SpectreSoundStudios Is Wrong About Pickups

[@aminorerror]

Thank you to everyone for watching and engaging with my latest video! Being as there's over 800 comments currently (and a lot of them are just the same thing over and over again) I figured I'd leave some responses here in a pinned post. 1. The title and thumbnail's language was too strong and that was a legit criticism. I was have a bit of fun and being cheeky and pushed the envelop too far. After some thought I've decided to change it to language more in line with the tone of the video. While I still feel the same way and I do believe he's being dishonest and misleading deliberately, I obviously wasn't in the room and can't prove what happened. He could just be a bad engineer who dialed a crappy guitar tone....incompetency is a possibility too! 2. If you can't hear the differences in the clips then we have nothing to talk about; it's a non-starter. I can hear them, and you say you can't.....so we're done here. 3. If you can hear the changes but think they're small enough to fall in line with Glenn's original point, that's your opinion and you're entitled to it. I obviously disagree...that's literally the whole point of the video. I think the examples and rational given here speaks for itself and if you actually watch the video with an open mind, you'll get what I'm saying. At the end of the day you can come to whatever conclusion you want. 4. My 'steel manning' section accurately represents Glenn's opinion...that's why it's called a steel man. "The amp colors the tone so completely that you BASICALLY can't hear any difference" is the same as saying 'there's subtle differences but they're tiny'. I just didn't say it the way you wanted me to say it, it's an argument about semantics and it's silly. That just about does it I think! Thanks again to everyone who's watched and engaged with the video...the positive, the negative and the incomprehensible, I'm thankful for it all. To the 600+ new subs, HELLO! I post new videos every Monday at 9am EST and have new original music and other great videos on the way for the spring and summer and think you'll really dig em. Rock on!

[@wareloski2137]

You still dont get it, I’m not surprised though. Cant expect much from tonewood believer

[@bozeeke]

Glenn Fricker is a smug, arrogant bastard who is wrong about a lot of things. More people need to call him out on his BS.

[@jesseyasaitis9036]

Because YOU can hear the differences between the pickups doesn't amount to a pinch of shit. It's us that matter, the consumer, the amateur recording guitar player. I'm thinking you proved Glenn correct and got a little upset.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

​@@jesseyasaitis9036 Stay tuned you'll soon see what a huge difference pickups can make.......or you could buy some of mine and see for yourself

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

​@@wareloski2137 He provided evidence for tonewood you can just look at the frequency response graph😅

[@gabemaymi]

About half way through it became very clear you missed the point. Glen has been very clear with how and why he makes his experiments. Don't have to agree with everything but calling him dishonest is misleading. How a guitar plays matters more to a player than an engineer. He said he was only testing how it sounds so that was clear. He spent a few minutes comparing levels matched and unmatched so that was also very clear. To this day he recognizes the differences between pickups, but the point is he wouldn't spend money upgrading pickups because of how limited of a difference they make... boy does it feel weird to justify Glen

[@jsullivan2112]

They're definitely not experiments, they're demonstrations. Let's not get confused here.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

I cant give anything away but I'm going to prove to you how extreme I can EQ a pickup.....stay tuned!

[@-IMMOBILIZER-]

Ok.... You say pickups make only a SMALL DIFFERENCE.... Well, that's cool, they're a SMALL PRICE.... I put in a Duncan DISTORTION for 100$ basically.... I am SORRY but if you aren't willing to spend 100 for a small improvement maybe you should rethink even playing and recording!!!!

[@GeorgeBonez]

This is an argument with no true conclusion because I think the people arguing are in such different listening environments. A guy sitting at his DAW with headphones strapped on or even listening thru studio monitors is simply going to hear differently than a guy sitting in an open room using a Marshall halfstack. There are too many variables to harness to do a true experiment that everyone can share.

[@-IMMOBILIZER-]

@@GeorgeBonez , I DID THE EXPERIMENT!!!! And BEHOLD my results.... Drop by my page... Actions speak louder than words, my end is COVERED 666%....

[@J2Metal]

Glenn’s point was not there being zero difference but rather if $200 is worth turning the gain knob or bumping the EQ a bit. He also acknowledged the output difference. Glenn is trying to save guitar players time and money. And TBH dude? I just didn’t hear 3 figures of difference in any of your tones man and I’ve been playing metal for 25 years. I know some dudes get a kick out of customizing and that’s cool. If subtle differences get your rocks off great. You can sit there and say “your ears aren’t as good as mine” but also to Glenn’s point are you going to say that to the vast majority of people who will listen to your track who don’t hear the “subtle” difference in mids? They won’t care man. It’s great the 5 guitar players who have superior ears will he’s those nuances and if that’s your goal? Awesome. But to an average listener? They ain’t gonna care man.

[@J2Metal]

@bloomtikbloom9593 interestingly enough I wonder if you would have had he not shown you what he was playing as he played it. Our eyes fool us into hearing what we think we will hear. A lot of Glenn’s tests were blind or purposefully misleading. If I tell you “this pickup will be brighter than that one” our minds will tell us it’s true a lot of the time. Either way I listened on my monitors and didn’t hear a night and day difference.

[@Minty.Fresh.Tunes.]

So $300 for better pickups = small gain in tone quality. More money for better recording equipment here and there = small gains in tone quality too. Add them all up through the chain and perhaps there is a big difference in tone quality.

[@MickH60]

Huge differences mate, time to clean your ears.. That's half the problem with a lot of Glen's opinionated fans, EVERYONE hears things differently.

[@hhhkyyy]

Also for someone who professionally records or at least is at the same talent level as an engineer can make almost anything sound "good". So that can be misleading as well. Ola does a good job of showing that. Most players are bedroom players. It's a hobby for most and there's a big difference between standing in front of a stack and hearing it on a professionally recorded video. Maybe because I grew up learning and playing by ear but as someone who has multiple guitars with the same pickups but different woods/weights I can tell you I definitely notice the difference. I guess maybe it's just something that comes with time. Granted I've been playing for going on 16 years off and on.

[@hhhkyyy]

Also some pickups have very distinct tones.. The Invader Neck p/u comes to mind as being one of those. This feels like one of those bandwagons people jump on like Tone Snobs, Tube vs Whatever.. People just like to dig their heels in and gatekeep for some reason.

[@zeropointpower]

I barely heard a difference that mattered in your A/B clips. He didn’t do it for cheap clips. He’s saying focus on songwriting and being prepared. He’s also talking about saving young players money. He never said there was NO difference. His point was the differences with different pickups, especially when recording hi-gain metal, are small. I agree with Glenn. To me, your video proved Glenn’s point. His core audience are home recording musicians like yourself and even if he level matched or did other tricks, THIS proves that the home musician can dial in a great tone without expensive pickups.

[@NurseGuapo]

EXACTLY! How or why are everyone missing this point, especially since he reiterates it every time someone says"hey...i do hear a difference" Glen right you wrong on this one;)

[@1sotheary]

I was thinking the same thing. If anything, this video proves Glenn's point even more. I mean, the guy if the video even admits that the reason he's able to hear the subtle differences is because he's been playing and recording professionally for 15 years. For most guitarists, if you were to do a blind test, nobody would be able to hear any noticeable differences between similar pickups, different tonewoods and amp tubes. Glenn's entire point is to stop worrying too much about what guitar wood to buy, which pickups to get,etc... Stop being a tone snob, and just practice your instrument.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

Glenn is a great sound engineer but a very amateur guitarist. His advice is great for beginners but its like saying to a young athlete to focus on training instead of wasting money on expensive running shoes, ok good advice but at a professional level you absolutely need quality footwear, it would laughable to turn up for a 100 metre sprint in a pair of converse all stars!

[@bison962]

Glen is not a guitarist. Twenty years into guitar the dude does not even know why pinch harmonics are easier on one guitar and he's struggling with the other) The man's myth busting videos are a joke. And he does not hear the tonal the difference even if there is one. If Glen really wants to save my money tell what the diffs are and how to use them. Unsubbed from that clown.

[@nychold]

@@murrayguitarpickups9545 This post brought to you by Seymour Duncan. Sound great by spending money! Seriously, Glenn's argument was and is don't spend money where you don't have to. If you've bought new speakers, and you've bought new amps, and you've bought new software, and you've tried all the settings, then...maybe pickups will give you the tonal change you need. But it's so slight that it won't matter. Also, back-to-back gold medalist marathon runner in the Olympics (Abebe Bikila) ran barefoot, so metaphor point debunked too?

[@PressContinue]

Maybe I'm deaf or something, but I'm listening with high quality headphones and I think the differences are quite subtle. Yes there is A difference, but Glenn never said there wasn't. It's just subtle enough that for a lot, if not most, musicians it wouldn't warrant spending a lot of money on pickups and would be better spend on things that do make substantial differences to your sound.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

If pickups all sound similar then why did my first attempts at making them sound bad?

[@watersnortmoment3734]

@murrayguitarpickups9545 Either because you’re listening to the in room sound, or you fucked up and made them microphonic.

[@bluwng]

Not a fan of Glenn but as an engineer I agree with him. Fundamentally what is wrong with the design of experiments you content creators make is that it is all based on your perception not in any measurable way.

[@jsullivan2112]

Neuroscientists like Dr. Dan Levitin have already demonstrated that human perception can most definitely be measured, particularly when it comes to audio and music. The problem is no one on KZbin is qualified to do it.

[@antonkovalenko364]

Agreed. There is no scientific method going on here, and he outright lies that Glenn Fricker said that there are no subtle differences. I went and watched his video. He says it as clear as day.

[@bluwng]

@@jsullivan2112 the point is it isn’t your perception that needs to be measured it is the audio output like using a frequency response analyzer. My point is all these test are based on a preconceived notion a person has and placebo. I don’t know Levitan but non STEM sciences I find rather flaky.

[@jsullivan2112]

@@bluwng Pickup A. needs to be measured to see if there’s more energy around high mid range frequencies than pickup B, yes. Perception of whether someone can hear that? Absolutely not. It’s no different than how a hearing test is performed; volume sensitivity at defined frequencies: Can a person hear 1khz at 50db? Or does it have to be turned up to 53db? None of us hear all frequencies at the same amplitude. So someone could hear differences in a pickup someone else doesn’t. It can definitely be measured. You can also do double-blind testing to draw a consensus between listeners across various demographics the same as audio engineers do when developing the latest lossy audio compression formats, to see if the average listener can tell, or care. We can see if people can identify pickups or styles, without a bias of their own or one being created for them (Glen’s vintage guitar trick). There’s definitely measurable science behind it. Like I said, the problem is no one is doing this shit but either pretending they are (like Glen Fricker) or saying it can’t be done.

[@paulw.3967]

There's nothing non-STEM about psychoacoustics. You can do very good experiments about what kinds of differences people do or don't actually notice, and what kinds of preferences they actually have when they listen to things without knowing whether the sounds come from an expensive guitar or a cheap one. Unfortunately doing double-blind experiments with large groups of people (to get statistical significance) is a real pain in the ass, so less of it gets done than simple measurements of things like the resonant frequencies of bodies and necks, which people might or might not notice, and might or might not have a preference about if they do notice. By the way, Dan Levitin isn't just a music perception guy. He also wrote the book A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking with Statistics and the Scientific Method. I suspect he knows what he's doing.

[@martintremblay4248]

Sorry, it's all sounded more or less the same, there is subtle differences, but not a game changer. The pick-ups won't make your performance stand out more that what a little EQ would have done.

[@toddsolano]

I think that's kinda the point with all this there is a difference none of them sound bad each of them will do just fine its whatever your ear likes best ultimately they will all work and none sound bad but they do sound different and it's whatever sounds best to you

[@AT-27182]

@Martin Tremblay - Completely agree with you.

[@paulw.3967]

They'd have all sounded more similar if there was any effort to match levels and overall EQ ahead of the distortion. Yes, you can hear differences, but it's not at all clear that you should change pickups to get the tone you prefer. And that's one of the reasons Glenn says you should record a clean tone so that it can be reamped---even if you use the same amp or amp sim, you can get different tones by changing the EQ going into it.

[@MickH60]

And therein lies the problem, most people just don't have good ears. I've been playing for over 40 years, I have tinnitus and I can still easily hear the differences, I'm also an ear player and can learn songs faster than most, even if you use tabs {i've NEVER used tabs, couldn't be bothered}.... I see shitloads of guitarists banging on in these video's about "can you put up tabs", or "what tuning are you using", if you can't work that out by ear in a couple of seconds then you have no right commenting on tone, your ears just aren't that good....

[@MickH60]

@Bloom Tik Bloom 100% correct...

[@christianfoster3806]

Pickups matter if you play clean. Glenn always clarifies that his channel is all about Metal and distorted guitar tones, where the distortion becomes the guitar's tone. But even clean, you gotta remember, except for EMGS, Lace, and Fluence, they are all just magnets and wire wrapped around a bobbin. There's no sonic magic attached to name brands. Whatever differences a pick up might make, are easily compensated with tone controls or EQ. Its not a question of whether pickups differ in sound, it's a matter of whether it's worth extra money when you could just turn a knob and save a hundred bucks.

[@watersnortmoment3734]

Go listen to his newest test. Sure there’s a difference but you couldn’t tell it in a mix, and it’s in the range of just being eq’d to change it. Pickups are simply a waste of money after a certain point. My Pacifica 112j has a terribly muddy pickup in the room, but when mic’d it’s ever so slightly different from my Kramer with a Duncan JB. Now, if I buy a set of 40 dollar Wilkinson pickups, I can get an almost identical sound to the Duncan JB. If you absolutely want to swap pickups, just don’t be dumb, don’t go for name brands.

[@conradovitorlopesfernandes5570]

When you say that we need expensive speakers to hear the subtle differences between humbuckers, you're saying exactly what Glenn said, but in other words. However, he went further and argued that they are not worth the extra money and that there are others faster and cheaper ways to improve your tone.

[@byMRTNjournals]

I spent £35 on a p90 humbucker and an x2n clone. They replaced ibanez v7 and V8s. It was probably the fastest and cheapest tone fix ever.

[@CLaw-tb5gg]

I think a lot of the point is that guitarists get obsessed with the wrong things. Pickups (let alone body wood and other nonsense like that) don't count for shit with high-gain sounds compared to your mic/cab/amp, yet guitarists fixate on them far more. Even the output of your pickups can effectively be changed by just tweaking your gain knob slightly, or if you want a slightly different EQ curve.. use an EQ pedal, it's a hell of a lot less money and effort than changing your pickups. Honestly, the only reason I'd change out my pickups these days is if they were excessively noisy or I was changing them to an entirely different type.

[@watersnortmoment3734]

It’s people that want to feel accomplished by purchasing rather than practicing. To put it simply, guitarists are genuinely just stupid, they want the short term gratification that comes from new stuff, rather than the long term gratification that comes with practice.

[@chadsux]

Buddy, I think you think you got him on something here, but you really didn't. Glenn never made the statement that "pickups don't matter at all." What he did say was that pickups matter so much less in the signal chain than we guitarist like to think. SPEAKERS, MIC, AND MIC POSITION matter exponentially more than the pickups or the guitars tonewood (whatever that is). Mostly what you hear in difference is output. Yes, a guitar with higher output pickups will hit the front of the amp harder than one with less output resulting in more "gain."But, there's a knob on most amps/pedals that can compensate for that. At the end of the day, his claim is, if you're going to go tone chasing, you're better off starting with the speaker and working your way back rather than changing a million pickups while keeping a cheap line 6 speaker in your cab and expecting the results to change significantly.

[@fatemusic9062]

Ignorance is bliss I guess lol. No one wants to be told that their $350 pickup set barely makes a difference, even if it's physically been proven.

[@aminorerror]

I didn't say he said they don't matter, he said they make close to no difference as I said in my steel manning section. Your comment misrepresents what I say in the video. Nice try.

[@iDealMedley]

​@@aminorerror yeap he's still is right. The difference is not significant enough to make a huge tonal difference once you put it in a mix.

[@Sargoneees]

​@@aminorerror accept your losses dude.

[@greevar]

"Sizeable difference"? No it isn't. What's more, is that people who understand how electronics work know there is very little difference between one pickup and another. First off, a pickup is just the most basic of inducers. It's a thin copper wire coiled around metal poles with a magnet spanned across them. It's not very complex. You can make these in your basement. The more windings you add, the more output you get. The feature of humbuckers are the two coils running in opposite phase that cancels out noise while adding output. Also, the location of the pickup affects the tone more more than the pickup itself because it changes how close they are to the vibration nodes of the strings. The thing about our ears is that louder audio sounds different despite being the same source because of the way our ears are more sensitive to frequencies that occupy the vocal range (Imagine that!). Getting louder makes those frequencies at the extremes of our audible range more detectable. Thus, it "sounds" different. We also change our perception of sound based on what we see. There is so much psychological influence on what we think we hear. For example, when you are told that playing a vinyl record backwards reveals a secret message. You're told what the message is and, because you were told it's there, you "hear" it because your brain is trying to find patterns in randomness that match what you were expecting. What differences there might be are so inconsequential since the audience has a minuscule chance of noticing the difference after you've filtered it through your OD, EQ pedal, preamp, amp EQ, FX, speakers, and microphone. The takeaway is, that pickups have the least influence on the sound of the guitar. People who disagree are just trying to cope with the cognitive dissonance of spending money they didn't need to. If you include an EQ (Such as the BOSS GE-7 EQ) prior to everything else in you signal chain, you can easily fake the sound of any pickup. Pickups just aren't the best investment when trying to achieve a particular tone. Also, your opinion is not valid data. It is not testable. It is your subjective perception and nobody can refute your subjective perceptions because subjective means only you can know your own perceptions. That's a poor foundation for an argument. Finally, the Strandberg and the Ibanez sound exactly the same. The whole point of the pickup myth is designed to make you believe that you need as many different pickups as you can get because they sell more product that way. The same goes for tone wood. It's all just an effort to invent reasons for people to buy shit they don't need.

[@gonzoengineering4894]

Thing is, with the exception of Filtertrons and Fishman Fluences, nearly every humbucker on the market is a subtle variation on the same basic PAF design we've been using for going on 70 years. Of course they sound similar, they're litterally the same design! You can swap out magnets and you can change the number of winds, but these are two of the subtlest changes you can make in pickup design -and the 'humbucking' phase cancelation also cancels out a lot of this nuance. As long as it doesn't sound like mud, you might want to look at the rest of your rig before swapping them out. Now us single coil players get a lot more variety to play around with. Compare a Tele bridge to a strat to a P-90 to a Charlie Christian to a gold foil to a lipstick tube, I bet you'll hear the difference at any gain level. And even within those categories you get a lot more nuance from changes in winding and magnets without that pesky phase cancelation.

[@leothemetal]

Fist clip-these guitars don't sound sooooo different to give a fuck. Full mix---THESE ARE DIFFERENT MUSIC PIECES:. The third one - I CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE IN LEAD TONES. I have my personal issues with Glens statements, but your examples show, that Glen is right

[@sharkuel]

This felt like a flat-earth believer trying to convince me how the earth is flat by showing me evidence that supports it is indeed round.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

I wind pickups and its not up for debate, they can be too dark or too bright. Don't believe me? Make your own and you'll hear it!

[@jeremyjohnstone3024]

I think you might have actually proved Glenn's point in this video, and even if you have to adjust your Amp to get the tone to match even closer it still stands that you absolutely didn't need different pickups to get that tone

[@kjeksklaus7944]

I struggle to see what this video is for? It proved everything Glenn says, then he attacks him. Bad video imo it just popped up but I won’t be watching more.

[@travisspaulding2222]

But the fact that you have to adjust the amp to get the same tone attests that pickups make a difference.

[@chuckelator]

@@travisspaulding2222 and you just proved the point yet again. If all you have to do is tweak the EQ on your amp a little, why put money into a new set of pickups?

[@HububkiFilms]

​@@travisspaulding2222 Anyone who actually watched Glenn's video heard him CLEARLY say that there is a difference between output levels, and a tiny change in tone...his point was it can easily be adjusted with minimal effort in post, and is negligible in a full mix, particularly in high gain metal rhythm.

[@travisspaulding2222]

@@chuckelator Because when I play live, I don't want to have to tweak knobs just to get the "same" tone. In the studio, tweak away, but in a live setting it isn't practical. I use certain guitar for certain songs in my set list based on tuning and how the piclups come across. For example, I love DiMarzio Evos, but I recently switched my Evo bridge with a Super Distortion because I wanted the extra output, and the Evo was significantly thinner sounding than the V8s I have in my other Ibanez guitars. I was finding myself having to tweak knobs on stage and when you're playing a 45 minute set, Grabbing a guitar, making sure it's in tune, and then having to make sure it sounds correct is a big waste of time, not to mention, I have to make finer adjustments in the beginning of a song because once everyone is playing (ie in the mix) it usually needs an additional adjustment. The solution? A $90 pickup, and it sits pretty well along with my other guitars. Not exact, but not a noticeable difference, so I grab the guitar, check the tuning, and I'm ready to go, and my singer can stop working on his tight 2 on stage waiting for me to be ready to go.

[@cycomiles4225]

He isnt lying though. He is just saying that the difference isnt as big as people think withing the same types of pickups. Same goes for tonewood, which guitar companies seriously try to push down the buyer, which is simply not the case. A guitars body is way to small and not thick enough to have that big of a difference (it is a part of the tone, just not that much, less than 1% overall). I have found 2 studies, one uses real guitars and one uses big blocks of wood, guess which one actually made the bigger difference...yeah, the latter one, the first example is and I quote "the difference is so small that it can be cosidered negligable". Thats Glenns point, is it really worth investing thousands in tonewoods when its almost negligable. Of course, Glenns next point is - "if its so noticeable and everyone knows it, then can you recognize them in a mix?" Its been years for some things, nobody has done it succesfully. His whole point is to stop worrying and play the damn guitar, pickups wont make you better and it wont necesaraly yield the results you were hoping for after investing HUNDREDS of dollars. People get way too stuck up in his internet persona and cant understand what the guy is actually saying.

[@BeatsAndMeats]

I think you may have glossed over the point he made in like 6 different videos and said probably 2 dozen times about this subject: It’s not worth it to pay big bucks for tonewood guitars made by luthiers who were jerked off by the Dhali Lama or $400 pickups blessed by Satan himself, in a metal context, because a $200 Ibanez can sound like a $1800 ESP in a full metal mix context, if you match the input levels to the amp. You have to do the same input level matching when comparing software plugins to hardware, or different hardware clones to each other… And the guitar comparison really needs you to play the same riff in a full mix to really find if the extra $1600 was worth the difference you think you heard.

[@BeatsAndMeats]

I forgot to mention… props to you for actually trying to do your own comparison instead of just sitting on your ass and bitching! I actually quite enjoyed this video!… But it’s spelled Spectre, not Specter… goddamn Canadians!

[@GamerSirus]

After watching this I still agree with Glenn. Is it a noticeable difference? Sure. Is it a significant difference? Not really? Is it worth spending $300 on a new set of pickups because it's going to make you sound "better." I would wager no. Which is the entire point Glenn was trying to make. I'll always say, the best pickups are the ones that are in your guitar. The pickups that came with my $77 DiY kit guitar sound phenomenal, all I'm sayin.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

I'd just recommend you try a high quality pickup I think you'd be shocked at the improvement.

[@looigaming3380]

@@murrayguitarpickups9545 the point is what the difference is after a mix. it is important to remember the people who listen to your music won’t always be other musicians who appreciate these tonal differences. it’s not going to sound like how it does physically being in the room with the amp. it is also important to note that when songs go through production, a lot of the low end is going to be cut out. however it’s obvious a p90 is going to be different from a jm pickup, and a jm pickup is going to be different from a single coil. and of course a stacked humbucker will be different from a traditional humbucker. most humbuckers have the same construction and different materials which make slight differences. this would probably only make sense in live settings where your amp isn’t mic’d, like in house shows. but if your amp is mic’d your kind of back in the same dilemma where your tone really only comes from what mic is being used, mic placement and your speakers and amp tone.

[@watersnortmoment3734]

@murrayguitarpickups9545 “If you just allow the placebo effect to take over, you can tell the difference.” Ok bud lmao

[@reverbautopsy9093]

I'm with Glenn. Regarding any high gain music, full sized humbuckers will make very little noticeable difference between the different high quality ones out there. If we're talking other humbucker designs like filtertron, firebird pickups, strat-sized humbuckers etc then that's a different story and they'll sound radically different due their smaller magnetic field or output level. I'll even add PAF low output humbuckers to that list. The IRs or how you mic your amp will make a much much bigger difference in the mix when it comes to heavy music. Stop falling for the marketing of manufacturers.

[@Jasonmakesvideo]

I'm of the belief that most metal guitars (or at least what Glenn is talking about) are using active pickups which, yeah, the difference in sound is negligible. This is one of those pointless "quantify art" so we can train an AI to replace us all.......were barking up the wrong tree

[@BlazonStone]

@@Jasonmakesvideo Most metal guitars have passive pickups

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

I think this says more about metal than pickups.....metal guys don't care for good tone, there i said it😂

[@paulw.3967]

One of the things that sounds different with mini humbuckers or (even narrower) strat-single-coil-sized humbuckers is that it puts a comb or notch filter in a different place. The spacing between humbucker coils listens to the string at two different points and that creates a comb filter that starts at fairly high frequencies. For low frequencies, it doesn't matter much because if the string is going up and down over one coil, it'll be going up and down almost as much over the other, and theyll add constructively. But vibrations that are going up over one coil when they're going down over the other tend to cancel out, so high harmonics can interfere with themselves and cancel out, killing frequencies whose characteristic string length (the amount of string between two statioinary nodes) is the same as the coil spacing, or a multiple of it. That comb filter is different for each string, depending on the frequency represented by that size piece of the string. The closer the coils are to each other, the shorter the pieces of each string that matters. For most strings, only one or two teeth of the comb filter matter, because it starts at high frequencies, so it mostly acts like notch filter. That notch filter will be at a higher frequency for narrower humbuckers like minis or especially strat single-coil-width side-by-side humbuckers. (It doesn't apply to stacked "noiseless" humbuckers, where both coils are under the same point on the string. A lot of people talk about the difference between single-coils and normal humbuckers, but I've never seen any good comparisons with the sounds of narrower humbuckers. I've also never seen anyone mention that all normal-sized humbuckers have a notch in the frequency response, at a different frequency for each string, but both expensive and cheap humbuckers have the same notches in the same places, because they have the same coil spacing. That's one of the reasons cheap and expensive humbuckers tend to sound pretty similar. Their overall frequency response curves may be a bit different (and likely EQable to reduce differences) but those characteristic notches in the frequency response are the same.

[@dumpsterfireaf]

If you have to use reference monitors to hear the difference the vast majority of your audience will never notice the difference. Most people listen to music with standard headphones. Differences in tone from pick up to pick up. Sure, in a full mix in the car or on your earpods you aren't gonna notice.

[@Kwert]

The only somewhat significant difference I’m hearing is output level. In a practical sense, when will you ever be recording without gain-matching/eqing etc? Everything sounds similar enough that it would be easy to tone-match with some minor eq tweaks, and it’s a lot cheaper to do that than chase tone by spending hundreds of dollars you don’t need to on replacing pickups.

[@Mr.Goldbar]

I sometimes do EQ but never gain match. I'm a set it and forget it guy when it comes to amps and I'd rather pay more to be able to do that :)

[@Kwert]

@@Mr.Goldbar In this case it’s more about monitoring your input gain level on your preamps (since we’re talking digital amps) to equalize the strength of signal hitting the front of the amp. You do see how by doing some minor settings/eq tweaks you can basically negate any perceived difference in sound a pickup has, right?

[@Mr.Goldbar]

@@Kwert I see, but I'd like to avoid having to do that as much as possible. I go kinda backwards. If twisting knobs makes a difference and I don't like twisting knobs, I'd wanna get something that will make me sound like I'm twisting knobs

[@wareloski2137]

@@Mr.Goldbar you swap pickup to match gain? Ok bud 😂

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

​@@Kwert EQ in post can't add frequencies that aren't there to begin with

[@ShreddingFinn]

I'll admit pickups make a difference, but those companies out there charging $400 a set are out of their minds and their customers only feed the cycle

[@aminorerror]

Thanks for watching, that I totally agree on! Any one who's overcharging for their product needs to be called out. I've got a video coming out next week showing a super slimy $700 price increase from Strandberg coming out next week. Rock on!

[@commonsensehill372]

Mayhem pickups are pricy too, but they are worth it. I have china made and American made pickups. American made pickups sound so much better than their doppelgangers from over yonder. Also, there is a commitment to quality and care, not to mention but I will, the pride and reputation that goes into it. Seymour Duncan is a great American pickup company. In the 80's all the way till today, they are still the go to company by the pros in the music industry. It really is preference. I took a chance and got me some Mayhems for one of my guitars and what a difference over the stock Jackson pickups. It became a whole new guitar.

[@dmytrotarasov9477]

​@commonsensehill372 make sure that you're not confusing the fresh strings with better sounding pickups. Adjusting the pickup height is also important.

[@axelnoi]

The pickup market really charges on supply n’ demand. And demand is pretty big my man.

[@jsullivan2112]

$400 for a set? Who's charging that much?

[@ProfessorPuffyPants]

I had to A/B the two guitars several times before I picked up any differences..if I was playing one guitar, unplugged and plugged in the other I really doubt I wouldve noticed a difference..and I definitely wouldve adjusted the input gain on the interface for the other guitar. Glenn was specifically talking about high gain metal rhythm tones, and his thing has always been to dissuade people from getting caught up in gear and to focus on playing. I think he's just trying to really say to people its not gonna make a real difference in your metal mixes if you shell out the $300+ for a new set of pups in your guitar.

[@non-continuum]

Great video and great playing! Listening back to what Glenn actually stressed in his video many times is that there IS a slightly noticeable difference, but then he asks whether those differences are really worth investing hundreds of dollars for new pickups when you can actually „correct“ the differences with basic EQ moves. Also, let‘s be honest, most tonal differences completely disappear when swapping out the IR anyhow. But again, very well done video and fantastic playing! 🤘

[@daveshouse8105]

well said. i was gonna say this too but seems many stated this already. Semi annoyed CLICK BAIT is why i clicked this video, glenn already says this......id rather save my money.

[@Billy_bSLAYER]

Fuck EQ moves, you get "your over sound" by using your tools, less tools = less time, less money. My peers don't sound like me and I don't sound like them., Not only is it the fingers, my vibrato...but it is the WHOLE package. GLENNN is pandering to the poor as bedroom player/producer who up until recently could barely play guitar and has never produced real talent who has made a real following. When using clean tones there is a huge difference is tones and that gap closes has you add more OD or Distortion. If you compare pickups on clean amp channels you can obviously hear the difference.

[@BlommaBaumbart]

I took that away from Fricke's video, but I met more than one person who named the video as a proof for how pickups all sound the same. And that's no accident, Glenn presents his conclusion that there is some difference as if there was no difference. Obviously, Spectre is not a gear channel for the shopping musician, it's a production channel for audio engineers working with high gain metal. So his perspective that any difference which you can erase on the rack is irrelevant is on point with what his channel is about. Not buying a second guitar and instead learning EQ is the appropriate way for a studio to save money.

[@daveshouse8105]

@@BlommaBaumbart i agree, honestly i have a ton of respect for Glenn, this dude......not so much. seemed like he was at times just pooping on him. kinda low key hoping glenn does a response video lol i wonder what glenn will say, people are probably like GLEEEEEEEEEEEEEENN!!!

[@bison962]

It never stops to amaze me how clowns like Glen aim their videos at deaf noobs who most frequently do not have a guitar) HB hype does no longer pay off, does it) It never crossed Glen's mind that people might have more than one guitar and more than one pickup. Having different tonal and playing capabilities is probably why that happens, at least normally. No? Why does not Glen shoot a few of his compressors to tell the difference? Would he be able to tell which one was used in the mix? The truth is, nobody gives a flying f about this, no quick buck to be made this way

[@Andyw1228]

If I recall correctly, he indeed stated that he matched the levels. He had to, because otherwise the input signal would clip when using an active pickup and he recorded a passive pickup before! Also it’s a psychological fact, that the louder tone sounds better/different. He also didn’t play around witch active tone control ( which you can’t do on a passive). I don’t know whether you watched his video or you only read the title. I think he’s way more honest than you. When you go into physics and look how a pickup is made, it should be clear that there is very little room for difference. They are copper coils fetching a disturbance in a magnetic field and putting this out 1:1, like a microphone does with airpressure. But a microphone has a coil plus a membrane and there can be differences. In a pickup you can alter the copper convolutions, but this would only make them hotter or colder. There is nothing more about pickups.

[@leviathan_is_me]

Glenn gets misquoted a LOT. I would be yelling and angry too, lol. He mentions a LOT that he knows his playing isn't GREAT and that he spends lots of time practicing. Watching t.v.....practicing. Probably sitting on the "throne"...practicing. He is "practicing what he preaches". The pickup thing...man so many words put in his mouth, it is a good thing it IS that big. He never says there is no difference. In fact he mentions there IS subtle differences and if your ears are THAT good then good for you spend that $. Most people aren't recording professional music, most aren't going to do professional level editing. He is simply trying to save money for the majority of people. Is it worth $100s to get that subtle difference to a bedroom player? Is spending $100s going to make you sound better? No, no its not. THATS all he is saying. Thank you for being cool a d approaching this with respect. Good on ya.

[@THE-RED-LETTER-PROJECT]

We all should spend more time writing songs/riffs. An awesome riff sounds good no matter what pickup it's being played on.

[@jsullivan2112]

Definitely not true. Some pickups are muddy as shit and it’s obvious, like most Ibanez branded stock pickups. Fusion Edge come to mind, as well as Power Sound. They’ll make an awesome riff sound terrible.

[@DravenZord]

I definitely agree that we need to, as artist, write the best we can. especially with what we got. But I will also say that there is so much that can go into sound. there has been times where I could play a riff on one of my guitars, not feel it, and pick up another one of my guitars and it just sounds and feel better. Pickups definitely matter, especially when you're chasing a specific sound. a lipstick pick up will sound 100% different than a fishman fluence. regardless of gain. all that said, I wish you happy jamming Matt! keep rocking brother.

[@THE-RED-LETTER-PROJECT]

@@DravenZordI just record with what I have. A $200 Pawn shop Jackson an $80 Jr kit. And a Tascam. New strings/heads and tuned up- mic'ed-up. It works. I've updated my gear since my last post. Regardless, plug it to the Marshall and just play.

[@DravenZord]

@@THE-RED-LETTER-PROJECT that’s awesome though man! I definitely wasn’t trying to debate. As long as you’re enjoying what you’re playing, I think that’s all that matters.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

You should have heard some of my first pickups.....debate over! They were too muddy or too ice picky

[@ToxicSentinelTTV]

In my experience, the only difference in pickups is output.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

When I started making pickups it took me a while to get the EQ right....so there's definitely a difference

[@krustdogg131]

Couldnt tell which pickups were which in the blind test. I do believe they matter somewhat

[@myqueensloyalsubject]

You have mostly just backed up what Glenn said, and called him a liar. He said there were differences, but output lever was the biggest difference. Then the said If you want a bigger difference change the speaker or mic placement. His emphasis was to invest your money into the things that will make the biggest difference.

[@outdoorsanimalsandmusic3014]

As a person who owns several USA Jackson RR1’s with several types of pickups. They all sound pretty similar. The most notable is the EMG’s when it comes to gain.

[@brivington2011]

Watching this video reminded me of that KZbinr who posted the "10 Overrated Guitarists" video and how he tried to explain how Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, etc. were overrated players. I think his channel has also stalled around 5k subs. Lol.

[@aminorerror]

Ah shit Bruce! I'm doomed. I'll quit now.

[@Abruzzo333]

I despise those channels. It's just making bold, controversial statements in an attempt to drum up clicks. It's just pure clickbait. I refuse to click on any of those videos after I watched a couple.

[@enigma1247]

7:27 "as if he manipulated" your assuming he manipulated the gain. Dont make an accusation with out any proof. Thats DISHONEST of you to knowingly call him dishonest with out any proof he did what you are claiming...yea i dont need to watch anymore of this weirdos video.

[@dallas9568]

This is the first video I’ve ever disliked, such a narcissist and quite frankly the comparison you did was lack luster at best. The question should not be “does guitar A and B sound different at all?” albeit “can I make guitar A and B sound similar?”

[@sparella]

There is a large methodological difference here. Normalized vs non-normalized dry tracks will push the amp differently. The question as to whether this is an amp related variable which can and should be controlled for vs this being a guitar or pickup related variable which should remain variable depends on perspective. When mixing I almost never receive dry guitar tracks, but I do usually have dry bass guitar. My practice is to normalize the dry bass track pre-sim so that my results will be more consistent. So, I would also rather see a normalized pickup comparison. Choice of peak, RMS, or LUFS doesn't matter as long as it's consistent. From a players perspective, the idea of normalizing in post could seem unnatural because a player typically sets the amp gain to suit the input level. It's certainly a valid perspective. The popularity of modern amp sims and the ease of gain adjustment in post might shift the way players think about gain staging and amps in coming years.

[@user-tu7ww1tm7j]

Minor differences are not justifying 1000 usd price differences. Glenns idea that you can get killer tone with affordable guitar and some knowledge still stands.

[@aminorerror]

I never said that wasn't the case. The main purpose of my channel is guitar reviews and finding affordable guitars that are actually well made and sound good...thus why I'm hammering how good the Schecter was.

[@loydthabartender5794]

Pickups don't cost 1000 dollars jack

[@Minty.Fresh.Tunes.]

Getting the slightly better sounding versions of all the equipment in your chain adds up those small benefits to create a bigger difference.

[@user-tu7ww1tm7j]

@@Minty.Fresh.Tunes. As long as it work properly and stays in tune you can pretty much plug in a paddle into neural dsp Gojira (or other gretat amp sim) and get HQ results. I want to point out that I'm talking olnly about hi gain guitar sound for riffing, texturing and solo. After EQ-ing you'll get tone that inside the mix want make much of a difference if you used more expensive guitar and/or pick ups

[@antonkovalenko364]

​@@aminorerror Still, there was no need to misconstrue what he said. I went and watched Glenn's video, and he says several times that there are subtle differences. It seems to me that his overall point was that there are no major differences between pickups used in a high gain setting that are worth breaking the bank over when EQ and speaker selection (or IR, in the case of most home studios) make a much bigger difference in the tone you end up with.

[@Lantertronics]

There's the issue of pickup height, as well as where the pickups are placed and how they are angled.

[@ThatGuysGuitars]

I think part of what people miss in these shootouts, and debates; is that different guitars, with different pickups, sound different through multiple amps/rigs. I’ll use an example. I’m a reseller, and recently acquired three Jackson Rhoads guitars. A RRX24 with stock Jackson pickups, an RRX24 with Duncan Blackouts, and a Rhoads PRO with Duncan Distortions. Playing through my 5150-3, on the red channel, there was very minute differences between the two RRX24s, however the Rhoads Pro with the Duncan Distortions was noticeably different. Way less output, completely different voicing, and very surprising overall. Clean channel? All three were noticeably different. Plugging into my little Spark 40 practice amp, with a digital preset? They all sounded the same. As does my Les Pauls, American Ultra Strat, and other instruments. I’m not a tube or amp snob. I think lots of applications can sound great. But….. much like the speakers and amp colors your sound; so does the guitar and it’s pickups thru different amps. I bet, a ton of people who have multiple amps and guitars, likely have particular pairings, when they’re going for certain sounds. It may sometimes be subtle, but the differences are there.

[@Tinyrick90]

I mean … i see 2 things here is there a HUGE difference no … is there a difference yes ! And for a bedroom young guitar player that doesn’t have a lot of money … i think Glenn is trying to say you dont need 300$ pickups to sound 100 times better . And like ryan bruce once said in the modern days … a pickup is just a eq curve in form of a magnet. So saying you get a decent pickup not a cheap harley benton 100$ guitar pickup. And then throw a eq in front of the amp you might be able to achieve the same or pretty close. The point at the end of the day is what sound great and feels right for the player!

[@soilent9618]

I really think the biggest difference you're hearing is the output of the pickups. Don't quote me on this, but I do believe Glenn gain matches his recordings. When you did the passive vs active test, the biggest difference to me was that the passive pickups just sounded lower output with less gain. Outside of that, the tone was quite similar. I think you also need to take into account the pickup height as well, which I'm sure is different between the guitars you played. The distance in relation to the strings can make a bit of a difference as well. I'd be curious to see if you gain matched and matched the height of the pickups in the Ibanez to the other guitars you'd get a more satisfying tone. Ultimately though, I think it all comes down to output. The differences besides that are pretty negligible IMO.

[@Bubblegoose]

I agree strongly about pickup height. On one of my guitars that has P90 pickups, with the neck pickup for example, if I have them set low down the output is naturally lower, but the tone of them is much more mellow (think tele neck pickup sounding). But If I raise them up a bit they sound much sharper.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

I recommend for anyone curious try making your own with a stewmac kit. Thats how I started, the EQ shifts are huge and obvious when you're making your own. Some of my early ones were unusable because they were too bassy or too ice picky. Its true you don't need to spent loads on pickups but to assume there's nothing to be gained by upgrading is stupid

[@watersnortmoment3734]

@murrayguitarpickups9545 You’re really bad at shilling for pickup companies

[@lancersbowchuckle960]

You think there is noticeable tone difference in the “minds” between two very different guitars. I don’t agree. Look closely at the EQ curve, at which frequencies are vastly differing. Also try this… take you A/B guitar tracks pan one hard right, the other hard left, and through a good set of monitor speakers invert the polarity of one side. Show me that simple test, and we can talk!

[@romanwestenholtz4396]

This is clickbait also!! I have changed out pups in my strat and when I played it at my normal unchanged settings the difference certainly was not worth the price! It is exactly what Glenn was talking about- the people that argue about Tonewood and Pups and this and that I always find out they are in the business of selling you their guitars!

[@aminorerror]

Yes, yes it is. And that's my point ;-)

[@NurseGuapo]

@@aminorerror WHAT!🤣🙄

[@Sargoneees]

​@@aminorerror that was clearly not your point.

[@janvirtanen6199]

@@aminorerror stupid

[@CoolGuyAtlas]

There is a huge difference between the part of the guitar that creates the signal and tonewood lmao Also I've played guitars I thought were ugly but loved how the pickups sounded. A good set of pickups that suit your sound and play style make a big difference

[@shreder75]

In the interest of being fair, though, you're WAY overselling the differences you're getting with these pickups, especially that (way too short) A/B comparison with the 7 strings. In fact, I'd go so far as to say your comparisons are A) all too short B) not using the same material for comparison... you're comparing different kicks and songs on different places on the neck that are known to have different tonality for the same notes.

[@aminorerror]

Glenn doesn't play for a long time on any of the guitars in his video, and you don't seem to have a problem with that. I do use the same material in my 2 Active v Passive clips.

[@shreder75]

@A MINOR ERROR make no mistake. I have a LOT of problems with Glenn, not the least of which are the fact that he's an awful guitar player and that he's never recorded anything other than scrub bands. Now, if i missed the fact that you go more in depth in videos other than this one, that's my bad for sure!

[@pauliusmscichauskas558]

If the only thing that makes guitars sound significantly different is the output volume, then what's the point of buying expensive pickups? Just turn a knob on your modeler or audio interface, or bring them higher or lower.

[@Imfreehowaboutu]

He actually did not say pickups don’t effect tone. You are completely misrepresenting his position. He said that pickups don’t have a “massive” effect on tone and that many of them (in their respective types such as active or hum buckers) sound so similar that a small eq change can compensate for the differences in a mix. And he literally said there’s a very noticeable difference between active, single coil and hum buckers. He also spoke about the difference in output levels and the reason he adjusted the gain was to compensate so you can better hear the actual difference in tone without the gain and volume increase. In other words he intentionally removed variables that make it harder to hear the actual eq curves. Anyways his point was that if you don’t have a lot of cash to spend on gear it would be better spent other places. When you accuse Glen of saying there are no subtle differences you are lying. I know that if you actually paid attention to his video you would know this. So either you didn’t or you are being intentionally dishonest.

[@aminorerror]

My video proves with evidence that pickups make a large difference in tone and articulation. He claims it makes close to not difference. He's wrong and he's lying.

[@Imfreehowaboutu]

@@aminorerror interesting because you literally say that the difference is “subtle” in your video. Should I give you a time stamp? 17:29 who’s lying? 18:08 and again who’s lying? 18:29 and again😂😂😂😂”…almost imperceivable”-you

[@NurseGuapo]

@@Imfreehowaboutu Nice! ... and now he's telling his mommy on you

[@morgothbauglir906]

While I appreciate a good faith, mostly well made rebuttal. I will say that in your tests i really only found the first test of yours useful, as in the other clips you played a different piece for each guitar. It's kind of hard to tell which differences in tone fall under articulation and range of frequency and which ones are more inherent to the gear when entirely different things are being played for each instrument. Simple as Glens playing is, at least he played the same simple thing and at least attempted to keep the same force, angle of attack, and articulation. This is doubly important if you're going to imply a narrative behind what you're criticizing. Like that Glen has lost his way as creator, is out of his depth, and should get back to making more recording specific content. Not only that, but even in that first test, while there are slightly different colors, there are slightly different tone colors in Glen's vid as well. He even admits as much. He only claims that if you're instrument stays in tune and feels good to play, then things like the amp/amp sim and speaker/IR are more important things to check if you're trying to match a certain tone or are trying to create a solid base for your own sound.

[@ChernobylAudio666]

I like that Doom font. I'm a huge Quake player so of course I had to mention that. I'm a personal friend of Glenn's--we've met and hung out in real life. I have no issue with how you presented yourself here and Glenn wouldn't either. (Subscribed!) Also, you're a fucking ridiculous guitar player. Well played in these examples. What Glenn is trying to do is get musicians to stop going down the rabbit hole of new pickups, new tubes (unless micophonic) and focus more on what will change their tones significantly more: speakers and microphone type/microphone position on a speaker. At the end of the day, a pack of IRs for for a Greenback speaker will yield night and day differences when compared to a V30. These drastic sound differences matter much more (and are more fun to experiment with) than the slight increases/decreases in pickup amplitube or compression. I enjoyed your video and your presentation, no bad blood here 👍🏻 I think these conversations in general are exceptionally important to have and I think you are both right. But most importantly, we always have to remember... we are a bunch of absolute nerds arguing over the last 3% of something.... those that don't know the difference don't care... they just want a good song to enjoy. 🤘🏻

[@aminorerror]

Hey that's really cool you know him personally! Old school DOOM And Quake are freaking awesome, I went down the rabbit hole with DOOM during COVID times lol Appreciate your thoughts and thanks for the kind words!

[@benburnett8109]

@chernobyl studios. GLENN IS A FRAUD. GLENN STARTED THIS VERY CLEVER MARKETING SCAM ABOUT 2 MONTHS AGO. GLENN SELLS IMPULSE RESPONSES? Agreed? So is it not strange that all of a sudden, tonewood and pickups do not matter????? Only the speaker has an effect on tone?? And woah, hold your horses, Speaker Impulses are the ONE F-ING thing that Glenn sells. Glenn is a fraud. Glenn is a schill. And Glenn refuses to debate me on that. And his attacks On Christianity are atrocious. And his "act like a mad 13 year old who just learned the F-word" rants are ridiculous.

[@MaximusAdonicus]

1. I don't think Glenn was "manipulating" the audio to match the gain levels and I'm not sure what exactly was ur point... 'Cos it's normal to adjust ur gain level before hitting the interface (or amp) to reach a desired level. There's basically two ways of doing it, either a) u record all pickups with zero (additional) gain and then balance everything afterwards in DAW to the same level for proper comparison OR b) u match the gain of each pickup individually before recording to the same level for proper comparison. Either way, shouldn't the active pickups still be "winning" since they reach the levels with less added gain, whereas the passives need to be boosted more? 2. I did hear a difference in the first Strandberg vs Ibanez shootout! The main tone was basically the same, but the Strandberg was bity'er and the Ibanez was darker. Killer tones though! 🤘 3. With the Schecter/Strandberg/Ibanez/EVH combo I could hear no difference! It didn't help that each had different piece of music played... Also this is the first time I've heard that Ibanez called shitty! 😱 Granted, this is apparently an older version of the guitar, but they still sell that with a slightly different name, but similar specs and I've only heard praise for it and its pickups! 4. Reaper 6 a cheap guitar?! 12:45 According to the webs it costs about a 1000 bucks!! 😱💸 That's more than ALL my guitars combined! 💀 5. These are good 13:14 and 14:49 = No noticeable difference! 6. Like others have already commented, Glenn DID say there are subtle differences! It's just that they don't matter much in the big picture. 7. Also some already commented, but the guitar parts in ur vid are SUPER LOUD compared to the speaking parts. 8. Great playing though 🔥 And I dig the Doom font 👊

[@jpsuominen]

I think you might be confusing difference and "difference". Is there an audible and/or otherwise measurable difference in the output signal between different pickups? For sure. I don't think that anyone has ever claimed anything else, Glenn included. Does that difference make a difference in a live setting? For sure not. You could swap out the guitarist's strat for a Les Paul, his Fender tweed for a JCM and his Tubescreamer for a RAT and no-one in the audience would notice or give a damn. Does it make a difference on a record? Weeeeeell, maybe. Is that difference something that a little bit of gain matching an EQ can overcome? Definitely.

[@Eliphas_Elric]

You literally described the rigs from SRV and the guy from Obituary. I think the audience would noticed the difference between them.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

EQ cant add frequencies that aren't being produced in the first place

[@gavincampbell4898]

"Well I would say that's a sizeable difference between the two"-perhaps get your hearing checked?

[@aminorerror]

Perhaps get your hearing checked ;-)

[@gavincampbell4898]

@@aminorerror or maybe keep making videos about your failed perceptions

[@kjeksklaus7944]

So you popped up but your first problem is actually you not watching his videos I think. Your first example is passive vs active pick ups, which have different outputs (active more than passive) which he’s talked about, that’s output not tone. Then another example you use two guitars with different angles of pickups (changing the magnet placement under the strings) If you are mad at what Glenn didn’t say, wait until you watch Jim Lil. I’ve worked in the guitar industry for a decade, he’s right overall. I think you’ve missed what he is saying though. Single coil, humbucker, P90, active, passive those are really the inky differences. Anything else can be EQd. His point about not spending £300 upgrading your guitar pickups but buying better other things if you have high output humbuckers, is right. Glenn is not a guitarist also that was a cheap shot and I think you know it to start with I’m not in to back and forth but then click bait title which you ask ak owl edge and then a direct attack on him towards the end? Cheap man, cheap.

[@pjdowner]

Could you put up a link to that compression video of Glenn's you mention at the start?

[@aminorerror]

God I looked but I couldn't find it. I think it was in one of his tutorials on how to get a good rhythm guitar tone that sits in the mix. I explain it in my own series of videos on how I produce my tone on up if you're interested. Sorry I couldn't find his OG video! kzbin.info/www/bejne/i17aeISvbKafoNE

[@pjdowner]

@@aminorerror No worries, thanks for the links to your own vids that explain the technique.

[@Crms-like-Crims]

It feels like you're falling for the click bait and not the general message of his videos. He never said there is no difference in pickups, but rather if you're completely unhappy with your tone, there are smarter and more efficient places to start to get a bigger improvement. In his view it's speakers, cabs/IR, amps, microphones, etc. Start somewhere else first, where you get more bang for your buck. The other point is that the differences are often so subtle a slight turn of a knob can account for those variations, so instead of dropping $250 on new pickups, move your knob and get back to writing music. Your arguments are very weak. Pickups don't make a huge tonal difference = there are no bad sounding guitars? That's a huge leap for literally no reason. Of course guitars can sound bad; intonation, bad nut, bad bridge, warped neck, bad frets, poorly installed/functioning electronics, etc., etc., Showing how pickups are not massive tonal shifters and that the differences are subtle = different scales are basically the same and you'd be a sucker to think otherwise? What? lol. Since when do scales cost hundreds of dollars? One is information (scales) and the other is advocating for purchasing products based on realistic results. Then your major gripe about 'no respect for the subtlety' is like watching a video about pancakes and getting upset that they don't talk about waffles. The whole point is that extremely subtle differences in pickups are the least of your worries if you're a high gain/metal DIY engineer or guitarist. He's talking to people who get wrapped up into thinking that they need to buy a new product to make their sound significantly improved. He's just advocating for rational purchasing and consumer information. If you're someone who wants to spend money for very little impact RELATIVE TO OTHER THINGS YOU COULD SPEND MONEY ON, by all means buy 100 different pickups and get into the weeds. That's totally sick and wouldn't run counter to anything he talks about. In that scenario, you're aware that the differences are minimal compared to other things and you don't mind. That type of person isn't the target audience of his video. The clickbait & insults that he's a liar and bad guitar player are super wack. I'm not defending him as a person or musician, he might even be a bad engineer for all I know but none of those attacks negate his points or arguments; which are more thought out and better supported than anything displayed in this video.

[@aminorerror]

I only called him a liar because as clearly demonstrated from my clips, pickups do make a big difference. Gish-golloping about the importance of speakers has nothing to do with the video I'm referencing and I never said those things don't matter. The point here is he clearly came up with the concept for his video and worked backwards. I used old content that was made before his video to prove that I didn't have an axe to grind when I made it. They sound different....because they sound different. I didn't come to a conclusion and work backward, I worked my ass off making a bunch of recordings and drew the conclusions from there. That's why he's a liar and dishonest.

[@DaveElwoodCutter]

Sure it’s much more efficient to spend a couple of thousand bucks on mics, amps or cabs than 100-200 on a pickup that might fix the issue.

[@rk28984]

I think you missed the point Glenn makes, he says in pretty much all his videos "don't worry about gear, just focus on making good music". I can barely hear a difference (on studio monitors and my Audio Technica headphones, even using Sound ID Reference to make them as flat as possible) that will matter in a full mix after mixing and mastering. The only thing that is really obvious is, that the Schecter sounds a bit clearer, I guess it has a better intonation allover the neck. In my experience (and I changed a pickups a lot of times) it makes only a subtle difference, main difference is how hot they are. If you really want to change the tone of your guitar you are better off using a EQ pedal and spare yourself the hassle of chaning pickups.

[@NateThunder]

As someone who is not an active fan of Glenn, I actually walked away from this video being more on Glenn’s side. I completely agree that a guitar and pickup combination affects the musician’s performance, but I think you’ve just inadvertently proved Glenn’s point from a high gain perspective. From your point of view, to hear the difference, I need studio monitors or headphones, which most casual listeners don’t have. Most people do listen on sweetened headphones, Bluetooth speakers, and phone speakers. However, I have Stratocasters and single coils guitars that have always sounded like a bee hives in my Mesa. For humbuckers, though, I’ve only ever noticed a difference in gain makeup like you suggested. Honestly, the differences are aren’t that big and leans even more into Glenn’s point.

[@helderfilho4724]

Bro, I agree with You. I bought a pair of Alnico 2 just to test if I like it, and for my surprise, I hated it, because my amp is not very high gain (Orange Rocker 15 Terror). The sound changed dramatically (for worse) because of the huge difference in output level, and I was already close to max gain on my amp. I switched back to my generic pickups (which came with my guitar), and will try Alnico 5 and Ceramic soon. Also, the new pickup is 8kOhms and the old one is 17 kOhms (which I am used to). So yeah, it made a really big difference for me. Greetings from Brazil \m/

[@aminorerror]

What kind of guitar are you playing? Might be a good idea to experiment with a boost/overdrive/compressor up front to drive your amp harder and getting the extra drive your looking for. I'd recommend something like an Xotic RC Booster for a clear, transparent boost. Obviously you can never go wrong with a Tube Screamer style pedal, that'll really color your tone and revoice the amp if that's something you might want. I personally love the Keeley 4 knob compressor and run it in front of all my lead tones these days. It's got a blend knob so you can dial in a nice amount of compression and the tone knob really helps dial in my different guitars with different pickups with one twist of a knob. Thanks for watching and greetings from Philadelphia!

[@wareloski2137]

I love your guitar playing, but that guitar tone/pickup/tonewood is just bad. Comparing 7 string to 8 string? Comparing different solos on different guitars? One with floyd, next one with fixed bridge? That's legit pickup comparison? C'mon man, you are better than that. I'd suggest sticking to what you do best, which is plying guitar, not talking about physics.

[@aminorerror]

None of those issues matter in Glenn's video, why would it matter for mine?

[@wareloski2137]

@@aminorerror Because he was trying to prove, that I does NOT matter, which only confirms his opinion.

[@devon-graves-studio-D]

I agree with you that subtle differences are a big deal both in players and engineers. So much to the point where we call subtle differences "huge" because that difference matters a lot towards our sonic goal. I've watched my guitarists go through guitars, pickups and amps until they were finally happy. So those little differences to some are major differences to us. On the other hand, Glenn acknowledged the small differences. His point was that the speaker makes a big difference. My take is, first the broad strokes, then the details. I don't think Glenn had his conclusion and his thumbnail before he did the tests. If he had found the differences HE perceived as major either in tone woods or pickups, he would have been just as happy to share those findings. In your tests I have to say, though I heard shifts in tones, the song, the key and all that was different from one to the next, so that is more challenging to make your point. Great guitar playing man!

[@VincentPeer]

I honestly didn’t hear a significant difference in tone. I think it’s extra difficult to hear in the sections where you played completely different parts for each comparison. I agree that gain matching before the processing probably changes the way the amp (or virtual amp) responds, but the difference that made was still very small. And Glenn didn’t say the differences didn’t exist. Just that they weren’t nearly as significant as changing speakers. Which was the main point of most of his “tone” videos about guitar. If it takes so many years to discern these differences, are they really that significant? I’ve been playing guitar for 30 years and recording for 20. On your A/B/C test where you played exactly the same 2 or 3 notes, I could barely hear any difference. It was there, but was it as significant as if you’d changed speakers on just 1 guitar? Again, that is really the main point Glenn has been making for months. Not that these variations don’t exist. Just that they won’t shift your tone as much as changing speakers. This has (for the most part) backed up Glenn’s conclusions. And I think a lot of what you’re arguing against, Glenn didn’t actually say.

[@Brian_Vallejo]

Regardless of what point you’re trying to make, taking a dig at someone’s playing is a shitty route to take.

[@aminorerror]

Not when he's constantly taking shots at other people's playing. Thanks for watching!

[@sb6232]

Difference for the player, not so much for listener and or in the mix. There, nailed it.

[@Mr.Goldbar]

THIS! You can't pander to some and dismiss the others, without the players would there even be something to mix? or something to listen to? As someone who's both a guitar player and a producer I learn from both sides of the coin and take stuff from each. When it comes to guitar stuff I tend to listen to guitar players and when it comes to production I listen to producers.

[@ivanzivanovic4013]

Lol, how to create Clickbait for your own channel to prove your own point by disapproving your own point, and proving what you’re trying to disprove! Very well done!

[@aminorerror]

I know right?! It's great when you have a problem with my clickbait but not his. Classic internet logic.

[@girhen]

Glenn can be heard in a few videos around the time he made that one saying something about starter pickups (like Duncan Designed vs real Duncans) along the lines of 'dude, take off the training wheels and get the real thing' or something similar. My take on bad pickups is they're like bad instruments. You know how 'it's not the instrument, it's the player' is frequently said, along with 'a better guitar won't make you sound better'? It's bunk if there's not a baseline of quality. My first bass had a bowed to shit neck, and I instantly played better when I wasn't fighting to press strings that were a half inch off the frets toward the upper frets just to keep them from buzzing. I replaced all the hardware on a parts bass because the pots literally broke when turned, and the rest was of similar quality. Those parts weren't worth calling proper, but the wood and frets were (surprisingly) fine for an instrument. If your pickups don't meet the baseline of quality, it's not worth talking about them and you should go get something decent. But, once you're past the starter parts, the difference gets muddy. A $1000 guitar vs $2,500 is far less noticeably different in quality, it's usually a fancier wood or something. Same for pickups, but at a different price point. From there, he said there's some difference in pickups, but it's *not enough to make a difference worth your money*. For 99% of us with middle class jobs with limits on what we can afford, chasing tone in the guitar isn't as important as other things. If pickup A can sound like pickup B by dialing a knob or using a pedal/EQ, then pickup B isn't worth owning since you can just get pickup A. If you can also dial a knob or use a pedal/EQ to make pickup B sound like pickup A, then it really doesn't matter which you own because you can make what you have sound like the other. At that point, owning both guitars should be because you like their appearances, need a backup guitar, or something other than "the tone fits this use case". The other guitar can do the same tone just fine. And to cap it off with his usual disclaimer, that only applies to high-gain metal tones because he does a metal show. The cleans are much more pronounced and more worth considering if that's important to what you're making.

[@omen3766]

swing and a miss.

[@louisburley1597]

Glen said subtle difference not no difference. I don't think pickups make a massive shift in sound because I play the stock low output pickups on my PRS SE and they're killer. Volume is flatter than my fishmans but that's it when I listen back to back

[@grayman7914]

Yawn. So subtle are the differences that most consumers of the final product won't notice. I think you went to a lot of trouble just to agree with Glen.

[@iDealMedley]

He also did say, output does make a difference but not in tone but in gain. Once you match the gain the difference become less noticable

[@benburnett8109]

which 100% DISPROVES his theory.

[@iDealMedley]

@@benburnett8109 his theory is for recording. Which is normal to match gain in post. His theory still stands in high gain difference between pickup is does not make much difference. It's not make it or break it situation.

[@benburnett8109]

@@iDealMedley Drink the Fricker Koolaid. I don't care. But wait a couple of months.....Glenn will reverse course and change his mind. Like he did with amp sims, Drum samples, Line 6, Recording without mics, Impulse responese versus mic on a real speaker......the list goes on and on. GLENN IS A SCHILL. GLENN IS A LIAR. GLENN WILLL LIE ABOUT GEAR TO GET CLICKS, and Glenn is a man that hates Christians. IF you want to listen to a guy who has never been paid to engineer or produce, and has ZERO credits. Then you go ahead. Best wishes and understand that you are following a "person" who has changed his mind more times than MY Mom has changed boyfriends. Just saying.

[@CatOnTheKeyboard]

The difference in chugs is near zero. Harmonics? Nobody ever wants to talk about that. Glenn was right.

[@the_artisan3392]

How am I supposed to tell the difference between pickups when every A/B track is different?

[@aminorerror]

The concept is still the same: if they don't make a difference none of that matters. Thanks for watching.

[@idoob4720]

Seriously, I don't hear a difference. Try listening without watching

[@killerspyder1]

Did you even watch his videos?

[@justinwilliams721]

I thought that was the point of Glenns video. Pickups don't matter because you can dial in any plugin to get similar sounds. Maybe I didn't really pay attention to his video.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

You can't add frequencies that dont exist to start with, that happens in the pickup itself

[@Spaceman-jo5mz]

All do respect. I agree with Glen - the change between pickups is so minuscule and barely even noticeable ( if at all) with high gain. Low gain and clean is where even the listener can hear the difference in pickups. Agree with you about sound engineering & layering guitars and how the subtle tonal differences add up in layering

[@aminorerror]

All good, we can def agree to disagree! Thanks for watching.

[@Spaceman-jo5mz]

@@aminorerror yes definitely bro. Hey, and thank you for putting together the video stating your take on it. Also note, I’m coming at from a player and a listener , not a sound engineer or music producer - so I respect your take on it as a valid point of view different from Glen’s. Cheers

[@southerntrendkiller2632]

I think you made Glenn’s point a little better while trying to prove him wrong. Bro we all listen to music in our cars, and they headphones at work, or whatever the case. You even say in this video, you need to have the reference speakers so you can hear it better. Also, saying things like “woody” and whatnot. What does wood sound like? In the context of a full mix, the tone is pretty much the same as I hear it through my iPhone speakers, one of the ways I often hear music. Glenn also points out that there may be some very subtle differences in all guitars and pickups, but never as much of a tone shift as changing what actually produces the sound, being the speaker. But, could you identify any of his guitars/pickups in the blind testing he does? Did you get it 100% right every time because you could hear the woody tone? I doubt it.

[@aminorerror]

I said woody with a push in the mids....so that's what I meant by woody.

[@southerntrendkiller2632]

@@aminorerror I get what you’re saying, and I’m going to sub. But I still think this proved Glenn to be right. In the mix, with multiple tracks, through my normal forms of consuming music I don’t hear a major difference. Or even much of a notable difference. Still gonna sun tho, and hope to more content like this in the future as I too have made the swap from physical to digital amps.

[@aminorerror]

Appreciate the sub, obviously I disagree but that's cool! Appreciate your feedback.

[@paulw.3967]

@@aminorerror Sorry, that wasn't actually clear. If "woody with a push in the mids" is redundant, because "woody" just MEANS "with a push in the mids", that suggests that EQ will do what you want, without needing to swap pickups. (Which is my default position, even though I know it's wrong sometimes.) That's the kind of difference you can get with an equalizer, and switch whenever you feel like it.

[@victortesla4198]

All you did was back Glen's argument up even more. This was hilarious. And comparing him as an engineer to a guitar player I'd say yes, absolutely, he's not a guitar player, which means he's not up his own ass about things that don't matter in the big picture. I played guitar and drums for several years before I started engineering and without a doubt it was the engineering that made me an actual musician. And it was the engineering that put me at odds with 99% of the instrument players that cling to trivial bullshit and industry lies.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

Why not just ask a pickup winder....I'm right here and I'm not trying to sell you a set, just answering questions honestly. Pickups can be bright or dark depending on the magnet, the wire, the turn count etc. It's not up for debate it's just a fact. Don't take advice about pickups from a youtuber or a sound engineer or even a guitarist just ask a winder

[@victortesla4198]

@@murrayguitarpickups9545 This reply makes me think you didn't watch either video.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

@@victortesla4198 Yeah Glenn didn't want to listen to me, even made me butthurt of the week. Why would you trust his word over a pickup makers word?

[@victortesla4198]

@@murrayguitarpickups9545 And this reply makes me think you didn't read my original post. You've lost the plot.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

@@victortesla4198 your original comment said this video backs up Glenn's claims that pickups make little to no difference. Well I'm saying he's flat out wrong and I make pickups everyday.....debate over

[@commonsensehill372]

I play guitar myself... and I have 10 different 6 string electric guitars. I went through all 10 using the same set up without any change to that set up. I have GHS boomers on every guitar. 3 of the 10 have Invader style (china) pickups. One has a Dimebucker. The rest have stock humbuckers. My guitars vary from Epiphone to Dean to Jackson to IYV to Westcreek and Fender style bodies. I run a Fender Champion100XL with twin Midnight 60 speakers. In conjunction with that I have an old but still kick @ss Johnson J Station Pre amp Modeler that is plugged into the return on the back. What I discovered is exactly what you said in this video. Every guitar sounds different. I didn't do this to prove anything, I just wanted to pick a guitar for a particular tone. (Dimebag's Black Bolt won) . I decided using this method was the best way for me to get the guitar paired with my amp set up so as to capture a distinct sound and tone when I record it. FAI (for anyone interested) Mayhems kick your your teeth in. Best metal pickup imo. I have various ways to make even cheap guitars sound great. Don't underestimate Basswood bodies, because with the right hardware and strings and nut... go with a bone nut... you can take a $99 Guitar from Amazon and turn it into a beast. I have two such custom jobs and I am blown away. I still like my higher end guitars but my cheap guitars sound just as good now. Thank you for your video. I am subbing you because you approach this logically. Also you are an exceptional guitar player.

[@aminorerror]

Thanks for the kind words, appreciate you watching!

[@martyshwaartz971]

I appreciate you actually bothering to record AB takes, most people don't. Kudos! I agree that pickup output levels change between pickups, and I think Glenn talks about this too. I swapped a standard Fender humbucker for like a 17k output humbucker and there was certainly a difference in articulation and gain staging, although could I have also gotten something similar by messing with the settings on the tube screamer block? I tried it with a different guitar and I could. So that's 2 hours of OT down the drain.... That said, even in this comparison I didn't notice any sizeable actual tone shift. I'm sat here with my headphones on listening very intently and can barely pick up (hah) a difference in tone. I'm not getting any of the "very ____" descriptions you are speaking of and thought all the guitars sounded great (even the Ibanez haha). While Glenn is definitely trying to rile people up for views, one thing I agree with him on is that moving your microphone a few cms is a more noticeable difference than changing pickups, and when I'm looking at the 3 EQ blocks and Dual IRs I'm running on my helix it's fairly clear that changing pickups should be the last thing on my mind, and this video kind of cemented that for me (which I know wasn't your intention but still you put in a lot of effort so I could listen for myself, so thanks for that!).

[@paulw.3967]

Yes. The great thing about making pickups sound different with EQ is that it not only saves you money, it saves you time when you want to switch it back. It's ridiculous to have a bunch of different solid-body electric guitars with different pickups in them, when most of the differences are in their frequency response curves. That's what EQ is for. Guitar world is weird because we're used to non-flat frequency response from speakers, speaker cabinets, microphones, guitar pickups, etc., and we tend to just swap speakers or pickups or amp mics or whole guitars with no real idea what we're doing. We end up with oddball frequency distributions we describe with undefined words like "woody" without knowing what they actually are. And we tend to buy too much gear because we don't understand how to use what we've already got.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

But you can't add frequencies that the pickup isn't producing to begin with!....and a good EQ pedal is as much or more than a set of pups!

[@paulw.3967]

@@murrayguitarpickups9545 That would seem to argue for using pickups whose frequency response peak is at a fairly high frequency, because you can shave that off more easily. I have what seem to be pretty decent EQs for free (as free plugins) in my DAW, and even in my not-very-expensive multieffects floor box. My understanding (correct me if I'm wrong) is that the peak frequency of pickups varies depending on the typical (passive) tone control circuit settings. (It's an inductor embedded in an RC (resistor-capacitor) network, and Everything Affects Everything Else.) To me that seems to argue for maxing the knobs and going straight into something (a direct box, active EQ or multieffects box) that will buffer the input, so that the peak doesn't shift around screwily, and then mess with it with EQ post- amplification or digitization. That's what I try to do, but I've never really scientifically established that it's what I'm actually doing. :-/ As I understand it, different pickups have different Q (resonant peak width) factors, so some have basically a plateau before the steep (2nd-order low pass) fall off at high frequencies, and others have a distinct bump there. Seems to me you should want to have more of a plateau, not a peak, and the resonant frequency fairly high. Then you can use a parametric EQ to put in a bump where you want it, and shave off high frequencies above that. Conventional humbuckers mess that up because they have a notch filtering effect (due to samping the string at two separated points) with the notch at different frequencies for different strings. (Actually a comb filtering effect, but starting at a high freqency so that the first tooth of the comb is the one that matters most, and the second tooth is way out on the steeply decreasing frequency response curve.)

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

@@paulw.3967 pickups have a set amount of power available, you can direct that power into the highs or the lows but you have to compromise. Pushing the high frequencies will rob power from the mids and lows so its a balancing act. I'm not sure about all that wiring circuitry stuff that not my field of expertise. From experience I've found it best to start with the tone you want and only adjust EQ to fit the track into a mix.

[@paulw.3967]

@@murrayguitarpickups9545 These days I'd think that raw power would not be too much of a problem... just use some kind of a boost stage (hardware or software) if necessary. (Within reason.) Even if you have to buy an active EQ pedal, it at least will work with all of your guitars. I understand messing with pickups and sticking with what works, because pickups are basically voodoo... and I've done that especially with humbuckers, but it bugs me. We usually don't know what it actually is about what we're actually hearing that we like, so we don't really know what we can do with it. (So Leave It The Fuck Alone can be a reasonable strategy.) A humbucker has notches in the high frequency response, but they're different for each string depending on the relationship of the coil spacing to the open string pitch, and you can't fake or fix that with a global EQ. One reason I tend to prefer single coils or stacked noiseless is that I have SOME ability to relate what I'm hearing to a frequency response curve, and have some idea what I can do with it.

[@BrianBower]

Hey man, interesting video. I really cannot hear the difference in your A/B around 14:48. I think you are right about somethings here though. I have tried a lot of pickups and some are just too hot and some are just muck. Most of them do the job fine. I do hear some differences when I try different ones but the key thing for me has been a good amp. Also changing your strings. On a side note, you mentioned that Schecter over achieving and I agree. The Reaper I tried out as well as some others recently have been amazing. Keep pumping out the content.

[@aminorerror]

Hi Brian, thanks for watching! I appreciate the civility in your comment, all good if you can't hear the differences. The Schecter stuff really has been outstanding, hope it pushes other companies (especially Sterling) to elevate their products. Rock on!

[@marekgitarzysta5193]

I guess I'll buy some popcorn :) Anyway, Glenn never said "pickups don't matter". And I am sure this will be his immediate response, that you're putting words in his mouth he never said ;) He said out of all factors, speakers do matter, amps do matter, mics do matter (or whatever order he claims it is), but wood, pickups etc give you so subtle differences you should focus on those "top" factors first before spending your hard earned money on a new set of pickups. And with this I agree. Don't pickups matter at all? OFC they do. Does it make sense to buy a new set hoping for a huge shift in sound quality (unless your original set is faulty, or directionally NOK for your style, e.g. single vs humbucker)? No ;) Also when you compare (for example 9:40) guitars you play completely different riffs - we (viewers) can't really draw any conclusions from this. And yes, Glenn's playing is sloppy, over-compressed and too saturated - maybe this is why he often uses clips of his fellow musicians when demoing things.

[@nunolance23]

Have you seen that new announcement from Schecter on the MV6 models? Would love to see a review from one of these!

[@aminorerror]

I didn't, thanks for the tip! Damn that guitar looks sweet and at a good price too. Thanks!

[@frankpaws]

Some thing is wrong in your monitoring. There isn't a sizeable difference. It is slight at best. In the mix, I mean its is variable of EQ. Is anyone going to know the difference? Nope. Brighten it or leave it. 500 dollar guitar or 5000 dollar guitar, no one is going to care or notice. Buy what you think. Guitars feel a certain way for guitarists. They get very intune with them. When you change a pickup out and it sounds different when played alone. Sure. And I get it when a player hears the slight differences. But it isn't the end all of tone. Put an EQ on and there you go.

[@stickbeard]

A minute 30 into Glenn's video he states he can hear a slight difference between the different pickups, but in his opinion that slight difference is not worth the price of a buying a new set of pickups. Although Glenn did not mention if he equalized the gain on the input, I believe he did as this is his usual setup. His logic, and I agree with it, is yes, a hotter pickup hits the amp harder and will change the sound. But if you either turn up the gain on the amp to match the hotter pickup, or boost the output of the guitar with a pedal, the tones are very similar and not worth the price of switching out the pickups. I am curious what the guitars would sound like if you matched the input gain going into your DAW. I realize you may not have all of the guitars you tested, but you could test this with the guitars you have on hand. Anyone can turn up the gain from the guitar, so this is really not an issue for a real world test. Then we could hear if there is a significant difference between the pickups/guitars. I don't have the setup to do any of the testing myself, and like Glenn, I am an audio engineer first, and a guitar player second. And I know I suck at playing the guitar. I will never be as good on guitar as most other people, but I am willing to bet I can out engineer most people on recording or mixing :)

[@aminorerror]

You just recapped my 'Steelman' section. Well done.

[@stickbeard]

@@aminorerror Would you agree that if the input levels were matched the guitars would sound very similar?

[@aminorerror]

No, because they don't. There's a truck load more mids on the Strandy than the J Custom Ibby just to start, that's literally the whole point of this video. You're getting hung up on the smaller issue and ignoring the bigger one.

[@stickbeard]

@@aminorerror Is this something you could demonstrate for the viewers?

[@aminorerror]

It's in the video homie

[@paulw.3967]

Of course Glenn sets the gain to achieve the desired level of saturation. He'd be nuts not to. Everyone knows some pickups are simply hotter than others, and EVERYONE compensates for that to achieve the desired level of saturation with the pickup they're using. You do it too, all the time, I'm sure. Hotness and tone are different things, so if you want to judge the tone, of course you match levels. This isn't the 1970s with everyone swapping in DiMarzio Super Distortions just to get an old-school low-gain amp to distort enough. Matching gain isn't dishonest. It's just NOT being clueless about how distortion works. You go on to talk about how different pickups have different tones, being balanced or having pushed mids or scooped mids or whatever... mostly basic EQ differences, because the big differences between pickups are in their frequency response functions. Funny, that. In a pickout shootout, it makes sense to match levels, but not match tones by EQing them, since their different FRFs are the main difference you're listening for. But by the same token, even when you DO hear differences between pickups (and of course you do because pickups have resonance peaks), hearing a difference you like doesn't mean you should pay money and go to the trouble of changing pickups... it means you should first try EQing your pickups to sound more like the thing you prefer. You are proving Glenn's points. The biggest differences between pickups are in output level and frequency response. Those things change how the signal hits the amp and distorts. If you don't control for those things, you don't know what else you might be hearing from a pickup. You don't need a bunch of solid-body electrics with a bunch of different-sounding pickups, if you know how to use EQ.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

When I first started making pickups the EQ was all messed up. Its definitely possible to make them with extreme treble or extreme bass

[@paulw.3967]

@@murrayguitarpickups9545 Sure. But that seems like a reason to go with relatively normal, neutral-sounding pickups and EQ the bass and treble the way you like it, rather than trying to find the perfect pickups with no EQ. People need to realize that pickups act as impulse response filters with particular EQ properties. One thing you can't change about normal-sized humbuckers (w/o coil split) is that all of them have an identical comb filtering effect in the high frequencies, due entirely to the spacing of the coils. That can't be EQ'd away, because the the comb filter is in a different place in the spectrum for each string (higher for the higher strings), affecting frequencies whose characteristic string length (between stationary nodes) is near the coil spacing or a multiple of it. If people like humbuckers, which all sound the same in that important respect, they might want to try mini humbuckers or the very narrow humbuckers that fit in the size of a strat single coil. Those also have comb filters, which is different for each string and thus not EQ-able, but with the notches in the frequency response higher up.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

@@paulw.3967 Mini humbuckers are criminally underrated!

[@Tijuanabill]

Calling someone dishonest based merely on a suspicion, is itself dishonest.

[@aminorerror]

Not when all of the examples prove he's wrong about the core concept behind his video. Thanks for watching.

[@Tijuanabill]

@@aminorerror He could be just wrong. What would be his motive to lie? How does it make any sense that he would lie about this, rather than just be wrong, or have a different opinion? People who are quick to call other liars, are doing it because they themselves are quick to lie.

[@mikewendeln5218]

Glenn did say at very high gain. He played the digital sounds which were different then the close sounding amp sounds. He said the amp gain overshadows the pickup tones. Can’t see the issue here.

[@aminorerror]

The issue is I'm using a high gain amp and there is a difference.

[@carnage77]

Take any electric guitar and play it through a HM2 with all controlled maxed. they all sound the same.

[@joerojas5448]

Sorry partner, you've done more to prove Glenn's point than to disprove it. I've been playing guitar for 30+ years and have different guitars with different types of pickups. I even have a solid body with FilterTrons, which are considered the weakest pickups out there. The only deciding factor is the output of the pickups. I heard your sample and there's not much difference (I have studio monitors and headphones). Sorry, but got to side with Glenn on this one.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

When I first started making pickups the EQ was all messed up. If you're right about pickup EQ they should have all sounded fine and only varied in output. Anyone making these claims needs to make a pickup themselves!! Or just ask a pickup maker instead of a youtuber who is a novice guitarist

[@joerojas5448]

@@murrayguitarpickups9545 First of all, I'm not a novice guitar and neither is Glenn, who just needed to get back into practicing. Second, I have a friend who wound a set of pickups for me. That guy did a good job of making them, however there no tone shift. If anything,, I had to seriously turn down the gain knob just to calm the guitar down. If you still think that I full of it and there is an EQ shift with the pickups, then do a science test. Show us in a video how that happens. Glenn has done that, I have done that with my various guitars, and if we're wrong prove it. And the last I checked, pickups are rated by voltage and resistance.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

@@joerojas5448 I dont want to give anything away but I'm working with a youtuber to prove this I'm winding 2 bridge pickups with extremely different EQs just to show the tone shift.......stay tuned

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

@@joerojas5448 by the sounds of it your friend made an overwound pickup for you, typically that will push the mids, so unless you were going from a very weak pickup the EQ wouldn't have noticeably shifted because all high output humbuckers have a noticeable mid push, so comparing one mid pushed pickup to another isn't going to show any really obvious differences. I'm making a very low resistance bright pickup and a high resistance dark pickup

[@joerojas5448]

@@murrayguitarpickups9545 Yes, those particular pickups were Overwound. However I did the same test with a guitar that has FilterTrons type pickups with Alnico 2 pickups. The mids pushed forward when I turned the gain up. Also other youtubers have to adjust the tones of amps they were reviewing with the same exact guitar. I also have different types of amps with different speakers. Some amps were brighter with the same eq settings. I will see if you can prove me wrong and Glenn. I will be open to it, but you need to go about it in a scientific way to win this argument with me.

[@Hellbilly1969]

My personal opinion is that there are subtle differences between pickups, however in the mix with eq, amps, cabinets and how it's recorded I think plays a bigger part in the tone. Playing at home alone the differences are larger.

[@frankiechan9651]

Congrats - You have done what Glenn always asks people to do - create an experiment and record it. Couple of things though - Glenn has never said it makes NO difference - his schtick is aimed at aspiring (poor) musicians to make the changes that will have the greatest bang per buck for high-gain metal. It just happens that a lot of that happens to occur with the bits that actually move the air and make the sound we hear. (Also reference Jim Lil) Glenn's shown bigger differences in sound when moving a mic a few inches than from a pickup change. It is notable that you mention that most people are watching this video while "on the throne" on their smartphone and that we should use proper headphones. That's exactly Glenn's point - most people could not tell what guitar/pickups are being used when they are listening to music via the methods most commonly used. YT compression, different audio encoding and bit rate sampling etc. As an aside - different headphones will make any differences less/more obvious depending on the response/brand/tuning - also contributing to certain things being less important to the sound. Add to that - zero visual references and very few could identify these differences that you point out. I don't think anyone has gotten 100% on one of Glenn's tests of what is played when, when there is no visual reference on a track. Joe Perry (Aerosmith) is famous for his Les Pauls - yet he's been quoted recently saying that a lot of what he has recorded has been using a Strat. You could probably count on zero fingers how many people have looked at a video clip/listened to a song and said - "That's not his LP, that's a Strat!"

[@aminorerror]

Here's the thing, if Glenn REALLY only cares about helping musicians get the most tone for the least amount of money...it doesn't make any sense to use any real mics or cabs. A $150 Neural plugin will sound a billion times better than anything you can get for legit 20x that in the 'real' world. And the point here too is I didn't even mean to make an experiment to disprove Glenn, I could just use material from my other videos that was never clickbait. And those videos didn't do well because I wasn't pumping out video after video of clickbait, stacking the deck to try and make it look like there's some truth here that nobody want to admit. Honestly, that's all Jim Lill is doing too and everyone is falling for it hard.

[@frankiechan9651]

@@aminorerror Hi Rob. I don't disagree with you re: plugins as a way to sound good and save $. But would you agree that changing IR's might have a bigger influence in the final sound/mix than changing your pickups? Or listening to your mix on a cheap set of earbuds vs a set of high quality open-back headphones/monitors rather than change guitars? Re: real mics/cabs - if that's what an artist wants to use on a recording for whatever reasons, and they are not happy with the tone - would a pickup change work better than maybe changing the speaker cabinet/speaker (if available) or moving the mic/changing the mic/adding a mic and blending them? Or JHS pedals tweaking the settings on a Bad Monkey to make it sound like a Klon? Zac Wylde or John 5 making a Hello Kitty Uke/guitar sound awesome? Just saying - there are many low(er) cost/no cost ways to make things sound good to most people on the devices they actually listen to music to without resorting to changing pickups.

[@martyshwaartz971]

@@frankiechan9651 And nothing sold more Les Pauls than Jimmy Page’s tele! 🎸🤘🏽

[@ukidabek]

My lesson from Glens video is that people's thing to much about stuff and not the art. In my experience good song is good no meter if the recording isn't the best or its played form guitar pro. The point is "If you have correctly steeped instrument, with pickups that aren't microphonic you are 80% of the way to good tone." End if you come to studio with guitar i mittened. You will make a good sounding recording, may not the best but still usable. The rule of the live is that te 20% of work cost (money/time). And of you a someone who have one amp and guitar and play in a small band. Changing a pickup won't make your tone any batter in noticeable way. Especially if you play thru bad cab, or combo speaker. The order of operation should be good speakers -> good amp -> pickups that complement your tone (if that be necessary). That is a basset way to allocate money in gear, by starting with things that will change my sound the most and going.

[@NateThunder]

@@martyshwaartz971best comment

[@SpinGoldmusic]

Bickering about stuff like this is a waste. Musicians need to focus on writing cool songs instead of arguing about if pickups matter or not. Glen is an entertaining grumpy old man, you're not going to win any arguments with him.

[@aminorerror]

There's loads of songs here on my channel, take a look around. My evidence shows he lying to you for cheap clicks, and that's fine if you don't are.

[@SpinGoldmusic]

@A MINOR ERROR in GENERAL musicians need to focus on the art. Glen is stuck in his way of thinking. Also, his biggest point is not to spend crazy amounts of money on gear, which is a valid point.

[@bulletproofzest]

I recently put a hot rails into my Strat due to a smokin' deal, it was (like many high output pickups IME), super muddy, too compressed, and too thick in the midrange for my taste. I could compensate with eq but then my other guitars would also require an adjustment. I put a JB JR in and voila, perfectly balanced. Nice and articulate, dynamic, and bright, even though it's by no means a mind blowing/life changing pickup. I also have a Hamer artist, which, for some reason, seems to make every pickup muddy. I even have 500K pots in it, so I've eliminated that variable. Originally came with Seth Lovers, but I long ago swapped it for a PRS RP. Unfortunately that didn't improve the muddiness so the guitar sat unused. My buddy had a filtertron which was incredibly bright; easily as bright as my Strats, and way too harsh for our high gain stuff. We decided to see what would happen if we swapped one pickup for another, and both pickups sounded absolutely night and day different in the two guitars despite both using 500k pots. The RP is balanced in his, the filtertron is still a little darker than I'd like but far, far better than anything I've had in the Hamer so far. I wish I'd recorded the results. Honestly I've found, like Glenn, that speakers are by far the most important aspect of my guitar chain. Unlike Glenn, I've found that while pickup swaps may not be night and day, they're far from insignificant. I wouldn't say someone with garbage tone is going to only solve that problem by spending $500 on some esoteric pickup; there are lots of great affordable options. Hell, my buddy put a $25 Tesla pickup in one of his guitars and it sounds great. Even on a mid priced stock Ibanez the pickups sounded awesome with his rig and that's now his favorite guitar despite many higher end options in his arsenal. So neither he nor I are butt hurt about having spent tons of money on something; I suppose I'm just saying they do sound different to both of us, and if something desirable is accomplished cheaply, great! But at the same time a pickup swap can make a definite, immediate, audible difference, enough to hear even after the time it takes to swap a pickup out. As an audio engineer I also find this to be true; I see a lot of the same types of guitars but often very different pickup sets. and very different tones. Hell, I have two otherwise identical guitars which sound very different, the only difference being the pickups. So I've wondered what aspect he might be missing. I've always played with a ton of gain, even for non-metal styles, and these differences haven't gone away whilst playing metal. As someone who builds a lot of his own gear I'm loath to by into any mojo or magical thinking, spend $500 on an overdrive pedal, or crazy money on an ultra expensive cable, etc. So I am down with busting myths, but this pickup myth busting has not held true to my experience. But yeah, I know, anecdotes.

[@williamlegg1305]

You can't just compare your own clips,you edit your videos...including sound...i am willing to bet that you have probably forgotten half the editing to the overall sounds on your videos....if you are going to debunk,do it in one video using examples taken ...in one video and not just taking sounds from previous videos...a poor attempt.

[@CaptainMyron]

I think you are missing the point here. JHS have made multiple videos on this topic as well. For example you can more or less match the tone you want in multiple OD pedals if you tinker with the settings. The point is you can reach the tone you want with what you have most of the times, there is no real need to upgrade on super expensive gear. Which are expensive most of the times because of labour cost and laws.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

But you can't add frequencies the pickup isn't producing to start with

[@CaptainMyron]

@@murrayguitarpickups9545 The pickup has a specific frequency response with valleys and peaks. It responds to all frequencies. What happens is by changing the magnets and the material and amount of wound you move those peaks and valleys of its response spectrum and effectively adds a layer of equalizer in your sound. The pickup is actually the first component in the signal chain that does this. This also happens in the pre-amp amp power-amp level and then again on the speaker. Every component effectively works as an equalizer. Instead of buying pickups you can add an 8 band eq and a compressor on the top and you can match perfectly the tone you want. Most of the times though the 3 band eq of your amp will do the trick.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

@@CaptainMyron But if the pup produces nothing over 2k then adding 4k 6k or 10k does nothing but raise the noise floor. You seem to know what you're talking about but have you ever tried making a pickup? you can buy kits from stewmac. I strongly suggest you give it a try, my first attempts had really bad EQ, either too dark or too bright.

[@CaptainMyron]

@@murrayguitarpickups9545 The pickup doesn't produce anything. It picks up the alteration of the magnetic field caused by the vibration of the string. It doesn't even pickup the sound like a microphone does. I am an engineer, this is basic electromagnetism.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

@@CaptainMyron I'm a pickup winder and I say its not simple electro magnetism, checkmate

[@effectosis742]

Listeners won't care about your pickups if there is a lot of distortion . It is more important for a musician - what he has in his hands and how it sounds with his amp . Everything about the guitar may lead to different ideas for a song , but then you can record the same idea with few electric guitars - for the average listener it will be "just a typical sound of an electric guitar" and nothing more . Pickups give you very little especially to your metal tone .

[@jsullivan2112]

What if the listeners are musicians?

[@Jayteaseepiirturi]

@@jsullivan2112 They aren't any more likely to recognize a DiMarzio or a Seymor & Duncan or Fishman or whatever was on the guitar when it was recorded. It takes a ridicilously niche special kind of interest to notice the subtleties we're talking about.

[@jsullivan2112]

@@Jayteaseepiirturi And you know this how?

[@Jayteaseepiirturi]

@@jsullivan2112 I don't need to elaborate. Read again what I said.

[@jsullivan2112]

@@Jayteaseepiirturi Um yeah, you kinda do. The onus is on you to back up your claim. I can read just fine. Get back to me with empirical data from a proper study from double blind testing with a control group, and reproducible results. That someone has peer reviewed. Lots of bullshit on both sides of this argument. I’ve yet to see anyone do a proper study. Until then, you’re also full of shit.

[@TrentRoachMusic]

Id say they sounded pretty similar and nothing u couldn't match up with EQ the point of glens video is to save people time and money rather than swap pickups for minimal differences

[@MaritimesRemi]

Really when you look at it, a pickup (let’s say an humbucker) is pretty much a copper wire wired around a magnet. There’s no «tone» in copper. There’s more «tone» in marketing than copper. The only difference you will see from a pickup to another is output signal / level. But output signal is not tone, it’s output signal. Output signal is how your pickup will drive your amp. To each is own, but I get what Glenn is saying. If you want to spend hundreds of dollars on pickups, go right ahead. But for the little difference in the bigger scheme of things, I’d rather put my money elsewhere.

[@Lantertronics]

That copper wire wrapped around the magnet forms an inductor; you can model the pickup as a voltage source in series with a resistance and inductance, with the output taken across a parasitic capacitance. That forms a 2nd-order lowpass filter with a resonant bump at a particular point; that's the main source of tonal differences between pickups.

[@paulw.3967]

@@Lantertronics Cool to see you here. Do any of your videos discuss how to EQ pickups and what differences can or can't be EQ'd away? Or how different FRFs affect the distortion you get from the gain stage? It seems to me a lot of guitarists waste a lot of time and money on trial and error trying to get better sound, without first knowing the frequency response curves of their pickups, their speakers and cabinets, etc. They usually don't have a "flat" setting to start from in shaping a sound.

[@JimbobZip1977Lob]

My opinion about Glens DI tracks alterd pre recorded being dishonst is wrong somewhat because it's good practice to get your DI signal to clip on Palm mutes then to dial it down so it no longer clips. In essence doing this we should all have signals around the same level anyway. Thats the way I have always set up my DI signal to record maybe I'm wrong but that was my common sense way of doing it.

[@livius16]

Well not touching the gain is a bit of disservice. But that aside - listened end to end, with super minor gain and volume matching - even those differences would be even smaller. Are there differences ? Yes. Are they big ? No Could you spot which is which in a blind test ? Very doubtfully - which was his point Also on the “no bad guitar” - I think it’s pretty clear there are bad guitars , on construction , playability , and yes - pickups and sound. But once you go over a certain line - it’s diminishing returns, and that was more of the point. Also I love olas video - kzbin.info/www/bejne/hHLOdoKVf8mLfck which also makes a similar point (there are differences - but they all sound good and if you play it blindfolded - could you tell which is which ?) Also part of his point is don’t worry about it and make music, as in a mix altogether - few will care. Compared to other differences. Good video overall - but a bit cherry picking conclusions. At least my take - keep rocking 🤘

[@aminorerror]

Thanks for watching and commenting, obviously I disagree and don't think the changes are small or that I'm cherrypicking but it's all good! Appreciate your time and for commenting in a civil way. Totally agree there's a line of diminishing returns and making music is the most important thing!

[@livius16]

@@aminorerror all good I enjoyed the content and the playing is def on point. Btw - a good part I agree with is the active vs passive part. I found that for me - easier to get good results (cleanses / signal , gain and consistency) with active pickups. Also the difference in clean tones are major even between active sets (I have 2 guitars with the classic emgs 81/85 and one with fluence moderns). At the end of the day - it’s a difference of how much it matters on the overall for me (which is why I mentioned it’s my take) and I’m sure for others it matters more. I’m an avid listener , mediocre player , but did spend a bit of time over the years also in studios , playing shows and recording - and for me - when too much gain (and potentially some lack of talent 😅) is involved - it matters less. Love the discussion though.

[@MikJames-d1g]

1. Yes I can hear differences (might as well get the good point out of the way first). 2. Why wouldn't you gain match? Even if testing at a lower gain setting, gain matching just makes sense when you're concerned with TONAL differences. 3. Yes he admitted many times there are minor tonal variations, all of which can be addressed by EQ, and don't make something "better" or "worse", just slightly different. 4. The point is that the speaker makes the biggest difference, in a way that isn't nearly so easy to EQ. 5. Just because you can play better than an engineer, doesn't mean jack. I can play lead better than Glen as well (most of us can), but he's humble about it, a good rhythm player, and far more importantly a brilliant engineer. 6. Oversaturated? Says who? 7. Find something that he's generally wrong about, like the constant crapping on headphones (he's never even tried good open back headphones), pushing SSL compressor hardware as a massive difference over software, and installing a massive insanely expensive console because he's never heard of a midi/usb fader bank/DAW controller.