"They sound the same; but there is a difference in feel" are talking out of their ass/mis-naming their experience/whatever.
Being that I am quite often that person, no I don't think they're talking out of their ass
I thought we were discussing which is whether the "feeling" of sound somehow lets us make finer distinctions than our hearing can
I don't think that is quite accurate. I also conceeded the point that "feel" can't exist without ears. I think what we started off trying to figure out is why a Seymour Duncan Powerstage feels crap to play versus a valve amp. There was actually a bunch of pretty good discussion on this earlier in the thread, with talk of headroom, incorrect reportage wattage values, slew-rates, that kind of thing.
Which I don't really think deserves a "FEEL DON'T REAL" response to be honest.
Surely the deaf person isn't going to be able to distinguish a Les Paul from a Strat, much less an underpowered class D amp from a glorious tube amp.
Well actually, if you've got someone who is deaf and their hearing range doesn't go any higher than 4kHz, then it would be entirely possible for them to be able to perceive the difference between a Seymour Duncan PS170, and say even a Fryette Powerstation, because of the differences in the low-end output. So that would be 'sonics'.
But equally, they might be able to perceive that difference by registering how the frequencies vibrate in their chest differently. So that would be 'feel'.
The point about bringing up this hypothetical is to demonstrate the most extreme example of feel, and the work backwards from there to try and figure out if there is a point where the concept no longer becomes relevant to us.
When someone says two guitar playing experiences feel differently, do you think the feeling they are talking about is the result of the air pressure being generated by the guitar amp thingy, or something else?
I think it can be, but not necessarily always. Some people seem to be taking the "compression" angle, which is part sonics, and part "feel" I'd say.
For me, I'm trying to pinpoint our locus on how our bodies feel, and I'm trying to do that in order that we can attach something a bit more objective to the concept.