What do you don't care about at all, that others care about a lot?

[TheTrueZoltan!]

Neck shapes. I couldn‘t care less.

 

[Evilution]

Gloating.

In the last three days, I’ve had three separate people give me the “I’ve been” “playing the guitar,” or “working in the studio,” or WHATEVER “for over 50 years!”

I don’t give a flying f**k about your accomplishments. NONE of them automatically make you an expert in ANYTHING!

Is it really gloating though ?

I dont know your exact cases of course but i have certainly been guilty of saying that i have done this and that for 30- 40 years also on forums like this (not this one yet) but it has never been to gloat or about accomplishments or to make myself seem better than anyone else, im not that type of person. The reason i have been doing this is more to show that i have long experience so people know where im coming from and why i make certain arguments and such. If you have done things for a long time knowledge and skills usually mature over time but its of course not necessarily true that you know better just because you have been doing things for a long time.

There are certainly many guitarplayers that have played for 5 years that are better than me that have played for 40 years, but there are also certain experiences that you can just pick up fully if you have been doing things for a long time like the changes in technology and the development in music styles through the decades that you have lived, observing things like this from this point in time gives a very different perspective.

 

[GreatGreen]

“Tone” cables.

Cable length objectively affects the tone of passive pickups, darkening them more the longer the cable, sure, but as for this or that brand? Does not matter for tone in the slightest as long as you control for length. And if you use a good buffer, even the length ceases to matter.

Buy cables for durability. They all “sound” the same at any given reasonable length.

 

[GreatGreen]

This might get the pitchforks and torches pulled out on me but…

Tube brand.

Tube types sound different, but as for this or that brand of 6L6 or EL34? In all the testing I’ve ever done, any differences between tubes of the same type with different labels on them is 99.99% placebo. You’ll change your tone more by slightly breathing on the treble knob than you will by changing brands of tubes.

I will say I rarely bring the power sections of my amps to clipping. If you also setup your amps like that, don’t sweat tube types. If anything, better tubes are more robust and will last longer, but I haven’t heard any of them sound different than anything else.

 

[Orvillain]

This might get the pitchforks and torches pulled out on me but…

Tube brand.

Tube types sound different, but as for this or that brand of 6L6 or EL34? In all the testing I’ve ever done, any differences between tubes of the same type with different labels on them is 99.99% placebo. You’ll change your tone more by slightly breathing on the treble knob than you will by changing brands of tubes.

I will say I rarely bring the power sections of my amps to clipping. If you also setup your amps like that, don’t sweat tube types. If anything, better tubes are more robust and will last longer, but I haven’t heard any of them sound different than anything else.

Whilst that is true in most cases.... I've had a weird situation which just make me skeptical of the whole "tubes don't matter" movement.

I once had my Marshall satch JVM by itself, with the back open... and I tried some JJ's and EHX tubes in various combinations, and I could 100% get a different high-frequency response based on which tubes were in which position.

I've not had that experience many times, truth be told... but that one time it was sooo black and white that it was unreal. Unfortunately I don't have clips or anything, but I think there is something to it.

Ultimately it's like anything - every 2% difference adds up to quite a different product at the end.

 

[jay mitchell]

This might get the pitchforks and torches pulled out on me but…

Tube brand.

I'd go along with that, with some qualifications: different tube brands have differing grid/cathode/heater geometries and can function differently (or not at all) in certain types of circuits.

For example, I've had jj tubes go bonkers within a few minutes of installation in the circuit that drives the tonestack in tweed/brownface Bassman, Marshall, and other amps. It's a direct-coupled cathode follower, and by all appearances the jj's quiescent state in that circuit was unstable. Replacing jj with Sovtek fixed the problem immediately and permanently.

Ca. 1980, Music Man called for the use of a single brand of 6L6 (either RCA or GE, I don't recall) in their amps and said the use of other brands would void the warranty. I have no idea whether that was justified, but it was there.

 

[Surveyor777]

For me, it's the weight of a guitar. On "the other site", it seems so many people are hung up on how much a guitar weighs and they won't buy a certain guitar if it's over xxx pounds.

I only play at home, sitting down, so weight of a guitar means nothing to me.

Also, the country of manufacture. I don't care where the guitar is made, as long as it's made well.

 

[Bruce]

Pronouns. Suddenly the country is obsessed with them. I use the one that’s obvious. If I get it wrong, you’ll live. I promise.

 

[jay mitchell]

For me, it's the weight of a guitar. On "the other site", it seems so many people are hung up on how much a guitar weighs and they won't buy a certain guitar if it's over xxx pounds.

I used to play full time. I could not play an LP because of the weight; my shoulder would be in pain by the end of the night. The difference between the weight of a typical LP and the guitars I played was on the order of 3-5 lbs., and that was enough to make the difference.

 

[laxu]

This might get the pitchforks and torches pulled out on me but…

Tube brand.

Tube types sound different, but as for this or that brand of 6L6 or EL34? In all the testing I’ve ever done, any differences between tubes of the same type with different labels on them is 99.99% placebo. You’ll change your tone more by slightly breathing on the treble knob than you will by changing brands of tubes.

I will say I rarely bring the power sections of my amps to clipping. If you also setup your amps like that, don’t sweat tube types. If anything, better tubes are more robust and will last longer, but I haven’t heard any of them sound different than anything else.

My experience is that it varies by amp. The Victory VC35 did not care at all what tubes were in it, whereas the Bogner Goldfinger 45 SL was pretty sensitive to at least preamp tubes.

I still would not put money into NOS tubes.

 

[laxu]

“Tone” cables.

Cable length objectively affects the tone of passive pickups, darkening them more the longer the cable, sure, but as for this or that brand? Does not matter for tone in the slightest as long as you control for length. And if you use a good buffer, even the length ceases to matter.

Buy cables for durability. They all “sound” the same at any given reasonable length.

Cables have a wide variety of capacitance so I'd say brand matters to a degree.

I try to avoid brands with mystery specs. Evidence Audio is something I always use as an example - the cables are fine and well built, but their marketing is straight up bullshit. You can get equally good cables for far less money.

Most good cables are Neutrik or Switchcraft plugs with varying qualities of cable. Once you get to that "fairly low capacitance" territory it's not worth chasing the absolute lowest capacitance. Having a good buffer on a pedalboard is good enough.

Speaking of buffers, you won't see me buying expensive buffer pedals like the 29 Pedals stuff. I'd rather spend that kind of money on a pedal that can simply act as a buffer. I use my Strymons for that while also having that pedalboard space taken by an actual effect.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

For me, it's the weight of a guitar. On "the other site", it seems so many people are hung up on how much a guitar weighs and they won't buy a certain guitar if it's over xxx pounds.

Yeah that's a weird one for me too. I mean if the damn thing is like 12-14lbs I get it but it's the weird differences with people looking for guitars sub 7lbs and won't even try one at 7 1/2. How bad does your back have to be for that to be a deal breaker.

 

[GreatGreen]

Yeah that's a weird one for me too. I mean if the damn thing is like 12-14lbs I get it but it's the weird differences with people looking for guitars sub 7lbs and won't even try one at 7 1/2. How bad does your back have to be for that to be a deal breaker.

Maybe I'm just weird but I've always liked the way heavier guitars sound. There's a limit of course. Like you said, a 13lb Les Paul is pretty unreasonable, but light guitars have always bugged me. Nothing annoys me more than a guitar that's so ultra-light it has neck dive and resonates as loud as an acoustic. Solid body guitars like that have always sounded and felt cheap to me.

The guitars I get along with best have historically been medium to medium-heavy. My #1 is like that and it's bright and clear, and sustains basically forever, but acoustically it's very quiet. Love it.

 

[laxu]

Maybe I'm just weird but I've always liked the way heavier guitars sound. There's a limit of course. Like you said, a 13lb Les Paul is pretty unreasonable, but light guitars have always bugged me. Nothing annoys me more than a guitar that's so ultra-light it has neck dive and resonates as loud as an acoustic. Solid body guitars like that have always sounded and felt cheap to me.

The guitars I get along with best have historically been medium to medium-heavy. My #1 is bright and clear, and sustains basically forever, but acoustically it's very quiet. Love it.

I haven't found any correlation with the weight of the guitar and its sound. I had a hugely heavy Dean doubleneck back in the day that was a very resonant, very heavy, big ass hunk of mahogany. It sounded great for rock stuff, not so great clean.

 

[SpaceMan]

Cable length objectively affects the tone of passive pickups, darkening them more the longer the cable

Embarrassingly, I drove myself kind of crazy for the last couple of years not understanding why no matter what guitar I used or what amp/modeler I played through, there always seemed to be some pretty noticeable high cut happening. I was using a "vintage" coil cable; I don't know what the capacitance is, but after A/B'ing some recordings with a simple 10ft cable, I realized the cable was the reason for the high end loss. Now I'm just going to buy a decently shielded 10ft cable with rugged connectors.

 

[Doug B]

MOJO.

Come on - "mojo"? Seriously? Mojo, go to bed!

 

[Speedyone]

Tone knobs.

Never use them, EVER.

Tube amps.

They CAN be amazing, but my Gibson LaB Series L5 had perfect clean tones for me. Equal to any boutique amp I’ve played

I love solid state high gain. I HATE sag and tube compression.

Solid state was good enough for Holdsworth and Ty Tabor, it’s good enough for me!

 

[SpaceMan]

Reverse headstocks. Maybe I'm missing something, but I just think they look ugly. I'm open to hearing some utility or quality of life benefits.