound doesn't matter as much, but when there's a thousand different things competing against you the player matters just as much as the gear you're using. a good player will make shitty ear sound freaking awesome, by himself. But when you put that same performer into a mix it all falls apart, gear does matter, it's not all dependent on the players ability. so yeah, I agree with clark and with glenn
I enjoy Glen’s videos a lot. And I’m a bass player! 😂
Same here.
I've been watching Glenn's videos for a few years and you are absolutely right. I've been playing guitar for a few years and I also agree with you. When you explain the difference between tone and sounds, I couldn't agree more. But what many people forget and I think you didn't mention in the video, is that Glenn speaks from a producer/recording perspective. There are certain nuances in the tone or sound, or even the way we feel certain things, that simply won't translate in a recording/production scenario, and therefore any gains we might get from them are marginal at best, and I think that's basically what Glen is trying to tell. Anyway, great video. Cheers!
Thanks for bringing that up. I did record something about that, but it got cut in the editing process. I tend to talk too much, lol, & the vid was getting too long. But yeah, recording & mixing are a different world than live. Thanks for watching & commenting!
Glen promotes negative stereotypes are detrimental to musicians. People who follow him will find themselves adhering to a negative philosophy that makes them difficult to be around and work with.
@@DS-nw4eq yes Karen.
When I took piano lessons, the instruments in the music studio were clanky old yamaha uprights. When I played them, the notes sounded like someone hitting a frying pan with a hammer. But when my wonderful and gifted teacher played them, they sounded like a Steinway. How could this be? -- it's the same piano! The answer is that she had impeccable phrasing, articulation, dynamics, and played with great feeling, while I didn't. Sometimes the things we perceive as "tone" aren't really tone at all.
This is an awesome story, a perfect analogy. I hope you won't mind if I repeat it to some folks. Thanks for watching & for your great comment!
Lots of good points here. And since so many of us are out of our minds, we tend to attribute more significance than is deserved to every arcane component in our signal path. What's that story about how Hendrix was panicking about his wah pedal, having his frazzled tech swap it 5x until the guy just said "f**k this!" and just replaced it with the original, an overjoyed Hendix saying, "Yes! That's the one!"? So it's mostly a mind game we fall victim to (me included 100%), this obsession with ultimately meaningless string metallurgy and RCA vs Westinghouse 12AX7s, and Ontario vs Kentucky Maple, etc as we play Ramones covers through a JCM900 with the gain on 11...
Not enough people pay attention to the simple facts you highlight here. Glenn focuses on recording high gain tracks. So his stating something isn't worth the money, he's saying it isn't worth buying it to use in that realm. Like you said, he's trying to save people money and keep them from wasting time better spent practicing writing and recording.
Ha, I was ready to put forth the argument that it was "style" and not "tone" that's in the hands. Well done building that suspense 😂
Most people forget that he's a Metal production channel first and foremost. I like to think I've got a good bullshit filter for online information and Glenn has never led me astray. I've got some of his courses and they are great, he's shat all over my mixes, which I needed as it made me try much harder on the next one and he's just trying to save us all a bit of dough and time. Sure, he's a bit rough-round-the-edges but he's working class, like most of us and sweated it out for everything he has. The problem is that too many people have grown up sheltered and protected from criticism and a bit of old-fashioned, blunt honesty rattles their cages, plus they don't have the attention span to listen to what's actually said. I absolutely love the guy and support his work 100%.
There is a slight way that tone is in the hands, but it is noticeable. I like to use Paranoid as an example. Pick up your guitar and play Paranoid the Tony Iommi way. Then play it the Randy way. Don't worry about the flashy stuff, just the main chords. There is a distinct difference between playing it the Tony way and the Randy way. It's not as much as a different speaker, but where on the neck you play a riff does make a difference. That's the beauty of stringed instruments. There is more than one way to play a single note.
One of the most interesting things I've ever heard concerning 'sound is in the hands' is when another guitarist came up to me after a gig and said he wished he could play rhythm like I did. Up until that point, I knew I was a fairly decent player, but I'd never regarded myself as a really good player - probably because I do tend to focus on rhythm playing rather than screaming lead guitar - but his comment made me realise that I have a definite style which is my own and I do recognise now that I am bloody good at that and I would be difficult to mimic. We tend to wish we could do things we cannot, and so when we see and hear another guitar player who impresses us, we forget that they probably think the same aout us.
Back with actual audio, anyone with any sense knows that's mostly in the amp and speaker (and for studio stuff, all the VSTs thereafter); you only have to plug a good guitar into a crappy amp to know that. Like most people who've played for years, I've accumulated a lot of gear and guitars - last time I checked I think I have about thirty guitars and about ten amps - but the truth is that I could probably grab any of those guitars, regardless of whether it was a Fender Tele, a Gibson Les Paul or a cheap-ass copy, plug it into my set up and get the sound I was after. The pick ups barely matter at all and what the thing is made of matters even less, if it's set up right, it'll get you the sound you want providing the amp is decent.
Gotta agree, tone is really a mix of everything, I think the point that some people try to make when talking about Tone being in the hands is to tell people that you should worry a lot more about your technique and that while you aren't going to sound great with a cheap amp like a Marshall MG, you don't need to spend 3000+USD on a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier, you can get great tone from something like a Boss Katana, an Orange Super Crush or Amp Sims, and I think it's 100% necessary to mention this because there are still people too ignorant to realize that we aren't in the 70s anymore and modelling/transistor amps can sound just as good as a Tube amp (just don't expect that from a Line6 Spider or a Marshall Code). I'm not saying you shouldn't spend money on something like a JVM410H, I'm just saying that if you already got a good speaker cabinet and you have a 1200EUR budget, maybe consider spending around 600EUR on a Super Crush and investing the other 600EUR on pedals and a cable or two
You're absolutely right. He also says any differences in pickups can be replicated with a parametric EQ pedal. That's 100 percent correct. I'd also offer that many times a simple addition like a capacitor is all someone needs rather than a whole new pickup.
I'm just an amateur guitar enthusiasts with limited budget so i mainly playing with my Helix LT or plugins, i once practicing with my team for Christmas service and the studio have a Telecaster, there are some part when i use a pretty high gain setup for solo i felt like it's not that different compared to a humbucker guitar,... So i think Glenn is right, not to mention if you are a modeller user you obviously knows that the easiest way to change your tone ia to change your cab/IR 😁
After watching this video, it reminded me how I got pretty convincing high gain tones back in the late 80s early 90s. With my band playing songs from Iron Maiden, Accept, Metallica, Megadeth, Judas Priest, Helloween. All I had was a BC Rich Ironbird and a Kramer Striker, Marshall JCM 900 half stack with a Boss SD-1 as boost, Boss CH-5 for most clean parts, Boss DD-3 on solos. And the most important piece of gear to achieve different high gain tones was a simple Boss GE-7 where I could cut/ boost frequencies to sound like my favourite bands. The hardest part was to be able to switch my presets carefully written down on a piece of paper for each songs before the drummer hits his sticks. I didn’t hear much of difference if I broke a string and had to switch guitars when using high gain as long they had humbuckers. And the best part was that I only paid like $25 used from a friend.
I did swap out my stock pickups with EMGs and did experience a difference that I preferred, but the real change came when I upgraded my amp.
Good job with the editing and jokes!
Thank you! I appreciate it. :-)
Great job with this video. Further educating how guitar players should listen closely to other people's opinion. The first time I heard Glenn saying that pick ups don't matter was just that, "pick ups don't matter" because I kept skimming his videos, but when I carefully watched his later videos, it clarified that pick ups won't matter that much on a modern metal/high gain settings.
Yeah when your signal chain is a boost pedal into a high gain head you already have way more gain then you'll use 99% of the time, so the extra gain from an active is not needed.
I'd be curious to know if actives have a better signal to noise ratio though.
Actually, about Glenn and the tone is in the hands, he clarified his position. This was on his latest released video he dropped today, 11/17/23. On said video, you and he actually agree. He said that the actual tone is not in the hands. He stated that their "style" and technique are nuances whdere you can tell who it is. However, if that guitarist is playing through a crappy amp with crappy speakers, it may sound like whomever is playing, but the actual "tone" will still sound like crap. That simply makes sense and is the truth.
Why do people get so bent out of shape when Glenn makes statements that are backed by tests that he is doing? He is simply trying to save people money. Period! Are you so pissed because his theories are put to the test and prove that most of the money you spend on guitars, pickups, and other expensive gear has been a waste? For goodness sake! He's only trying to show where your money should go to get the best tone for the price. The biggest bang for the buck! Look, guys, I'm just like a lot of you! I have a large collection of guitars, amps, speakers pickups, recording gear, synthesizers, basses, and on and on! I don't understand why what he says makes you get so bent out of shape! I don't! I've got all of that gear where I believed all of those old wives' tails about tone wood, pickups, etc. I would do some of the tests that he had done. I found out that he was absolutely correct! It doesn't piss me off! I'm thankful that he is proving how I can save money.
Glenn would point out that what you hear playing an unamplified electric guitar is not what is recorded and played back by the equipment. Tone is used in a specific context by Glenn. One thing that people need to realize is that as a human, no matter the cost, if the guitar you play doesn't thrill you, you need a different guitar, or hobby. I have a $135 guitar where the neck, the weight, etc fit me, and it rings in my hands the way I like. I sold guitars for years, and played many Gibson LP's that did not do anything for me. The reality is that this is my perception, and you have one too. Get what thrills you, including changing out pickups. Don't buy the hype. Buy your stuff for yourself.
I enjoy when Glen goes off, which is most of the time, but he does know what he's talking about, if you listen. Kudos to Glen for helping decipher corporate sales bull*hit ! Jim is the scientist neighbor everyone would like to have. I never miss when his videos drop.
I couldn't agree more! Thanks for watching & commenting. :-)
@@ClarkColborn I enjoyed your opinion as well ! Had to sub
Glen promotes negative stereotypes that are detrimental to musicians. People who follow him will find themselves adhering to a negative philosophy that makes them difficult to be around and work with.
@@DS-nw4eq You sound a tad bit cynical my friend. I never follow anyone, except my own conscious. I learned that first hand from Jiminy Cricket himself ! That Glen he's such a brain washer ! Bwahaaaa
@@DS-nw4eqjeez guy, put your guitar bible away.
Shame on glenn for showing me how to be smarter with my guitar passion & helping make me a better musician. In all honesty, i love glenns content cuz aside from the somewhat over the top persona he does for his channel, his info & evidence on what to invest in, what to avoid, & straight to the point content is great. He tells the ugly truth about many of the big time guitar/amp companies that want to shamefully drain their communities pockets while sending us on wild goose chases to chase our desired sounds & set ups. You sir also earned a new subscriber.
The day guitar players, and especially magical mic preamp worshippers realize that anecdotes are NOT evidence and "in my experience" is NOT scientific data, the internet will run out of content
So what you're saying is we have centuries worth of content in store? lol Thank you for watching & commenting!
To do with MSG, did the tech have the volume on low so as not to deafen you? I saw them a few years ago, before covid, and noticed something similar.
You need to plug in at 9 mins and listen again with no acoustic part being heard, maybe through noise cancelling headphones to compare them, an electric guitar played acoustically will be affected more by how you play and where on the neck. Nice Ibanez, I have an old RT series.
"Tone is in the hands." I have been calling BS on that for decades. Tone is in the gear. You are never going to sound like David Gilmour, but you sure as hell can get his tone.
any computer science first year student could tell you that tone is in the set up and most of that string of equipment make marginal differences. Tone is something we hear and that means it is produced at the speaker. We call it the "session layer" in IT. That is what you see on the screen or hear from the speakers. If you have crap screens and speakers, perfect inputs will still be crap. Now when it comes to music...that might be the tone/sound you are going for. But you do not have to spend yourself poor to achieve it.
Thanks for the insightful comment. You're right, no need to put yourself in debt to get a 5% improvement in tone. Practice more instead, lol!
Glen's awesome, my recordings have improved thanks to his hard work putting videos up for all of us to learn from. Great insight here too.
Can I make an old Peavey 112 Bandit sound not exactly like Fender to Marshall, for a cover band? I can't lug my wonderful tube amp any longer. I have to take it out for service and it now sits at the top of the stairs to my studio and I so don't want to carry it down the stairs. The head weighs about 15 lbs. more than my Bandit. Last gig I put a 57 in front of my practice amp I got for $50, Line 6 Spider III. It wasn't as bad as I expected. I just carried down this bandit to see if I could resurrect it. It was my drum monitor for years. The pots are pretty far gone, so I thought I would deoxit them and hope. Somebody mentioned a pedal that I can't remember the name that might make it sound like a Fender. Joyo American or something like that. I was wondering if I could get an almost tube sound from this old Peavey and that might be more enjoyable than the modeling. I was listening to videos of the boss katanas and they didn't sound any better to my ears than this old line 6. I don't want to spend the money on a Helix that I would probably love compared to my old ART SGE Mach II rack mount. I am a pro drummer who is all about guitar. I think guitars are more cool, but for some reason, the chicks dig the drummer, my experience anyway. LOL
lol In my old band they always went for the bassist, but that's another story! Anyway, I believe you can make almost (almost!) any amp sound acceptable if you spend some time dialing it in. 98% of the audiences won't hear the differences that we musicians hear, & that's ok most of the time. Thanks for watching & commenting!
Tone is in your gear, feeling is in the hands. No speakers or pickups or pedals are gonna give your guitar feeling. And if you're just looking for the best, sorry to tell you, there is no best. Only what you like. The fact is if you have any type of decent gear and you cant get a good recording then the problem is you. I have all relatively inexpensive guitars and recording gear and get professional sounding tracks. And yea guitars with different setups do slightly different stuff but it really doesnt matter. You can make metal with a telecaster and country with a bc rich if you want. There are no rules only guidelines. Its just that some people think they are always right and to give that up would mean having to admit they were always wrong. Thats a hard pill for their gibson lovin asses to swallow. 🤣
Dont internet kill me. The last line is a joke. Lol
Great comment! Thanks for leaving it, and for watching. As a Gibson owner, I take no offence at your joke. lol They lost me years ago, and while all my newer guitars are Schecter & Ibanez, I do still love my vintage Gibsons, although I have played a few of other folks' vintage ones & found some of them that sucked!
Something I noticed and I think some guitarists and bassist need to understand is that expensive=/=better. I've found out when I had this custom made bass, nice maple and mahagony neckthrough. Beautiful thing. But I just couldn't play on it. It just wasn't comfortable for me. Sold it and gotten a used Warwick Rockbass that was like quarter It's price and man, do I love it.
I think people have this mentality that If the instrument is cheap or expensive It doesn't fit them or they're not worthy.
Like I want a german made Warwick Thumb even tho I am a amateur musician. Don't think It'll turn me into a better player but their basses are the one's that feel the best in my hands.
I mean hey, at least It drive's me to better myself aye?
@@boogie3718 Great points! Thanks !
I get what you’re saying, but it seems like there are these thought/belief factions in the guitar world and everybody wants to pick fights when somebody else dares to have a different idea. I do not play metal guitar but I love Glenn’s channel… I just operate under the assumption that his information about where “tone” comes from is not really as relevant to what I play but there is still some truth in it. His channel has inspired me to dig into the sound impacts of speakers in my amps and, low and behold, I have changed speakers out of amps I don’t love and found something new in them that I do love. All in all, I think we live in a world of information overload and you know is what they say about free advice… you get what you pay for.😂
Thanks for watching & for your comment. I agree with you that people seem unnecessarily contentious about most things guitar related & admire your willingness to consider ideas that, at first glance, may not seem to apply to you. Congrats on trying new things!
Glen promotes negative stereotypes that are detrimental to musicians. People who follow him will find themselves adhering to a negative philosophy that makes them difficult to be around and work with.
I watch Glenn's channel. I agree with a lot of what he says. He's also very clear that he's talking about all of this in context of the studio/ home studio environment.
So you may sit down in front of your rig and hear the sum of the hands, guitar, pickups, leads, pedals, drivers, tubes and crucially, the room. However, mic that up and the mic picks up the driver and not the room.
Then that goes into your DAW and you end up completely sculpting a lot of the little nuance out of the mix because it certainly isn't required or audible in the mix. Or it gets confused with stuff the bass should provide for example.
I think it's in those points people misunderstood Glenn. The stuff still matters to the player's comfort though to some extent. So in that sense, from a performance point of view it may still be important. However the best players can plug into a wide variety of gear and get on with the job at hand if it suits the session requirements. Or gig requirements for that matter.
That's my take for what it's worth.
Chuck Norris doesn’t use vibrato the strings are shaking out of fear😂
Honestly I find alot of what Glenn says to be accurate.
When I plug in any guitar to my signal chain, ya know what, it sounds like my signal chain.
Grab a $3k Gibson, or a $130 Harley Benton SC, they will sound EXACTLY the same in my application.
I think many of the people who don't like Glenn, are literally just people who aren't emotionally mature enough to just accept that they got worked by advertisers.
Good video man, I'll be back.
Thanks for watching & for your comment. Same with me, if I plug my vintage SG in to my rig or my $119 Strat knock-off with a humbucker, the sound is maybe a tiny bit different, but no one but me would ever hear it. And it's not enough of a difference to bother me. I'll rock just as hard either way!
Well said, Glenn has good intentions and I enjoy watching his content. In the context of Metal recording, he is right on.
Thank you!
Glen promotes negative stereotypes that are detrimental to musicians. People who follow him will find themselves adhering to a negative philosophy that makes them difficult to be around and work with.
Owning a single guitar, an amp & a decent pedalboard is the way to go. I find owning too much stuff sucks the fun out of guitar playing. I took his advice on the Supercrush 100 and the Revv Northern Mauler, which was spot on, but I'm not too fond of his taste in guitars. I'll stick to my Gibson Les Paul Studio.
I agree on keeping things simple. I wouldn't go with just one guitar, though. Back when I only had one guitar my band got our pay docked by a venue when I had to change a string mid-set. Having a backup is always a good idea if you are playing paid gigs. One of my buddies has a backup of everything, but they are exact duplicates of what his gig rig is. Luckily for him, he has a pretty basic set up. Guitar, combo amp, and 3 pedals. Works for him! Thank you for watching & commenting!
❤Glen is one of my all time favorites. I noticed the internet can be brutal. Guitarists are a fickle bunch. Everyone has there own nuances that establish their own sound or even for a special song. So don't hate a different opinion especially if it comes from a master sound technician cause he would probably be right and you probably do sound like crap.
Thanks for watching & the comment!
The one thing continually missed in these conversation's about Wood, Pickups, cabinets , tubes and so on, and it's our EARS. People hear things differently, and therefore analyse things differently. I'm a 100% ear player, can't read sheet, never tried to read Tabs, Learn by ear and play by ear, I don't even own a tuner. I understand scales and modes and know my fretboard well. I have played for over 40 years and earned a living from playing guitar. I've been in situations several times where I've been listening to music, either recorded or on CD, and I can hear overtones and harmonic influences in the music/playback, I stop the music and express a opinion based on what I'm hearing, and have had people look at me absolutely stumped as to what I'm hearing when listening to the music. Going over the songs again and again and I'm the only one hearing what I hear, I know i'm not alone. {and NO, it wasn't the drugs...!!!}. My point is, I have a very discerning ear and hear sound critically, I know I hear more than a lot of people. In Glenn's videos where he's going on about not being able to identify which guitar is being used, I can still hear clear differences in tone between the different guitars, or pickups, not being able to identify which guitar or pickup is inconsequential to me, it's the tone or sound that I'm interested in.. The comments are full of people saying "they all sound exactly the same", And "there's no difference at all", when there is clear differences and several others hear them too, they tend to get mocked for saying they can hear differences. I find a lot of Glenn's video's click batey rubbish these days, I wish he would stick to his studio stuff, that's why I subbed to his channel. I know and understand he's trying to make a living, but I hate the ranty stuff thathe's flogging to death, it creates arguments, and that's why I unsubbed....
All valid points, man!
I think you're missing the point Glen's trying to make.
The point that a lot of people are trying to make as well.
It's not that there is absolutely no difference between them.
It's that the difference is not as vast as most people expect it to be, and not as vast as most people selling gear present it to be.
THAT's the most important thing to remember.
First of all, thanks for the video! Glenn has changed my mind about a few things - not all, but some. I could easily be wrong here, but to add another layer to what I THINK Glenn is talking about: yes high gain, and yes modern metal mostly. Also though, my interpretation is that he is most of the time specifically talking about recording vs. live or amp in the room. My guitar always sounds very different to me on any recording I've ever done compared to what I hear when I play on my gear live/in a room. A lot of it just doesn't translate to the recording, and (again, I THINK) this is the heart of what Glenn is getting at. Thanks again, and happy playing!
Call it tone, sound, whatever. Jeff Beck's hands mattered more than anything.
Spot on, couldn't agree more. I think you pointed out some SUPER critical subtitles to Glenna claims and why so many people disagree. I think Glenn is spot on, IF you include all his qualifiers (the final mixed tone in high gain modern metal). Meanwhile, guitarists get a whole set of experiences that are not translating to a final recording, like string noise if your volume isn't high, the feel of a particular guitar and how that makes you respond, how much air is being pushed in the room, the acoustics of the room (though there is translation to the mix for room acoustics, it's no where near as significant as when playing in a room). Also, your distinction between sound vs tone in the hands was perfect. I hope a lot of people see this from both sides of the argument and understand better what's happening, which is basically a guitar players personal experience vs a recording and mixing engineers experience, who both have totally different goals (player being the overall experience and artistry of guitar and engineer being the final sound of a mixed digital production).
Hi Clark. I'm just a hobby player and I haven't had a lot of different equipment. I have mostly budget guitars and I've change some pickups etc. but mostly I wish I hadn't. I've had 4 or 5 different small combo amps and were never really happy with the way they sounded. About 10 years ago I was given a 50 watt Yorkville keyboard amp . It's a very simple solid state amp but it's a closed back cab and uses a 10" woofer and a tweeter. So, much like a stereo speaker, it has a high fidelity sound. And it handles my Boss ME 50 quite well and sounds great. To me. I'll keep using it until one of us croaks.
Hopefully, neither of you will croak for a very long time! Thanks for watching & for your comment!
Great video!
I agree, and when you think about it from a technical point, it makes sense. High gain distorted sound is transforming the sound towards square waves. Most of the nuance and detail will get overpowered by the clipping.
Jim Lill's videos are also great, very informative and complements Glenn's since they're not high gain oriented.
What would matter in a high gain setting is pre and post clipping EQ. Pre to alter somewhat what gets clipped most, and post to alter the clipped output. Not many amps have this, and it can be tricky to dial in.
yeah, but can you play .... FREE BIIIIIIIIRD? oh.... sorry. flashback. hehehe 4:56 kind of sad to hear that. Tone is most analogous to what frequencies are being created at a specific time. Not what notes are played or what sequence of notes are played or whether someone is biting into each note with 20% pinch harmonics... this whole myth that we can recognize a player on a different setup is just that. If Eddie Van Halen got on Brian May's setup and hit an A power chord, you would NOT be able to tell it was Eddie Van Halen. You WOULD say it was Brian May because there is not a real difference (except in my example Brian uses a coin for a pick and plays slightly softer by virtue of that). Another problem is in having a solid definition of "tone". Anyway, the tone is MOSTLY in the combination of guitar, amp and effects settings. The STYLE or recognition of a particular player is in the note choices and techniques used.
I wish people would use “tone” and “timbre” correctly. It would make these videos and discussions much less confusing… especially for some of the less intelligent humans.
Great video! I think there is one exception to the tone in the hands argument though, that being Dimebag Darrell. 🤘
Dime certainly had his own sound! Thanks for watching & the comment.
When people state "tone is in the hands", it's kind of true for skilled players, who master absolute control of the attack and consistently pick at any tempo. I remember watching french guitarist Patrick Rondat directly plugged in a 300$ blackstar amp going from clean tone to gnarly crunch tone without touching the amp or guitar knobs, at insane speed and accuracy using his magical right hand subtle to ferocious alternate picking.
Your video came up because I searched for Glen's videos about tonewood. I expect you saw recently Paul Reed Smith's comments about the whole tonewood thing, and in the comments of various articles lots of people were saying 'Glen Fricker killed this argument years ago!' - so I decided to check out the videos. And, well, it's exactly as you say - people made it sound like he'd completely debunked the idea and there was *no* difference at all between woods. But when you listen to the clean and overdriven sounds, there is an audible difference (even listening without visual cues). Even in the full hi-gain metal mix I think it's sort of there, you just can't spot exactly where it swaps.
The upshot is that if you're playing high-gain, you probably shouldn't worry about these things, but I can imagine if you were playing mostly clean stuff then maybe it is a consideration (though probably not a $5000 consideration). To be fair, he is probably doing a service to metal players, as I've found a lot of them worry far more about gear than they should, so if it convinces them not to waste money on things they don't need to bother with then maybe that's a good thing.
I think he very purposefully makes these kind of click-baity statements that are close to saying 'this thing makes *no* difference', but with enough leeway that he can say later that it's not really what he was saying.
Well done, Clark. Thanks for making this video.
Decoding semantics is a good soft skill as much as it is a technical one. Having said that, the "tone is in the hands" phrase has always bothered me because it is semantically incorrect. But, I know what they are trying to say so I move past it to look for something I might learn.
I am in the IT biz, and it always bothers me (still) when people use the words memory and disk space interchangeably. That is where I began to learn the skill of getting the information I need, without schooling everyone I come in contact with.
life is a lot easier, and you learn a lot more when you can separate the personality and the presentation from the truth you might find within. Great video.
Thasnks so much for the kind words! And I get what you're saying...
Whenever I hear someone defend the idea that tone is in the hands, the rhetoric is always the same, Once upon a time... and I end up tuning out.
The scientific method is not based on individual experiences.
In order to be able to conclude something indisputably, there must be double-blind studies with a sufficient quantity of both samples and information collection so that a conclusion can be reached.
Individual perception is unreliable.
It's no coincidence that we never see double-blind studies on audiophile equipment. Be it cables, speakers, amplifiers, etc.
Even the terms used to describe the superior sound quality are absolutely lunatic and meaningless.
Instead of opinions, why don't we demand double-blind tests from brands so that their statements are co-substantiated?
Maybe you should have actually watched the video... I actually agree with Glenn on most of these things, and that's what this vid is really about. Cheers!
Hi @@ClarkColborn I actually watched your entire video. My comment was not directed at you, but at the people who continue to adamantly defend that the tone is in the hands. I even went through a situation very similar to the one you describe in the video. I would also add that for a long time I confused technique with tone. Thank you for your comment and your video. Keep up the excellent work!
People confuse tone with expression and dynamics. Schenker's guitar tone probably didnt change when he picked up the guitar and played it. But the fingers he used changed the dynamics and expression you were hearing. Those elements are in the fingers.
The biggest thing I had to learn about tone years ago was that a lot of the best guitar tones sound like garbage outside of a full band mix. you cant nail a good tone while playing alone in your bedroom.
Glenn: you don't need to waste your money on X and Y!
(Just ignore all the top of the line outboard gear i have sitting in the studio behind me).
Back when I started playing metal, pickups made more difference than they do now. I reckon it's because the gain *commonly* available now is much higher than it used to me (well you could always put two distortion pedals in series or into an overdriven amp), however I used to like just going straight to the amp. (I was playing metal after all and not crust punk noise alternative! lol) It wasn't until the 5150 that I found an amp where it was undesirable to wind the gain up to full open. i.e. this amp had more gain available than one actually needed.
Previous amps and distortion pedals the gain would always be on 10 and it would feel like it needed a little more. Aftermarket pickups could definitely help provide that "more". The DiMazio X2N was killer for this, but because it was a passive pickup and massively overwound to get all that extra voltage, it sounds quite dark, due to capacitance effects and whatnot. It didn't work so well in an axe that sounded dark acoustically. But well in one that was quite bright. Which is weird when you think about it as the pickup is not a mike, it doesn't "listen" to the wood of the gat at all! Just generates a current in relation to a moving magnetic field.
Love Glenn and Jim both. Thanks for restating in context what they have both said.
Once long ago, at someone else's house, about to join a jam - I had to use a completely unfamiliar amp. I'd only owned one amp for a couple years, but I thought, I'll bet I can get 'my' sound out of this. And I turned knobs until I thought it sounded like me. And I found it was me, not the guitar or the amp, which made me sound like me.
Since then I've tried switching a few things. There are indeed differences to be had, even in high-gain sound. But the funny thing is, I found that when I changed those things, I tended to change my playing -- so the overall result was largely the same. My takeaway is this: once you've determined on how you want to sound, there's not much that can take you away from it.
Funny detail: You gave a written explanation what "sound" is after you filmed the video, so no one can complain about stuff he wants to misunderstand.
That's exactly where we are. People are so esoteric about music and playing instruments nowadays, that they are not able to figure out, what someone means by simple words like sound and tone. Marketing BS and the babble of boomer musicians (well, I am not particularly young myself....) did a great job to establish many post-factual statements as truth that NEVER were valid - but repeated endless times. That's many fairy tales from the times before you could look up things on the internet. Anecdotal storytelling of the "experienced" musicians after a few beers backstage, taken to the level of enlightened wisdom.
Thanks for the video. You are totally right. Glen tries to be reasonable and help people to reach their goals without spending tons of money on things they don't need. And that's great. I probably spent money that could have bought me a few cars on things I never needed, because I believed in what people told me, and not what my critical thinking should have told me. Like: Physics is real.
Agree, except the internet will divulge mostly fairy tales too. This idea that one can find truth on the internet is quaint. Hopefully all the AI generated slop that takes over will finally make folks stop believing one can find truth on the net.
Glen: don't waste your money on this! Buy my expensive boost pedal that does nothing different than any other boost pedal instead!
I gotta say, man, you got me good. I thought I was gonna have to firmly, though calmly, defend Glen but you’re video was very deceptive right down to introducing anecdotal evidence that you later rebuke and explain what you really heard.
Well done, you’ve earned my subscription, and I look forward to checking out more of your videos.
Schenker’s rig sounded different on its own than with the rest of the band?
Yeah, when the tech was messing with it there was a noticeable difference from when Michael was playing, either with the whole band (which is also an obvious factor) or the bits where it was just him starting a song or whatever. Back then, I didn't give any thought to why that might be. Live & learn, though, right? Thanks for watching & commenting!