The Digital Doubt

[mercifulfuzziness]

I mean, it's a nearly thousand dollar guitar. With a good setup, I don't see how it would slow anyone down.

Okay but but but a 3000 guitar should be way way better, right ?

 

[paisleywookiee]

Okay but but but a 3000 guitar should be way way better, right ?

If that's what makes you happy. I think there are obvious diminishing returns after a certain point.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Okay but but but a 3000 guitar should be way way better, right ?

It’s two pieces of pretty commonly available wood bolted together. They’re not harvesting some rare species of spruce in the middle of a winter night under a full moon in 5’ of snow 3000’ up the side of a mountain. A good nitrocellulose finish is time consuming and expensive and looks the business, but doesn’t alter the tone in any way that would make a difference.

 

[DrewJD82]

Okay but but but a 3000 guitar should be way way better, right ?

Definitely not always the case.

Too many variables involved but mainly individual player preferences. A $20K Fender Custom Shop with a 7.25” radius is useless to me because I hate that radius size, my $1200 partscaster with a 12” radius is “better” for me.

There’s also the fact that no builder is going to dump hours into building a guitar then realize when they attach the neck and body that it sounds like shit and scrap it, they’re going to sell it regardless and more to the point, someone might pick it up and find it to be the best sounding guitar they’ve ever played.

Hell, you can even pick all your own specs out and get the exact guitar you want from a custom builder, only to get it and it sounds like a tub of shit because it’s just inherently not a good sounding guitar even if the specs are on point.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Okay but but but a 3000 guitar should be way way better, right ?

My current main kinda strat-alike live guitar is an indonesian Schecter Nick Johnston that I bought 2nd hand for 600 Euros (ok, I exchanged 2 pickups and also replaced the tremolo, still well under 900), sort of replaced a Tom Anderson semi hollow drop top, which would cost around 5k Euros today. The Schecter also became my main go-to guitar for pretty much anything.

 

[mercifulfuzziness]

How this a gear forum talking people out of getting new gear

 

[Jarick]

Worst gig I ever played was as a drummer when I didn’t bring a rug and the stage was slippery, so all my gear went sliding around constantly. Nothing worse.

Also last year I saw a show where the pedalboard went down for a national act and the whole thing came to a stop for 20 minutes. Clearly they didn’t have a backup plan. So something as simple as a FlyRig for emergencies is a good idea.

 

[Sascha Franck]

So something as simple as a FlyRig for emergencies is a good idea.

Fwiw, triple redundancy straight on my board (Stomp, GT-1000, MS-50 - even if I'd rather not want to ever use the latter...), additional backup via Amplifirebox always slapped somewhere into a bag.

 

[Orvillain]

Mate sent me this. It is all I have to contribute.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Mate sent me this. It is all I have to contribute.

Going all in digital would've solved that.

 

[mercifulfuzziness]

I think this vid kind of sums up a lot of things. Sayce has committed himself to a way of playing where it really doesn't matter so much where he's getting his tone, but more that the tone has certain characteristics he can dig into. There's no timidness, no holding back, just playing. The gear becomes somewhat secondary at that point, because you're bending it to your will -- not the other way around. Dialing in a preset or amp is easier once you're comfortable with what you do as a player.

Finally got the time to listen to it through my home system.

There is one thing very different than how most people will experience a modeler. Most don’t have a sound engineer next to them dialing in a tone so close that it becomes like a real amp.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Finally got the time to listen to it through my home system.

There is one thing very different than how most people will experience a modeler. Most don’t have a sound engineer next to them dialing in a tone so close that it becomes like a real amp.

True, but I'm positive Sayce could do it himself.

 

[mercifulfuzziness]

True, but I'm positive Sayce could do it himself.

Now that would be a video!

 

[la szum]

My 3 cents for every endeavour in life:

1) People who want excuses and reasons to not do will always find them. Always. 100%.

We make most of our own obstacles in our minds.

2) No one external to us can ever motivate us to do the legwork necessary to build actual experience.

We all earn our own stripes in this world. Or don't.

3) Those who are passionate and want to do, and learn, will always find a way to work around any seeming obstacle in their path.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

True, but I'm positive Sayce could do it himself.

Also, that even if he’s not as good at the “engineering” (given how limited the plugins are, air quotes are needed) his playing would still sound killer. Nobody looks at the Mona Lisa and wonders what kind of brush was used…

 

[Tito83]

The thing for me is for quite a while I confused my need to tweak with having too much options. I would think "it sounds fine, but because there's so much stuff I keep always thinking there's room for improvement". As time went by I realized the real problem wasn't the options, but the fact I didn't really like any of them.

When I had half a dozen amps and quite a few pedals I could just get lost in a single tone after a few knob turns and a couple of hours would pass by. I lost that. Thinking more clearly I started looking for a solution, and it was the UA pedals gave it back to me. Now I have 3, soon 4 hopefully, and I could spend quite a while with a single tone from any of them.

 

[mercifulfuzziness]

Interesting.

And it’s also skill probably. I probably like on of the drives, but whenever I put them in front of an amp:
1. I dislike the hisssss that comes from it
2. I have no idea how to manipulate the tones with the fingers and the effects in Helix

 

[paisleywookiee]

There is one thing very different than how most people will experience a modeler. Most don’t have a sound engineer next to them dialing in a tone so close that it becomes like a real amp.

You don't need a sound engineer to dial in a great tone these days. I can easily dial something in I am really happy with on Fractal or Helix, without using even an existing preset. Amp block. Cab block. Nothing more.

 

[OrganicZed]

Interesting.

And it’s also skill probably. I probably like on of the drives, but whenever I put them in front of an amp:
1. I dislike the hisssss that comes from it
2. I have no idea how to manipulate the tones with the fingers and the effects in Helix

I'd suggest building a basic and classic rig. For example, a TS808 into a JCM800, an appropriate IR that you know you already like, and a bit of room reverb mixed at 10% or so. Once you've built that, spend some time with it and see what you can get out of it.

 

[mercifulfuzziness]

You don't need a sound engineer to dial in a great tone these days. I can easily dial something in I am really happy with on Fractal or Helix, without using even an existing preset. Amp block. Cab block. Nothing more.

It seems like the sayce + killer sound engineer will be a way sicker result than I would ever get out of my helix. And that’s no diss to helix.