Warmoth, Fender and Gibson comparison jam

The Red Strat was by far my fav. The Gold Gibby was next then the Sunburst Strat. The Warmoth was my least fav for sure. Sounded thin and small compared to the rest. Nice collection by the way and very nice chops.

 

Mmmm...Dunno...
But on that particular type of groove I found the Gibson worked best.
then liked the Warmoth strat & 57 Strat too.
So I'd say Gibson top, Warmoth Strat second, 57 Strat 3rd the 63 red Strat last.
You sound very much at home on the Gibson to me.

 

For this song, I liked the Warmoth.
All sound good. Very nice playing.

 

I liked the 57 best.

 

They all sound great, I like them all!

 

Nice !
It all sounded great , beautiful collection of guits. As in audio gear the search for the holy grail is almost unobtainable, it never ends for various personal reasons. Which to a large extent is half + the fun.
Enjoy your guitars and just keep on jamming !
Nice chops as they say.
What kind of music do you play, seems like with your technique you are limitless.

 

Can't say which guitar I liked best, because they all sounded really good. I can say that you have some really killer guitars, and killer chops to go with them.

 

You are a really great player, and your tone is excellent. To be honest, I'm not even sure you played this on different guitars. That suggests you're either using one of those digital patches that makes almost any guitar sound good, but distressingly similar, or... you played the whole take on one guitar, then changed the guitars' descriptions as a psychological test. I suspect the latter, because if I listen without any images, I can't spot the joins at all.

On the other hand, my high frequency hearing is limited these days, so I may be may be missing some signature detail.

 

All I hear is the distortion pedal, it makes everything sound almost the same. I can't hear the guitars at all.

 

Haha! No, I'm not a psychologist but I'm aware of a number of experiments in this field. For one of them, an accomplished French horn player invited a selected audience to a recital room, where they found a form on each seat inviting them to list the horn they believed they were listening to. Across the stage were arrayed some of the most respected French horns ever made: Conn, Kruspe, Alexander, Paxman, Yamaha... The host explained that he would play the same piece on each of the horns, but he would do so in a neutral way, rather than trying to emphasise the 'rich gravy' tone of the Kruspe etc.

A curtain was drawn across the stage and the the recital began. Many in the audience felt quite strongly that the first horn was the Conn, and a certain amount of conferring revealed a degree of consensus on a number of other occasions. At the end of the recital, the papers were collected and the curtain parted. At that point the presenter revealed that every single example he had played had been done on the Paxman. The other horns were just props. As I used to work for Paxman Musical Instruments as a young man, I found this story very entertaining.

There was also an experiment conducted where otherwise identical hi-fi speakers were given different coloured grilles. What this revealed was that many people thought the red ones had a forward and more aggressive sound, even though this wasn't the case.

So, forgive me for wondering if you were conducting a similar experiment!

If I really can't tell those guitars apart, my wife should be very encouraged, as it implies I could save myself a lot of money by keeping my Warmoth 'bitser' Strat and selling everything else. (Well, apart from my Ibanez bass – hopefully I can still tell the difference between that and a Strat...)

 

To be totally honest I'm with Simon Croft on this one, they all sound the same to me. I have a reissue 58 LP and a reissue 59 LP and they sound more different to me than your Strats and the LP did. Mayby my laptop speakers I guess.....

Great playing by the way, not my personal taste but you can feel the quality

 

I've listened again, with no alcohol inside me and through a pair of B&W speakers instead of my reference AKG headphones. The differences are very subtle, but I agree you've recorded what you said you're doing, and you're not trying to see if we'll simply agree with what you tell us we're hearing! This is what I hear.

The Warmoth is the most different, and it has a slightly more aggressive upper mid.
The 63 Strat is the woodier of the two, almost as if the body is playing a greater role in the tone.
The 57 Strat has a certain bell-like clarity. You might even guess it was the newer of the two Strats, due to the clean chime.
The 55 LP is very close tonally, but there's something happening between the notes that adds a certain fluidity. I don't think it's that the pickups are more powerful so much as the wood 'holds onto' the notes for a little longer, so there's a pleasing quality in very rapid passages, almost like when a sax player delivers a flurry of notes.

What I conclude from your experiment is that, in your hands, all your guitars sound bloody good! Sorry I can't offer more but it's been 30 years since I used to be able to walk into a studio control room, listen and say with certainty where the unwanted resonance was coming from.

 

Just listened to your track. It's really good. I love that you combine the heavy guitar sound and straight-ahead rock production with some very imaginative instrumental diversions. There's a strong prog rock influence in there too.