What is good? Is “ the best” better or just different?

[Eagle]

I will start by saying that good and better start out being easily discernible and not really a matter of opinion but when you get up to excellence and the idea of “best” it gets difficult.
Particularly these days when better manufacturing has dramatically improved the cheaper and middle of the market.
Digital has substantially reduced the cost and difficulty of making “good” tone.
But if I sat you down in a studio with “ holy grail “ gear I assure you the difference is night and day.
The fact that most of us never experience any of this means over time people loose connection with how good it can be and persuade themselves that good is in fact “ best “. Dismissing the truly great as “ hype” without any real experience of it citing that it is “a matter of opinion “, it mostly isn’t , and by experience I mean playing through it yourself.
On record you can’t tell so does it matter?
This is a fair question and one that you can only answer yourself.
Let’s be honest Larry Carlton playing his garbage Sire through a good amp will still sound good but how much better can it get?
I would say to people that the difference is like hifi. Spend £3k and you get something very good but spend £15k on the right things and the difference is hard to describe but incredible to experience.
I’m not saying the £3k system is bad it is actually going to be very good.
My personal perspective is I want to find the “best” gear. This is what my customers pay me to help them with.
This video is an example of what I am talking about.

 

[PLX]

I watched that yesterday, and I thought the vintage 421 sounded more "open".. and sounded best.

 

[Eagle]

I watched that yesterday, and I thought the vintage 421 sounded more "open".. and sounded best.

Totally agree.
These are the kind of differences that I talk about all the time. From one perspective it’s a tiny irrelevant difference but I think it’s just objectively better bigger, more complex.

 

[Eagle]

The “That pedal Show” guys are all about this which is why Dan’s Gig Rig gear is so good.
Gear needs to be designed by people who understand the issues properly first hand. Tim at BK pickups is another great example.
Companies that just try to please rarely even know where to start.

 

[JiveTurkey]

I'll never be able to afford 'the best'. I can appreciate the corksniffery though. "X is the same as Y" has always irritated me, even as I knowingly use cheap shit on the daily.

 

[la szum]

OMG! Old guys pining away about the inadequacies of newbies and dullards. How novel.

Hope they all patted themselves on the back when they were done.

I believe in good, better, and best. But I ain't going to hold it over people's heads
like I am some kind of Prophet sent from the Sonic Gods to show people who the
true Priests of Audio are.

 

[Eagle]

I'll never be able to afford 'the best'. I can appreciate the corksniffery though. "X is the same as Y" has always irritated me, even as I knowingly use cheap shit on the daily.

I see it all through work . I am really talking about knowing the difference nothing more. So many people don’t even have a reference point these days.

 

[likitlikeyoulikeit]

Too many negative vibes ...I'm out.

 

[JiveTurkey]

OMG! Old guys pining away about the inadequacies of newbies and dullards. How novel.

Hope they all patted themselves on the back when they were done.

I believe in good, better, and best. But I ain't going to hold it over people's heads
like I am some kind of Prophet sent from the Sonic Gods to show people who the
true Priests of Audio are.

This is also true. I am still going to use that goddamn Mustang combo whether anyone else likes it or not

 

[la szum]

Love you guys! Appreciate all of your expertise and the knowledge you drop
so regularly, Andy!

 

[Eagle]

OMG! Old guys pining away about the inadequacies of newbies and dullards. How novel.

Hope they all patted themselves on the back when they were done.

I believe in good, better, and best. But I ain't going to hold it over people's heads
like I am some kind of Prophet sent from the Sonic Gods to show people who the
true Priests of Audio are.

I get what you mean and say it in my introduction but sit in a studio with the gear and you will agreeing.
Knowledge is power.

 

[sleewell]

I think it's gotta be a balance like most things in life. Gear chasing can be the enemy of productivity if you let it. But it can also unleash more creativity and more enthusiasm too.

I've seen bands with crap gear totally kill it and bands with my 401k balance in gear shit the bed and vice versa too.

It's not going to be the magic pill that's going to solve or make up for lack of talent or practice.

 

[Eagle]

I think it's gotta be a balance like most things in life. Gear chasing can be the enemy of productivity if you let it. But it can also unleash more creativity and more enthusiasm too.

I've seen bands with crap gear totally kill it and bands with my 401k balance in gear shit the bed and vice versa too.

It's not going to be the magic pill that's going to solve or make up for lack of talent or practice.

Sounds good is good if it works for you is always right but my work gets me in contact with all these things and I find that last bit to be inspirational.
Tim showed examples of how gear sends you in different directions.

 

[TSJMajesty]

With this being an art form, you have to account for taste.

I thought some of those tones sounded like shit. But some did sound awesome, in a classic rock vein.

It would be like food prepared with spices you don't like the taste of. No amount of someone telling you 'this food is fantastic' is going to make you agree.

Now within tones you like to hear, sure you might "think" a certain tone is fabulous, until you get the chance to hear it compared to one that sounds much better, and you change your mind. Assuming you're open-minded.

Same with guitars. I thought my PRS was the finest-playing guitar, until I bought a Majesty. And because there are many brands/models I've never tried, I still allow that there could be guitars that play even nicer, for me, out there.

And then there are people whom I've read have a certain amazing-sounding amp, but then they buy something new, and say the new amp sounds just a bit better, and I always wonder if it's just because it happens to be a bit different. That if they had bought the 2nd amp first, they'd feel exactly opposite.

I find that happens to me with certain Fractal effects. What I end up deciding, is that they both sound utterly glorious, just in different ways.


Some of it comes down to an individual's taste. But some of it is indeed, "This gear does indeed do this certain thing better," that 'certain thing' being what you are going for.

 

[Eagle]

With this being an art form, you have to account for taste.

I thought some of those tones sounded like shit. But some did sound awesome, in a classic rock vein.

It would be like food prepared with spices you don't like the taste of. No amount of someone telling you 'this food is fantastic' is going to make you agree.

Now within tones you like to hear, sure you might "think" a certain tone is fabulous, until you get the chance to hear it compared to one that sounds much better, and you change your mind. Assuming you're open-minded.

Same with guitars. I thought my PRS was the finest-playing guitar, until I bought a Majesty. And because there are many brands/models I've never tried, I still allow that there could be guitars that play even nicer, for me, out there.

And then there are people whom I've read have a certain amazing-sounding amp, but then they buy something new, and say the new amp sounds just a bit better, and I always wonder if it's just because it happens to be a bit different. That if they had bought the 2nd amp first, they'd feel exactly opposite.

I find that happens to me with certain Fractal effects. What I end up deciding, is that they both sound utterly glorious, just in different ways.


Some of it comes down to an individual's taste. But some of it is indeed, "This gear does indeed do this certain thing better," that 'certain thing' being what you are going for.

I agree that the type of sound can be a very personal choice and quite subjective but then something that can do that but bigger sounding and objective better starts to be a thing within the scope of that particular tonality.

 

[RaceU4her]

having a studio and recording is just wild, it really is non stop contemplating on things that in the end probably dont matter, like i really dont think my song is gonna be any better or worse if a use a marshall and a 421 or a recto with a 57, im gonna end up dialing them both in to fit the song which is gonna end up sounding quite similar, but till the end of time ill question if i should have used the other set up.

 

[TSJMajesty]

I agree that the type of sound can be a very personal choice and quite subjective but then something that can do that but bigger sounding and objective better starts to be a thing within the scope of that particular tonality.

Which is part of what I was saying.

 

[Eagle]

Which is part of what I was saying.

I’m saying I agree with you about a personal tone but then there can be a better version of it sometimes.

 

[Eagle]

having a studio and recording is just wild, it really is non stop contemplating on things that in the end probably dont matter, like i really dont think my song is gonna be any better or worse if a use a marshall and a 421 or a recto with a 57, im gonna end up dialing them both in to fit the song which is gonna end up sounding quite similar, but till the end of time ill question if i should have used the other set up.

Totally, based on experience of how to get everything to work together and still have dynamic relationships . All those tiny things and decisions can add up to a big impact on the results.

 

[GreatGreen]

having a studio and recording is just wild, it really is non stop contemplating on things that in the end probably dont matter, like i really dont think my song is gonna be any better or worse if a use a marshall and a 421 or a recto with a 57, im gonna end up dialing them both in to fit the song which is gonna end up sounding quite similar, but till the end of time ill question if i should have used the other set up.

Man if this doesn't completely sum it up I don't know what does.

Don't get me wrong, my studio hard drive is filled with small test sessions called "Amp X vs Amp Y vs Amp Z" etc. and for me it's hard to think of anything you can do in one place with you clothes on that's more fun than getting a bunch of gear setup, trying everything out, then picking what works best and making music with it.

But yeah in the end I'm sure I could do just about everything I really want to do even with a JCM 2000 DSL 100 and whatever else.

However, that doesn't mean it's any less fun to go to the ends of the earth looking for The Perfect Sound.